Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #374 Getting Back to School After COVID with Michael Parker
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the
- 0:07Speaker 1: time poor parent who just wants answers.
- 0:10Speaker 2: Now, even if a child would prefer to be in
- 0:13Speaker 2: their bedroom on their own for three months or for
- 0:17Speaker 2: ten years, it is very very rare that that would
- 0:20Speaker 2: actually be a good thing for their development.
- 0:22Speaker 1: And now here's the stars of our show, my mum
- 0:25Speaker 1: and dad.
- 0:26Speaker 3: This is doctor Justin Coulson. Hello, I'm the founder of
- 0:28Speaker 3: Happy Families dot com. Dot I you I'm here with Kylie.
- 0:32Speaker 3: That's a bit where you say hello like I said hello,
- 0:34Speaker 3: Hello mother.
- 0:35Speaker 4: Do our six kids and my podcast co host.
- 0:39Speaker 3: Last week, we had this really great conversation with an
- 0:41Speaker 3: author and school principal.
- 0:43Speaker 4: His name is Michael Parker.
- 0:44Speaker 3: He wrote a book called Talk with Your Kids about
- 0:46Speaker 3: Things that Matter, issues like friendship, respect, honesty, bulling, consent,
- 0:50Speaker 3: and pandemic stuff like. Such a fun conversation, such an
- 0:55Speaker 3: important conversation, and a book that we have been experimenting
- 0:59Speaker 3: with differing level of success over the last week with
- 1:01Speaker 3: our children.
- 1:02Speaker 5: Let's just say the conversations around the dinner table are
- 1:04Speaker 5: getting quite interesting these days.
- 1:05Speaker 4: It's been a lot of fun.
- 1:07Speaker 3: But because Michael is not just the author of this
- 1:10Speaker 3: wonderful book, but also the principal at Newington College, and
- 1:12Speaker 3: because well everything keeps on changing everywhere, especially for New
- 1:16Speaker 3: South Wales Act and Victoria, but we wanted to have
- 1:20Speaker 3: another conversation with him and get his wisdom around kids
- 1:23Speaker 3: going back to school as a result of the COVID
- 1:26Speaker 3: nineteen panic panic pandemic.
- 1:30Speaker 4: No I shouldn't, I shouldn't push them.
- 1:31Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, and sort of ask a handful of
- 1:34Speaker 3: questions around that because we've got Victoria trying to get
- 1:38Speaker 3: kids back to school in New South Wales trying to
- 1:39Speaker 3: get kids back to school, and children need to be
- 1:43Speaker 3: at school like that daily rhythm that they get into
- 1:45Speaker 3: where they get to say by mum, by dad, and
- 1:48Speaker 3: then they catch up with their friends. They go to class.
- 1:50Speaker 3: The learning that they do isn't just home learning with
- 1:53Speaker 3: a sheet in front of zoom. They're interacting with their peers,
- 1:56Speaker 3: they listen to their teachers, they're getting involved in conversations
- 1:58Speaker 3: and all that sort of stuff. And then they go
- 2:00Speaker 3: to recess and they have the social time, like it's
- 2:02Speaker 3: so different to being at home. So with everything, the fears,
- 2:06Speaker 3: the worries, the stresses, all that sort of stuff, all
- 2:08Speaker 3: the dramas.
- 2:09Speaker 4: That was far too long an intro. Michael Parker, thanks
- 2:11Speaker 4: for joining us again.
- 2:12Speaker 2: Thank you good to be able to talk to you again.
- 2:15Speaker 4: That was just me.
- 2:15Speaker 3: Getting so excited about kids going back to school. Where
- 2:17Speaker 3: do you want to start? You must be yeah, absolutely,
- 2:21Speaker 3: where should we start?
- 2:22Speaker 5: Hunt, Michael, I'm just wondering what's important for parents to
- 2:25Speaker 5: know right now? When I talk to you know, all
- 2:28Speaker 5: of my friends, everybody is so concerned about their children
- 2:31Speaker 5: falling behind. You know, the last two years have been
- 2:36Speaker 5: ridiculously hard on families and especially our children as they
- 2:39Speaker 5: kind of try to be educated in such a new
- 2:43Speaker 5: and interesting format. What's important for parents to understand and
- 2:48Speaker 5: know right now?
- 2:50Speaker 2: I think some level of security and all while on
- 2:54Speaker 2: the head of one school, I hope you know, I
- 2:57Speaker 2: can I can speak to what many many of my
- 2:59Speaker 2: college is in the teaching profession we'll be doing is saying, yeah, well,
- 3:04Speaker 2: we'll recognize that that learning will will have been a
- 3:09Speaker 2: little bit patchy for for some kids. There'll be some holes.
- 3:12Speaker 2: And I'm speaking as a father as well, who can
- 3:14Speaker 2: identify the holes and my my children's you know, where
- 3:18Speaker 2: they are. So I think that the teachers, many of
- 3:22Speaker 2: the teachers will be going and saying, okay, where where
- 3:25Speaker 2: are they up to? What have what have they got to?
- 3:28Speaker 2: And and let's let's go from there. So whether whether
- 3:32Speaker 2: at the younger are at younger levels, that's you know what,
- 3:34Speaker 2: what what reading level are they are? Let's test that.
- 3:38Speaker 2: And when I say test, it doesn't mean a test
- 3:41Speaker 2: test for the student's sake, it's test for the teachers
- 3:43Speaker 2: say to know where they are and go right, let's
- 3:45Speaker 2: let's go from that point and keep and keep keep
- 3:48Speaker 2: the reading going from there. We'll keep the mathematical knowledge
- 3:51Speaker 2: going from there. And for for older kids, whether it's
- 3:54Speaker 2: the historical knowledge or geography or whatever it is. So
- 3:58Speaker 2: so I think there'll be a lot of that taking
- 3:59Speaker 2: stock and going from there rather than just moving ahead
- 4:02Speaker 2: as if nothing had happened.
- 4:04Speaker 4: Michael.
- 4:04Speaker 3: A lot of parents that I've spoken to are really
- 4:06Speaker 3: concerned about sending their children to school for health reasons.
- 4:10Speaker 3: If they've got younger children, they're worried that the kids
- 4:12Speaker 3: might catch the virus. If they've got older children, there's
- 4:16Speaker 3: still some vaccine hesitancy, particularly for parents of kids in
- 4:19Speaker 3: that sort of twelve plus age group where they're supposed
- 4:22Speaker 3: to be getting vaccinated. But there's a lot of people
- 4:24Speaker 3: who are saying, I just I don't know if I
- 4:26Speaker 3: want my kids to have this vaccine. There's a lot
- 4:28Speaker 3: of people who are saying it's still too new. What
- 4:31Speaker 3: kind of feedback are you getting from parents and what
- 4:34Speaker 3: are you saying to reassure them, because obviously that's going
- 4:37Speaker 3: to be a central part of your role over the
- 4:39Speaker 3: next little while.
- 4:40Speaker 2: Yeah, so yes, we are getting both the let's get
- 4:44Speaker 2: everybody back and you know, I'm worried about my child
- 4:48Speaker 2: getting getting sick. A phrase that we've been using for
- 4:52Speaker 2: the last two years is that we operate under the
- 4:55Speaker 2: umbrella of health advice, and the health advice is that kids,
- 5:02Speaker 2: although they catch COVID, they are much much, much less
- 5:07Speaker 2: likely to get it. Seriously, it presents more as a
- 5:12Speaker 2: as a cold or a flu, and they are significantly
- 5:15Speaker 2: less likely to pass it on. So we are operating
- 5:20Speaker 2: with that advice that it is for them, not hugely,
- 5:25Speaker 2: particularly how the adults are vaccinated, it is. It is
- 5:29Speaker 2: not a huge, huge issue for them. Now it will
- 5:32Speaker 2: be for a tiny minority. But at the same time,
- 5:38Speaker 2: the world needs to move on. The kids need to
- 5:41Speaker 2: be educated. They can't they can't sit at home in
- 5:43Speaker 2: perpetuity on zoo, and so schools will do what they can.
- 5:49Speaker 2: But it is we're also sort of offering that comfort
- 5:54Speaker 2: that the health advice is giving us.
- 5:58Speaker 3: Let me ask another question that I think is a
- 6:01Speaker 3: really challenging one. Many parents that I've spoken with are saying,
- 6:05Speaker 3: my kids are much happier at home.
- 6:07Speaker 4: I've got a child who's got anxiety, or I've.
- 6:09Speaker 3: Got kids that are on the spectrum, or they've got
- 6:11Speaker 3: ADHD or any other kind of additional need, or maybe
- 6:14Speaker 3: they've just got quite kids, the ones who really like
- 6:16Speaker 3: their own company and like their own space.
- 6:19Speaker 4: What what's your.
- 6:21Speaker 3: Response for families whose children are really not wanting to
- 6:25Speaker 3: go back to school because they like the they like
- 6:28Speaker 3: the lack of sociality, they like the fact that the
- 6:31Speaker 3: pressure is often that things have changed. How do we
- 6:33Speaker 3: how do we work with those kids and help them
- 6:35Speaker 3: to be in a place where ultimately it's for their
- 6:38Speaker 3: benefit to be at school.
- 6:40Speaker 2: Yeah, and and I would I would make that later point.
- 6:45Speaker 2: Even if a child would prefer to be in their
- 6:49Speaker 2: bedroom on their own for three months or for teen years,
- 6:54Speaker 2: it is very very rare that that would actually be
- 6:58Speaker 2: a good thing for their development. So the difficulties at school,
- 7:03Speaker 2: the learning, the social interactions and the spiky social and
- 7:07Speaker 2: I don't believe or anything like that, because just that
- 7:10Speaker 2: daily budding up against other human beings who've got other
- 7:14Speaker 2: needs and other things that happened to them, whatever that is,
- 7:17Speaker 2: that is important and it's preferable to do that. So
- 7:23Speaker 2: so unless there's something very very particular about the child
- 7:27Speaker 2: or the child situation of the family, school being with
- 7:32Speaker 2: other people is better.
- 7:33Speaker 3: For probably worth also throwing in that most schools have
- 7:36Speaker 3: wonderful supports in terms of guidance officers, psychologists, counselors and
- 7:40Speaker 3: the like who are going to be able to support
- 7:41Speaker 3: kids who are feeling that little bit anxious as well.
- 7:43Speaker 2: And absolutely the counselors, I think that, you know, all
- 7:47Speaker 2: the counseling stuff are are ready to help the kids
- 7:53Speaker 2: have that trouble adjusting back to what it is to
- 7:57Speaker 2: be in a school environment. So and many many schools
- 8:03Speaker 2: will be will be preparing for that, and it's something
- 8:05Speaker 2: for parents as well to be able to be able
- 8:08Speaker 2: to have those conversations with their kids. So yeah, I
- 8:13Speaker 2: think that, yeah, there'll be steps on the way, and
- 8:18Speaker 2: there'll be extra things that society has to do, but
- 8:21Speaker 2: it's an important place to get to. And I mean
- 8:23Speaker 2: there's always been home schooling for parents and for families
- 8:27Speaker 2: who make that in principal decision that schooling is not
- 8:30Speaker 2: for them, and so that was there before, it will
- 8:32Speaker 2: be there after.
- 8:33Speaker 5: Well, we're having an intriguing conversation with Michael Parker, principal
- 8:38Speaker 5: at Newington College and author of Talk with Your Kids
- 8:42Speaker 5: About Things that Matter. After the break, we're going to
- 8:45Speaker 5: delve into our seniors Year twelve students and find out
- 8:49Speaker 5: how we can help them.
- 8:50Speaker 3: It's the Happy Families Podcast.
- 8:52Speaker 6: Imagine a home where discipline got results without anyone having
- 8:56Speaker 6: to feel bad or in trouble. The do's and don'ts
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- 9:08Speaker 5: It's the Happy Families Podcast, the podcast for the time
- 9:10Speaker 5: poor parent who just wants answers now, And today we
- 9:13Speaker 5: are talking with Michael Parker.
- 9:15Speaker 3: He's the author of Talk with Your Kids About Things
- 9:17Speaker 3: that Matter and the principal at Newington College. Michael, thanks
- 9:20Speaker 3: again for taking time to have a chat with us
- 9:22Speaker 3: about this year twelve, students are really under the pump
- 9:25Speaker 3: at the moment. There's all kinds of pressures. Parents are
- 9:28Speaker 3: worried about how their lives are going to be affected
- 9:30Speaker 3: because they're not going to potentially have had the ideal
- 9:32Speaker 3: preparation leading into their ATAR and their HSC studies or
- 9:36Speaker 3: their vcees or whatever it might be.
- 9:37Speaker 4: And whichever stated is, what are you.
- 9:40Speaker 3: Seeing in terms of stress levels for parents and students
- 9:44Speaker 3: in that senior year year twelve, and what advice are
- 9:48Speaker 3: you giving to those families.
- 9:50Speaker 2: So for most kids, the stress levels are significantly up,
- 9:55Speaker 2: and I think that is because two reasons. One that
- 10:00Speaker 2: changed nature of how they learned the last part of
- 10:02Speaker 2: the HC and also the uncertainty and that the number
- 10:05Speaker 2: of changes that they've been so it's totally understandable that
- 10:08Speaker 2: the stress levels up. And also that most of them
- 10:09Speaker 2: haven't been se any of their friends and they've missed
- 10:12Speaker 2: out on the richual that I can keep cutting them off.
- 10:14Speaker 2: There's there's a whole series of reasons why kids can
- 10:19Speaker 2: can easily be be feeling more stressed. Two factors I
- 10:23Speaker 2: think that it's important to remember is that it's still
- 10:28Speaker 2: a level playing for I mean, everybody has experienced home learning,
- 10:33Speaker 2: and there's been there's been different not everywhere, but there's
- 10:35Speaker 2: there's been different types of home learning, but there there
- 10:39Speaker 2: has been. It is something that hasn't just happened to them,
- 10:42Speaker 2: It's happened to tens and tens and tens of thousands
- 10:45Speaker 2: of kids. There is there is also a pretty elaborate
- 10:49Speaker 2: misadventure procedure or an equity procedure for the whole schools
- 10:55Speaker 2: who haven't been able to get to school and do
- 10:56Speaker 2: their artwork and so on. I mean, in a funny way,
- 10:59Speaker 2: there's so many people are leap robbing using that equity
- 11:03Speaker 2: access and there's almost no one left to leap frog over.
- 11:06Speaker 2: So the and the other point is that a tars
- 11:11Speaker 2: particularly where where the number really matters, that's for kids
- 11:16Speaker 2: going to university, and the universities, as it turns out,
- 11:21Speaker 2: really need domestic students next year.
- 11:25Speaker 3: So of course, of course, because there's no one coming
- 11:26Speaker 3: in front overseas, so they're not going to reach their
- 11:28Speaker 3: quotas they need more students in the classrooms, you'd expect
- 11:31Speaker 3: that the ATAR requirements would drop.
- 11:33Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think that a lot of these kids,
- 11:40Speaker 2: despite the Royal experience they have will end up in
- 11:43Speaker 2: the thing that as many the thing that they wanted
- 11:45Speaker 2: to do that for that reason.
- 11:48Speaker 4: Just before, Yeah, I mean the level.
- 11:50Speaker 2: Of precision that the atar's got. You know, there's what
- 11:55Speaker 2: is it? Yeah, you go from thirty to ninety nine,
- 11:57Speaker 2: ninety nine and then there's twenty marks within each other.
- 12:01Speaker 2: That level of precision is is so minute that I
- 12:06Speaker 2: think you can say, look, if I get between you know,
- 12:09Speaker 2: eighty seven or eighty nine, that's great. Or if I
- 12:11Speaker 2: get between sort of you know, seventy six and eighty two,
- 12:14Speaker 2: that's where I was looking at. I think if you don't,
- 12:19Speaker 2: if you if you had a zone rather than obsessed
- 12:22Speaker 2: on a number, then I think that would that would
- 12:26Speaker 2: help help you out.
- 12:26Speaker 4: As well, Michael.
- 12:27Speaker 3: Just before we dive into our last question, which Kylie
- 12:30Speaker 3: is looking for, I guess with a bit of reassurance,
- 12:33Speaker 3: something that I also think is worth highlighting is that
- 12:37Speaker 3: from time immemorial, Year twelve students have been experiencing all
- 12:42Speaker 3: kinds of hiccups, dramas, and even self sabotage for their.
- 12:46Speaker 4: Final year of school.
- 12:47Speaker 3: I'm I'm the walking, talking poster child of the child
- 12:52Speaker 3: who's year twelve was just awful. It was a complete disaster,
- 12:55Speaker 3: and I had no desire to go to university. But
- 12:58Speaker 3: a few years later, once I've grown up a little
- 12:59Speaker 3: bit matured, I was ready to be at UNI. And
- 13:02Speaker 3: that's when that that's when my education actually really really started.
- 13:08Speaker 3: My suspicion is that for children who have had a
- 13:12Speaker 3: disrupted senior year of high school, they'll recover pretty quickly.
- 13:16Speaker 4: They'll get on with it.
- 13:17Speaker 2: I was the year that the HC got stolen, and
- 13:21Speaker 2: my how did you.
- 13:22Speaker 4: Get the stolen?
- 13:22Speaker 2: What was that They the people broke broke into where
- 13:26Speaker 2: where all the paper exams were kept, and you could
- 13:31Speaker 2: in the ear I won't mentioned the area, but you
- 13:34Speaker 2: could go to the local McDonald's and get a burger
- 13:36Speaker 2: of friars and a chemistry exam and it was it
- 13:42Speaker 2: was crazy. And then he cut a long story short.
- 13:46Speaker 2: Triple J got the or the I think the Double
- 13:49Speaker 2: J O the time, but anyway, Triple J got the
- 13:50Speaker 2: got the exam. And then they read the ancient history
- 13:53Speaker 2: exam out over the radio while I was studying and listening.
- 13:57Speaker 2: I was studying something, but I was listening to a
- 13:58Speaker 2: Triple J. And they they read one of my exams
- 14:01Speaker 2: out over the radio, and I remember thinking this has
- 14:06Speaker 2: to be a dream because you know, your exam doesn't
- 14:08Speaker 2: get right out over the radio. But anyway, we I
- 14:11Speaker 2: mean that exam got put back three weeks. You know,
- 14:13Speaker 2: my schools went down the brain and everything, and you
- 14:15Speaker 2: know I'm still here.
- 14:17Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And I think that that's a really really
- 14:19Speaker 3: reassuring message the kids. They'll get what they get, but
- 14:22Speaker 3: if they really want to do something, they'll figure out
- 14:24Speaker 3: a way to get in. Even if this years been disrupted.
- 14:26Speaker 3: They might get in next year or the year after
- 14:28Speaker 3: or when they're twenty six, but they'll be able to
- 14:30Speaker 3: do what they want if university is where they want
- 14:32Speaker 3: to go.
- 14:32Speaker 4: And for those that aren't worried about UNI, it's that's
- 14:35Speaker 4: probably not even that big of a deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 14:38Speaker 2: I think when you when you're getting if you're not
- 14:40Speaker 2: looking for unique you and you're trying to push yourself
- 14:43Speaker 2: a bit, you're trying to learn that stuff because I mean,
- 14:45Speaker 2: you know, there's stuff in your togs worth learning for itself,
- 14:47Speaker 2: not just to get a number. And you know you'll
- 14:51Speaker 2: you'll still have all that and you'll you'll have the
- 14:53Speaker 2: HSC and employers will take them yeah, so.
- 14:58Speaker 4: I think they still need to hire a p people,
- 15:00Speaker 4: So that's right.
- 15:02Speaker 5: So, Michael, I'm wondering what would be your take home
- 15:05Speaker 5: message for parents, for parents.
- 15:09Speaker 2: Of of all all the different kids. And I say
- 15:13Speaker 2: this as a parent myself of a year twelve and
- 15:16Speaker 2: yet tensitive two to try to yeah, for the rest
- 15:23Speaker 2: of this year, Yeah, take a deep breath, because I
- 15:27Speaker 2: think we'll I think we'll get there, and I think
- 15:29Speaker 2: we'll get back to normal. It's going to be some
- 15:32Speaker 2: chopping water on the on the way through, but the
- 15:36Speaker 2: steps are in the right direction, and the steps are
- 15:39Speaker 2: about getting kids back and getting them with each other
- 15:42Speaker 2: and having the joy of them seeing each other and learning,
- 15:45Speaker 2: and will it is it is very very very likely
- 15:49Speaker 2: that where we'll get there by the end of the year,
- 15:52Speaker 2: all beginning of next year.
- 15:53Speaker 5: And I'm wondering if you have a take home message
- 15:55Speaker 5: for the students, especially are your twelve's coming to the
- 15:58Speaker 5: final final stretch.
- 16:02Speaker 2: Yeah, we're really looking forward to seeing you again. The
- 16:06Speaker 2: schools that empty. I'm at the school every day and
- 16:11Speaker 2: it's just it's just it's bizarre, tumbleweed's going down. I
- 16:17Speaker 2: know your teachers are both bably naggy. If you're homework
- 16:20Speaker 2: and they're telling you to pull your stocks up and stuff.
- 16:21Speaker 2: But they like you and they want to see you
- 16:25Speaker 2: again and they're looking forward to having you back. So
- 16:28Speaker 2: you know, come back with us bringing you step because
- 16:30Speaker 2: we're looking forward to having you.
- 16:31Speaker 3: I love that message. I think that might be one
- 16:32Speaker 3: of the nicest things that you could have said. And
- 16:34Speaker 3: it's totally not what I was expecting. But Michael Parker,
- 16:37Speaker 3: principle of Newington College, author of Talk with Your Kids
- 16:39Speaker 3: About Things That Matter, thank you so much for sharing
- 16:41Speaker 3: your ideas about kids in the lockdown States preparing to
- 16:45Speaker 3: head back to school and get things going again.
- 16:48Speaker 4: It's been a pleasure to chat with you.
- 16:49Speaker 2: Pleasure talking with you too. Thank you.
- 16:51Speaker 3: The Happy Families podcast is produced by Justin Ruland from
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- 16:54Speaker 4: Craig Bruce is our executive producer.
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