What is an education that develops the person?
When people ask for educational outcomes
they feel are really important—such as team-building, relationship building,
conflict resolution, concern for others—these are not just skills but are
essential qualities of the person. Clearly, we cannot get to them without
focusing on the development of the person. Our first step in doing this is
recognizing the fundamental dignity of the individual.
What do we mean by an education based on the fundamental
dignity of the individual? An education that acknowledges the person. Many
people talk about this, but the question for us is, how to make this a
practical reality? How can we actually make this happen as a central part of
education?
What can a teacher actually do to create
an education that acknowledges the person? There are some simple actions we can
take to do this. A teacher can make eye contact with a child. Look them in the eye, see them, focus on what
they are saying and show enthusiasm. Make them feel that what they are saying
is important to hear. Pull ourselves out of our own world and enter theirs.
It’s also about acknowledging that
individual child’s ideas. Listening. Giving full attention to the child.
Understanding that individual’s way of expressing his or her own thoughts and
feelings. What the child says matters. He or she has a right to be heard.
Every interaction with a child matters and
is an opportunity for acknowledging his or her fundamental dignity as a human
being. When we treat children like this,
this is how they learn to treat others and how they learn to regard themselves.
Why is the development of the person so
important in education? Because we all want outcomes from education, but those
outcomes have to start somewhere, fasten on to the core essence of an
individual. There has to be a developed person at the end of the educational
process who can problem-solve or analyze or do the critical thinking.
As the KPM Network for Education,
we are interested in how practically to achieve an education based on the development
of the person, and how to make a learning environment to support that kind of
education.
On this website, we focus on outcomes and practically how to achieve
them, but everything points back to this basic aim of education as the development
of the person.
