Fostering Resiliency

Patricia Gándara says in her book Over the Ivy Walls:
"Our increased understanding of the factors that lead to failure has not appreciably diminished the rate of failure. Perhaps a better understanding of what leads to academic success will yield more fruitful outcomes….An important element missing from most research has been the insights which can be gained from an understanding of how students who don’t fail, in spire of adverse circumstances, manage to escape that fate." (pp. xii, 9)


What Gándara says resonates with the work of Martin Seligman on "learned helplessness" and with the work of others (Benard, Henderson, and Werner) on resiliency. Rather than a focus on deficits and causing our diverse learners to feel like victims, giving them the tools to be successful in spite of whatever happens to them will be more productive.


Nan Henderson shares what a young man who had spent most of his life in dozens of foster homes told her about what helped him the most. He said that it was the people along the way who gave him the message, "What is right with you is more powerful than anything that is wrong with you."


We can give our diverse learners this message by helping them to draw upon their resiliency. The new edition of Resiliency In Action edited by Nan Henderson can help us know how to do just that.


The book is divided into seven parts:

Part One: The Foundations of Resiliency

Part Two: Resiliency and Schools

Part Three: Resiliency and Communities

Part Four: Resiliency, Connections: Mentoring, Support, and Counseling

Part Five: Resiliency and Youth Development

Part Six: Resiliency and Families

Part Seven: Resiliency and the Brain


I haven't read the book, yet, but I have read Resiliency: What We Have Learned by Bonnie Benard, and it was excellent, and I've also read work by Emmy Werner. Therefore, this new book is definitely on my reading list, and I would highly recommend that it be put on yours as well.

It's A Wonderful Life"

We have a Christmas tradition at our house, as do many others, to watch It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve or Christmas day each year. I'm always touched by its simple message about the importance of each of us being here and that without us, the world would not be the same.


Not only does the movie itself touch me every time I watch, but its message impacts me even more when I listen to why Frank Capra wrote it as it is reflective of Capra's confirmed belief in the essential goodness of life and the importance of the individual, as well as his importance to the lives of all he touches.


He said that he wrote it "to the weary, the disheartened, the winos, the junkies, the prostitutes, those behind prison walls, and those behind the iron curtain. No man is a failure who is born slow of foot or slow of mind, those older sisters condemned to spinsterhood, and those oldest sons condemned to unschooled toil."


He goes on to say, "Each man's life touches so many other lives and that if he isn't around it would leave an awful hole. It's a film that expresses love to the homeless and the loveless, for the Mary Magdalenes stoned by hypocrites, and the afflicted Lazaruses with only dogs to lick their shoes. I want to shout to all that you are the salt of the earth. It is my memorial to you."

It is my hope that watching It's A Wonderful Life not be our only tradition, but that the application of it's message and Frank Capra's reason for writing it become part of who we are as well.

David Deford: An Inspirational Leader

David Deford is one of my inspirations! Therefore, I choose today to share with you insights from David Deford that every leader who chooses to be a spiritual leader will want to apply.

david@daviddeford.com
Today's Article: Follow Your Shot
by David DeFord

In my school days basketball career every coach repeated the instruction, "Follow your shot."As soon as the ball left a shooter's hand, he was to run toward the basket. This put him in a better position for a rebound. If the shooter rebounded the ball, he had a very good opportunity to shoot again from closer range.If a shooter felt too confident that his shot would score and he didn't follow his shot, the coach would scream, "Follow your shot!" from the sidelines. Fail to do it twice and the coach would most often remove him from the game to reinforce his message.Missing a shot was not an offense, but failing tomove forward for the rebound was a huge one.My coaches knew that the moment just after a misfire is the most opportune for a favorable score--if we follow our shots.Not all business or personal attempts we make will bring success. Though we will fail many times, we can increase our opportunities for ultimate achievement by taking advantage of that brief moment after the miss.If we keep our heads high and move forwardTo put ourselves into position to rebound, we can often find ourselves tipping in the game-winning shot.Missed shots (failures) need not be the final outcome--rebound and shoot again.

Related quotes:

A setback will never defeat you. Only yielding to the setback can do that. David DeFord

I am never down. I am either up or getting up! John C.

Behind every success is a succession of failures. Rick Beneteau

The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way. Dale Carnegie

Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street. Zig Ziglar