Control what you can control
In crises from lockdown to civil unrest to exams, the owners keep telling children to separate what they can control from what they can't and to act on the former. Gershom later calls control the cure to anxiety, which a sleep expert qualifies.
How it developed: Crisis coping advice in 2020-21 becomes by 2025 a general claim about anxiety, which a guest expert qualifies with sleep as the exception.
The thread's title and description are AI-written, drawn from the episodes below. The quotations are verbatim from the episode audio, each linked to the moment it was said.
What was said
“The departure point on this is always to understand what we can do nothing about. And the reality of the situation is that we can do nothing about the virus other than stay at home, and all of us are already doing that.”
“Avoid worrying unnecessarily about matters that are not in your control, and dedicate your energy to what you can control and manage, so that by the time November comes, you are ready to face the examinations head-on with confidence.”
“These are the things we can control, and so we do control.”
“the cure to anxiety is control.”
“And the really tricky thing about sleep is you can't control it at all. It's an incredibly passive activity.”
Episodes in this thread
- Covid-19 Pupil and Teacher Feedback 6 April 2020
- Matrics! (and Parents of Matrics) Pay close attention please 8 June 2020
- Exams 2021 Term 2 - how to prepare 6 July 2020
- Extended schooling from home 2 July 2021
- Control what you can 14 July 2021
- Sleep and ADHD: The link you cannot ignore 14 April 2025