 A few people have asked me what 'holistic teaching' means. One way to answer this, is to discuss the whole child or person. We don't just need academic skills in life. We need social, emotional and spiritual connection and understanding about ourselves, others, and the world around us. We also, as humans, need REAL, practical ways to connect. Practicing 'soft skills' or skills that lend themselves to a growth mindset should be both explicit (taught directly and understood through story, art and discussion) as well as implicitly (living through experiences and reflecting upon them). Growth Mindset is not a new thing, but the language surrounding it is relatively new in classrooms. "One of the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves, Dweck (Stanford Psychologist Carl Dweck) found in her research, has to do with how we view and inhabit what we consider to be our personality. A “fixed mindset” assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which we can’t change in any meaningful way, and success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence, an assessment of how those givens measure up against an equally fixed standard; striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs become a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled. A 'growth mindset,' on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. Out of these two mindsets, which we manifest from a very early age, springs a great deal of our behavior, our relationship with success and failure in both professional and personal contexts, and ultimately our capacity for happiness." - Maria Popva Fixed versus Growth Mindsets I have developed some Growth Mindset or soft skills cards for discussions or to stick on the walls, so that families might introduce these skills explicitly. Email or comment below with questions! Hayley 
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