Our educational system is mainly based on a structured and formal pedagogy where pupils and students study in a competitive environment that gives little or no attention to the holistic development of the human person.

From kindergarten to university level, the human person is bombarded with academia affording him/her little time to develop the human life skills that are so important to living the full human experience. 

Not much thought is given to inculcating the collaborative dimension of education in the Curriculum. This is taking place against a background of the wider Maltese society that increasingly embraces individualism, relativism and its slavery to cyber-space and virtual reality. Children of all ages being held hostage and captive to virtual reality and the social media as face-to-face communication is increasingly becoming a rare commodity.

The full human experience is based on past and present experiences and how these come together to form a coherent whole to grow and mature further.

We all need to stop and take stock of the events that defined and shaped us. We have at our disposition the most natural and logical methods of doing so. Our mental processes are amazingly well equipped in choosing memories that are pleasant and others which are not so pleasant. We juggle with our memories and try to put a sequence to life events and draw meaning through reflection, interpretation and re-interpretation. Most of the time, we do this on our own and many times fail to see the whole picture.

By using video-editing tools and group dynamics, it is possible for students to individually use a selection of life experiences (through photo selection and sequencing of such photos). Each individual student is then allotted time to articulate in front of his/her peers (while being recorded) what these photos mean within the context of his/her whole life experience and how this experience helped mature the person to his/her present state.

Students may also give a spiritual dimension to their exposition as to how these experiences fit in with their faith and relationship with God. Indeed such group dynamics help in filling the lacuna that institutionalised religion largely fails to do.

Personhood implies homo narrans or the need to verbalise and discuss. Hearing oneself and speaking about yourself in a social construct is group therapy in itself. Reflection is indeed a potential that needs to be developed and actualised within the school curriculum. We need facilitators to help students discuss not only academic subjects but also, and more importantly, the 'university of life' and street smartness.

Indeed our educational system yearns for such an approach. Not only does it allow the individual to grow and mature and re-interpret his/her life, it also helps in the development of group cohesion within this social construct and dynamics.

It is high time, and it is hoped, that our educators implement such an approach in an otherwise pedantic and heavily theoretical, memory-based and competitive educational system.

Anthony Zarb-Dimech