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Basics & Basics Introductory A) |
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Written by Roger Prentice
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Tuesday, 02 January 2007 |
'Basics' is a series of introductory articles about necessary
key elements in any model of education that claims to be
holistic. I use my own model SunWALK as an example.
I will start in Basics: Introductory A) with some
comments about my definition of the holistic practitioner and in
the next article Basics: Introductory B) with some
discussion around the one sentence version of my SunWALK model.
The next set of Basics articles will follow the subjects of the
units in the 30 unit course SEE
http://www.sunwalk.org.uk/_sgg/m2_1.htm
Basics: Introductory A)
What is the real difference between the 'holistically minded
teacher/practitioner' and the 'non holistically-minded
teacher/practitioner'?
In all of my reading of, and listening to, the good and the great
in holistic education I never came across a completely satisfactory
definition of what characterizes the holistic teacher or
practitioner.
After thinking about this for the last 14 years my best answer to
date is that;
the holistically minded practitioner is trying to do each
particular thing, theoretical and practical,
with consciousness of connections with, and between, all pertinent
contexts - environmental
context, social justice context etc. - right up to and including
some sense of the Whole.
This definition tries to be simple, clear and
comprehensive. If you work in schools you know that things
have to be clear because lessons begin, lessons end, colleagues
have to be communicated with - the process is real, now and
unremitting. Its not good enough, for example, to assert that
Holistic Education is a term meaning vaguely mystical. But at
the same time the definition has to include the unknown and
unknowable, with which the mystical deals.
A satisfactory definition also has to have a chief point of focus,
a point of location. This definition suggests that the
consciousness of the teacher, and the flow of decisions that stem
from that consciousness (or lack of it), is the appropriate place
to locate and focus thinking and practice that is holistic.
Her/his consciousness tries to keep active the richest set of
connections and contexts - up to and including a sense of the
Whole. This recognizes that neither human or machine could
keep active all of the connections of all permutations of elements
in average classroom teaching. But the enlightened, developed
teacher can teach in a way that creates rich meaning and
meaning-making - the opposite to the Flatland reality that Wilber
and others write about as being the 'thinness' and
superficiality of today's society.
Challenging questions remain, including;
How far can we afford to select and fully educate teachers that are
capable of such development?
Is there any hope of getting widespread commitment to a
universalist world-view in a world that is becoming increasingly
fundamentalist?
Is there a case for encouraging and enabling a small group of
schools and teachers so as to keep alight the flame of a holistic
vision?
Is small still beautiful - if so what conditions are necessary to
allow creativity at the small-scale level and in which countries
can we find them?
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