Educating the whole child means making sure they develop in every aspect of intelligence and are healthy in both mind and body. As such, it is necessary to apply appropriately different strategies to children of various ages and backgrounds to ensure their development. Furthermore, it is vital to understand how children learn and how to promote positive qualities when teaching them. This paper aims to discuss the meaning of educating the whole child.
Areas of Child Development
There are four primary areas of child development: cognitive, social-emotional, language, and physical. As implied by the name, whole-child education is concerned with all four. Each category is equally important, and an educator should encourage them to grow simultaneously. However, these areas tend to develop at different speeds, and caution is necessary to avoid pressuring the child. Children develop best when they have secure relationships, and so a teacher must strive to establish one with their students.
Cognitive development primarily occurs through the accumulation of knowledge, and so effective methods of imparting information are vital. It is not enough to have the child read a book on a given subject; to retain knowledge, they should discuss the topic and experience it if possible. Furthermore, the children should formulate their ideas about things instead of being taught rigid thought constructs. They should be free to assimilate and accommodate information into their schemas, but it is beneficial to encourage optimal development by keeping them in a state of disequilibrium so that they are more open to new ideas.
A child’s social-emotional development is heavily dependent on their background and environment. An educator must account for the student’s various diversity factors such as capabilities and disabilities, age, gender, race, religion, and others. The goal is to create a productive, positive environment for the child that encourages the development of desirable traits, the foremost of which are autonomy, openness, problem-solving, and integrity. These four qualities are essential to a healthy child and have been declared as the SFAs program goals.
A child develops language by imitating others and holding conversations, particularly on new topics. As such, they should improve the ability naturally while other education is ongoing. The development should not be rushed, as most children learn speech at a fixed rate, but an educator must lookout for possible language or speech disorders. To develop more complex language skills, children should be encouraged to converse on various topics regularly.
Lastly, physical development happens through growth and increased control of motor skills. To properly grow, a child should be supplied with proper nutrition without consuming too many sweets or snacks. Motor skills develop through physical activity, but the more complicated fine motor abilities can also be improved by letting children feed themselves with eating utensils and participate in art projects. Having children play is particularly important, as playing tends to involve physical activity as well as social interaction and learning, promoting development in all four areas.
Developmentally Appropriate Practices
The concept of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) deals with the establishment of an environment where children with many kinds of differences can all learn and enjoy themselves. As such, the idea is not static; the desirable surroundings continuously change depending on the target group of children, demanding a significant amount of flexibility from the teacher. However, while children should feel at ease and enjoy being in the learning environment, not all encouragement practices are appropriate.
Developmentally appropriate practices are based on the knowledge and understanding of children. This knowledge consists of general information on child development and learning, information on each child in the group, and awareness of the social and cultural contexts that influence the students in the group. A teacher’s task is to respond to each child’s needs as comprehensively as possible using this data. The introduction of cultural contexts into the picture is a recent addition compared to the others, but they play a role that is just as important to the child’s development as the others are.
When making the environment enjoyable for the children, it is vital to ensure they create their fun. Kohn (2001) strongly speaks out against praise as a positive reinforcement mechanic, describing it as manipulative, likely to create praise addicts, stealing pleasure, and reducing interest and achievement. In a learning environment, children should find joy in their ability to learn new things and their interactions with other children. The teacher should encourage the process, but keep their visible evaluations to a minimum, even as they study each child’s progress and make decisions on measures to take to improve learning in lacking areas.
Nevertheless, the teacher must closely interact with their students and become someone they like and rely on. While it is next to impossible that an educator will come to like all the children they teach, the students must never see it. Each student must be approached equally and individually at the same time and encouraged to improve himself or herself and become the best he or she can be. As such, the teacher cannot let personal matters such as mood or dissatisfaction get between them and the children they teach.
Implications for My Work
The knowledge I have learned in this course helped me understand that teaching is not only the transferring of information from the teacher to the child. Education, particularly for younger children, encompasses a broad range of objectives and methods and requires intensive study of the children one is going to teach. Educators must actively and closely involve themselves in the process, interacting with the children without becoming an overbearing presence. Furthermore, teaching must be approached as a tightly interconnected system, as every aspect of learning has to be present at the same time.
I have realized that my goal is not just to make sure each child understands the necessary information, but also to create an environment where students will be encouraged to learn that knowledge and apply it to better themselves. As such, I have to understand children as a whole, each child in my care, and the circumstances that may influence them. At the same time, I must not display favoritism or make the children feel that I am judging them.
Conclusion
A teacher’s goal is to ensure that the children develop in all four primary categories. To that end, it is necessary to create an environment that encourages growth and is appropriate for every student in the group. The teacher themselves is a vital part of that environment, as they must become a figure students like yet are not dependent on for approval. The information in this course changed my outlook on the position of a teacher, and I intend to apply this new perception when teaching.
References
Kohn, A. (2001). Five Reasons to Stop Saying “Good Job.” Young Children, 56(5), 24-30.