Skip to main content
The Morning Star 2026 Conference
Schools and the toxic resilience agenda
The poorer the area, the more the school walls will be plastered with exhortations that students 'believe in themselves' and dig deep for individual reserves of positivity. It's no coincidence, writes STEVE HANDFORD

RECENTLY, I worked in a school for deprived and vulnerable pupils. Its walls and corridors contained a litany of inspirational quotes from gurus ancient and modern. This blu-tacked, laminated  treasure trove included: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”  

Another read: “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” There were so many of these they became a running joke with the cynics among us, staff and pupils alike.  

I didn’t realise I was waking up to what  teachers are now calling “toxic resilience.” Not dumbing down, but numbing down.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
BRAVE NEW WORLD? Annual British Educational Training and Technology conference in London, January 2025, where Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson set out plans to use technology to ‘modernise’ the education system, support teachers and ‘deliver’ for pupils
Technology / 27 June 2025
27 June 2025

NICOLA SARAH HAWKINS explains how an under-regulated introduction of AI into education is already exacerbating inequalities

amy
Short Story / 9 May 2025
9 May 2025

‘Chance encounters are what keep us going,’ says novelist Haruki Murakami. In Amy, a chance encounter gives fresh perspective to memories of angst, hedonism and a charismatic teenage rebel.

A mural depicting the Battle of Cable Street
VE Day 2025 / 8 May 2025
8 May 2025

PHIL KATZ describes the unity of the home front and the war front in a People’s War