The student performances at FOBISIA conferences are always excellent and this year’s performances at the 31st FOBISIA conference in Bangkok this past weekend more than exceeded expectations. The harmony of a school chamber choir, the fluid elegance of a school dance society … and then there was a duologue performed by two students from St Andrew’s International School Bangkok, which was so powerful that it literally brought me to tears.
Why? Well, the duologue was introduced as the outcome of work that students at the school had done in conjunction with an external theatre company based on the concept of the play ‘Brainstorm’. To sate my immediate hunger for more information, I delved into the internet and discovered that this is more than just a play – it is, in fact, more of a framework for the elucidation of the personal experience of a cast, although there is also an original play script which has been performed at the National Theatre in London, and which can be can be performed by schools. The whole point of this dramatic project, however, is not just to replicate what others have done, but to illuminate and explore the unique and wonderfully complex, evolving brains of the teenagers who are performing – brains which are not ‘broken’ but rather glorious in their ‘exhilarating chaos’.
People who don’t work with teenagers often misunderstand this period of human development – probably because they have forgotten (or suppressed the memory of) what it was like to have the brain of a teenager, where ‘86 billion neurons connect and collide’. With so much happening in the teenage brain, it is little wonder that the ability to act and communicate in a ‘conventional’ manner can elude teenagers, but rather than become frustrated if adults embrace this process they can gain glimpses into the amazing phenomenon that is the inner world of the adolescent – a place that is arguably one of the most creative places to be on this planet.
Teenagers care … they really, deeply, acutely care. They care about the world and (even when we can’t see it) they care about us, the adults around them. To assume that they don’t is to do teenagers a grave disservice, and fail to afford them the respect they deserve for navigating everything that is happening in their environment and their bodies, their emotions, their minds and their brains. What is so beautiful about ‘Brainstorm is that it enables teenagers to give a glimpse into their world and hear their thoughts, their raw love and their wisdom.
The emotion was strong, hence the unleashing of the tears. No parent or educator could fail to be moved by the silent reminders, spelled out in written words on the stage by the two teenagers we watched and heard that reinforced their love for their parents, their need to be alone at times, and their reassurance that they’re going to be okay.
I was speaking at FOBISIA on maximising diversity of thought in leadership teams, and I was part of a panel which explored how women leaders still need to work to change perceptions and secure their seat at the leadership table. My reflection after experiencing ‘Brainstorm’, however, was that in order to solve either or both of these problems, or the other issues raised at the conference, we could all do a whole lot worse than listen to the insights of the world’s adolescents.
They – and all of us – deserve their input.