What is Holistic Education?

Holistic Education ...

•  is concerned with the growth of every person's intellectual, emotional, social, physical, artistic, creative and spiritual potentials. It actively engages students in the teaching/learning process and encourages personal and collective responsibility.
• is a quest for understanding and meaning. Its aim is to nurture healthy, whole, curious persons who can learn whatever they need to know in any new context. By introducing students to a holistic view of the planet, life on Earth, and the emerging world community, holistic strategies enable students to perceive and understand the various contexts which shape and give meaning to life.
• recognises the innate potential of EVERY student for intelligent, creative, systemic thinking. This includes so-called "students-at-risk", most of whom have severe difficulties learning within a mechanistic reductionistic paradigm which emphasises linear, sequential processes.
• recognises that all knowledge is created within a cultural context and that the "facts" are seldom more than shared points of view. It encourages the transfer of learning across the chasms that have separated academic disciplines in the past. Holistic education encourages learners to critically approach the cultural, moral and political contexts of their lives.
• values spiritual knowledge (in a non-sectarian sense). Spirituality is a state of connectedness to all life, honouring diversity in unity. It is an experience of being, belonging and caring. It is sensitivity and compassion, joy and hope. It is the harmony between the inner life and the outer life. It is the sense of wonder and reverence for the mysteries of the universe and a feeling of the purposefulness of life. It is moving towards the highest aspirations of the human spirit.

quoted from Holistic Education Network of Tasmania (www.hent.org)