Recently I was having a discussion with a colleague who is new to the building. This teacher is confident, self-assured, and has decades of experience more than me. We teach the same children, so we meet frequently for RTI and team meetings. This is the type of teacher that takes pride in being "old school," which roughly translates to a no-nonsense, quiet-equals-learning, behavior-should-have-negative-consequences type of environment. It's the model that many of us grew up with. Although I was able to navigate through this system because I was a so-called "good student," many friends were not particularly successful, with the logical assumption that they were "bad students." This model puts the system itself as the driving force for success, which is disempowering both to educators and to the students alike.
Now, the conversation in question did not go smoothly, especially when I insensitively insisted that the teacher "would not be successful" using this old school approach. Realizing that I was working against my goal, I quickly concluded with a final statement that I paraphrased from a Maya Angelou quote: People don't remember what you say; they remember how you made them feel. It is a statement that I share with staff and students, and for me it is at the foundation of the type of teacher I strive to be. It is also at the core of the safeand supported tenets of the whole child approach.
ASCD's Whole Child Initiative offers a framework that does not consider students to be good or bad, but forces educators to consider students' needs. And what better way to find out than to ask the students themselves? Consider these two examples of how student voice and whole child thinking work together to show improvements on both the classroom and the individual level.
Example 1
In the beginning of this school year, the majority of my 8th grade first period reading class was sitting with their heads down. There are two quick assumptions that a teacher can make: One is that the kids don't care about school; the other is that the teacher and/or content actually is that boring. The old school of thought would assume the first, placing the responsibility of learning on the learner. The second is something that many Putting the Child into Whole Child: Give Students Voice to Improve Your Practice — Whole Child Education:
5-1-14 The Whole Child Blog — The Educator's Essentials — Whole Child Education
The Educator's Essentials — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE CHILD BLOGThe Educator’s EssentialsMay 1, 2014 by Klea ScharbergIn this era of school reform, turnaround, and educational change, it is easy to overlook the basics of why we educate and what we want for our children. Usually when we talk about "getting back to the basics," the conversation is student-focused, if not always stud