The third episode of the “Strength from Crisis – The Psychology of Reopening” series evaluates the experience of an extraordinary school year including several closings and reopenings with the involvement of József Balatoni, also known as “Jocó bácsi”, author and teacher of history, and Orsolya Nemes, generation expert. The video also features Juli Balázs and Lili Törőcsik, this year’s winners of the Novice Finals of Oxford Schools, one of the world’s most prestigious international debating competitions.
“I’m an introvert, so I enjoyed staying at home”, said Juli Balázs who was happy to attend classes in pyjamas right after waking up. But even she was pleased to meet her classmates of whom several students opened a new exercise book upon the reopening in May, just like at the beginning of a new school year. Jocó bácsi had similar experience: “Despite all fears and inconvenience, both teachers and students returned to school with great momentum and enthusiasm. Surprisingly, now even the most reserved students are very active.” In Orsolya Nemes’ environment, digital transition didn’t cause much trouble but she, too, missed personal contact, as “miracle often happens in seemingly idle moments, when you have a cup of coffee with someone or just chat after class; everybody missed these moments a lot”.
József (Jocó bácsi) believes that the crisis has made teachers a lot more sensitive: “Earlier, we didn’t necessarily consider student’s access to ICT devices when we gave homework. Now we are a lot more empathic: we think about who has the device and internet access available, who needs help, who should be asked to visit a classmate to solve a task together and who to give a different kind of task. This is a welcome development”. Lili Törőcsik, winner of the Oxford debating competition, said that in the longer run, “the coronavirus experience will bind our generation together; it will be an experience we shared”. Nevertheless, you shouldn’t generalize for any generation, as “each generation has many different subgroups, so it makes more sense to consider life situations rather than classify people based on their age”, warned Orsolya Nemes.
“The euphoria of reopening may well conceal the traumas and mental issues you should definitely address in the current situation”, said Hesna Al Ghaoui, fear expert and host of the series. “If you talk about these problems, you’ll be able to face the next such period with more confidence and process the events of the past year more easily”, said Judit Endrei-Kiss, Chief HR Officer of Telenor, co-host of the “Strength from Crisis” series.
According to József Balatoni, teachers have undergone major progress : “We have acquired lots of digital competencies and the skills to use many new and useful digital platforms, and colleagues have also learnt to overcome their fears. These results should be preserved, we shouldn’t continue where we stopped before the closing one year ago”, he warned. Orsolya Nemes said it is useful that the coronavirus has obviously brought about “real transformation”. This is a shared experience which means that no explanation is needed about “the beginning of a new era” as with broadband internet or the emergence of smartphones where the transformation was more gradual.
“I think it is very important to break taboos and teachers should be free to feel bad and parents should also be free to feel bad (...) and you shouldn’t generalize about generations”, concluded the discussion Hesna.
For the third episode of the series please click here: https://youtu.be/_BnQ6Ij3YdA
About the series:
The coronavirus pandemic and the associated restrictions have turned people’s lives upside down generating lots of stress, fear and anxiety. But reopening, getting back to normal (or new normal) also brings about at least as much emotional pressure, dilemma and inherent conflict. In the video series supported by Telenor, Hesna Al Ghaoui and Judit Endrei-Kiss want to give people ammunition, inspiration for that and present exemplary human, community and workplace stories while chatting with their guests.
In the six episodes, guests will share their thoughts related to the given episode of the “Strength from Crisis” series. Guests include Károly Gerendai, ByeAlex, Anikó Baji, Réka Lukoviczki “Robotgirl”, Dr. Márta Fülöp, Zoltán Gazsi, József Balatoni “Jocó bácsi”, Norbert Michelisz and several other well-known experts and public figures. The “Strength from Crisis – The Psychology of Reopening” video series is supported by HR Fest as a professional partner.
In the first episode of the series, the theme of grief, letting go and restart was discussed by Health Communication Expert Anikó Baji who has been working in the frontline, at the emergency triage unit of Uzsoki hospital since the beginning of the pandemic, Réka Lukoviczki Réka “Robotgirl”, blogger, inspirational speaker and model and Diána Hajdu-Kis, organisational development coach and grief counsellor.
The second episode featured performer and songwriter ByeAlex and businessman Károly Gerendai as representatives of industries most affected by the crisis.