Holistic Education

         The significance of a holistic approach to education  

 

                                Happy kids in a forest garden jumping and playing with a ball

Does today’s educational system equip our youth with the necessary tools to face life’s challenges and prepare them to become the driving force of society? Even though in my view character education starts at home, school in general is the backbone that bears the task to educate youth and raise them to become worthy members of our society. Our approach to teaching should focus both on the academics and also the social needs of students in order to activate their intellect, emotions, imagination, body and above all educate their character to become morally integral and achieve personal development and growth. 

It is generally believed that education is an intellectual process whereby mind or brain is trained to acquire knowledge in the form of skills. Of course, we need skills in order to be trained and achieve our goals in learning and career. Basically, education is viewed as the process to acquire a profession and aspire to establish a status in the work market or in academics.  Nowadays, it’s everybody’s dream to be gratified with a desired profession or degree and be successful in professional life and in society. “Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.” —Martin Luther King Jr.  

 

In fact, sheer accumulation of knowledge and skills without education of character and heart is useless. Up to now our educational system has emphasized only knowledge and downgraded the value of character education whatsoever. We might have plenty of good educated, skillful people, intelligent and full of life, however if οur young people are not equipped with a good character and moral values, these aspired young people may fail in their personal or social life. Needless to say, that our whole educational system needs restructuring and revolutionizing in order to reach high standards and sophisticated authority. Furthermore, selected teachers should be role models with high moral standards and exceptional education. States and governments should take responsibility to carry out this crucial task, integrate civic education whereby international cooperation should also be an important component. “By education I mean that training in excellence from youth upward which makes a man passionately desire to be a perfect citizen, and teaches him to rule, and to obey, with justice. This is the only education which deserves the name.”  -- Plato 

The fact that we see increasing violence in schools, bullying, discrimination, human rights violations etc which infringe on the rights of school children to live a life that enables them to enjoy freedom and acceptance. Schools should take responsibility to tackle such abuses and create anti-bullying programmes in order to foster a safe and warm learning environment for their children in which no violence can be accepted. Active participation of well-trained educators and parents is indispensable if they want to raise the standards of safety and achieve improvement in this matter. “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.” ― Mahatma Gandhi  

Actually, children with violent character are victims of circumstances and need special treatment to be healed and integrated in the school environment. For that purpose, institutions should be established by states equipped with well-trained educators and psychologists who would take special care of those kids who come from broken families or families where domestic violence has left lasting effects on kids. In fact, school children who grow up in an environment of insufficient love and affection from their parents tend to develop a lower self-esteem and feel alienated, aggressive, vulnerable to hostility, and anti-social. “In situations of captivity the perpetrator becomes the most powerful person in the life of the victim, and the psychology of the victim is shaped by the actions and beliefs of the perpetrator.” 
― Judith Lewis Herman 

  

Therefore, family and school along with the religious community should work together to secure a warm and loving environment for our children so that a holistic approach can take effect and raise the standard of our existing institutions and approach. Human beings are not just physical beings: they possess a mind, body, spirit, will, emotions and instincts and they are destined to become fully enlightened, well-rounded mature personalities. There is nothing we cannot achieve if we learn to cooperate and improve the deficiencies of our educational system provided, we are really concerned and care.  

Transcending Materialism

Transcending Materialism 

 

Gold ornament figure of a man with a knight outfit manifesting material wealth and power

The theory of materialism is a fallacy and source of many evils our world is facing today from time immemorial. Materialism stresses the visible world of matter as the ultimate reality and excludes any other aspect of existence or spirituality. Modern science and technology are based on the utilization of invisible matter i.e.the various forms of energy. The unfounded denial of spirituality has been proven incorrect due to the fact that spirit proexisted matter which is a derivative of it.  

The world is becoming increasingly “wireless” and we are impacted by invisible “waves” in all forms of modern communication. The invisible “matter” is revealed everywhere from one end to another. The theory of materialism is shaken and ready to crumble to pieces. Nothing against matter as long as we accept the opposite pole of matter which is the spirit and spirituality. Those two interconnected realities complement each other and create ultimate harmony and beauty which is manifested as universal power and is ubiquitous in creation. Atheism is the adopted child of materialism, but one remains blind if he denies and ignores a major component of reality. Adherents of atheism should go back to school and learn the ABC of life and reality.   “The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.” - Eckhart Tolle 

 

The world cannot be explained based on the theory of matter alone. The terrible evidence of what materialism is all about unfolds when you start looking at entities as “matter” and exclude the other aspect, the aspect of spirituality and of course morality and ethics as well as truth aren’t just matter. Look i.e., at a woman (man) as sheer matter (flesh) and you know immediately what happens. Humans who adopt such theories become blind and lose orientation. They become prone to immorality and vulnerable to all kinds of sins like violence, abuse, infidelity, divorce, betrayal and crime which lead society to a state of decay. There are far-reaching social implications deriving from this assumption and they are horrendous and appalling. “Materialism is not fundamentally an economic problem, but a cultural one… a spiritual issue. It runs to the depths of our souls, and, for this reason, needs to be understood less in terms of budgets or fiscal cycles and more in terms of where we locate the sacred, of where we search for meaning and transcendence, and of how we think about justice, equality, and the future of our world.” – Robert Wuthnow 

However, let us be sincere with the pursuit of material possessions and try to understand people’s motives to obtain them. In fact, it’s a matter of priorities and nothing more. The desire to possess material things is in itself absolutely normal and natural as long as we don’t overemphasize it or become overwhelmed by it and lose perspective. Sometimes we see people who don’t have enough material things and suffer or envy others, but it is because they are not ambitious enough or they don’t want to work. Having said so, it’s not the possession of things but the attitude that makes the difference. Material things acquire a major value if used in order to make other people happy and especially the impoverished and needy ones.“The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, automobiles and real state, but friendships, trust,confidence, empathy, mercy, love and faith.”Bertrand Russell 

Therefore, if a man (woman) lives his or her life centered on material possessions then there is a vacancy of spirituality and possibly the same in human values. When someone is void of moral and ethical values then they are vulnerable to all kinds of temptations and evil acts whatsoever. The ingredient of belief in God gives incentives to love all creation and the world and especially to love all human beings as expressions deriving from that supreme divinity.  

Abuse of Power

                                      Corruption and Abuse of Power 

 

                 Shockingly sad face of a woman showing her hands bound at a rope with a message of abuse 

 

From  time immemorial power was an object of abuse and harassment from political and military figures whatsoever. Especially people in leadership positions  who possess power are tempted to abuse their authority with self-serving motives in order to satisfy their ambitions and unlawful desires. Abuse of power has many implications and entanglements starting from small violations up to serious crimes and intrigues. A lot of those acts take place behind the scenes and there is a lot of propaganda and misinformation involved. Bribes and kickbacks are fraudulent acts which are faced with justice and punishment. The institutional egocentric use of power is oftentimes directed towards subservient subjects and is expressed as harassment, sexual abuse or maltreatment and can only be described as corruption. 

Men in power should therefore meet the criteria of not just good education and skills but above all integrity, ethical status and a moral character. “To point out the importance of circumspection in your conduct, it may be proper to observe that a good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted at your age are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life. It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous.”  George Washington It is therefore highly important to understand our role in society and be aware of the fact that power is not an affair just for politicians, dignitaries, directors or presidents. No matter who you are and whatever you do there are moments or situations in life when you are in a position of power or authority over others, and you have the responsibility and duty to act accordingly and never use your position to take advantage and affect others by abusing your capacity.  

Where most cases of abuse of power are most frequently manifested in life and society? People in official positions like civil servants oftentimes take advantage of their position of leverage become arrogant and cross the line acting illegally. There is a large number of people in authority public or private sectors like, army, schools, businesses, hospitals, factories, enterprises and various institutions, like film industry, theaters etc. who hold positions prone to such abuse of their authority. The fact that there is impunity in play worsens the situation because they know they can get away without any punishment. “To show men that crimes can be pardoned, and that punishment is not their inevitable consequence, encourages the illusion of impunity and induces the belief that, since there are pardons, those sentences which are not pardoned are violent acts of force rather than the products of justice.” - Cesare Beccaria 

One of the worse outcomes of power abuse is sexual harassment, rape, grooming let alone domestic violence, a phenomenon that has increased sharply in recent years. An employer has no business with a man's personality. Employment is a specific contract calling for a specific performance... Any attempt to go beyond that is usurpation. It is immoral as well as an illegal intrusion of privacy. It is abuse of power. An employee owes no "loyalty," he owes no "love" and no "attitudes" - he owes performance and nothing else. .... The task is not to change personality, but to enable a person to achieve and to perform. - Peter Drucker 

Abuse of power is the result of arrogance and failure to assume responsibility. Especially the people in authority need to be role models for our society and lead an exemplary life. In order to avoid such phenomena and conduct we must offer our children a better education, a holistic ethical and moral education and of course that starts in the family with parents having a pivotal central role for their children which is the base and cornerstone of society.