The purpose of the Open Parachute program is to develop true, lasting resilience in students. The student resilience continuum shows the type of mental health learning that leads to the most positive and focused classrooms.
#1. Avoidance:
On one end of the spectrum is when we don't talk about mental health at all, and we teach students to avoid their emotions.
#2. Name & Bury:
If we start teaching skills but only focus on self-regulation or values like kindness that should be upheld, students learn to name & bury - so they can identify "I'm sad" or "I'm being unkind" but they have no awareness of WHY they’re angry or being unkind, so they become confused and develop low self-esteem.
#3. Dumping:
All the way at the other end of the continuum is when we open up the floodgates in an unmanaged therapy session, where students learn to dump their feelings without taking in any skills for overcoming their challenges.
#4. Blame & Deflect:
One step forward along this end of the continuum is when we focus on awareness of issues like negative thoughts and bullying, but we don't go deep enough into the multi-layered skills needed to shift these patterns, so students learn to blame & deflect rather than understand their own accountability to make change.
#5. Balanced Reflection:
The ideal is the middle of this continuum, which is where we find students with balanced reflection, who are taught equal parts of both skill development and self-awareness, and we safeguard against the outcomes found at either end of this spectrum.
Open Parachute is a consciously designed program that allows you, as a teacher, to walk into a class with virtually no prior preparation, and deliver an effective lesson on mental health. This means that when a challenge arises in your classroom, you can simply say, “Remember that lesson, how could the skill we learned help you now?” So you can reinforce the constant cycle between awareness and skills, which means your students are learning to be accountable for their own well-being. Not only will your students have more capacity to focus on learning, but you’ll also be teaching them skills for thriving in all areas of their lives.
The Student Resilience Continuum:
If you have any questions about the Open Parachute program, please reach out to us on our Live Chat.