12/13/2011
Integral education aims to foster the many aspects of a child’s nature, rather than just academic or mental faculties. There are 4 bodies that must be nurtured – physical, mental, emotional, and psychic. All 4 must be developed independently and integrated with each other to create a complete being.
I really like this idea and definitely think that our school system doesn’t focus nearly enough on these other parts of education. Wanting to become a teacher myself, it was really refreshing and interesting to hear not only that some places do more than just teach from a text book, but how the incorporate it as well.
This is not how all education is in India obviously, but just the education here at the society. The society has enough teachers that there are only 1 or 2 students per teacher! Because of this, they allow the students to set their schedule, deciding what time of day they learn best. Students here also choose what subjects they want to study from a very early age; so in elementary one might decide that they only want to study math and sciences.
Obviously some of this unrealistic for the US – having 1 teacher for every 1 or 2 students isn’t going to happen, but bringing class sizes down to around 20 can, and hopefully someday will happen again. Because of this it isn’t possible for students to choose their own schedule, which necessarily a bad thing, and I think it’s good for students to have to learn a variety of subjects before they choose specific ones.
What I took away from this though, already knowing some of this, that as a teacher, it will be my job and want to teach more than just what is in a text book; that it is about the student growing as an individual and a member of society. Students are still learning character, morals, and how to act in society. In order to be a well rounded person, all 4 physical, mental, emotional, and psychic areas of a child need to be developed.
It is my hope that the US will eventually find a way to incorporate all of these in their schools, and I am looking forward to being a part of that change.
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