Three Dimensions of Learning

Chapter Eighteen

The Big Ideas

The big point is that with the miracle of conception in the womb, a whole child, complete with a spirit, mind, body and emotions is developing. This development is purposeful, simultaneous, chronological and interconnected. Just weeks after conception, the child is beginning to respond to and make sense of his environment. The needs of the child have to be met by the mother or care giver in order for the child to grow and develop the way it should to be prepared for life outside of the womb. The physical state of the child, which includes movement, sensory stimulation, emotional connections and over-all good health, command attention during the first dimension of learning. The blueprint is there, we just have to follow it in order to complete the construction of the whole child.

When the child enters school, it can be a rude awakening, just like leaving the womb and entering the outside world. The child has to adjust and learn how to make sense of his new environment. He has to learn how to communicate with teachers as well as peers. In addition to all these new responsibilities, he has to learn new things like reading, writing and arithmetic, just to name a few. Experiencing the first days of school can be traumatizing for some children. Learning can be hijacked by emotions. Parents and teachers need to be aware of this so that the child can be given the support and nurturing that he needs. During this period of learning and development, the emotional control strategies and the attitude of resiliency that he learned in the home, take on a new meaning. Becoming a truly social being takes lots of time and effort. Some never accomplish that task. Just saying.

The whole child enters the third dimension of learning with unique characteristics, cognitively, physically, and emotionally. He comes with a learning style and at least one dominant intelligence that have to be detected correctly. He uses his senses for making meaning out of the environment. If any of these senses are impacted by the slightest dysfunction, learning for him becomes more difficult, especially if not detected by the teacher early on.

All teachers should be taught that certain conditions exist that are capable of destroying children’s chances of reaching their full academic potential. The average child that suffers from one of these conditions too often has to make the best of the situation in which he finds himself. He doesn’t know that he’s being affected by vision dysfunction or Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Syndrome; he only feels that something is wrong with him, and slowly, but surely he becomes defeated and loses all self confidence. Most unfortunately, the teacher doesn’t know either, so she will never be able to reach or understand that whole child.

Teachers have to be informed to recognize the symptoms, and given the tools to make appropriate accommodations in the classroom. After all, exercises designed to help children with deficits, accomplish that goal, while at the same time, making children that don’t have them stronger. Teachers, I know that you are saying to yourself, “Please, get real, with all the stuff we have to do now, that’s Impossible!” Well, you would be surprised at how easy it is to include activities in the classroom that support and address the needs of children with hidden disabilities. Every teacher should be required to take at least a one semester class of Occupational Therapy, so that they can become familiar with the many developmental issues that affect so many of our students. These hidden conditions affect the child physically, mentally, emotionally and socially.

Following the blueprint of brain development can help with organizing and prioritizing activities. Just as the area of emotions is in the center of the brain, emotional engagement should be at the core of classroom activities. Curricular, development which is informed by the knowledge that children learn better when they are having fun, is especially beneficial to children with disabilities, hidden or not.

We must find a way to influence educators as well as politicians, for they must begin to acknowledge and appreciate the findings that science has to offer, as well as the interconnectedness of the mind, body, and spirit, and the mental, physical, and emotional states of the child. They need to embrace the rationale for teaching to those individual parts as one entity, the whole child. They need to acknowledge that testing just one or two intelligences and using those results to determine a child’s life-long identity is neither fair nor acceptable. Once that begins to take place on a wide scale, parents, teachers and administrators, also known as the Silent Majority, have to speak as one voice. This voice has to be loud enough to reach the ears, minds and hearts of the politicians that regulate our school programs from afar.

Wake up educators and politicians! We are all in this together; “This” refers to the life of a world society which includes children, adults, the transgendered, men, women, girls, boys, all religions and ethnicities. When we are not informed about the dimensions of the whole child, clueless as to some of the conditions negatively affecting the academic and social growth of the child, then we are unequipped to teach in a way that can ensure every child’s optimal success.

When the voice of our society’s Silent Majority can bring about the emotional engagement of our law makers, we will see change and our schools will finally do a much better job with fulfilling their obligation to our future. We have a blueprint; now let’s follow it to make sure that the construction of the whole child is JUST WHAT IT NEEDS TO BE.

LET’S DO THIS!