Carl Rogers

This is an overview of my understanding of the Humanistic Approach and Carl Rogers so far. It is like a written reflection of my knowledge to date.

Since finishing my Early Years Foundation Stage I have been searching for a theory or philosophy that matches my own. I enjoy reading and have read through a range of theories, philosophies and approach to life and childcare. After going through the majority of the well known ones I came across the Humanistic Approach and the work of Carl Rogers. I was astonished how similar his thoughts and ideas were to my own. His work is often associated with counselling and therapy but I quickly was able to link it to childcare and my own personal philosophy. I have always believed in recognising and celebrating the uniqueness of each individual, be them parents/carers, children, and staff members of anybody. The Humanistic Approach shares this view and builds on it. Carl Rogers believed that we should be allowing people to become fully functioning people. We should provide them with an environment that allows them to grow and flourish, we should build open and strong relationships up with people and recognise that everybody is different. Becoming a fully functioning person is not the end of the road but what we should be striving for but may never reach. The characteristics of a fully functioning person are;

  • Open to experiences.
  • Living in the moment
  • Trust. They trust their own abilities and choices.
  • Creativity
  • An ability to manage emotions
  • Recognise their own feelings
  • Manage negative times and emotions
  • Recognise that they are unique. Celebrate this fact. Have good self confidence and self esteem.

Rogers linked to teaching

Rogers believed that a person cannot teach anindividual directly, a person can only facilitate a persons learning. This means I think that it is more important what the student does, than what the teacher does. It is important that the teacher reacts to each student and provides opportunity for the student to act independently. The other belief Rogers had was that a person learns best the things that are relative to them. It is no good teacher a student things that they can not experience as it is difficult for them to visualise and understand.

Rogers links to my setting and professional practice

The humanistic approach has influence most aspects of my life. I already believed and practiced most of the aspects before I had heard of it so the approach was very easy to implement into my life. I would not mark Humanism as my Religion but I have spoke to people who do. A belief that human beings are intrinsically good is hard for some people to except in this day and age and this is where I reach a stumbling block with some people. When you see everybody as good from birth you believe that everybody has some good in them. It is the nature vs. nurture argument with me believing that nurture turns people bad.

The humanistic approach has influenced many aspects of my setting. As I am the leader I am in a position to influence my staff team and the settings ethos and philosophy. I always share my thoughts and feelings with my staff and the parents/carers so they can have a better understanding of why we do things the way we do, ask questions and contribute ideas and suggestions. All the staff and parents/carers agree with the Humanistic Approach (luckily) and think that it is one of the reasons that makes our setting so special. Some of the key aspects of the setting that have been influenced by this approach are;

  • Our relationships with parents/carers. When they understand that we recognise and celebrate them as unique and want them to achieve the best they can in life they love coming in, talking to us and also help us improve.
  • Parents/carers believe that their children are being cared for to a very high standard (results from questionnaire as evidence). They have said that they like the fact that we do not dehumanise them by just marking them against what they can and cannot do. We recognise that every child is special, which every parent/carer believes anyway.
  • It has influenced our learning environment. With knowledge of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid we can see what we need to have in place for the children to reach that top goal. We also provide an environment that’s safe but challenges children, allows them to be free to follow their own creative ideas and have problems they have to overcome.
  • We have an induction and key worker policy that is flexible for us to adapt to each individual child and family.
  • Build relationships up with children that are loving, caring and built on trust. When we trust children to make the correct decision they will learn to trust themselves.
  • The Humanistic Approach underpins everything we do.

By following the Humanistic Approach I hope children leave to go to school with a level of self confidence and self awareness to achieve in the rest of their life. They will recognise what makes them special and unique, know what their strengths are and know that people respect and care for them. They will be confident in trying new things, creative and trust their ideas and feelings. This will allow them to be confident enough (I hope) to handle bullying, emotional problems, life changes, transitions and sadness that may happen in life.

I will continue to read around this subject, gain more and more experience and understanding in it and implement this into practice. Possibly in the future do some writing on the subject, create the first Humanistic Early Years setting or help others to understand the subject better.