Educating the Whole Child… Not a new idea, but an idea we ought to remember every day

I’m going back to school, to school. I’m going back to school.

For those of you who can identify the LL Cool J song, kudos! I’m sitting here at our first school site, and am struck by a number of things. First of all, it’s the same classroom I took my classes in when I was in elementary school. OK, so it’s not that same school, but it’s got that feel. The 12 inch asbestos tiles on the floor, the chalkboard with the lines on it, the student art work, and the old built-in closets with the paper on the front… it reminds my of my own elementary school. The difference is that my elementary school has been renovated. And there were a lot more books.

The drive into School A (I am calling it that to respect their privacy) was pretty standard for rush hour traffic. I rode in with a colleague and we had the chance to talk about what we saw. We passed a number of other schools, including a few where some of my former students teach. And when we got to the school itself, I was reminded about how strong many of our assumptions can be about urban schools. The school is in a residential neighborhood, on tree-lined streets with some beautiful old houses and gardens. No burnt-out buildings, no stray dogs, no rats, just people going about their day. One older man was out gardening and watering his lawn. He was talking to his neighbor, just like they do in my neighborhood.

What is striking about this visit is not just the pride the teachers have. It’s the pride of the students. We were greeted at the door by a number of young people, all of whom were dressed in blazers. Sitting here now, it’s also very interesting to see what the school focuses on. Their focus is on “educating the whole child.” This in and of itself, is not anything new for me. Most of my own teacher training has referred to the idea that you need to see the whol child in order to teach the whole child. There’s a great Educational Leadership special volume from May 2007 that devotes the entire issue to the ideas of educating the whole child. For those of you with the special MSU access, you can go here. For the rest of you, you get to see the sales pitch from EL here.

One of my favorite bloggers, Teacherken, talks about the importance of teaching to the whole child and references the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), which is the publisher of Educational Leadership. However, he also talks about another publication of ASCD, entitled The Learning Compact Redefined: A Call to Action. It’s a short read, about 36 pages, and I think worth our while. You can read it here (it’s a PDF), and also look at Teacherken’s blog here. As a matter of fact, all of the Education Policy Blog is pretty interesting.

Back to topic at hand. What does it mean to educate the whole child? Who defines what makes up the whole child? What becomes the most important part? It was clear to me during both school visits that the teachers in both schools not only saw the whole child (or adolescent) in every one of their students, they also valued the young person for who she or he was, what she or he brought to the table, and never gave up hope that that child could and would be successful. That’s incredibly powerful in my mind.

What made it particularly interesting to me is how those teachers balanced difference. Many of the teachers were from the community or had a number of years of experience within the community. But that didn’t mean that they shared the experiences of their students. In truth, there are certain things about which they cannot relate. Let’s face it. If you’ve never been homeless, you can’t say that you know what it’s like. But that doesn’t mean that you can be understanding, kind, and fair.

You can also see the community as an ally and a resource, not as an obstacle. One of my good friends and colleagues, Terrie Epstein, does research on how black and white students internalize and come to understand dominant historical narratives. She found, for the most part, that black students tended to rely upon the historical narratives they learned in their home communities rather than those they learned in school. In contrast, white students frequently mirrored the narratives supported by the school. What is going on here? Well, too often, the historical narrative, particularly that in of US History marginalizes the black community because it not only ignores the lived experiences of blacks; it too frequently portrays them as helpless victims or deviants who need to be saved from themselves. So, young black men and women often turn to the more activist narratives of their home communities that counter the hegemonic discourses that exist in many urban classrooms. To toot my own horn, I’ve written about it here. And, in some cases, the communities themselves have a richer narrative in terms of corroborating evidence than the local school texts provide. You can read more of Epstein’s work here and here.

The point is that we need to see our students for who we are and not make them into something they are not yet ready to be. And when we have little in common with our students, we cannot expect them walk in the classroom and intuitively know what they rules of our game are going to be. Instead, as teachers, particularly urban teachers, need to adjust to who our students are. This is not to say that we lower our expectations, or do not demand their best. Rather, we start with where they are, who they are, and go from there.