Back to Whole.

BACK TO WHOLE. Eisner, E., Education Leadership, 2005, 63(1), 14-18. For over 100 years, progressive educators have reminded us that we should pay attention to the whole child. Unfortunately, instead of looking to holistic practices, the current direction in educational practice and policy focuses overwhelmingly on academic achievement. This is but one element of student learning and development. Eisner suggests adopting a comprehensive approach to learning, one that recognizes that successful young people are knowledgeable, emotionally and physically healthy, motivated, civically inspired, engaged in the arts, prepared for economic self-sufficiency, and ready for a world beyond their own borders. Students would be better off, the author says, if schools focused on a definition of education that results in students learning what to do when they don't know what to do.

Test preparation is a prime example of schools diverting time and attention away from intrinsically meaningful activities. Standardized achievement tests are costly and restrictive. Students are robbed of a quality education in the pursuit of achieving higher test scores. Eisner suggests that students' social and emotional lives need to be as much a priority as measured achievement, and that cognitive development should not be the only focus.

Implementation of a progressive pedagogy is difficult, and the philosophy is misunderstood and devalued by many educators. Particularly in the context of today's political mandates for testing, teachers must become change agents by working to convince politicians and stakeholders that holistic education promotes greater possibilities than does more restrictive approaches. Reviewed by Dimple J. Martin, doctoral student in early childhood education, University of Alabama at Birmingham.