Holistic Education

Holistic education is an educational philosophy that aims to develop the whole person, intellectually, emotionally, socially, physically, creatively and, in many versions, spiritually, rather than focusing narrowly on academic instruction. It emphasizes that learning should help students build identity and find meaning through their connections to their community and the natural world and through values such as compassion and peace, and it treats experiential learning, multiple forms of knowledge, and the quality of relationships in a learning environment as central rather than incidental to education. The approach positions itself as an alternative to mainstream, narrowly evidence based schooling, framing education as more than preparation for a job and instead as a path toward purpose and responsible citizenship, built around interconnectedness and a student's own intrinsic motivation. It draws on humanistic psychology, progressive education, the theory of multiple intelligences and critical pedagogy to create learning environments meant to nurture creativity, reflection, cooperation and environmental awareness alongside conventional academic achievement. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/