Getting the balance right

Ms Joyce Callus
Malta

I beg to start my presentation by asking a question related to this title: ‘What sort of balance do we have in mind?’

I am going to focus on the balance between academic achievement and the sound psychological development of our students or what we have been referring to, for some time now, as holistic development.

Schools and curricula aim to give students what those who set policies think is right for today’s youth. A lot of academic energy goes into this work, and rightly so. The top-down approach might offer ideas and strategies to the educators but is it always in touch with the reality of the classroom and our students’ needs in the ‘real’ world?

During one of my recent visits to a school, I was discussing effective communication, and its relation to conflict resolution, with a class of 15-year-old young ladies. At the end of the session, one young lady expressed her apprehension, saying that at school they learn a lot of things but not what they really need to get along every day when they go ‘out there’. This might be the view of many other students.

I believe that today’s schools and curricula should increase their focus on the development of mature, independent, thinkers who are trained to cooperate with, and contribute to, the kind of society they live in. Students enjoying a high level of self-esteem are more likely to be responsible and accountable citizens. Since self-esteem starts developing in children as young as two years of age, schools play an important role in this.

How do we get around to tackling such a tall order of skills development and attitude orientation? Dr R. Dreikurs said that we need to stop teaching subjects and start teaching students. When it comes to passing on knowledge and updates, I believe that the internet, wherever it is available, is doing a good job. All students need is to master ICT skills, and learning how to learn. I believe that most schools are fulfilling this need. The ICT revolution is here to stay and the more use we make of it in schools, the better off our students will be. But on the other hand, the computer deprives the user of direct human contact and interaction. Exclusive computer-based learning might foster personal isolation, and presents a different reality to the concept that we are social beings and flourish better when we work in groups.

When our students leave school, they have to face, what A. Adler called ‘the major tasks of life’. That is, the challenges of paid work, social relationships, intimate relationships and spirituality. Beyond the shelter, order, and dependency found in schools, these tasks take a different perspective.

Being able to cooperate and manage conflict at the place of work require the training and acquisition of intrapersonal skills. Having emotional intelligence gives one the ability to turn negative emotions into positive energy. After all, we are masters not victims of our emotions and how we feel is up to us. Helping students work upon, and develop, these intrapersonal and interpersonal skills would be an asset when it comes to solving intimate and social conflicts.

This is a tall order for educators’ training. It also means developing a different perspective of the educator’s role in the life of a student. When training still gives more emphasis to the traditional subject certification approach than the psychological development of the student, I see this as creating an imbalance. A system that still points out failures, instead of strengths, might create deficient development when it comes to self-esteem and self-confidence. Believing in one’s self is crucial when it comes to motivation and the desire that drives one forward.

If early childhood inferiority feelings, due to the smallness and weakness of very young children, are turned into an inferiority complex, learned helplessness sets in. But feelings of early childhood inferiority can be the stepping stone to learning, instead of the stumbling blocks to personal development. Nurture plays a very important role here, but stronger than nurture is the child’s own apperceptions of the environment. Apperception is the individual perception of events, their interpretation and the conclusions a child comes to. These apperceptions create a cognitive self-image, which very often is faulty because of the tender age of the child. Apperceptions also help shape the road map for personal navigation in life.

Educators need to become aware of the child’s thinking and feelings in order to be able to redirect faulty conclusions. Influencing faulty thinking is the essential role of the educator, rather then focusing on behaviour and trying to change it with punishments or conditional rewards. Only an intrinsic change in thoughts can result in a real change in behaviour. This, again, requires particular training for teachers.

The sound psychological development of a human being rests on three important corner stones. A student needs to think and feel she is accepted, respected and significant in a group. Such a student feels encouraged and ready to collaborate with, and contribute towards, the goals of the group. It follows that the reverse is possible when these positive thoughts and feelings are absent. The empowerment of teachers based on these lines enables educators to better understand, and offer effective guidance to, their students.

In a world that is becoming one global village because of today’s technology, human relationships based on understanding and cooperation are the peaceful way forward.

It has been said that societies get what they deserve. Perhaps the other side of the coin is that societies grow in schools and reap what they sow.

Another point I believe is relevant to all this is the support and education offered by schools to parents. By this I mean offering parents’ programmes in parenting skills that are in line with the teachers’ training in understanding children. Parenting could be the most difficult job in the world but such a commitment receives little or no professional training. Is it such a wonder that young people might feel insecure and bewildered when the adults around them demonstrate these qualms?

What changes might help schools move more towards the holistic development of each student?

I believe that competition between students defeats its aims. Competition might bring out the best in products but it brings out the worst in people. Such competition serves no purpose since we believe that each student is unique in his or her stages and rate of development. Students need to be more strongly encouraged to see learning as a gift they owe to themselves. Learning is their own personal responsibility. Educators only facilitate learning. This also implies that students should be involved more in decisions and school policy formation, especially in matters that concern them. Age-appropriate participation should be encouraged and respected. This is the age when children should be both seen and heard.

Personal challenges, identified by educators on a one-to-one basis, help students move from a minus to a plus position, and generate motivation without hurting the student. Breaking down tasks to offer opportunities of success to every child enhances self-esteem and self-confidence.

Another relevant point is moving more towards deeper, instead of surface, learning that has a long-term impact.

All this has to start at the very early stages of formal schooling. The importance of the formative years of early primary cannot be over-stressed. Early childhood education lays the foundations to the answers of ‘who I am’, ‘what others are’, and ‘what the world is’. Very often, we carry our childhood all our lives.

Some of these suggestions may be already common to some schools or can be easily implemented. Others need long-term planning and implementation. My experience of the effect of enhanced teacher-student relationships, based on mutual respect and encouragement, are positive and long lasting.

As Pestolazzi wrote more than 200 years ago: ‘Learning is not worth a penny if courage and joy are lost on the way’.