It’s time to let the wholeness of the child engage with the wholeness of the world.
WHAT IS
AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
To the extent that we narrow the purpose of schooling to what can be measured, we fail to
engage those sides of children that must be developed in order for them to pull learning
from life. We also increase the likelihood that
they will be bored, question the value of school,
and in some cases even drop out.
Instead of starting with the questions “How do we prepare kids to compete in the 21st century
global marketplace?” or “What will insure that graduates all have command of basic skills?”,
suppose we start by asking what qualities we want to encourage in children as they grow toward
adulthood.
Guilford Elementary
Guilford, VT
Guilford Central has an outdoor classroom for every grade level, pre-K through 6. Students engage in a farm to school program, learning about nutrition, and spend a large part of every day outdoors.
City Neighbors
Baltimore, MD
The learning environment in City Neighbors schools deserves special recognition because it has been achieved despite formidable challenges, especially entrenched poverty, and lack of funding for innovative educational programs and practices.
OUR
RESOURCES
Educate the Whole Child expects to offer a graduate level 12-credit certificate–Teaching the Whole Child. It will consist of four online courses that may be taken as a series or independently. See details here.
The Self-Organizing Revolution
One of the best books surveying the alternatives to mainstream, accountability-oriented education. Dr. Miller has a broad view and is not sectarian in any way.
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David Sobel
David Sobel’s work with place-based education develops another path for engaging the whole child. His more recent Children and Nature, Place- and Community-Based Education in Schools with Gregory Smith explores the subject in greater depth.
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