Why holistic Education ...

Education for meaning is a quest for understanding and meaning. Its aim is to nurture healthy, whole, curious persons who can learn whatever they need to know in any new context. By introducing students to a 21^st century view of the planet, life on Earth, and the emerging world community, education would enable students to perceive and understand the various contexts that shape and give meaning to life.

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

It should recognise that all knowledge is created within a cultural context and that the 'facts' are seldom more than shared points of view. It should encourage the transfer of learning across academic disciplines. Education should encourage learners to critically approach the cultural, moral and political contexts of their lives.

It is concerned with the growth of every person's intellectual, emotional, social, physical, artistic, creative and spiritual potentials. It should actively engage students in the teaching/learning process and encourage personal and collective discernment and responsibility. It should enrich the mind, warm the heart and awaken the spirit.  

In particular, a more holistic education will:

• Make interconnections between apparently disparate material clear
• Show how things fit into larger contexts
• Have a systems view with local, global and cosmic perspectives
• Explore paradoxes, dilemmas and enigmas
• Tell and listen to inspirational stories
• Value intuition, insight and imagination
• Make fundamental assumptions explicit  
• Engage students in local and global issues

The learning process will become more:

As a result students will become more:

Education for the 21st Century

1.  Learning to know

2.  Learning to do

3.  Learning to be

4.  Learning to live with one another

Learning: The Treasure Within: UNECSO