Preparing kids for life

By Chris Arnot

THE moment when Dr Peter Clough realised there’s more to performance than ability came on a bleak rugby league field. He was playing for Bradford University in northern England, and found himself up against a large and fearsome-looking winger who calmly announced that he was going to kill him.

“I believed him because, although I had fast hands for rugby, I lacked confidence,” admits the stocky figure who is now head of psychology at the University of Hull.

We’re on our way from Hull station to a nearby coffee bar. Clough is walking with a jauntiness that suggests confidence is no longer an issue. The painful lessons he learned on the sports field are what he’s now trying to pass on to those who find themselves in the less bruising but equally intimidating environment of the examination hall.

“Life’s tough; deal with it,” is his motto. Or, to put it another way, those who can train themselves to work well under pressure are more likely to do well in exams than intelligent students who are not good at coping with stress.

The term “mental toughness” is more associated with the world of professional sport than education. Indeed, I find myself inquiring whether this Clough is by any chance related to Brian, who knew a thing or two about psychology when it came to preparing footballers for the fray. He grins and shakes his head before conceding: “We would have had similar views, me and Brian.”

And that would appear to go for politics as well as psychology: Clough describes himself as “left of centre”, something of a surprise from a man who seems determined to challenge some liberal orthodoxies.

“I don’t buy into the theory that today’s schoolchildren are more stressed than previous generations,” he says.

Nor does he believe that there’s too much testing. “I’m a great believer in tests. It’s how the results are used that’s the problem. There’s an obsession with league tables [in the UK]. But I don’t think there’s anything fundamentally wrong with expecting children to sit down and answer questions about what they’re supposed to have learned.”

Clough is 48. There must have been fewer formal tests when he was at school in the 60s and 70s? “The same level of formalised teaching wasn’t there,” he agrees. “But I remember having to read out homework in front of the rest of the class while the teacher rubbished it.”

Clough insists: “What I’m not advocating is bullying or harassment. And I do accept that some people need help and intervention to boost their self-esteem. Children who are screwed up clinically and have behavioural issues are outside my area of expertise.”

As a chartered sports and occupational psychologist, however, Clough believes that he’s well placed to offer advice to those who underperform simply because they lack confidence.

He accepts that some secondary school teachers “doing one of the most stressful jobs there is” might be a bit suspicious of “academics like me coming in and telling them how to do their job”. Still, at least five schools in the north of England have allowed researchers from his department to talk to children about dealing with pressure.

Clough was brought up in a working-class area of Leeds; his father was a postman. He has little sympathy with those who blame their background for their lack of success.

“If they’ve had abusive parents, that’s different,” he says. But poverty is not a sufficient excuse. If you’re from a poor background, there will be fewer opportunities, but people have to take responsibility for their lives. There’s always a moment in life when the door of opportunity opens slightly. My job is to train people to put their foot in it.”

Paradoxically, perhaps, he also believes that children have to be allowed to fail if they are ultimately going to succeed. “Most people learn from their mistakes and bounce back, vowing not to make the same errors again,” he says. “In my view, there are too many safety nets in schools, such as the option to re-sit exams. It means that young people are less tough than previous generations, and less able to cope with life at university.”— courtesy The Guardian, London and Dawn, Karachi