Pioneers of Holistic Education

Holistic education's purpose is to emphasize the organic, emotional, spiritual, mythical, and intuitive aspects of human experience, in opposition to a culture perceived as overly rigid, intellectual, and materialistic.  But for many modern Americans, "holistic" implies sentimental, unrealistic, and childish visions of education.  Fortunately, the following pioneers may prove to even the biggest cynic the benefits children receive from engaging in holistic education.  

Rousseau- (1712-1778) Believed vital human qualities such as emotional expression, freedom, and natural surroundings were vital to life.  Rousseau argued that education should be a harmony between organic needs of human development and proceed at its own natural pace.  "The first impulses of nature are always right; there is no original sin in the human heart." His belief that human welfare and happiness can only be achieved if we remain in harmony with it's organic development.

Pestalozzi- (1746-1827) Established residential schools on working farms for orphans and was more concerned with the needs and characteristics of the learner than with the requirements of the subject matter.   "The reading, writing, and arithmetic are not, after all, what they most need; it is all well and good for them to learn something, but the really important thing is for them to BE something- for them to become what they are meant to be."  According to Pestalozzi, the essence of education is love.  In his schools, he cultivates an intimate, friendly, supportive relationship between the teachers and students. Emotional security is necessary for personal development and learning. "Life itself educates." Discovery learning was of upmost importance to Pestalozzi.

Froebel (1782-1852) Founder of kindergarden. "the divine essence of man should be unfolded, brought out, lifted into consciousness, and man himself raised into free, conscious obedience to the divine principle that lives in him"  Froebel's ideas would later on become the central holistic themes- the divine unfolding within the person, the spontaneous and essentially creative nature of this unfolding, and the cultivation of an educational environment that respects the fullness and natural stages of this unfolding.  

Dewey (1859-1952) Major intellectual figure whose educational ideas reflected his wide-ranging concern with social, cultural, and philosophical issues. A central concern of Dewey's work is human experience.  "An ounce of experience is better than a ton of theory simply because it is only in experience that any theory has vital and verifiable significance" Dewey shares with holistic educators the belief that strictly academic learning must be seen as an enrichment of, rather than a substitute for, first-hand experience of the world; literacy is an extension of intelligence rather than it's source.  

Miller, Ron. What are schools for: holistic education in American culture. Brandon, VT.: Holistic Education Press, 1990. Print.