There are as numerous definitions of Holistic Education, as many as there are practitioners. My definition of Holistic Education is best described by what it is not: a parsed, subject-oriented curriculum, taught to the traditional, white-upper-middle class learner who learns by rote and by listening to lectures. I believe that we must look at the whole before we can examine the parts. This is why a thematic-based, multidisciplinary approach works best for me.

The curriculum leader, whether it is the classroom teacher or the principal, must envision an approach which accepts and meets the needs of all learners. Indeed, our students are becoming increasingly complex as they fight social, emotional, physical stressors in an environment that includes poverty, fear, hate, prejudice, terrorism and intolerance. Teachers and students and their parents are fighting for diminishing resources. Financial, physical and human resources are at a premium in Ontario. it appears that even the emotional resources of the classroom teacher are diminishing as pressures increase by parents, students and inexperienced senior staff make demands many of us cannot meet.

The teacher is bravely coping with the needs of a diverse population of students in split grades, with multiple needs and learning styles. Researchers (Lumsden, 1998), (Rud, 1992), (Dunham, 1992) have been discussing the effects of the pressures of stressful working conditions and the characteristics of good coping strategies for many years, yet no solutions have emerged to allow teachers to take control of their professional lives.

Part of my professional journey in curriculum design has evolved from my spiritual quest. It involved creating a curriculum theory of design that incorporates all the domains. It is reflective, interactive and integrates the senses in a diverse and rich learning environment This is an holistic curriculum which will incorporate, and welcome, all learners and all learning styles. It is a way of life which respects others and creates a spirit of community in my classroom and my school and my school board.

All of us must live in harmony on this planet earth. If we do not, we risk unbalancing this fragile system. We study life cycles, water cycles and food cycles. Life on planet Earth is an interdependent circle of life in which all the parts must be healthy in order for the whole to be healthy. We must life in harmony on this planet in order to survive personal and professional, national and international stresses, which threaten our lives.

I believe, based on my studies, and our class and group discussions, it has the following characteristics:

Critical pedagogical theorist McLaren (1998) reflects concern for workers and learners after the industrial age. In the modernist period education became less the privilege of the few and more the purview of the very day human human being. In this curriculum [social] reform work he questions education, primarily crafted to educate the rich. They seek to design a curriculum which admonishes teachers to create a culture of teaching which accepts all learners and does not require the student to fit into middle class society or risk failure. Curriculum designers began to reflect on the differences between filling our students' brains as empty vessels, or creating learning opportunities in which students begin to use critical reflection skills to reflect on who we are, where we are and where we ought to be heading.

There are those who are concerned with the philosophy of Ontario Ministry of Education, whose pronouncements from above appear to be more concerned with training future workers, rather than creating graduates who are critical thinkers, capable of utilising the full extent of their creativity in their professional lives. (ETFO, 2001) Freire called it the "banking" concept, "receiving, filling, storing the deposits" as we fill student's brains. I agree with Freire: we need to facilitate learning by fostering a learning environment in which our learners think for themselves. This world will benefit from those who have the ability to question issues such as inequity, oppression and environmental damage, to the transformation of a planet in which the oppressed no longer fight for their rights and have equal rights and opportunities.

Some theorists focused on education as a social transformation. The work of Paulo Freire, for example. Henry Giroux (1999) said that Freire was three things:

1. He had an interest in questions of power and possibility which cut across continents and borders.
2. He saw theory and practice as an act of politics and social justice.
3. He had commitment and struggled his whole life for pedagogy and the central questions of agency, power and politics.

These are philosophies which appeal to me in my multi-ethnic, diverse classroom. This has been my quest: to seek to create a curriculum that reflects the diversity of the learner and the learning.

Guiding Precepts

Schultz & Delisle (1997) have created a number of guiding precepts, applicable to the holistic curriculum.

• Without the student making the choice to learn, no learning can occur.
• A fluid curriculum, which provides learners with the ability to make meaning in their lives, helps them create meaning during the learning process.
• There is more to curriculum than the guided course of study, textbooks, and tests. In our accountability-oriented, bottom-line culture, learners ought to be able to make choices and create authentic quests for knowledge.

Transformative Approach

My education and training in a Piagetian-based faculty included 900 hours of supervised practicum placements. In a setting which included multi-age groupings, a thematic approach, we were encouraged to create a program which takes into account not only the whole child but the entire family. The Gerrard Resource Centre is an outreach program of the School of Early Childhood Education at Ryerson University.

"It provides a drop-in program for parents, caregivers and children, an emergency childcare program, day-care information and referral, a toy-lending library, consultation to day-care centres, and educational support services to early childhood educators."

Holistic Education, as exemplified by the work of Piaget, creates the kind of environment in which the parts are interconnected with the whole. My training, at the Ryerson Early Learning Centre, incorporated such a philosophy.

Holistic Education must be transformative. "The key to getting smarter is growing more synaptic connections between brain cells and not losing existing connections." (Jensen, p.15)

In the mid-sixties, Early Childhood Educators realised that there was a need to help establish (Erikson, 1966) leadership in the field of early learning. Highscope, based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, realised the need for an holistic approach to training educators.

• Training pre-school and elementary teachers and administrators
• Conducting research projects on the effectiveness of educational programs
• Developing curricula for infant/toddler, pre-school, elementary, and adolescent programs
• Maintaining High/Scope-certified teachers and teacher-trainers
• Publishing books, videos, curriculum materials, and assessment tools for educators and researchers
• Operating a demonstration pre-school
• Operating residential enrichment programs for adolescents

Highscope created an integrated approach which incorporated 58 Key Experiences which incorporated a holistic curriculum of Creative, Social, Linguistic, Temporal, Physical, Musical, Classification, Seriation, Spatial, and Numeration goals which ensured that the Thematic-based approach covered all areas of the whole child's experiences. These skills were assessed logically and covered a broad range of pre-reading skills which set the stage for later, successful learning experiences.  

Integrative Approach

The holistic classroom integrates all the Domains: cognitive, affective, intuitive.

Meaning is created, as a result of a thematic approach, by "metaphorically making sure the student knows the fence-posts, so it's easier to build the fence." (Jensen, p.97) Meaning is created by connecting emotions, establishing relevance, context and patterns, encouraging patterning and skills of grouping. It is the "process of making connections" (Jensen, p.30) that helps us create a complex structure of brain cells, the dendrites, that allow cells, and enriched neurons, to communicate with each other. By connecting the learning process to teaching thematically, by creating patterns, the learner is assimilating new information quickly and much more easily. The brain already knows how to learn and, as in the manner of transferring ball handling skills to other sports, new learning is further optimised.

Morgan (1996, p. 265) speaks of the qualitative differences between physical growth in children and the quantifiable growth of intelligence in which the brain is maximising co-operation between biological structures in the brain. We organise what we know, the brain must make connections between subsystems, as well as bridging the gap between left and right brain through the corpus callosum which connects both halves of a highly differentiated system. Our cognitive style, he says is the thinking person's mode of perceiving, remembering, thinking and problem solving, with implications for all cognitive function including social and interpersonal functions, as important, says Goleman (1995) , in being able to make sense of the world and it's mysteries.

The Domains of Learning

The Domains of Learning are: the Physical, Social, Affective, Intuitive, and Cognitive. The good teacher, and parents are the child's first teachers, should try to subjectively stand back and look at the whole picture. A good educational curriculum must take into consideration the whole child, not just, for example, the cognitive/intellectual domain.

As teachers we feel a certain responsibility to ensure that our child "achieves his/her potential". The problem is, that we can overwhelm, overburden kids with too many organized activities which do not allow the child to be a child. I counsel parents to take an overview of their kids´ schedule, check out to see which activities enrich which areas of their lives and try to balance them out. Give kids time to just be and do and to play, the very first learning strategy -common to all infants and toddlers.

Physical Domain

I believe that many of our kids have lives that are focussed on getting to the next music lesson, soccer game, and other organized, structured activity, when kids should just be learning to be kids. Voss feels that it´s not the what that parents do, but the how. In recent articles, Canadian children, are not fit. Yet, some families spend a grat deal of money placing children in organized sports. Perhaps it is time to go back to the days of pickup hockey and running for the joy of it.

Social Domain

Children need to find a sense of belonging, after their physiological and safety needs have been met. They also need a sense of who they are and who their peers are and how to work with them.

Affective Domain

Allen Moyer said, "The affective domain may be described as the realm of feelings, an understanding of which leads to the development of attitudes, values and emotional control.

Daniel Goleman (1995) has written extensively in the area. He is convinced that what will make us successful as participating members of society is to understand ourselves, being able to articulate our values, ideas, to show emotional control and to have good interpersonal intelligence.

Our students need to sort out a lot, in their own way. The need chances to talk about things that are bothering them. Children who are perceived as being exceptionally bright face a lot of pressure to have the right answers all the time. They may be afraid to make mistakes and may not try something for fear of failure. There are survival guides out there, but to talk about feelings, emotions and stresses will help a child with low self-esteem. Many kids only know how much they cannot do, and do not realize how truly gifted they are and how valuable they are as human beings. They see their failures and not as lessons but proof of their lack of ability.

Intuitive Domain

What may benefit the student is creative, right brain exercises: fantasy, relaxation responses, meditation, yoga, and other mind opening activities. Many of us are stressed and our children feel these stresses to achieve as much as we do. The Centering Book (1975) provides some exceptional activities that open up the mind´s eye.

"Some people march to a different drummer, some people polka!" --anon.

Cognitive Domain

Students need to be stimulated intellectually with trips: historical sites, interactive museums, concerts, fun places to be and do. In a great article by Voss, (1987) says that she used to talk to parents, fill their heads full of ideas about literature their kids should be exposed to, activities that are a must, tools and other methods of helping gifted children achieve their potential. She determined that most gifted kids, however, are involved in a ton of activities, are overburdened to perform, and she has changed her tune.

The best toys, in my estimation, are still simple Lego! My students adore it during indoor recess. Manipulation, play, creativity, co-ordination. Dr. David Elkind, in The Hurried Child, worries about the stress our brightest and best face in everyday lives, this is evidenced in Silicon Valley where overtime hours , pressure and burnout are becoming increasingly complex problems.

Multidimensional: Symbolic, Interactive, Universal

Jensen speaks of the construction of meaning by hardwiring the brain for information. The brain organises vast amounts of information, and converts it to a meaningful visual image. Holistic teaching incorporates object, index, symbol, sign. Practitioners utilise symbols, such as mind maps and other visual organizers, which will place the new information into long-term memory cells. Holistic teachers understand the global village. They understand our place in the wider world and the importance of just one snow flake on the branch.

Interpersonal

Must include intrapersonal and interpersonal opportunities for enrichment. The learner must have the ability to understand one another. In the Global Village, most software created in this decade is created with a team of engineers, some may be working for a company subsidiary, across the world. an important part of self-worth is understanding oneself, appreciating one's identity, citizenship, self-worth, culture, learning style. It is in valuing our similarities, and valuing our differences that we create personal connections and understand those with whom we must learn and work.

Intrapersonal

The learner must understand his or her self. The learner understands best learning strategies and understands his or her strengths and weaknesses. Miller (p.134, 2001) takes this one step further. He discusses Confluent Education practices in which teacher helps the learner to develop strategies which facilitate connections between the self-subject, subject-subject, and subject community. Like a beacon, reaching out to the sailor, the learner can reach out into the community and makes connections, develop and understanding of the wider world around him/her.

An Holistic Curriculum incorporates Gardner's Multiple Intelligences.

All learning styles, visual, auditory, kinaesthetic. Open to all students with learning abilities and disabilities. ETFO says that diversity in education is an important part of connecting children with their power and their privilege. The principles of an inclusive curriculum contribute to a child's self worth "regardless of culture, faith, gender, sexual orientation, ability, race, and socio-economic backgrounds. Children learn to be recognised, respected and valued. Inclusivity eliminates systemic barriers and allows victims to take their power back, to find a positive identity.

Conclusion

In our increasingly Global World we must teach to all learners. Teachera need to seek out and incorporate new research and teach students the "how to learn", not the what. We must be ever-vigilant in order to create critical thinkers capable of competing in World Markets. We must help learners understand themselves and others. We will find that we have created adults capable of seeing the Global Picture and having World Views which bring out their strengths in a diverse world and an ever changing market. I have done some writing about strategies which could further facilitate a Holistic Curriculum Model.

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