Author urges students to build confidence through daily actions

Icelandic author and lecturer Þorgrímur Þráinsson has spent 21 winters visiting schools to encourage students to take responsibility and build confidence, mbl.is reports. More than 100,000 10th-grade students have heard his talks since 2005, in addition to younger pupils.

His lecture, titled “Being in love with life,” encourages young people to do good deeds, look out for younger students and take small, meaningful steps each day. Þráinsson also stresses the importance of sleep and vigorous exercise.

He says students in 10th grade are particularly receptive to encouragement. They are at an in-between stage, he says, neither children nor adults, and are sensitive to what is right and true. Many want to live a great life but need guidance in plain language.

Þráinsson says social media and screen use take up valuable time that young people may not recognise they are losing until later. Spending five to eight hours a day on screens adds up to many months a year, he says. He believes removing screens from schools has changed the atmosphere there, and says screen use can contribute to poor concentration, insecurity and attention difficulties.

He also points to lack of sleep, limited exercise and social isolation, and says some students have little support at home. Parents need to set clear boundaries, he says, adding that children thrive in a disciplined environment.

Þráinsson says he has visited Árbæjarskóli, a school in Reykjavík, on the first day of the school year for many years. Teachers there then give students 50 questions in life skills lessons, designed to encourage self-reflection and responsibility. He says school visits are always interesting and describes teachers as “miracle workers.”

Two new books by Þráinsson are being published. One is the novel Ég kom til að gráta, which he says has been taking shape in his mind for three decades.