Wellbeing is currently a popular buzzword in education, and for good reasons. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) has called student wellbeing “crucial to academic achievement”.
Depending on budget and demographic factors, most Australian schools now have specific programs or even whole departments dedicated to student wellbeing. Many devote resources to events such as RUOK and Mental Health Weeks. Virtually all employ two distinct but connected organisational structures dedicated to their students’ academic development and to their pastoral care. Maintaining these student wellbeing apparatuses requires a substantial amount of funding and human resources.
So where does that leave Classical Christian Education schools and home-schooling programs?
Many CCE schools are micro-schools that are still building up their student and staff numbers. They cannot realistically afford separate structures for academics and for pastoral care. Does this leave them at a disadvantage when fostering children’s wellbeing is concerned? Thankfully not, due to the nature of CCE’s pedagogical approach.
We who have a biblical Christian worldview often find that a key component is missing in secular wellbeing approaches, namely the spiritual component. When God, the source of wellbeing, is taken out of education, a key part of nurturing the child is absent. Schools are then left with stop-gap measures that, while important, fail to address the fundamental reason for all the problems we all have with our wellbeing, which is the brokenness of our relationship with God.
This is where Classical Christian Education has an advantage by the very nature of its core theology. CCE’s truly holistic approach emphasises nurturing student heart and soul just as much a part of the curriculum as fostering their minds. In fact, without putting learning in the context of discovering and restoring our relationship with our Creator, there is no Classical Christian Education, and it is in restoring our relationship with God that we find our inner restoration.
There is nothing wrong with having dedicated staff for student wellbeing. No Classical Christian Education school would ever claim that students will become free of learning difficulties, behavioural problems, or bad attitude under their care. It does not negate the need for psychologists and other professionals. But attempting to maintain or repair children’s wellbeing without this spiritual restoration is like to trying to keep a stone bridge together while ignoring the most important piece of stone, the keystone.
Any human attempt to do wellbeing without God is a band-aid on a deep wound in our existential being. This is why in CCE’s pedagogical approach, wellbeing problems are not just a side issue to be overcome to facilitate a smoother path for academic learning, as AITSL’s statement above seems to imply.
Instead, both student wellbeing and intellectual growth are addressed on an equal footing because both the soul and the mind are seen as equally important in CCE’s theological pedagogy. Every individual teacher directly contributes to the wellbeing of their students even as they train their minds to God.
Jesus says that the first Great Commandment is to
Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
Matthew 22:37
Education in the Christian worldview is as much about the heart and soul as it is about the intellect. If spiritual wellbeing is not addressed in our practice of CCE, then we are doing it wrong. Thankfully, true wellbeing can be a natural part of the process of education when the primary aim of teaching and learning is to restore children’s relationship with our Creator through Christ.