ABSTRACT
The idea of a new integrity for education is discussed in Chapter 1 and here I will consider the child’s integrity. First, the child’s integrity could be considered to mean ‘wholeness’ so that for education purposes we ask ourselves questions about the ways in which we promote learning in all areas of human development-physical, social, emotional, cognitive, aesthetic and spiritual. ‘Wholeness’ could also be said to be involved in the way in which each of us ‘makes sense’ of the different roles (one might almost say different personae) we take on in different situations and with the different people to whom we relate. Second, integrity can mean ‘uprightness’ and in this respect we would need to examine the extent to which education promotes children’s moral development and fosters action born of a sense of being ‘true to oneself. In considering both aspects of integrity in relation to children, it seems important to recognise the central role played by ‘identity’. In his study of young children’s learning, Pollard (1996) suggests that the factors influencing the sense of identity in each child he tracked are found first and foremost in the home and in the years from birth to five. He concludes that the children’s relationships with others inform their emerging sense of identity. Integrity in both senses demands the ability to make connections, within oneself and in relating to other people and one’s world.
