The Whole Child Approach to Education

One red, one yellow, and one blue puzzle piece
each held by a different hand. The background is 
a variety of different color puzzle pieces.

 As the field of education continues to evolve, new and innovative practices are introduced. In 2007 the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, also known as ASCD, launched the Whole Child Initiative. This initiative seeks to expand approaches to education to focus on the long-term success and development of children, rather than short-term academic achievement. There are five tenants to this approach, which prioritize child development by making sure that students are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. The ASCD and other proponents of this approach to education believe that it is important to help students develop important life skills that can be used outside of the classroom, such as confidence, respect, social skills, problem-solving skills, and self-esteem, to name a few. Teaching students valuable skills such as these will help them to become well-rounded, productive members of society after they leave the classroom. This approach to education is also very beneficial to classrooms and schools with diverse populations. The Whole Child Approach to education will highlight the strengths and differences of each student in a way that uplifts every child. This can be beneficial when teaching a variety of students from different cultural backgrounds. Embracing challenging conversations between students and families with cultural and religious differences, as well as viewing differences as assets rather than divisions can make each student in the classroom more well-rounded and respectful individuals. 

I believe that the Whole Child Approach to education can truly change the world, as everything stems from education. This approach to learning will make future generations more well-rounded, open-minded, and adaptable to changes. These are very important traits for people to have in the ever-changing and fast paced world that we live in today. If everyone had the ability to embrace differences and listen to a wide variety of perspectives, the world we live in today could be less volatile. The students that I will have in my classroom will be the next generations of people contributing to and becoming leaders in society. I think that it is very important to acknowledge that these students are also people outside of my classroom, and the whole child approach to education ensures that they will become well-rounded individuals outside of a school setting. I feel that as a student, very few of my teachers embraced an approach to teaching like this one, and it made me feel unappreciated and unheard by my instructors. It felt like they saw me as a set of data or solely a student with no life outside of their classroom. The few teachers that I had that acknowledged my life outside of school, and the parts of me that were not just a student were much more influential to my learning. In my opinion, students learn more effectively when all parts of them are acknowledged and appreciated. This allows for more relationships to be built, which improves students' self-esteem and self-worth, making it easier to overcome academic challenges. I hope to implement the Whole Child Approach to education within my own classroom, as I truly believe it could be a catalyst for ensuring a better future for everyone.

Mental Health Implications for High-Achieving Students

A student is at a table in a library
surrounded by a couple of piles of
books. The student, seemingly frustrated,
lays head down in arms on top of a
pile of books on the table. 

As mental health awareness grows, high achieving students are becoming a huge part of the conversation. These students seem to breeze through school, clubs, and other extra curriculars, but what many don't realize is the true cost of all of that pressure at such a young age. Many families and parents highly prioritize good grades for their children, especially those labeled as "gifted" or "high-achieving." Most parents place pressure on their children to do well in school with the good intentions of wanting a secure future for their children. However, with most of the children in these accelerated programs facing the same pressure to succeed, it creates a very competitive environment within the classroom as well. The combination of pressure from parents and peers, and seeking approval from authority figures makes these children more prone to chronic stress, which then negatively affects students' mental and physical wellbeing. While the effects of chronic stress in gifted students usually do not come to the surface until high school or college, the process starts very early. As many high-achieving elementary school students breeze through academic contests, and are praised for their intellectual abilities, when they face academic challenges and even failures later in their schooling, they tend to come unglued. Stress levels rise as students are not preforming as well and losing that much sought-after validation from teachers and parents, and this causes higher rates of anxiety, depression, and even substance abuse. For these reasons, it is important that these gifted students are identified early, and they receive the proper counseling and education, to ensure that they become healthy adults in terms of mental health.

The conversation about high-achieving students and mental health is very personal to me. As a "gifted"  student myself, I participated in accelerated instruction beginning in elementary school. I remember even being pulled out of classes to attend special classes with other high-achieving peers in my school's "Talented and Gifted Program." We would get to read and discuss advanced literature, complete special assignments and projects, and still spend the majority of our time in our general education classrooms. However, the high stakes and competitive atmosphere of these classes later proved to do more harm than good. In high school, taking almost exclusively honors and AP courses really took a toll on my mental health. Not only was I becoming more and more discouraged as the material in these courses was more challenging, I never had to learn how to struggle or study, and my grades were slipping. This caused an internal battle, as the perfectionist student that I had always been, could no longer exist so effortlessly. I began avoiding most of my school work, because if I didn't do it, I couldn't do it wrong. It was at this point in my life that I realized that I no longer enjoyed learning. My goal as an educator is to reduce the amount of stress that my students are experiencing in the classroom. I hope to make learning fun, and as stress-free as possible for all of my students. My own experiences with mental health as a student make me extremely passionate about mental health in education, and I will always emphasize the importance of this issue within my school and classroom.