The greatest threat to public health is the way we live, and the systems which influence our choices.

People, institutions prioritize convenience and the unfortunate norms of modern life, wrap them in the generous title of ‘efficiency’ and unintentionally degrade the experience – the existence – of those we would like to see succeed.

Schools with early start times and schedules that run counter to adolescent circadian rhythms, where we teach people to sit and comply for hours on end, snacking from vending machines full of the exact fuel that drives a multibillion-dollar obesity epidemic. We teach social emotional learning skills like emotion regulation, empathy, and resilience in environments which require those skills just to get through.

We create well-intentioned mental health initiatives to alleviate the symptoms we have, in many cases, created.

No amount of positive self-talk, not even the cutest support animal, can overcome the deleterious effects of sleep deprivation as it relates to mental health. We should teach people to own and navigate their self-talk. And I wish there were a golden retriever here right now. Let’s keep offering support. But layering surface-level interventions on top of a chronically degraded physical state is like icing a cake that is not fully baked.

Slow down. Reevaluate. Address the Bedrock components of the High Order Performance Framework that are essential to our health and performance. Start there, please.

Leaders. You can do what is easy, what has been normalized, what we are used to. Many do. In a 2005 speech, David Foster Wallace reminds us that the alternative to taking a thoughtful approach “is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.”

We have all felt stuck in a default setting at one point or other. Gabor Mate’s recent book The Myth of Normal says it all, much of it in the title. What we have come to accept as normal, which it to say, what has been normalized in our society, is anything but.

I’m inspired by the fact that this group is different. More ambitious. Better. This group sees the missteps, often well-intentioned or simply misguided, and makes decisions to get us back on the right path. There are two hundred influential educators and leaders in this room, hundreds more at the conference. I am inspired by the ethical charge you all have taken on, in the context of this understanding, to improve health, wellness, and countless additional outcomes in the lives of those you educate.

Think of that potential. Every year a teacher might have 30-130 students in their charge. Each one of them will go on to influence their communities, many will start families or lead businesses, the chosen few will go on to become educators themselves. Think of the ripple effect of that influence.

The impact you make on those in your building will impact countless more. That impact ripples out. A generation from now, the new normal will be influenced directly, not purely in theory, by you – by your teaching.

You are, in no small way, the designers of a healthier future. And you’re up to the challenge. Don’t let the opportunity to change the world slip away.

The next time we are all together, maybe here at this same conference next year, when presented with the question, ‘does your behavior match our goal?’, let’s be sure we can unanimously say ‘yes’. Be extraordinary. Personally, organizationally, and beyond.

References

Davis, J.D. (2023). Leading Toward a Healthier Future through Bedrock Education. New Hampshire (NHAHPERD) State Conference, Keynote address, November 21, 2023, Waterville Valley, NH.

Davis, J.D. (2023). Using the High Order Performance Framework for Effective Leadership. Journal of Character and Leadership Development, 10(3), 77-84.

Davis, J.D. (2023). High Order Performance Framework. SEL Summer Institute, August 4, 2023, Harvard University, Graduate School of Education, Ca

This microblog post was a featured post in #slowchathealth’s #microblogmonth event. You can search for all of the featured posts here. Please do follow each of the outstanding contributors on social media (including Jim Davis the author of this post) and consider writing a microblog post of your own to be shared with the global audience of slowchathealth.com

Check out Jim’s work with The Good Athlete Project AND he also has a very popular podcast.

Pair this blog post with the following:

The Power of Good Nutrition: Does Your Behavior Match Your Goal? by Jim Davis

The Whole Picture: The Importance Of Teaching The Social Determinants of Health by Joey Feith

Have you read the latest Book of the Month recommendation?