There are five factors which will ultimately determine the experience of a child as they go through their formative educational years. These major factors include the following: interested and engaged parent(s) who possess a moral compass, a work ethic modelled and reinforced by the family, an IQ bolstered by an engaging and dynamic curriculum, emotional stability, and good mental health. The latter two factors form the EQ, or emotional quotient. It plays a critical role in the development of the child’s psychological and emotional state of well-being. The EQ can, like the other three counterparts of the “functional five”, derail a student’s development and hinder their growth through school. You have probably noticed that I have not used the words achievement, career, or university. Those modifiers of achievement are unique to each person and defined as such by the individual, their family and society; sometimes in harmony, and in other cases, in opposition.
EQ plays a critical role in the development of the child’s psychological and emotional state of well-being.
York University and its faculty of education recently presented a lecture by Dr. Kwame McKenzie, who is a senior scientist within the Social Equity and Health Research section, the deputy director of continuing and community care in the schizophrenia program, a professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and a professor at the Institute of Philosophy Diversity and Mental Health, University of Lancashire (England). Dr. McKenzie noted that, “The production of social capital which shapes a community is linked to a variety of factors, two of which, bonding and bridging, are most important.” It was posited that, “Social capital is the process that shapes our communities through norms, trust and shared goals, and that bonding in the family unit (nuclear and extended) is the primary EQ, but bridging, the process of making connections through external relationships, is the pivotal factor in nurturing good mental health.” The correlation to character education and to student guidance is striking.
A current theme of discourse in the media is the quasi-war or protracted conflict between the expectations of the parent community versus that of their children’s teachers. Both sides are accusing the other of acquiescing their responsibilities and placing the onus of child rearing and education upon the other. As this paradigm shifts continually from the realm of the verbal taunt to the manifestation of open dissatisfaction and disharmony between these two stakeholder groups, the primary concern, the student, is either left in a perpetual limbo, or worse, learns to manipulate both polar opposites to their advantage. Schools like Northmount that have broken this artificial and dysfunctional relationship have greatly benefitted. When the expectations and goals of the home and the school are mirrored, reinforced, and forged in an active and living partnership for the benefit of the student, then the concepts of bonding and bridging are drawn closer together, perhaps in a type of symbiotic psychological synthesis that was previously thought to be unattainable. In essence, the emotional depth of bonding within the family structure might be replicated to bridging relationships outside of the family; a very powerful booster of mental health. I believe this is why Northmount’s one-to-one advisory program reaps such benefits.
“Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are.” This well-known phrase has passed through many homes and down through time. However, it has much deeper implications than the mirroring effect of behaviour on peer groups and friends. It also speaks to the ability of a child to independently make lasting connections in their community and gain their own sense of social capital and thusly, good mental health. Placing students in an environment where this is not left to happenstance and fostering their own child’s sense of social intelligence, likeability, and charisma is a proactive step toward assisting the fashioning of sound mental health. A school that fosters and engages virtues that relate to the forging, maintaining, and growing of healthy, positive and virtuous friendships places its entire student constituency on a defined path toward future success. While the school cannot make other children become your child’s friend, it can enlarge the meaning and parameters of friendship and more importantly, the social functions of companionship and empathy. This is much like growing a bean plant. Of course, the hearty bean will generally sprout and begin to grow, but given the right location, sunlight, food, water and soil, a robust and fruit-bearing plant will emerge. If the aspects of bonding are brought closer to the school experience and perhaps even co-opted by it through authentic parent partnerships, then too, bridging activities can be guided by the school with the real belief that these bridging connections are independent of what the partnership might want and yield.
The polite society and warmth of community, which we all want for our schools and for the experience of our children, is within our grasp, and in some schools like Northmount, within our midst. As much as we educate our children, it is the community that also must become knowledgeable of these functions of social capital and good mental health. School communities that have created this paradigm will have an atmosphere rich in empathy, the social flexibility to deal with controversial issues based on the morality of the school community, and tackle issues of parent/student concern rapidly, avoiding high frequency, long duration, incidents of bullying and aggression. A healthy school community has as its pinnacle of success, the future of the student as a person of character and wisdom, who has been looked after by all concerned and pointed toward a brilliant path with five critical factors to light their way.
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What makes a healthy school community? How does your school foster EQ? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
About Manfred J. von Vulte
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