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Reflections on Educating the Whole Child

Working Theory of Instruction: A Boarding School Model

When I wrote my working theory of instruction for my Educational Psychology course in the fall of 2000, I had spent the past semester student teaching at Westtown Upper School in Westtown, PA. While at Westtown, which is a private, Quaker boarding school, I was not only a biology classroom teacher, but a dorm parent, coach and student activity advisor. By living on campus with the students and working with them in so many different capacities, I found that my educational role extended far beyond the classroom. For these students, school was not simply an academic institution, but a place in which they were learning how to grow up.

Therefore, as I developed my working theory of instruction, I focused on three levels at which students in school are taught to develop into aware, responsible and active individuals. There were:

• Self: Students must be taught to develop senses of self-identity, self-awareness and relation of self to others.
  Examples:
  
  • Experiencing challenges and successes in a variety of forums (ie. academics, sports, dorm living, relationships, the arts etc).
    
  • Having the freedom within a safe structure to "try on" new and different identities.
    
  • Resolving conflicts in a constructive manner.
    
  • Respecting others’ space and needs.
    
• School Community: Students must be taught that they have the responsibility to be active and thoughtful members of their immediate community.
  Examples:
  
  • Taking responsibility for the maintenance and up-keep of the school.
    
  • Assuming leadership roles within the school community.
    
  • Being actively involved in decision-making processes within the school community.
    
• World Community: Students must be taught that they have the responsibility to be educated and active members of larger communities outside of the school
  Examples:
  
  • Participating in off-campus service projects.
    
  • Using student clubs to learn about and become active in larger, world issues (i.e. environmental club, amnesty international, gay rights etc).
    
  • Attending presentations by speakers on world issues.
    

Application of the Model to a Day School

Friends Select, like Westtown, is a private, K-12, Quaker School. However, unlike Westtown, Friends Select is a day school. The first day at Friends Select, I could feel the effect this difference had on the school community. The students were comfortable and friendly with each other and their teachers, but the closeness and familiarity that arises from living together was absent. The school’s philosophy still stressed the education of the whole child, but I realized that this could not be happening in the same way as at Westtown since the students’ and teachers’ lives were intersecting at many fewer points. As a teacher, my primary and often only interaction with my students was in the academic classroom. While working in the upper school, I often met with students outside of class, but usually only to discuss classwork. I felt that I knew a lot about my students as learners within my classroom, but very little about them as whole individuals.

While working in the middle school, this perception changed. As a full-time classroom teacher, advisor and service-group leader, I found that I grew to know more about my students than simply how they were in my classroom. I found most middle school students to be more brash and open about themselves, their ideas and their concerns than the upper school students. The processes of developing senses of self and place in communities were more outwardly messy in the middle school than in the upper school. The middle school students’ struggles were often more clear and open and, therefore, I was called upon more often to intercede and take an active mentoring and educational role.
The following are examples of specific ways in which, at Friends Select, I played an educational role at three levels outlined above in my working theory of instruction.

• Self
  
  • Designed lessons that challenged students assumptions and perceptions about themselves, their classmates and their environment.
    
  • Designed lessons that allowed students to demonstrate different strengths (computers, drawing, writing, observation, questioning etc.)
    
  • Often utilized a group or partner work format in which students learned to work with and relate to those different from themselves.
    
  • Strove to resolve conflicts between students in an open, firm way that promoted awareness of self and others.
    
  • Guided students through a long-term Search project, in which they were asked to reflect on their understanding of themselves as learners and researchers.
    
• School Community
  
  • Demanded students respect and care for classroom space by keeping it clean and returning it to the way they found it at the end of every class.
    
  • Guided a weekly environmental service group that performed plant and animal care and recycling, creating a sense of student ownership for the school.
    
• World Communities
  
  • Promoted critical thinking, clear expression of student opinion and ideas and respect for other’s opinions and ideas.
    
  • Designed lessons and labs that demonstrated the implications of scientific discoveries on society and culture.
    
  • Through a long-term project on environmental issues in Philadelphia, promoted student awareness of an important issue, the opinions and knowledge of people outside the school community and the importance of using scientific knowledge for action.