Positive power

HERE’S a huge Geelong success story that continues to grow. It’s about Geelong’s seminal contribution to the wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people across the world.

That’s a big claim, but it’s backed up by evidence presented to 830 delegates at the 2018 national conference of the Positive Education Schools Association (PESA) held at Geelong Grammar last week. Many came from interstate and overseas.

In my psychology career, the most significant development has been the emergence of positive psychology, aimed at promoting wellbeing in all people rather than focusing on alleviating the suffering of those affected by mental disorders.

The field’s founder, Martin Seligman, wished to apply the life skills and interventions of positive psychology to school students to reach many more people and increase their lifelong impact.

A visionary Geelong parent, Trent Barry, had previously befriended Dr Seligman while undertaking training with him, and knew of his interest in establishing the first school project outside North America.

Dr Barry had close links to Geelong Grammar, and believed the school could do with adopting a philosophy to boost the beneficial impact of its new wellbeing centre. He helped sell the benefits of establishing their partnership.

Drawing on their experience as educators, local school staff joined with Dr Seligman’s team of academics and trainers to invent the new field of positive education.

Within a few years, the Geelong project based on educating the educators in positive psychology was seen as such a success that General Casey of the US Army directed that similar strategies be introduced to over one million US soldiers via the army’s educators, the drill sergeants.

An International Positive Education Network now exists in 165 countries. In Australia alone positive education has been introduced in some form into 1200 schools.

In Europe it is called Character Education, in North Africa it’s called 21st-Century Skills and in Bhutan it’s called Life Skills, but it’s the same beast. Anna Han, the CEO of the Positive Education Chinese Academy, informed the PESA conference of a plan to introduce positive education to 367 million children in China. That’s not a misprint.

Tellingly, Alejandro Adler, an international leader in the field who oversaw the introduction of positive education to almost a million students internationally, described Geelong as the “Mecca” of positive education. Even more tellingly, Dr Seligman observed that Australia was five years ahead of the rest of the world. He ended the conference asking why Australians were so good at it. My thoughts on this are based on my opportunity to closely observe the Geelong experiment from earliest days. Firstly, the initial program had the best chance of success when introduced in 2007 to a very well resourced school with a history of innovation through Timbertop. There was no doubt about the calibre of Dr Seligman and his team, but they were lucky with their local partners. The spark came from an exceptionally visionary parent. The project was championed from the top by the newly appointed principal, Stephen Meek, pictured. The vice principal, Charlie Scudamore, is as passionate about the cause as anyone I’ve met. Justin Robinson, now director of Geelong’s Institute of Positive Education, has been a driving force from early days. Apart from being exceptionally committed, he’s far more interested in networking and empowering others than seeking personal glory as sometimes limits the impact of leaders in innovative fields. Many other school staff were exceptional. Parents came on board.

Culturally, Australia is a country with an egalitarian spirit and a strong interest in accessible health-related services.

Australian innovators and adventurers often have a very practical bent in exploring new territory, and can make things happen on limited resources. Geelong is the right size and location for a particularly innovative region, with access to a major city and its resources without being weighed down by its traditions. It nonetheless comes down to the actual people involved, and many more than those I’ve mentioned deserve to be recognised.

It might seem ironic that an elite organisation has done so much to contribute to the wellbeing of the world’s poor and advantaged alike.

There will be an increasing local boon from Geelong leaders’ increased exposure to positive education, including at a public event last night featuring Dr Seligman.

In my long-held view, the second-most significant happening that blessed Geelong in 2007 was the Cats winning the AFL premiership. Chris Mackey is a Fellow of The Australian Psychological Society and principal psychologist at Chris Mackey and Associates, Geelong.