Our faculty member, Debangana Banik, expresses her perspective on holistic education—an approach tailored for the 21st century that fosters the emotional, physical, social, cognitive, and spiritual development of learners.
Education is the most important and basic right, everyone should have, it is our moral duty to facilitate the perfect learning environment for our students. As the future of the country is shaped in the classrooms.
Holistic education is a powerful, caring, and thoughtful 21st Century approach to education. It can help young people to grow to be balanced and well-rounded. It aims to nurture the entire individual, encompassing emotional, physical, social, cognitive, and spiritual aspects of a learner’s life. Instead of focusing solely on academic achievements, it also prioritizes the development of a student’s self-awareness, values, and emotional well-being.
With the change in time, it creates the need to refine existing education models. With the advancement of technology, students are more exposed to the digital world. Therefore, the innovative capabilities of students have been boosted and can not be judged academically. As the world is interconnected where subjects overlap and impact each other. Fragmented or isolated learning fails to reflect the interconnectedness. It ultimately results in interrupting students’ understanding.
Students should be taught how to be like a phoenix bird which emerged from ashes and spread melody to the world. This concept inspires children to observe truths, reality natural beauty, and the meaning of life.
Holistic education promotes students towards critical and making connections across disciplines. It encourages thinking high order thinking skills and develops an in-depth understanding of important concepts. The real-world problems and scenarios require a multidisciplinary approach. Holistic education equips learners with the relevant skills to combat complex, interdisciplinary challenges.
Holistic education is an approach that can meet the needs of all types of learners and that mould future citizens who will contribute a concern and mindfulness for society and the planet. Both global education and environmental education, which are also based on the principles of interdependence and connectedness are embedded in it. Based on this interdependent perspective, holistic education seeks to create a society where we live in harmony with the ecosystem. It discards consumerism as the dominant approach of being in contemporary society. Instead, it seeks education that is rooted in the fundamental realities of nature and existence. Holistic education seeks to connect the part with the whole.
