school management
Switching off
Poor sleep is destroying student behaviour ambitions .
By Adam Voigt
The phone on my Principal ’ s desk rang . “ Get down here now !” shrieked my panicked Year 5 teacher , an educator usually calm and highly competent . In the background I could hear the enraged screaming of a 10-year-old boy ’ s voice . I knew that voice .
On my hasty arrival at the classroom , I looked this boy in the eye who was now holding a chair above his head . I spoke calmly but firmly . “ Put that thing down now . Let me get you out of here .”
Fortunately for everyone in that room , he did . We walked , without speaking , back to my office . He slumped into a comfortable chair in my office , and I sensed that the worst was over . I told him I ’ d grab him a glass of water . Upon my return , he was out cold .
I ’ ve worked with kids long enough to know when a kid is faking sleep – he wasn ’ t . And it left me wondering just how utterly exhausted a person needs to be to transition from full-blown anger to deep slumber in a matter of a minute or two .
And this is at the heart of why Australian Primary Principals Association , Malcolm Elliott , has implored parents to confiscate the screens and devices from their children at night .
It ’ s all in the name of getting them a decent night ’ s sleep , and parents are the crucial element in making this happen .
Elliott points to sick bays in schools routinely being used by students for naps . I fervently wish that was the worst symptom of the sleep crisis that our teachers and
school leaders are bearing the brunt of .
Poor sleep , as Australian professor and renowned sleep researcher Sarah Blunden points out , equals poor behaviour . And poor behaviour equals poor learning outcomes . This leaves Australian parents in the company of a highly inconvenient truth – if your child is regularly getting too little sleep , that child is falling behind . Fast .
My advice to our parents is simple and twofold . Firstly , devise a plan with your child about the rules and actions required to make tech a healthy part of their social and academic existence . The plans that are adhered to tend to be the ones that are co-designed .
Design some features into that plan that make the right behaviours likely and the wrong ones more difficult to fall back into .
Think like an Olympic swimming coach who insists that athletes , who must rise at stupid o ’ clock for gruelling training sessions , place their alarm clock on the other side of the bedroom . They know full well that a snooze button within arm ’ s reach is designing for the wrong behaviour . Resist the urge to nag and agree on a healthy daily screen dosage and an evening cut-off time . Perhaps even put a reward in place for success .
Play your part by deploying the parental controls that all of Microsoft , Apple and Nintendo have available .
But if all that fails , my second piece of advice can ’ t be avoided . Turn the modem off and hide it in the garage . Cut their data supply off completely .
They ’ ll squeal like stuck pigs for a while but , believe me , this is an act of love . And , out of love , make it abundantly clear what the circumstances are in which that Wi-Fi supply is restored .
No child has ever died from the removal of access to the internet .
No child has ever died from the removal of access to the internet .
But back to my potential chair chucker . When he awoke , we chatted about how tired he must have been , and he confided that he found sleep difficult .
We drove around to his house to let Mum know what had happened at school and she concurred that he was “ up and down like a yo-yo ” all night , every night .
We looked at his bedroom , positioned at the front of the house , by a busy road and right next to a buzzing streetlamp . I suggested that we move him to a smaller room near the back of the house .
Here ’ s what happened . The behaviour problems at school stopped . Just like that . This kid started smiling at school and he also started learning .
The sleep crisis facing our school-aged students isn ’ t a product of technology , but technology is a key contributor . Our kids , our teachers and our parents are all paying an outrageous cost for this scourge .
No school , no government and no behaviour management program in schools can overcome it . The tech giants are certainly not about to help out .
This one ’ s on the heads of every Australian household . ■
Adam Voigt is a teacher , principal , education commentator and the founder and CEO of Real Schools .
24 | educationreview . com . au