Education for Becoming
by Charles Debelak
At Birchwood we use the phrase “education for becoming” to summarize our educational aims. Becoming implies growing, thriving and flourishing, and while it certainly includes academic excellence, it is intended to explain the goals of our program. Our goals reach beyond achievement, hoping to affect the way children mature and approach life.
At Birchwood we use the phrase “education for becoming” to summarize our educational aims. Becoming implies growing, thriving and flourishing, and while it certainly includes academic excellence, it is intended to explain the goals of our program. Our goals reach beyond achievement, hoping to affect the way children mature and approach life.
We believe that high-quality education – what we call “education for becoming” – begins with challenging academic standards but uses these standards to address attitudes and habits that will have a long-term influence on a child’s personal and academic growth. Our research and study in this area of growth identifies four needs. First, programming should support each child’s gradual self-actualization. This means education must equip children with the attitudes and habits by which they learn to face the challenges of life with a growth mindset. They learn to say to themselves, “In this environment, what are my challenges? What do I need to do to face them?”
Next, it addresses a child’s need for competency: the need to master their world, to develop their potential, and to simply get good at their responsibilities, whether in reading, math, writing, or other subjects.
Third, it teaches autonomy or self-determination. High-quality education shows children how to think clearly and rationally about their life and the choices they must make. On the one hand, it cultivates self-awareness through which a child is learning to understand himself and what choices he should make to become a better person. Then on the other hand, a curriculum for becoming teaches children how to think about the choices in their life and which choices best fit who they are.
Finally, “education for becoming” includes the interpersonal skills that help a child be a positive and productive contributor to their social groups at home, at school, and in broader community contexts.
Therefore, while offering our students one of the best academic and character development programs in Northeast Ohio, we are simultaneously using these programs to cultivate the habits and attitudes for becoming. In each subject we are teaching children how to set goals, how to construct plans to reach their goals, and how to navigate the arduous process of reaching them. Children learn that achievement requires hard work. It requires self-discipline, time management, organization, and determination. It requires learning from mistakes, rebounding after a failure, and seeking help from others. It requires children to carry on internal conversations where they evaluate their behaviors, ponder changes of conduct, and learn humility and gratitude all while looking for the best pathways for growth.
Despite our efforts, we are not naïve. There are internal and external factors which work against a child’s becoming. It should not surprise us that human beings tend to avoid a pathway of growth because it requires too much effort. It is fraught with struggle, hard work, and even failure. It is so much easier for children to choose the path of least resistance. We should not be surprised when children balk at challenges.
Furthermore, there are external factors which can quench or misdirect a child’s energy for growth. Let’s face it: our children live in a culture that exalts entertainment, temporal pleasures, mediocrity, and materialism. These factors rob our children of their time and energy which could otherwise be invested in growing, thriving, and flourishing. We certainly don’t want to deprive our children of the pleasures and enjoyments possible in our country. But neither do we wish to see our children occupied and swallowed up by amusements which thwart their growth.
This article was written by Birchwood’s Head of School Charles Debelak to provide parents with information about sound educational principles and child development issues gleaned from history, contemporary research, and his 50+ years of educating, coaching, and counseling children, young adults, and parents.
