About This Lesson
High 5 Activity
How We Can Be Hopeful Now: 4 Ways to Get Started
It’s been well-documented that the pandemic has generated a mental health crisis among students and staff. But paradoxically, this crisis doesn’t preclude the simultaneous practice of hope. Practicing hope is different than feeling hopeful. Research shows that hope is a skill that can be learned, and that teaching hope can speed children’s recovery from difficult events and help build lifelong resilience for both students and educators.
Practicing hope is also different from offering the false hope that everything is fine or engaging in what is sometimes called “toxic positivity.” These practices are actually a version of denial; an attempt to erase negative events. Rather, the practice of hope acknowledges what has happened, invites students and adults to acknowledge how they feel, and then engages participants in activities and ways of making meaning from these traumatic events that promote resilience and rebuilding.
