Exploring Education: Beyond Methodologies to Holistic Learning

Fourteen years ago, during a conversation with one of my cousins, she mentioned the Montessori system. Her enthusiasm as a mother over what her child was learning in this system was so convincing that as a mother of a one-year-old, I made up my mind that my little one would be going to a Montessori school. Then, I got an opportunity to work in a school that was AMS certified, schools certified under the American Montessori Society. Now, it was not only as a mother but also as an educator that I was able to see multiple instances where the effectiveness of this philosophy was visible to me. And guess what? I also became one of those advocates of this system who believes there is nothing better than it.

Until one day, I met a mother who shared with me that her child just couldn’t connect to this way of teaching. Finally, she moved her son to a traditional school and the child bloomed immediately. It was not only her son but a few other parents too who shared this experience. Then, as an educator, I had to question myself: Am I missing something? This curiosity led me to explore various other teaching methodologies: Yogic, Waldorf, Reggio Emilia, Multiple Intelligence, Shichida, and so on. The common thing I found in all of these was that they worked beautifully for a lot of children, but for some children, they failed too.

Going further into the delivery of these systems, one primary missing link was that the techniques were there, but the soul was missing. For instance, the tools, steps, and method of giving a lesson on basic math concepts in Montessori are known by all teachers, but what is the goal of teaching math first is the question that is never reflected on. Education is not a mere set of methodical steps to be followed. Unless as parents and educators we don’t know why we are doing what we are doing, we will keep repeating our failures with children.

As a starting point, let us first take the central focus in the process of education, the student, as per our topic, a human being. If I ask you who are you? What will be your answer? Some might say their name, some might say I am energy, and while still others will say they are what their mind says they are. But the most interesting fact is we are not just any one of these. Each one of us is all of this: a physical body, mental body, and energy body. And it does not stop here. It is also the interconnection of all these to each other and connection to the outside world that truly forms one human being.

In a true sense, any educational system that restricts the experience of a student from any of these connections is incomplete. I really loved that statement from the movie Dr. Strange where his teacher says that ‘Everyone is looking from their peephole’. Over generations, humans have been trying to expand their consciousness and the education system of a civilization is a true reflection of this quest. But each creator of these exceptional systems was able to see only through their peephole.

The most important question for our generation is not which philosophy is better but how to remove the barriers between them and create a holistic learning experience for our children that works for all.

Happy Reading