Why holistic Education ...

Education for Meaning  

A 21^st century education system must meet the needs of the whole-person and be built on explicit assumptions of connectedness, wholeness and being.

21^st century education should seek to enrich the mind, warm the heart and awaken the spirit of each student. It should provide opportunities for students to be creative, contemplative, and imaginative. It should allow time to tell old and new stories of heroes, ideals and transformation. It should encourage students to go deep into themselves, into nature, and into human affairs. It should value service to others and the planet.

21^st century curriculum should value physical, mental and spiritual knowledge and skills. It should present knowledge within cultural and temporal contexts, rather than as facts to be memorised or dogma to be followed. It should be integrative across all disciplines emphasising inter-relationship and inter-connectedness. It should challenge students to find their own place in space and time, and to reach for the highest aspirations of the human spirit.

21^st century education should be meaningful while enabling individuals and communities to co-create preferred futures. It should be a joyous celebratory experience.  

Multiple  Intelligences

• Verbal/Linguistic

• Logical/Mathematical

• Visual/Spatial

• Body/Kinesthetic

• Musical/Rhythmic

• Interpersonal

• Intrapersonal

• Naturalistic

(Howard Gardner)

IQ - Intellectual Intelligence: linear, rational, logical

EQ - Emotional Intelligence: empathy, compassion, motivation

SQ - Spiritual Intelligence: meaning, vision, value

(Danah Zohar)

Education for Meaning and Social Justice

Such an education will also need to meet community goals. These goals are likely to include fundamental needs such as economic prosperity, a healthy democracy, and personal, community and environmental well-being - BUT they need to be determined by each community, state and nation.

For example a community might envision a future with:

1. Economic Prosperity: The creation of jobs and wealth in a global climate of change requires multiple intelligences, creativity and imagination to promote innovation and invent new employment opportunities. We need a flexible workforce with enterprise and initiative that is skilled in the new areas of information technology, information economy, biotechnology, climate and food technology.

2. A Healthy Democracy requires participation and a cooperative, consultative leadership. We need to promote peace, understanding of others, social justice, equity and a sense of collective responsibility. We need to embrace diversity, social tolerance and respect for others.

3. Environmental Well-being requires ecological sustainability, no-waste and renewable energy. We need a society that considers intrinsic and future ecological values. We need to learn to live with environmental change and to consider local, global and cosmic systems.

4. Community Well-being requires an inclusive, compassionate and cohesive community that provides social and emotional support for others. We need active community participation in decision-making and the co-creation of preferred futures. We need cultural identity and diversity with artistic, sporting and recreational excellence.

5. Personal Well-being requires physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. Individuals need to be competent and resilient in the face of change with a sense of personal purpose and place. People need access to productive and meaningful learning to help them achieve both vocational and personal goals and self-determination.

Human Needs

Physiological:

Food oxygen, sleep, sensory stimulation

Safety:

Security, order, structure

Belonging:

Group membership, love, affection

Self-Esteem:

Self-respect, recognition, independence

Self-Actualisation:

Self-improvement toward potentials

Self-Transcendence:

Selflessness, spontaneousness, identification with human kind and the cosmos.

(Abraham Maslow)

Some corresponding educational priorities might then be:

1. Economic Prosperity
1. Literacy and numeracy
2. Achieving excellence in multiple intelligences
3. Systems thinking, meta-thinking and problem solving
4. Access to and skills in information technology
5. Vocational and enterprise knowledge and skills

2. A Healthy Democracy  
1. Education for peace, love and wisdom
2. Collaborative and dialogical learning
3. Moral and ethical understanding
4. Co-creation of preferred futures

3. Environmental Well-being  
1. Ecological literacy
2. Environmental and Outdoor education
3. Indigenous education

4. Community Well-being
1. Compassion
2. Service learning
3. Safe, supportive and inclusive learning environments
4. Sporting and recreational excellence

5. Personal Well-being
1. Resilience
2. Learning to learn, reflective learning
3. Emotional literacy
4. Spiritual literacy, learning to be

Education should recognise the innate potential of EVERY student for intelligent, creative, systemic thinking.  

Education should be concerned with the growth of every person's intellectual, emotional, social, physical, artistic, creative and spiritual potentials.