"I
think of the two major tasks of childhood as the development
of competence and the development of connectedness."
-Edward M. Hallowell, MD, in a 1992 paper entitled "Connectedness"
When
I read this sentence over seven years ago, I believed it to
be the simplest, yet most profound, theoretical framework
to instruct parents and schools on raising and educating children
that I had encountered. The co-author of Driven to Distraction
and a senior lecturer at the Harvard Medical School, Dr. Hallowell
had written this paper for a local educational conference
on "The Importance of Developing Community in Schools."
I was familiar with the term competence in an educational
context. I understood it to mean the acquisition and mastery
of academic skills necessary for future education and adulthood.
Connectedness, was not, however, a term I had known. Hallowell
defined it as, "...a sense of being a part of something
larger than oneself. It is a sense of belonging...It is that
feeling in your bones that you are not alone. It is a sense
that no matter how scary things may become, there is a hand
for you in the dark. While ambition drives us to achieve,
connectedness is [the] word for the force that urges us to
ally, to affiliate, to enter into mutual relationships, to
take strength and to grow through cooperative behavior."
In
the past year, Dr. Hallowell expanded his 1992 essay into
a book, Connect. In the opening chapter he summarizes
a 1989 study which he and Dr. Michael Diamonti undertook at
Philips Exeter Academy. Exeter is a grade 9-12 boarding school
in New Hampshire with a highly rigorous academic program.
They were asked to "systematically examine the Philips
Exeter Academy - the students, parents and faculty - to find
out which factors predicted [academic] success and happiness."
They learned that the most important predictive factor of
academic success and happiness was the level of connectedness
which the students felt for their school. Drs. Hallowell and
Diamonti reported that, "The students who did well had
it, while those who didn't lacked it...On every measure of
mental health and happiness that we used as well as every
measure of achievement, the students who did the best
were the connected students. Those who were in distress were
the disconnected."
Dr. Hallowell further notes in Connect that his and Dr. Diamonti's
findings have been reaffirmed by a 1997 national study led
by Michael Resnick at the University of Minnesota. His research
team studied over twelve thousand students in grades 7-12
and tried to determine the most significant protective
factors against emotional distress, violent behavior,
use of alcohol or marijuana, and teen pregnancy.
The
findings were remarkably similar to the Exeter study. "The
first protective factor was parent-family connectedness. The
second protective factor was..... connected-ness at school.
This was defined as the [students'] feeling that people are
treated fairly at school, that [they are] close to people
at school, and that [they feel] part of [their] school."
It
is significant for educators to reflect on the findings at
Exeter that in "every measure of achievement, the students
who did best were the connected students." In other words,
students with honor roll grades and high standardized test
scores were those students who felt themselves an integral
part of their school.
Student achievement which can be measured by grades and standardized
tests is a natural outgrowth of several factors including
aptitude for academic work, family environment and support,
and quality of school. While educators have limited influence
on the first two of these, they can shape the kinds of schools
which children attend.
In Connect, Dr. Hallowell has made a convincing case
that their first concern should be creating school environments
to which children feel a sense of belonging and affiliation.
How effectively schools succeed in doing this should be the
most important yardstick by which they are assessed. Dr. Hallowell's
findings further challenge the current emphasis on ranking
schools based on the standardized testing profile of their
student body. Rather, his conclusions underscore the importance
of establishing the conditions for all students to
develop a sense of connectedness to their schools. He believes,
as I do, that if this were the priority, a higher level of
academic competence would inevitably follow.
Thomas A. Northrup
Headmaster
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