WEBVTT - Real Schools Founder Challenges Classroom Kindness Education

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<v Speaker 1>Adam voitz On nine is a former principle and founder

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<v Speaker 1>of Real Schools, a key national education body is calling

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<v Speaker 1>for kindness. Milseye something could learn classes in schools to

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<v Speaker 1>teach children how to be more resilient than empathetic and

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<v Speaker 1>help prevent bullying.

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<v Speaker 2>Good morning, Adam, how are you morning jents?

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<v Speaker 3>Can you really teach someone to be empathetic?

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<v Speaker 2>No, you can't. So in this situation, it's a classic

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<v Speaker 2>example of the right intention our kids are. They're lacking

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<v Speaker 2>in kindness, they're lacking in empathy, they're lacking in compassion.

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<v Speaker 2>But the way to get that done is not to

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<v Speaker 2>have teachers mandated to run a kindness lesson on a

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<v Speaker 2>Wednesday afternoon. I end up giving a really good mark

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<v Speaker 2>to a kid for a really fabulous kindness poster, and

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<v Speaker 2>they watch that kid go out of the yard and

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<v Speaker 2>belt someone over their head with a rolls up kindness poster.

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<v Speaker 2>They get better at posters, not at kindness. Kindness is

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<v Speaker 2>something you learn in context, and if we want to

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<v Speaker 2>solve that problem, we need to put our energy.

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<v Speaker 3>So the best way to teach kindness is to be

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<v Speaker 3>kind exactly.

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<v Speaker 2>And so what we need to do is to ask ourselves.

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<v Speaker 2>How do you build kind young people? And they build

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<v Speaker 2>it in company of other people. So to be really honest,

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<v Speaker 2>if we're going to be spending money on trying to

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<v Speaker 2>build kind kids, I would be sending an unbuilt Billy

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<v Speaker 2>carts to every family in Australia and telling them that

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<v Speaker 2>they get their tax break if they can send a

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<v Speaker 2>video in of their kid and other kids building and

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<v Speaker 2>using that old billy card. You learn it from the

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<v Speaker 2>thousands of hours you get in the Argie barge. You're

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<v Speaker 2>getting things right and wrong. Schools can plain an important

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<v Speaker 2>role in that, but outsourcing it to a lesson on

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<v Speaker 2>kindness is frankly an exercising futility.

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<v Speaker 3>Actually, he rose a very good point. I think of

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<v Speaker 3>my development as a person, and I was lucky enough

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<v Speaker 3>I had good, strong parents. But I learned a lot

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<v Speaker 3>from my friendship group and interacting with their families and

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<v Speaker 3>their brothers and their sisters, and even to this day

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<v Speaker 3>they're a major part of my life.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's an enormous cumulative task to become a kind

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<v Speaker 2>person or a compassionate person, and there are contributions made

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<v Speaker 2>by like you said, by his family, and sometimes there's variability.

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<v Speaker 2>Some families do it better than others. It's true you

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<v Speaker 2>learn it around the dinner table, but you learn it

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<v Speaker 2>in the street as well by having those hundreds it's

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<v Speaker 2>not thousands of hours with your friends who don't always

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<v Speaker 2>treat you really well. And that's where you actually pick

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<v Speaker 2>up the resilience bit as well. But our kids aren't there.

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<v Speaker 2>They're not in the street, you know, they're in lound

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<v Speaker 2>rooms and they're on their phones. And so we've got

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<v Speaker 2>to actually replace that with the opportunity to be face

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<v Speaker 2>to face with authentic, meaty people if we really want

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<v Speaker 2>to build kindness in young people. Because this pattern of

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<v Speaker 2>like outsourcing it to a mini lesson at a school,

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<v Speaker 2>actually invites some stuff we don't want. One it squeezes

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<v Speaker 2>out that of the learning time until it invites these

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<v Speaker 2>kind of either parent or state funded morality lessons coming

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<v Speaker 2>into our schools that nobody really is in favor of.

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<v Speaker 3>Ith I agree with that either. I think back to

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<v Speaker 3>my group of friends and though would stick out for

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<v Speaker 3>our minds, but they'll give you a lot of stick as.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, exactly. And so how do you become resilient. It's

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<v Speaker 2>not by learning about resilience. It's not by making a

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<v Speaker 2>buraal about it. It's not through a theme day where

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<v Speaker 2>we get everyone out on the oval and get them

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<v Speaker 2>and spell out the word say no to bully so

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<v Speaker 2>that a drone can take a photo for our Instagram.

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<v Speaker 2>You learn in this discomfort and in schools. So there's

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<v Speaker 2>a lesson we can learn for this in schools. And

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<v Speaker 2>there are schools around the country at the moment worried

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<v Speaker 2>about lunchtime that a lot of things go wrong at lunchtime.

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<v Speaker 2>It all goes wrong in the last ten minutes, so

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<v Speaker 2>they're trimming ten minutes off lunchtime. They actually need that

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<v Speaker 2>time about ten minutes where things are a bit ugly

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<v Speaker 2>at lunchtime, it's actually good stuff. That's where the kids

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<v Speaker 2>are learn We need to learn how to help them

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<v Speaker 2>learn in that situation. Stop expecting it to be perfect

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<v Speaker 2>and stop expecting them to be safe all the time.

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<v Speaker 1>More playtime, I reckon, Adam, more playtime.

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<v Speaker 2>I totally agree. I think it's Simon will actually let

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<v Speaker 2>them be face to face and let them get dirty them,

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<v Speaker 2>let them have a little a little bit of things

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<v Speaker 2>going wrong, let them learn how to get over it.

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<v Speaker 2>That's how they get the job done.

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<v Speaker 3>Good on you, my founder of Real Schools, Adam Vought,

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<v Speaker 3>a former principal, learned. I think he's got his hand

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<v Speaker 3>on that particular topic with a lot of fine grips.