Holistic Education as the Conduit to Humanizing the Economy

2013

Education, like all the other fields in society, is influenced by social, technological, political happenings. The catastrophic environmental crisis and nuclear destructions in the 1960s and 1970s and the increasing corruptions, the breakdowns in family life, moving away from traditional, social and religious values worried people. Besides all these undesired changes, people began to lead a more routine life and devote their lives to values of materialist world. A group of sensitive educators reacted against people's moving away from traditional values and losing their "spirit" and they insisted that education should nurture development of the whole person in terms of intellectual, emotional, physical, social, aesthetic and spiritual. In addition, they also believed that in educational process human values such as peace, honesty, equality, cooperation, love, and understanding should be taken into consideration. Emerging from such opinions, holistic education has gained importance among the educators in the world. This study is based on the historical roots, definitions, philosophies and principles of holistic education are explained.

The holistic education movement emerged in the mid-1980s as a response to the then dominant worldview of mainstream education. It is an educational paradigm that integrates the idealistic ideas of humanistic education with spiritual philosophical ideas. Holistic education theorists propose an integration of what most progressive and democratic movements in education assume should be kept separate: spirituality and humanistic ideals. While these two paradigms may be combined philosophically, the author questions whether they can be jointly applied in a single approach to education. This book investigates this question by exploring the pedagogical application of the philosophical principles advocated by leading theorists in the field of holistic education in four selected school systems: Waldorf Schools, Montessori Schools, Reggio Emilia Schools, and Neohumanist Schools. The analysis and detailed description of the pedagogy in these school systems helps illuminate issues involved in the application of holistic education. This book will be especially useful to educators who are seeking to broaden their understanding of the theory and practice of holistic education.

2015

The aim of this study is to analyze the concept of “holistic” and to discuss the positive reflection of this concept to education. By documentation analysis method, related literature has been scanned. A conclusion has been put forward and some suggestions have been offered to improve our current education system which is based on positivist approach. The reference source of positivist, modern, idealistic, essentialist and traditional education is behaviorism. A parallelism can be drawn between the insight which aims to improve the individual in mostly mental aspect and materialistic worldview. Intelligence is in the forefront for this approach which handles the individual with only materialistic aspect. However, human being is a whole consisting of both matter and sense. The only way to achieve perfection in education is to balance the factors including body, mind, soul, feelings and thoughts equally.Keywords: holistic, holistic approach, holisticism in education

Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 2017

The modern materialistic worldview has influenced educational institutions to emphasize more on inculcating students with skills and knowledge to the neglect of the students' values and virtues. Consequently, education is a commodity, shaped according to the market. Education, influenced by the market, neglects a comprehensive approach and students' intellectual, physical and cultural needs. Market's preference for the technical and natural sciences contributed towards the creation of the mechanical conception of education. The market also influenced the institutions of higher learning to neglect the role of humanities and social sciences. The humanity is also at the break of the ecological, nuclear, chemical and biological crisis, terrorism, moral degeneration, and there is increasing disregard for culture, tradition, and values. These challenges raised questions about outcomes of modern education. Since such education could not balance and fulfill students' material, intellectual and cultural needs; therefore, this paper examines how the holistic learning and teaching can pave the way towards the 21st-century education model.

The individual in the modern technological society must be acquainted with an increasing amount of objective knowledge and so must be able to make responsible decisions for himself in order to survive and adapt to the demands of the society. Most of our individual problems and our collective human problems result from the lack of moral intelligence which derives from over emphasis on competition involving collaboration which is immoral, unintelligent, irresponsible and therefore destructive. Such lack of adaptive competition is characteristic of the egocentric level of human consciousness and its desire to protect its own self interests. Egocentric and immoral or 'unethical' competitiveness cannot be the way to resolve the problems which it created in the first place. The way to solve our collective human problems is through competition involving collaboration which is intelligent, responsible, creative and therefore adaptive because it is moral or 'ethical'. It is my opinion that ethical competition is characteristic of the moral or 'spiritual' level of human consciousness and its concern for the welfare of others (Lieberman, 2017). For this reason, our survival and continued evolution depends on the choice of philosophical paradigm which underlies the education which we offer to our children.

This paper reflects on the question of implementing social justice and human rights in a holistic idea of education and what teachers need to consider. The question is approached from the perspective of the outcomes of the implementation namely the idea of others that is formed in the minds of students, and consequently informs their disposition towards other members of society. The paper discusses the needs for education in the 21 st century with regards to educating for social justice and human rights, the issues it raises and the reason for the idea of others to be examined in determining what, how and why social justice and human rights are included and portrayed in education specifically holistic education. In discussing these matters, the paper draws on some key literature in moral and political philosophy on identity and recognition in the context of plural society. Based on this discussion, the paper examines what teachers should do in considering social justice and human rights in a holistic education. The paper concludes by posing a question related to the seminar"s aims in developing a holistic education if its purpose is to achieve a meaningfully cohesive global society.

INTRODUCTION When trying to search for the solutions for most of the problems we face in the twenty first century, we come across with the notion of education. The magical formulations that will work to resolve all the problems, flaws, and impossibilities in various fields were sought out in education. The order in the functioning of the governments, peace and welfare of the folks and the happiness of the individuals are all related to the efficiency in education. In case of the contrary of these conditions, the inadequacy of education is put forward as the possible causes. The philosophy of education is relevant to philosophy in general in terms of its goals and is indirectly connected to it in terms of its methods. Moore suggests to look carefully to the nature of philosophy in order to understand this relation and claims that the metaphysical problems till Plato are fake because the supposedly problems are a result of the misuse of language. Moore asserts that similarly the philosophy of education should direct its route to the determination and elimination of fake problems. The many problems in education are not conceptual but rather actually practical. These problems must no doubt be solved but furthermore the route of the philosophy of education should move from the analysis of educational concepts. Moore states that linguistic analysis of educational theories and practices must not be the focus of the study of educational philosophy (Moore, 2010, 1-1). The philosophy of education should head for the sub-disciplines of philosophy that keep company with education. Education is an important concern of the past and present and many people studying in different fields are engaged to it. Education has always been a field of study that struggles to carry humankind to better conditions. The aim of the present paper is present how education is connected to the three disciplines of philosophy and to propose a new way of investigation for the philosophy of education. The educability of mankind as a type of being will be discussed in relation to ontology, the educability of mankind by presentation of episteme will be discussed in relation to epistemology and finally the generation of morals through the input of episteme will be discussed in relation to ethics. The consideration of education together with ontology, epistemology and ethics will lead us to a new way of investigation in the philosophy of education. The nature of education and its relation with philosophy Education aims to provide individuals with skills and knowledge which will allow them to define and realize their targets (Phillips, 2008, para.1). It is also possible to see the phenomenon of education as a group of activities that work in various logical levels. The fact that makes them logical is that each level is dependent on and rises from the lower level (Moore, 2010, 1). According to Kant, humans are

The "word" education is understood and interpreted to mean many conceptual and social derivatives that a universal definition is not practically feasible. However, there is a universal understanding that education fundamentally should be an uplifting experience; better the individual human being and the human race as a whole. In a very practical application Education, formal and non-formal, must serve society as an instrument for fostering the creation of good citizens. All approaches to redesign the educational processes must take into account the basic and agreed-upon values and concerns of the international community and of the United Nations system such as human rights, tolerance, and understanding, democracy, responsibility, universality, cultural identity, the search for peace, the preservation of the environment and the sharing of knowledge. Holistic education is a concept which distinguishes itself from other forms of education in its goals, in its attention to experiential learning, significance of relationship and human values. Robin Ann Martin (2002) describes holistic education further by stating, "At its most general level, what distinguishes holistic education from other forms of education are its goals, its attention to experiential learning, and the significance that it places on relationships and primary human values within the learning environment." In describing the general philosophy of holistic education, Robin Ann Martin and Forbes Scott H (1996 & 2004) divide their discussion into two categories: the idea of Ultimacy and Basil Berstein's notion of Sagacious Competence. Holistic education enables composite development of human personality, feelings of love, respect, feeling and friendship cannot be taught, but like sensitivity, has to be awakened. The inner awakening of these feelings leads to spiritual development. This paper attempts to understand the concepts of education and holistic education in the Indian perspective impacting spiritual development and awakening.

2008

This is a theoretical and interpretative study, in which I analyze and evaluate the pedagogical application of the philosophical ideas advocated by the holistic education movement in four approaches to schooling: Waldorf, Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and NeoHumanistic.