Positive EdUcation

It's what you do with your 40% that counts...

2010-11-27T01:40:00.000-08:00

Making Australia Happier

How happy are you? Take Dr Tony Grant's Happiness test & watch episodes of 'Making Australia Happy'.

A Positive Project - "Giving"

2010-08-29T05:28:00.000-07:00

Take off your shoes for the 'Worldly Soles Project'. Check out Worldly Soles

What is Positive Psychology?

2010-08-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

Introducing Martin Seligman - The founder of Positive Psychology

Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was summed up in 2000 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise that achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in individuals, families, and communities." Positive psychologists seek "to find and nurture strengths", and "to make normal life more fulfilling", not simply to treat mental illness. The Black Dog Institute have developed a fantastic Positive Psychology Fact Sheet

Where as traditional psychology focuses on the things that are going wrong, positive psychology encourages people to build on those things that are going right, (and it doesn't ignore or gloss over problems - everything of course has two sides). Positive psychology provides people with strategies that enable them to 'flip their problems over and see them in new ways,' and develop skills and strengths to cope with life challenges so that they may live engaged, fulfilling lives. Positive psychology acknowledges that growth comes out of challenges!

How do we validate & celebrate others?

2010-08-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

Short film "Validation" by Hugh Newman

Validation is a wonderfully whimsical short film created by Hugh Newman. It will not only make you smile but perhaps even bring a tear to your eye. It is challenging for us to consider what big differences even the smallest gestures can make.

Get Creative...

2010-08-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

Get Creative...
“Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air--explode softly --and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth--boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn't go cheap, either--not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination.” Robert Fulghum

2010-08-08T20:23:00.000-07:00

Positive Education Begins With You (& Me)...
It is exciting to see a flurry of activity and research relating to 'positive education' fueled by the momentum of the 'positive psychology' movement. In working with a number of schools to develop their positive school philosophies, I have discovered that it can be time consuming and overwhelming to sift through the plethora of available information. So in this blog, I will aim to share some of the fantastic resources and links that I have found, which I hope will inspire you and point you in the right direction as you explore the possibilities of what positive education might mean for you...