Time to Process: Allow Students Space for Major Life Transitions
..massive life disruptions — or lifequakes, as I call them — strike people in the core of their being. They create meaning vacuums in which we feel frightened, overwhelmed and stuck. A transition is how we get unstuck. A lifequake may be voluntary . . . or involuntary . . . , but the transition must be voluntary. We must choose to take the steps and go through the process of turning our fear and anxiety into renewal and growth.
– Bruce Feiler
INTRO
When students walk onto campus, they bring their whole lives with them. Whether major life events/transitions are related to school or not, students need the time and space to process them.
GO skills and behaviors include elements of student agency– self-awareness, self-knowledge, and an understanding of who you are in the context of the world around you, including your family and your community. This includes leadership skills, advocacy skills, self-care, and healthy habits as well as skills like kindness and empathy. Many of these skills are necessary to successfully navigate big life transitions such as attending college, enrolling in a vocational program, starting a new job, or even beginning a new personal relationship.
OBJECTIVES
- Reflect on how your school responds to students’ major life events and transitions
- Create plans/guidelines for how you will provide students time and space for processing major life events and transitions
ACTIVITY
- Provide students time and space for processing major life transitions including the change from lower elementary grades to upper grades, from elementary to middle school, from middle to high school, and the change from high school to postsecondary education.
- This article in The New York Times is a great inspiration for reframing transitions and lists strategies for navigating major transitions, whether chosen or unexpected.
Five Tips for Managing Life Transitions
- Start with your transition superpower
- Identify your emotions
- Shed something
- Try something creative
- Rewrite your life story
TIPS
- Little Things, such as the above activity, are smaller efforts you can do tomorrow, or within the next week.
- Like this activity? Check out Inflexion’s full-page GO document for more ideas.
Responses