SEEING THE WHOLE CHILD

By Krista Gurova

Each Child is Born a Person

“Each child is a separate human who is to be seen as they are now, not treated as someone needed to be shaped into the person, we believe they should be.” - Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

This a great way to understand Charlotte Mason’s principle of each ‘child is born a person’, they are individuals. They should be treated as individuals not as a one size fits all as well as not trying to push our way of thinking or processing on to them, but to help them learn at their own pace. One aspect of this type education, according to Charlotte Mason, is setting priorities for what is best for the child, the freedom to learn and to progress on their own timeline. The goal is still to learn skills.

Each Child as a Whole

Charlotte Mason’s view of the child as a whole person and education, is that we are not just teaching them reading, writing, math, etc, but that we are educating their whole self: body, mind, spirit, soul, will and emotions. Education is not about how many facts a child can recite. They are capable of so much more. And its about education their whole self. If we just focus on the mind and teaching logic skills, we may lose them in their emotional or spiritual growth, for example. Educating the child as a whole is more about who the child is becoming, their character. “We must keep in mind that the child is much more than a brain (Sonya Shafer)!”

We must remember, too, that children are more valuable than the speed at which they can recite an answer or solve a problem (S.S.). We all have different ways of processing and different strengths. The same is true for children. Charlotte emphasized the importance of keeping a broad view of the child as a whole person and not just the mind or the brain.

Taking these two ideas from Charlotte Mason’s principle of ‘seeing the whole child’ and adding them to how we teach, and even view children, will help us in many areas whether its parenting, teaching in the classroom or interacting with neighbor kids. Keeping in mind that children are more than just brains, we can be more gracious when they don’t understand new concepts right away or when they act out. With this perspective, we can zoom out and see the situation from a broader view and then make the right decision for the next step in helping the child succeed.

In conclusion, seeing the child as a whole person, as an individual and not just a brain will help us in all areas of educating them. We can better help them in learning “brain” skills by helping them learn and grow in the other aspects of personhood. And remembering that our goal is the importance of the child’s character and who they are becoming rather than the amount of math they can do from memory or the poetry they can recite. Children are whole human beings with a soul, mind, emotions, body, will, and spirit.

This is what I love about Wisdom Academy, we use these principles in our classroom. We have the privilege of having smaller classes so we can help children at their individual levels and help them grow in all aspects of life in addition to knowledge skills.