The Whole Child

I understand that it is the standard to measure student academic achievements by using standardized testing however I totally disagree with these tests because we are trying to educate student to math, reading, English but what about equipping them with an emotional education one that would dramatically improve the quality of their lives.  It is imperative that we teach children emotional intelligence we are teaching them how to recognize their feelings and to learn how to deal with their feelings. 

 

 I believe that the whole child approach or holistic commitment should be to focus on the following:

 In Colombia students at the age of 15 years they take an assessment called (PISA) it assesses the extent to which 15-year-olds students near the end of compulsory education have acquired key knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in modern societies. The assessment does not just ascertain whether students can reproduce knowledge; it also examines how well students can extrapolate from what they have learned and apply that knowledge in unfamiliar settings, both in and outside of school. This approach reflects the fact that modern economies reward individuals not for what they know, but for what they can do with what they know. PISA offers insights for education policy and practice, and helps monitor trends in students’ acquisition of knowledge and skills across countries and in different demographic subgroups within each country. The findings allow policy makers around the world to gauge the knowledge and skills of students in their own countries in comparison with those in other countries, set policy targets against measurable goals achieved by other education systems, and learn from policies and practices applied elsewhere.

https://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA-2015-Colombia.pdf

  

       I use TED Talks videos in my class at the junior college and I wanted to share this one in particular that talks about the ‘Whole Child’ and what it means for us to use a holistic learning and teaching practices that will create a higher level of social justice and well-being by uncovering emotional, social, academic, and spiritual/metaphysical potentialities in our children.