Educators are recognizing that the holistic approach to education can help improve student achievement. It is the education of the whole person. Students don’t just learn academic skills; their physical, social, cognitive and emotional growth also come into focus. A holistic education program provides a supportive, positive learning environment that can help your child reach their full potential.
The Holistic Approach to Education
Practitioners believe holistic education only makes sense. No one learns in a vacuum; children bring all kinds of physical, social and emotional issues into the classroom. Teachers address these issues by integrating them in lesson plans and encouraging a positive learning environment.
Does holistic education put the student at the center of everything? No, it’s not all about them. In a holistic program, students learn they are just one part of a whole. They learn they can have an effect on the whole.
The holistic approach to education gives new perspectives to old education techniques. Children learn in context with the real world, so they are better able to deal with it. Students analyze the community around them to bring lessons to life. The teacher can design special projects that impart valuable critical-thinking skills.
Whole Child Education
The best argument for holistic education programs comes from the Learning Policy Institute. The education-research group says learning happens at the social, emotional and academic levels. Learning happens when all are engaged:
Emotions and social relationships affect learning. Positive relationships, including trust in the teacher, and positive emotions, such as interest and excitement, open up the mind to learning. Negative emotions, such as fear of failure, anxiety, and self-doubt, reduce the capacity of the brain to process information and to learn. Learning is shaped both by intrapersonal awareness, including the ability to manage stress and direct energy in productive ways, and by interpersonal skills, including the ability to interact positively.
The Learning Policy Institute says students “dynamically shape their own learning.” They apply new information to what they already know, including their own personal experiences. Success comes from hands-on learning activities that actively involve the student and include constructive feedback. It’s not the teacher’s job to provide information but to guide the students in their own discovery and help them to process the information.
Benefits of Holistic Education Programs
From sharpening problem-solving skills to instilling self-confidence – and never forgetting academic performance – holistic education offers many benefits to students:
Learning how to learn
The successful person knows how to learn. They know where to find what they need and how to apply the knowledge. When new problems arise, they know how to adapt and innovate.
Self-motivation
Students get involved in their own learning, which sparks their curiosity. They’re in control and want to learn.
 Confidence
Holistic education programs create a supportive environment. This helps the child develop better communication and social skills. They feel good about learning and want to continue feeling successful.
Academic Improvement
Holistic education caters to individual learning styles instead of forcing everyone to learn at the same pace. When the student no longer has to adapt to the group’s style, learning takes off.
Problem-Solving and Creativity
Students take up real-world problems with projects that stretch their creativity. They learn how to gather, analyze and report data and how to collaborate with others.
Creative Approaches in Holistic Education
Schools that teach holistically help children develop all their skills and build their strengths. This means the teacher has to be creative. Play-based learning, creative projects and imaginative thinking are part of the plan. Often, it’s just the spark that an unmotivated student needs. Instead of writing term papers, why not write and perform one-act plays about a subject? Why not learn about Abraham Lincoln’s assassination by putting on a mock trial of John Wilkes Booth?
The holistic approach encourages children to make connections between subjects, advises the education website Scholar Base – “for instance, using their creative skills to solve a practical science or social problem, or approaching a foreign language similar to the way they approach a mathematical equation.”
Holistic Education Schools
Holistic education isn’t just for traditional classrooms in public or private schools. Community groups and non-profit organizations like Be Strong International are excellent places to offer the holistic approach. They’re all about connecting students to the community and drawing expertise and knowledge from a variety of sources. Most importantly, they offer services that address the needs of children and families in a holistic way.
Parents and students are rejecting old ways of teaching and learning that don’t recognize the world at large or take a child’s individual needs into consideration. They want education to offer more than just facts and want to find meaning by connecting knowledge from different areas. Holistic education answers this call in creative, forward-looking ways.
Holistic Education Concerns
The holistic approach to education has both benefits and limitations, as educator Chris Drew, PhD, points out. It can be challenging to fit a holistic education program into the existing conventional curriculum. Parents and other teachers may resist the change. And let’s face it: It’s a lot easier to assign a term paper or give a lecture than to come up with a creative approach.
Parents and more-traditional teachers may fear that academics will fall by the wayside if a school shifts to a holistic approach. But academic progress is still a primary goal of holistic education programs. Everyone is still trying to get to the same place. It’s just the route – and the vehicle itself – that has changed.
