Can you thoroughly concentrate for a prolonged period of time? Are you mindful when performing your tasks during the day? More importantly, can you effectively control your emotions?

The word “emotion” derives from the Latin word emuovere, which actually means "to disturb". Emotions are disturbances in the body, a sort of sub-conscious reaction that triggers body sensations and mind activity. Most of these emotions can be unpleasant and distressful, provoking a re-action that is likely to be exaggerated, irrational and sometimes absurd.

Our educational system provides to teach students a myriad of different academic subjects, but does it really address their psychological development at optimal levels? Are the students being adequately groomed in the arts of self-acceptance, self-control and rational behaviour? Is psychological development being given its pride of place, or on the contrary, it’s being deprived of its centrality, diminished instead to a sort of peripheral and fringe subject.

Without adequate cognitive skills, a good student can succumb to the pressure of an exam, to the uncertainties of youth and to the expectations of today’s ever-demanding world. Our educators should elevate the psychological development of students, at least at par with the other core academic subjects and hence provide a more holistic model of educative formation. The ability of concentration and self-observation and the science of mindfulness may be instrumental in reaching this goal. Our ingrained way of thinking, reacting and behaving can effectively be enhanced through adequate teaching, so as our children, and indeed ourselves, can be better prepared to weather the inevitable storms in life.

 

 

J. Grech

Victoria, Gozo