Educate
the
Whole
Child

It’s time to let the wholeness of the child engage with the wholeness of the world.

WHAT IS

WHOLE CHILD EDUCATION

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.

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OUR

SCHOOLS

see all our schools

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.

Compass School
Westminster, VT

Compass School’s unusual model accommodates both independent and public school students for its sparsely populated rural communities in Vermont. The school is open admissions and this arrangement works well for them. Upon graduation, students enjoy a high level of college acceptance.

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.

Catching Up or Leading the Way

For a broad look at why whole child education is important and how it fits into global developments and America’s ability to compete, see Yong Zhao, Catching Up or Leading the Way, particularly Chapter 7, “What Knowledge Is of Most Worth?”

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Play in the Preschool Classroom

Ashiabi’s 2007 article, “Play in the Preschool Classroom: It’s Socioemotional Significance and the Teacher’s Role in Play” (Early Childhood Education Journal, Vol. 35, No.2) provides a detailed description of the benefits of play in early childhood education. 

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Vivian Gussin Paley

Discussions of play-based learning can be found in the works of Vivian Gussin Paley, notably in  books such as The Boy Who Would be a Helicopter and a Child’s Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play.

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