A Scottish Learning Festival (SLF) keynote speaker has urged teachers and school leaders not to get locked in a cycle of “angry, upset” - but instead to look after themselves and “be a breath of fresh air” because it will have a big impact on the happiness of those around them.
In an address to the SLF yesterday, Dr Pak Tee Ng - who started his career as a maths teacher and is now an associate professor at Singapore’s National Institute of Education - said that if school leaders, in particular, are happy people, then “teachers are much happier”.
He added that when educators take care of themselves, they are “actually taking care of the system because we are the system”.
Dr Ng said: “We may not be able to change the world, but what we can do is change our inner world to embrace the external world so much better. And that means the world to the people around us.
“When you work - especially if that person is your boss - whether they are happy or unhappy makes all the difference to your life. If my boss is a happy person, I’m happy. If my boss is, on a daily basis, a really unhappy person, my life is unhappy. In a way, it is as simple as that.
“Therefore, our own disposition means the world to the people around us.”
Dr Ng - whose full address can be viewed here - said that he challenged school leaders in Singapore to walk around their schools looking angry and stressed to see the impact.
“In five minutes, the whole school will be in turmoil - that’s your influence,” he said.
Dr Ng - a member of the Scottish government’s International Council of Education Advisers - acknowledged that education was “never easy” and that teachers had to be tenacious and persevere.
But he encouraged Scottish teachers and heads to “dig deep” and to be “wise”, “courageous” and “of good cheer”, because “someone else always benefits from what we do”.
He urged his audience to return to school after his keynote address and “be a breath of fresh air”.
This week’s other SLF keynote speakers - gathered together as “SLF Conversations” - include Dr Santiago Rincón-Gallardo, Scottish education secretary Jenny Gilruth and Professor Allison Skerrett.
While the SLF has this week focused on online keynote presentations at times more convenient to working teachers than in the past, there is also a programme of more than 100 short seminars under the SLF banner.
Organiser Education Scotland plans to run these as professional development throughout the school year.
