Folks keep telling me they value all that I've been exploring about #BoardingSchools. So here's a THREAD on t emotional formation of political leaders, drawn directly from @BeardRichard book #SadLittleMen.
Your childhood can leave you dangerous. Image
2. STALIN. "By the end of his boarding school days, he had adapted to hide his damaged self."
And when he asked his mother why, as a child, he was beaten so frequently?..."She replied 'It didn't do you any harm.'" Image
3. MUSSOLINI. "He is portrayed as a monstrous buffoon, posturing, speechifying ....Angry, experiencing privation, as a child he is supposed to have said, 'One day, I shall astonish the world.'" Image
4. HITLER. "His early life was a strange existence characterised by roles. He had a bottomless mendacity & was not honest even to his most intimate confidants. He lied to his friends, family, himself."
"Historians have asked: What are the social forces that created Hitler?" Image
5. DAVID CAMERON. "He retreated from his days at No 10 personally unscathed. He turned his back on the mess he'd made of Brexit with t serenity of a public school boy....He'd been a bit naughty but no harm done. The arrangements to protect his interests were securely in place." Image
6. JOHNSON. "His political bluster was mock-heroic. Or was he? The candidate he beat to become OxUnion presidnt didn't think so. He warned others not to be deceived. 'This guy is a killer.'"..."His non-stop pantomime both exaggerated & obscured t class & era that made him." Image
7. "Yes, English private schools could plausibly have bred a tyrant." That's what @BeardRichard is trying to tell us. That's what he is trying to get us to look out for -- the creeping normality that historians use later to spot t birth of fascism. 'Later' isn't helpful today. Image
8. "What's t basic unit of cruelty? Therapist @JoySchaverien has identified it: 'They hide their feelings and, through projection, attack the child less able to hide theirs.' Along with a useful remoteness, a social disdain, we can flirt w/ extreme solutions to a hostile world." Image

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More from @suzannezeedyk

Mar 4
Attachmnt Theory was, in its very origins, political. It was concerned w/ t emotional capacities needed for a 'democratic self'. A THREAD about why those insights matter now.
I read aloud frm this book last night at #DaringVentures, so ths is me now rippling out that knowldge.
2. The war in Ukraine has become a fight for democracy itself. I am readng many posts abt t thinkng of Russians, Belarussians, Germans now vs 1930s, obstructive UK leadership. All of this is relevant to Shapira's book. Democracy is not just a political systm. It is psychological.
3. "We know more about Soviet, Nazi, fascist selves than we do about the democratic self....Our basic notions of a normal self in a democratic society are taken for granted."
Read 20 tweets
Mar 3
Today I spoke w/ @hackneycouncil Early Years Staff about how to help young children self-regulate. I did that by sharing w/ them what settings have been doing over Covid. A brief THREAD to share this info more widely.
2. @PitteucharE, led by @JKnussen, have been sure to use the language of 'distressed behaviour', rather than the conventional language of 'challenging behaviour'. Simple change. Free. No forms required to be completed. 🙂
3. And LOOK at the difference it makes - simply telling the story of what one school @PitteucharE is doing to support children's emotions. This is the feedback from attendees in London. "So simple, but I can see how transformative it could be for staff and for children."
Read 11 tweets
Feb 27
I'm watchng numerous posts askng "Why is t UK govt stoppng refugee Ukrainians at t border in France whn they are married to UK nationals?" I think @BeardRichard on 'Private Schools & The Ruin of England' offers insights. So here's a THREAD. I do think everybody shd read ths book.
2. In case those posts haven't come across your Timeline, here's one frm @KenboStewart, who has a 2 week infant son in t car with him. And a Ukrainian wife. He has referred to t UK govt as a "heartless bunch" with "zero compassion" for Ukrainian refugees.
3. Okay, so how did we end up with a "heartless govt"? That's what @BeardRichard is trying to help us understand in his book on boarding school. A boy who boarded himself, he tries to show us HOW emotions of care & empathy were *intentionally* squashed by that system.
Read 20 tweets
Feb 15
“What do you need for a trauma-informed school?” That was the title of my talk today, t very first live since lockdown!!, w/ 35 staff at @MillofMainsPS in Dundee. Here’s a THREAD on t range of trauma-attentive things they are ALREADY doing to support their childrn.
2. First, what does a GROUP of gathered staff look like?? THIS!! In their brand new, never-before-used Community Hall! #Honoured We came up with ideas for all sorts of community events, to ripple out the insights of today to parents & others, didnt we @geordiepeaches ? 😀
3. New teacher: “I’ve been using cards I made up to let the kids choose how to regulate. They only took me a few minutes to make. They’ve saved me hours of time. It’s like a way for them to tell me what they need even in midst of big emotions.”
Me: “Do you have them handy?”
Read 31 tweets
Feb 13
Should schools hv a Belonging Policy? or Relationship Policy? or a Behaviour Policy? That was t debate on my timeline ystrdy. I thought maybe a THREAD on ATTACHMENT STYLES wd help in navigatng this territory. A 'sense of belonging' sounds cozy, but t biology isn't straightforwrd.
2. John Bowlby's Attachment Theory has been w/ us since t 1930s, but it is still not well understd in professionl systems or t public. That's because it is counter-cultural, complex & has (like all good theories) been critiqued. I'm glad #ACEs has renewed attn to it.
3. Attachmnt is NOT about children. It is about human beings. It is part of our biology - like lungs & hearts. We are BIOLOGICALLY WIRED to NEED CONNECTION in order to thrive emotionlly. At extremes, without enough connection, human babies die. bettercarenetwork.org/news-updates/n…
Read 26 tweets
Jan 23
A surprising number of ppl hv said they've found my recent threads on emotions & Boarding School Survivors to be helpful. So I will just keep thm going, continuing to draw on @axrenton book.
How does knowng more abt this help us make sense of current Westminster chaos? A THREAD.
2. It was a friend who convinced me to keep talking abt this. She texted me this msg: “Yes, most people are baffled by what they see played out at Westminster.”
What we are watchng is a dangerous culture of unleashed emotional trauma. That means HARM is done to others: citizens.
3. Yes, I know there is entitlement going on. Masses of it. But what I think what gets missed is that t sense of entitlmnt is grounded in relational trauma. If most of us don't know much abt elite boardng school culture, how can we see t origins of trauma? @axrenton helps us SEE.
Read 36 tweets

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