WOW, I can't believe it's been 5 months since I posted! I have been busy working on connecting with personally with families, planning new programs and classes and also studying for the final tests I need before getting licensed as a professional counselor. Even though I've worked for 3 years as a counselor in New Jersey, it's been quite a process to complete the path towards licensure in California. I will be glad to be able to offer this extra piece to children, teens and families in the community. I'll be posting more about this soon (hopefully before another 5 months passes!), but I believe that there can be similar issues in the field of counseling in that the traditional methods don't often meet the unique needs of individuals. In both education and psychology, when theory and methods override authentic listening to the specific learning styles, needs, interests and values of the people you aim to help, the opportunity for positive growth is greatly diminished.
So, why mandala? I've written about this in different ways on my website- in my opening letter and you can see how my core principles, learning domains and services all aim to provide something that I've found is often missing in the schools. Yet, I wanted to write about this as a blog post, because the more I meet with parents, I hear story after story that reminds me just why I was motivated to create alternatives to learning. I've chosen to focus my work on meeting the needs of children who are usually neglected in public schools and traditional school classrooms.
Since schools are required to meet specified standards and prepare students for standardized testing, any student who doesn't fall exactly on the mean will inevitably not have their needs met. This includes any child who has special learning needs, either because of cognitive impairments, social or behavioral difficulties and/or are gifted learners. Even as a soon-to-be clinician who may diagnose particular disorders, I am reluctant to use the labels of ADHD, Autism, etc. I completely acknowledge that these are real issues and have experience and knowledge in teaching these special learners, but in giving labels to people, there is always the danger to focus only on the specific criteria and to miss the unique characteristics and gifts of the individual.
As a note: The term 'gifted' can also raise issue for people, as it can be viewed as elitist. The way I view it is as an adjective to describe learners who are able to integrate knowledge more quickly and easily than their same-age peers and typically have certain needs because of the difference in the rate of their cognitive development as compared with their social-emotional development. Here's a link to one of my favorite and enlightening articles I've read about the characteristics and needs of gifted learners. I hope it will provide insight for you as well...
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/social_development_gifted.html
While children who are clearly not average are most noticeably in danger of not having their needs met in school, anyone who learns "outside the box" falls into this category as well. If you don't learn well through reading or writing and aren't strong in the types of learning needed to excel at standardized tests, you may also have trouble. I don't mean this to be suggesting that all schools are negative places to be, because there are many dedicated teachers who are working to teach to a variety of learning styles. However, they are still often confined by school policies, lack of resources and pressure to uphold certain standards for fear of losing their jobs.
One of the reasons I've gravitated towards working with these families is precisely because of the freedom from these restrictions. Whenever I worked in a public school setting, or attempted to tutor academic subjects in a traditional way, I felt confined by the "rules" and "standards" and that I wasn't able to act purely in the best interest of the students. Ethically, I felt I was no longer able to participate in working solely to carry out state standards. I knew from experience that there were more holistic ways to approach teaching and learning and that it is possible to learn core subjects and attend to individual needs at the same time.
Another reason I developed mandala's learning approach is to help bring as much validity to other types of learning domains as have historically only been given to academic subjects. For example, I believe it is as important to facilitate social and emotional development as it is to teach math and writing. In using a public school framework, things like communication skills, leadership development and service learning are typically given time and attention once all of the core academics are mastered. Many times, this only leaves time for the identified gifted students to focus on these areas. And, now that the budget for gifted and talented programs has been cut by over %50, even these learners aren't receiving specialized services.
There are many consequences to this approach. For one, it sends the message to children that there are certain kinds of learning that is important and certain kinds that aren't. I wonder if the epidemic problem of bullying would be so pervasive if social and emotional intelligence, self-awareness and service were given as much weight as academics in the schools.
Well, I think I've gone on long enough for this post. More to come!
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