website www.HolisticEducator.com

The paradigm of holistic education promotes conditions of responsible freedom which allow for complete development of human potential as naturally moral and therefore 'spiritual' beingness.

FUTURE SCHOOL

www.HolisticEducator.com

Today there is urgent need for positive social change and we need to create a better world. Many of our social and political problems originate when human development is inhibited with the resulting lack of intelligence as 'creative intelligence'. Personal inner conflicts and fears result in irrational thought which translates into inadaptive and destructive behaviour. Resolution of our human problems depends on freedom from inner conflicts and fears - 'inner freedom' - and subsequent openness of mind and cultivation of intelligence. Consequently the intelligent resolution of our human problems depends on our ability to set ourselves free and open our minds. This depends on education which opens the mind and cultivates human intelligence. We must stop conditioning children for mediocrity We must stop trying to educate them to be what we would like them to be. Instead we must trust them to trust themselves. We must trust them to trust their own needs to develop their human personality and potential. We must provide the right conditions and allow them to grow up to be who they really are - spiritual beings with the natural right to become integrated, intelligent, ethical and therefore mature, responsible and civilized adults able to cooperate peacefully and effectively in their efforts to resolve their human problems. In effect, we must provide universal education for complete human development or 'holistic education'.

We must learn to trust human nature and educate children in such a way that they can develop their human potential. This is the only way we can bring real peace to the world. ''There is only one problem, and it is human development in its totality; once this is achieved in any unit - child or nation...

Our species is a naturally social species and human nature is a naturally social nature. The survival of our species depends on our capacity to raise our consciousness level so that we can communicate with each other on the highest level which is the moral or 'spiritual' level. We need a universal education which provides the right conditions for growth of the whole person through meaningful learning i.e. integral or 'holistic education'.

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A Scientific Rationale for Holistic Education (‘scientific’ in the sense of systems science or ‘holistic science’).

‘The website http://www.holisticeducator.com/ constitutes an ongoing process of exploration and discovery. The work integrates personal experiences as student, as teacher and as parent with strong convictions concerning the natural human right to learn and grow in freedom as freedom from dogma, ‘spiritual’ freedom or ‘inner freedom’. Inner freedom is moral freedom because it implies responsibility and translates to outer freedom which is responsible thus contrasts with irresponsible freedom or ‘license’. Inner freedom is 'true freedom' because it enables perception of the interconnectedness between the various aspects of a human situation i.e. ‘holistic perception’.

The website is significant because it aims to highlight the interconnectedness between different aspects of the biological basis of the moral or ‘spiritual’ dimension of the human psyche, human personality or 'human nature’. Human nature is a social nature which depends for its development on moral freedom and its translation to authentic outer freedom or ‘true freedom’. True freedom is a function of complete human development and is therefore the basis for the natural educational philosophy foundational to peace and democracy which therefore depends on universal education for development of the person as a whole i.e. 'holistic education’.

In the paradigm of holistic education, the meaning of learning shifts from motivation by external rewards (‘extrinsic motivation’) motivation by intrinsic rewards drives (‘intrinsic motivation’). Holistic education involves fulfillment of the 'higher psychological needs' for 'metamotivation' - the spiritual needs or 'metaneeds' - as well as the so-called 'lower psychological needs' for self-esteem - the 'ego needs'. Ego needs are the driving force behind motivation for education with a view to purely mechanical intelligence and its fear based ego-centric world of competition and its material rewards. Although education for mechanical intelligence predominates in our culture, educational philosophy must be taken seriously or else we risk failure to adapt to a changing world and a threatened planet. We risk the ultimate extinction of our species. We urgently need an education which cultivates not only mechanical intelligence but a universal education of much wider scope. We need an education which cultivates moral intelligence, fosters human creativity and productiveness (creative intelligence) because it is based on compassion and cooperation and therefore involves motivation based in the dimension of human nature which is beyond the ego level of consciousness… that is in the ‘transpersonal’ dimension.

The function of the teacher is to provide resources, to facilitate learning and therefore to act as a moral agent… to allow for education which is meaningful because it is learner directed. On this basis holistic education is meaningful education because it depends on the freedom to create meaning or 'learn' and the freedom to create or 'work' making it possible to construct a personal sense of responsibility which is needed for adapting intelligently and effectively to the demands and the problems of life... aims for development of the person as a whole, as an integral being, a person of integrity and acute sense of responsibility. Cultivation of a mature sense of responsibility involves personality integration necessary for harmonious living on all levels - personal, social, global and environmental. It is therefore based on respect for the person’s psychic needs, their yearnings, their aspirations, their talents, their capacities and their interests but in addition on the development of their potentialities in all aspects - emotional, psychological, intellectual, artistic, moral or 'spiritual' and therefore social. Universal holistic education is a necessary prerequisite for the proper stewardship of our planet earth required for the preservation of our species.