Teacher promotes emotional change
New Plymouth’s Jamie Banks was far from speechless when he received an invitation to deliver a speech at the Beehive’s Banquet Hall, on March 8.
Now based in Japan, the secondary school teacher, poet, author, and public speaker will join community suicide prevention workers to champion a case for the introduction of Emotional Intelligence (EI) into the New Zealand curriculum.
The Spotswood College old boy suffered intense depression and anxiety in his late teens to his early 20’s.
Sixteen years on, at 39 years of age, those dark thoughts no longer rule his life, however they formed the basis for the rationale behind EI.
‘‘Once I got myself out of that I wanted to help others get out of it, too,’’ he said.
Research showed New Zealand has a high teen suicide rate, a culture of bullying, and of binge-drinking. A eureka moment made him realise that if students were trained in transforming emotions then many of the nation’s social problems would be greatly reduced, which later sparked him to write the winning speech in the Massey University speech writing contest in 2008.
For those not in the EI know, in simple terms it is the ability to identify and label one’s own emotions, understand their causes and effects, express them appropriately and ultimately shift into a new emotional state. It is also about being able to recognise emotions in others, empathise and communicate with them effectively.
Jamie believed addressing the root causes of these problems with a holistic approach was needed instead of throwing money at the social issues individually.
‘‘We have focused much more on IQ until now but students with high IQ are still at risk of suicide and developing mental health problems. We can’t go out and help every family individually that needs it, so our education system is the most effective and efficient place to start to build a new society,’’ Jamie said.
On a lighter side, Jamie’s mum, Christine Banks, lives in New Plymouth and is set to celebrate her milestone birthday the day before his big speech. He wanted to surprise her in person but the flight from Nagasaki does not allow it.
‘‘Happy birthday, Mum, I love you. See you soon,’’ said Jamie from Japan.