This content was created by The Scary Guy. This content was uploaded by The Scary Guy. This is a YouTube podcast titled "The Scary Guy Podcast With Mr. Matt Giggs" (posted 2021-08-17) presented as an interview-style conversation featuring Matt Giggs and multiple hosts/interviewers (labelled SPEAKER A, B, D). The discussion focuses on applying positivity and personal-development work in schools — referencing Sir Ken Robinson's 'Schools Kill Creativity' talk and a study about a sharp decline in self-belief between ages 5 and 18 — and argues for teaching self-worth, resilience, and related skills in school curricula.
He's looking good.
It's the product.
Look good. You know, they got that men's fashion magazine out there. We should get him placed in there.
What?
I'm just being positive.
You're very—
I'm enjoying the experience. I need this validation right now.
Yeah, all positive validation for him. No, let's get back to the young people, right? Okay.
Yes. So yes.
I've had many conversations with you in the past and we've often talked about schools and I think our views very much match. Yeah. We've worked in schools for so many years putting the values into, you know, helping the students see their self-worth, the positivity, the, you know, the growth mindset as it's now called, which we wouldn't have called it back then, but helping them to understand that they are in control of their own thoughts, their own breath. They can be the person that the the best person that they can be. Okay, whatever, whatever it is. And I know that that is a passion of yours, is to go into schools and help the students believe that they can be the best person that they can be. When did you realize that that was where you needed to take your positivity rather than maintain it in the corporate world?
Do you know, I think just from my own experience of, of realizing who I am, and there's a few moments actually. I think one of the moments was, um, Have you ever watched that video by Sir Ken Robinson, um, Schools Kill Creativity?
Yeah, big time.
What a— what, 20 minutes? That is, um, not only is he funny, but he hits the nail on the head with a few stories. It's really accurate. So that was all— that was a— and then somebody shared with me probably 7 or 8 years ago a story of a study that they'd done with 100, um, kids who were at the age of 5, and they measured their self-belief, self-worth, and so on and so forth. Certain metrics that we used, and that like 95% of them had high levels of self-belief, self-worth at the age of 5. They got the same kids at the age of 18, measured the same 100 kids with the same metrics, and it literally switched itself around from 95% to 5%. And believe, you know, 5%. So 95% of them don't believe in themselves. Now I can only say from going into schools and doing some of the stuff that I do with, um, the students at sort of 13, 14, 15, you get a sense that they are lost and they aren't sure what their strengths are. They're not really that clear about the fact that it's— it is a lot of pressure on grades, for argument's sake, and there's a lot of expectation around if you don't achieve those grades, your life isn't going to be that great at the end of it. Now, I certainly don't believe that. I think for me, that's— then why is, why is personal development or self-worth, self-love, whatever you want to call it, self-awareness, that should be the number one subject taught in every school up and down the country? That should be about bringing in people, bringing in situations, teaching resilience, all the things that we need to be learning, preparing ourselves for adulthood. You know, why do we have to unlearn what we've learned after 18?
