HOLISTIC EDUCATION
The pride of learning counts with the conception of Learning with a special index of education of heart and head in particular. The vital role of education being provided in schools deliver the pace of VALUE education as a parceled knowledge base towards the masses. It is the education of soul, believing in the pretext of “Learning to Learn” as a hobby rather than an occasional occurrence.
The holistic education as the word says talks about the overall education of head and heart with wisdom to deliver at pace. It is like knowing self with a belief of human values on priority with four pillars of learning, which includes, learning to learn, learning to know, learning to be and learning to work. The essence is to catch them young and innocent on priority. When we learn with pleasure we never forget. The choice is ours to deliver as teachers and educators to make the delivery and the deliberations in particular through the framework of pleasure and pride at the same time with spiritual cult and the preface towards values and respect towards all religions of the world.
The Wikipedia rightly defines, holistic education as: “Holistic education is a philosophy of education based on the premise that each person finds identity, meaning, and purpose in life through connections to the community, to the natural world, and to humanitarian values such as compassion and peace”. Hence the unique blend of learning is through meaningful attribute of knowing the purpose of life and self. The inclusion is about the self and the meaning of life into being alive and getting the purpose understood for the self and the objectives narrated towards excellence in particular. Respect for others towards recognition as support needs and connect with the nature, concerns towards the needy and the understanding of the universal brotherhood with implications towards peace and unity should be the concern over acceptance as a universal truth and virtue of life and living in totality.
Some of the necessities which integrate holistic education relate to the following:
- Manners
- Hands on Lessons
- Core Academics
- Emotional Development
- Critical Thinking Skills
- Conflict Resolution Skills
- Character Formation
- Healthy Social Skills
- Manners
One of the means to garner interest among the students to explore and inherit the essence of holistic attributes is through the inception of Quality circles in particular. Student Quality Circles’ (SQC), is a means to develop group learning scenario within schools. A Quality Circle is a group of people who come together and brainstorm over a common task and develop strategies towards Implementation.
In the field of academics, the concept of SQC, has had its inception for over two decades and has taken its shape as one of the enriching tools towards excellence within classrooms.
A Student Quality Circle also known as SQC is a group of 5 to 15 student members, an ideal number is 8, who sit together in the form of a circle and discuss work related problems. They accordingly evaluate the causes of the selected problem and try solving the same using the various quality tools and finally develop strategies to plan and execute the derivatives.
The encapsulation targets issues related to value system, universal brotherhood and knowing the beliefs and spectrum towards peace and harmony. In addition, the universal values are implemented through means of various interactive sessions in the schools which include the morning assemblies, PTM (Parent Teacher Meetings), Coffee Table with the Head of Schools during Class wise interactions and above all during the Annual Day functions. The initiative should be to imbibe in them the curiosity to learn for life in particular.
Some of the advantages which revolve around the holistic attributes within schools relate to the following:
Improve Attention in Class
It is not a secret that many students find it hard to pay attention and concentrate in class. Surprisingly, laziness is not the real reason for this situation. In most cases, it is because stress, worries, fears and personal problems take their focus away from the lessons.
This is where mindfulness meditation will play its role. Practicing mindfulness can help the students to concentrate better because it directly influences the brain, especially the hippocampus part. And since it jogs the hippocampus to be more active, their memory and critical learning skill will be improved and help them getting better grades.
Develop Better Interpersonal Skill
The competition and also pressure to always be the best in class can affect the student’s social and emotional skill. They tend to only focus on themselves and don’t care about what’s happening around them.
Interpersonal skill is very important to survive in the real world. So, the school must make sure that the pressure to perform well in school will not harm their interpersonal skill. Mindfulness training will also make the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that regulates emotion, more active. As a result, the students will be able to be more empathetic, more sociable as well as improve their behavior in school.
Help Students Coping with Stress
It is very normal for students to experience stress when facing a challenging time in their education. However, the situation of modern education system often forces the students to experience toxic stress, the kind of stress that can negatively affect their mental health.
Stress is normal, but it can be dangerous when the students don’t know how to deal with the stress. This is one of the main issues that mindfulness practice can solve. Mindfulness helps the students to see things more objectively and also relax their body and mind when facing a stressful situation.
School should not only focus on lessons and grades, but also education for life. The education system should really start to pay attention to the student’s mental state too, and mindfulness meditation is one of the best methods for that. It will teach the students to be more mindful of the present, which can help them coping with stress, improve their optimism about life and also their performance in school.
Schools do predict and practice innovative ways to deliver the passion to the students. The yoga sessions and other mind based exercises reveal an open spectrum of the level of mindfulness we need in our schools today.
