PRINCIPAL’S BLOG

13 March 2026

Rachael Taylor once said, “We live in a world of instant gratification, the world of the quick fix”. There is no doubt that our world has been bombarded by gadgets, ideas and technology that enable us to find solutions faster, solve problems in a shorter period of time, and satisfy our desires in as short a period as possible. Answers are quickly available at our fingertips, and complex and intricate challenges are often overcome in an instant through the use of some form of AI. There is no doubt that a great deal of benefit is gained from such technology, and that many life-changing advances in different fields have been achieved. However, there is also a downside, and one that is having a dramatic effect on our young people.

When many of us were young, conducting research for a project or assignment involved walking to the local library, finding the topic in an encyclopedia (we all remember the “World Books), photostatting the relevant pages, and then having to work out what to include, cutting out pictures, etc. In today’s world, this seems archaic, and research has become faster and easier to access. Many will argue that time is now saved, research is effective and more fine-tuned, and that the quality of the final product has improved. And in many cases, this may be true. However, critical skills are being compromised in the process and our children are losing out. Skills such as resilience are being eroded. Researching in the library was often cumbersome, frustrating (when one could not find the correct information, or had to wait because someone else was using the book that you wanted), and took time, but you had to hang in there, and not quit, because the project had to be done. And that built resilience, commitment and tenacity.

Don’t get me wrong, I am well aware of the enormous advantages of search engines such as Google, and how they have benefited our lives. The library example is a simple one, however, it illustrates a point and begs a question: are we promoting and encouraging the development of resilience in our young people? Are we encouraging them to do hard things? Are we allowing them to quit, or put in minimal effort when the going gets a little tough, or are we using such opportunities to build resilience? When our kids don’t have to dig deep and struggle through a complex maths problem (because AI will give us the answer in a minute), or when we are happy to accept mediocre academic results because studying in advance is too much effort, or just too hard, then we are depriving our children of valuable opportunities to develop resilience.

Developing resilience is a critical life skill that our children need in order to become independent and balanced young people; without it, they simply will not survive in a competitive and busy world.

Resilience goes way beyond the primary school classroom, and seeps into every corner of ones life:

  • A lack of resilience severely hampers a teenagers ability to bounce back in the higher grades when the academic demands are high, and university (and residence) places are on the line.
  • There will be a time at some stage in a young person’s life when they do not make the team they tried out for, or are not selected for the part in a play they so desperately wanted. In other words, setbacks are inevitable. Resilience enables one to deal with such setbacks in a manner that promotes growth, perspective and maturity. A lack of resilience unfortunately turns these setbacks into major obstacles that are difficult to overcome.
  • When relationships go through difficult and challenging times (as is natural), a lack of resilience does not bode well for the future of the relationship.
  • Resilience is critical in the work place, and if our young people are not provided with an opportunity to develop it, success and sustainability in their future employment role is placed in jeopardy.
  • Our goal (as parents and educators) should be to develop young people who are kind, well-balanced, selfless, and who want to make a meaningful difference in their corner of the world. Set-backs will be inevitable along the way, and failure is part of life’s growing experience. However, when resilience is absent, then our children lose out on golden moments to develop their character when those tough times arrive, with the result that their character development suffers in the long run.

Please take the time to dig deeper by considering the following resources:

Our role as parents is to model the behavior that we expect from our children, and to guide them in handling real-life challenges in the correct manner. Allowing them to face age-appropriate struggles, and teaching them the skills to work through those struggles is our responsibility. Reneging on this responsibility denies our young people of the opportunity to develop the resilience so desperately needed to become happy and successful people, who will thrive in the world around them.