Conventional and Holistic education

By Priya Chetty on February 6, 2011

Education is an ocean having a never-ended and life long process with no borders. It will transform a man into a complete powerful citizen through the continuous and constant learning and independent thinking. Different systems of imparting education have been developed from time to time based on the situations and the requirements of the students.

The two important systems among them are Conventional Education System and Holistic Education System. In the olden days under Conventional Education all the students are being imparted education by a single teacher and slowly which has been progressed into division and allotment of different subjects/courses to different expert-teachers. But in the modern democratic world, Conventional education is not generating empowered individuals or at least the means of livelihood (Ginfop, 2008). It is because of its emphasis on rote memorization which makes a pupil to by-heart the concepts without any effort for understanding the meaning of them. In such a situation, people slowly have started switching over towards Holistic Education system under which teachers cultivate the children’s spirituality and inspire their creativity, self-knowledge and a sense of social justice and relationships.

Robin Ann Martin (2003) explains this in detail as ‘At its most general level, what distinguishes holistic education from other forms of education are its goals, its attention to experiential learning, and the significance that it places on relationships and primary human values within the learning environment’. According to David Orr et al (1992), Holistic education has created a strong critique for those parents who are still very much concerned about the maintenance of tests and assignments driven educational standards like in Conventional Education. To conclude one can say that under Holistic Education, a teacher is ‘a friend, a mentor, a facilitator, or an experienced traveling companion’ (Forbes, 1996).

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