American children are growing up in a country still grappling with a global pandemic, economic insecurity, volatile politics, and routine mass shootings. These stressors and their lingering impacts have exacerbated the physical and mental stress that many students were already struggling to cope with, including but not limited to: isolation, depression, the impact of social media, food insecurity, housing insecurity, illness and tense relationships between and with caregivers. In 2022, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Mental Health Surveillance Among Children, and the U.S. Office of the Surgeon General Protecting Youth Mental Health, confirming the rise in mental health struggles including anxiety, depression and suicide attempts among American youth. Given that nearly 1.7 million children attend Catholic schools, educators in our sector must understand the distinctively Catholic approach to educating the whole child not just to prepare students academically; but to also guide our students towards a realization of their inherent worth and dignity, as well as that of others, no matter the circumstances of the increasingly changing world around them.
As schools are a reflection of society, complex needs are entering classrooms right along with children, shaping our interactions with students and colleagues, impacting our curriculum and how we teach, while also influencing the culture of our classrooms and school communities. What has resulted is a growing need to support children across all areas of life—mental, social, emotional, physical and spiritual. Our society has reached a point where addressing a child’s needs in each of these five domains of whole child education requires an urgent, all-encompassing response from the adults who care for them to support their overall mental well-being.
Figure 1: Roche Center for Catholic Education Whole Child Education Framework
Figure 2: Essential Elements for each Domain of Whole Child Education
Catholic schools of all orders and dioceses have long promoted their commitment to caring for each facet of a student’s overall well-being. Despite this history, the Catholic sector has not widely embraced a shared understanding of whole child education or its practical implementation. Developing a shared understanding of whole child education and how this is a distinct value-add of our sector in this time of great need is critical, as Catholic schools have holistically educated children since their inception. This article provides readers a conceptual framework developed by the Roche Center for Catholic Education, that brings coherence to our distinct educational approach and challenges us to consider the ways an excellent Catholic school education must impact the lives of every child across all domains.
Believing that the student is sacred, we place at the center of our Whole Child Education Framework the student, and the five domains that encompass all of their needs are around them: physical, cognitive, social, emotional and spiritual. The dotted lines of this framework purposefully indicate this intersectionality between domains and challenge us to be mindful of the influence one domain has on another. For example, if a student’s physical needs for food and water are not met, they will struggle to attend to their academic work in the cognitive domain. Or if a student does not feel emotionally stable, they may struggle to connect socially with their peers. Each of these domains are interconnected, and awareness of essential elements in each domain allow educators to see how we must holistically provide for our students. Figure 2 provides a listing of these essential elements for each domain, and Catholic school educators are challenged to review these in light of how their school’s curriculum, programming and climate are addressing these factors at both the school and classroom levels.
On the left-hand side of our whole child framework we express five core beliefs of our Catholic faith tradition which provide a sound theological foundation for whole child education. When we operate with a guiding set of beliefs informed by our faith, we find purpose and meaning in how to operationalize each of these domains for our students. Informed by the Ignatian tradition Boston College is steeped in, the core beliefs expressed in this framework are: (1) The Magis, we strive for excellence in service to our students; (2) Imago Dei, we believe that everyone is made in the image and likeness of God; (3) Dios en Todo, we believe that God can be found in all things; (4) Accompaniment, as educators we walk alongside others as companions on the journey; and (5) Cura Personalis, we believe it is essential that we care for the whole person.
The right-hand side of the figure gives due acknowledgement to the fact that Catholic schools do not operate in a vacuum, as we recognize multiple other factors shape a child’s overall ecosystem and development. Once children leave our classroom doors, they enter a world where they interact with popular media, their families and local organizations, such as their parish, social and health care services, and structures built into or absent in their communities. Given we are shaped by communion and in community with one another, our Catholic schools recognize these external influencers and consider how those in a child’s ecosystem support meeting their holistic needs.
This framework provides an overview of how we conceptualize whole child education in Catholic schools, as well as details how we operationalize key factors in each domain. With this shared understanding of what whole child education is and its relationship to Catholicism, the Roche Center is developing a playbook for Catholic educators to support their implementation of this approach. Grounded in research, this forthcoming resource will also provide practical tools including checklists and vignettes highlighting how schools successfully operationalize whole child education in our classrooms and across schools. For more information on professional development and resources related to whole child education, we invite you to visit Boston College’s Roche Center for Catholic Education website at https://www.bc.edu/rochecenter
Molly McMahon, Ph.D., is the director of leadership programs for the Barbara and Patrick Roche Center for Catholic Education.
Melodie Wyttenbach, Ph.D., is the executive director for the Barbara and Patrick Roche Center for Catholic Education.
Molly McMahon, Ph.D.mcmahomw@bc.edu
Melodie Wyttenbach, Ph.D.wyttenba@bc.edu