Is Holistic teaching wonderful?

March 17, 2004

"The aim with holistic teaching is to teach the child, not a subject, and to speak to the child's spirit. You want to teach the whole child, not just one part."

At least that's the theory.

This touchy-feely, fuzzy-wuzzy nonsense is not why parents send their kids to school. We are supposed to give them an education in academic subjects like reading, math and science! Elaine McEwan had this to say in 10 Traits of Highly Successful Schools:

To create a school environment that is "nurturing, collaborative, meaningful, and authentic" sounds impressive. But stop to think about why we are sending our children to school in the first place. I did not send mine to be nurtured. I did that at home. I sent them to learn how to read, write and do math. (p.135)

Saying we need to "speak to the child's spirit" is like suggesting that the strightforward teaching of an academic curriculum would somehow be harmful to a child's spirit! This would only be true if the child had a rare allergy, and broke out in hives when in close proximity to knowledge. (Fortunately these allergic children are screened out in Kindergarten and sent to the Progressive bastion of Summerhill, where they get to do whatever they want all day.)

Think about five areas in a child's life: family, friends, community, church, and school. The first four areas can focus on the "whole child" and speak to the child's spirit 'til they're blue in the face. But while at school, you better believe we're going to work on academics.

Parents wouldn't have it any other way.