COMPONENTS OF HOLISTIC LEARNING
This is the first article in our series on Holistic Learning, to read the introduction and view the other components to follow please click here
1. The Learning Community
When a group forms for educational purposes, a learning community (LC) can be created consciously. The learning community is different to the conventional classroom. For instance; in the LC the teaching role can move round the group – it doesn’t stay with one ‘teacher’.
The ‘teacher’ is also there to learn and the teacher role becomes that of facilitator, or in the Findhorn Foundation a ‘focaliser’, the person who holds the focus. (The teacher can certainly be the one with the most information to disseminate, but information dissemination and absorption may not be the primary learning of the group!)
The LC encourages holistic education, it doesn’t try to control or ration it. The LC does not use shame and bullying as educational methods. The LC is a warm, supportive environment and is a key basis for holistic learning.
The LC should be fun, funny, appreciative, supportive, curious and exploratory. Boredom has no place here. (In fact boredom has a particular message for a group and it can be helpful to acknowledge it straight away).
Members of an LC take care of all aspects of themselves – spiritual, mental, emotional and physical and they value and nurture their relationships with others.
The Findhorn Foundation, or your Holistic Centre, could be looked at as a Learning Community, as if the whole community was one, which it actually is, together forming a global, interconnected community
Each week we will introduce a new topic. Please feel free to add your views and comments to expand on it more fully.
To view the full working document on Holistic Education or share information please email christine.lines@findhorn.org
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