How do you teach resilience?

Resilience has always seemed to be this magical, elusive quality to me... you either have it or you don't. My brother and I have discussed this- we both feel like we must have had a good dose of it to overcome some of our challenges growing up. Beginning my teaching career, I intended to keep an eye out for kids who were struggling and help them turn their lives around.


It didn't take long until I met Justine, the younger sister of one of my Intermediate students who displayed a high degree of athleticism but who just couldn't seem to keep out of trouble. With the enthusiasm and naviete of a second year teacher, I thought I would take Justine on as a project, determined to help her turn her life around. Justine displayed a natural talent for basketball that I have not seen equalled by any student that I've coached to date. It was an obvious choice to take her on my basketball team, despite her being a year younger than the rest of the players. This was an opportunity for me to give her an outlet, to keep her engaged in school and to try to teach her some positive communication and conflict resolution skills. (Clearly, this latter goal became urgent when chair-throwing was her response to being subbed.)


My efforts extended to building a relationship with her mom, finding a coach to take her on a competitive team outside of school, soliciting the funding for her uniform, assisting her mother with coordinating the transportation to get her to practices, etc. When she came into my class the following year, I only saw it as an opportunity to continue to support her more regularly and I collaborated with her special program teacher to find the best ways to achieve this. I had real hope that she would be able to overcome the odds stacked against her.


But, she never made it to that competitive basketball team, she broke every last commitment she had negotiated to remain on our school team, she ran away from home, got caught with drugs... it went on and on. I felt helpless. Over the next couple of years, I watched her downward spiral and continued to hear stories about her as she progressed into high school, always remorseful that I failed her.


I drew the conclusion from this experience that Justine must have lacked resilience.
How unfair that some kids were born with it and others weren't. And what did this mean for my future attempts to help kids who lacked it?


Last Fall, I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Bruce Ferguson (of OISE and Sick Kids' Hospital in Toronto) speak about his research on resiliency and his experiences working with at-risk youth. His assertion was that resiliency was indeed necessary for these kids to overcome their circumstances, but that resiliency was most certainly something that could be developed. Having no pen or paper at hand, I began to thumb-type notes madly into my phone while trying to maintain some degree of eye contact lest he feel I had checked out of his keynote address.


Dr. Ferguson suggested that there were certain characteristics that would promote resiliency and that could be developed in students; they are as follows:

- good natured and affectionate

- effective emotional and behavioural regulation strategies

- good cognitive abilities and problem solving skills

- a positive view of self

- good social skills

- a sense of self-efficacy

- a future orientation

- ability to delay gratification


Further, these characteristics could be developed through:

- self-development

- self-management

- self-awareness

- problem solving

- social awareness

- relationship building


I ruminated on these ideas over the winter and was so excited to have the opportunity to hear Dr. Ferguson speak again in Kingston this Spring.(He has since been seconded by the Ministry of Education to work in 8-9 Transitions.) At this keynote address, he stated that there are four key factors in creating positive change in youth:

1- Youth Characteristics account for 30-40 %

2- Our relationship with them can account for 25-30%

3- Their hopes and expectations account for 10-15%

4- Modelling/technique accounts for a further 10-15%

This means that an adult who builds a positive relationship with an at-risk youth, and helps them to develop a future orientation for themself can have a stronger influence (up to 45%)than the youth's own inherent characteristics. These odds would be further improved with some focused modelling and direct instruction of some of the skills listed earlier.


This has reaffirmed an earlier belief that I had that teachers can be "oddsmakers" for kids who face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. But, I didn't have it right with Justine. Good intention and sheer determination were not enough. With a "do-over", I would direct some of that energy into becoming more skilled at teaching problem solving, self-awareness, self-management and other skills that would help to promote the resiliency that seemed to be lacking.


Some advice from Dr. Ferguson:

Start where the young person is, recognizing that they are doing the best they can with what they have; find out what their skills/attitudes/beliefs are and why they use them the way they do; and, recruit them as partners in change.