Tales for holistic education: (Christopher Gilmore, Director of Britain's Holistic Education Foundation).At school Christopher Gilmore often failed in maths and science. Today, as Education Director of Britain's Holistic Education Holistic education is a philosophy of education based on the premise that each person finds identity, meaning, and purpose in life through connections to the community, to the natural world, and to spiritual values such as compassion and peace. Foundation, he is encouraging children to overcome their fear of numbers and to change their concept of success and failure. Gilmore sees himself as a `maverick'. He has a vision that everybody--and everything--is interdependent. And he says, `Mavericks are much better off staying true to their vision and themselves, by becoming pro-active no matter what the personal sacrifices.' Gilmore has taught all ages. He has 12 years' experience in teaching theatre skills to graduates in London drama schools; 15 years' teaching English language English language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Spoken by about 470 million people throughout the world, English is the official language of about 45 nations. and literature and drama in secondary schools; and he has also taught philosophy to four-year-olds. Fifteen years ago, his experience led him to address the issues of educational development and learning by publishing Dovetales, a series of guidebooks to every subject, pointing out their inter-relations. The books aim to act as a catalyst for personal creativity. Because he was apprehensive at the beginning, Gilmore sent the maths and science books to educators to test and was astonished a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. by the positive feedback he received. Gilmore believes that exam failure can trap students into an unhealthy lifelong self-image. He sees honest self-examination as the best of learning curves and aims to tap youngsters' imagination and intuition. He gives the example of a maths problem devised by a child: `Vince the vegetarian vampire lives on blood oranges and each blood orange in a parcel of six had so many pips in it'. This child went into mathematics through fantasy by creating a puzzle. Gilmore wants to devise systems of education where there is no failure unless the person agrees that it is failure because they feel that they have not achieved what they decided to achieve. Pupils generate their own system and definition and their own timetable. He encourages them not to think of failure but of learning opportunities. He talks of marrying the right (lateral) side of the brain to the left (logical) side of the brain. Even mechanistic mech·a·nis·tic adj. 1. Mechanically determined. 2. Of or relating to the philosophy of mechanism, especially one that tends to explain phenomena only by reference to physical or biological causes. subjects like maths and science benefit when a student goes from the heart to the head. `Leonardo Da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci (də vĭn`chē, Ital. lāōnär`dō dä vēn`chē), 1452–1519, Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, and scientist, b. near Vinci, a hill village in Tuscany. didn't see the division between maths and science and married ideas all the time,' says Gilmore. `It was all interrelated in·ter·re·late tr. & intr.v. in·ter·re·lat·ed, in·ter·re·lat·ing, in·ter·re·lates To place in or come into mutual relationship. in . Albert Einstein failed in maths and science. On the other hand, many people have been injured by art teachers telling kids that trees aren't blue. They obviously didn't know about Picasso's blue period The Blue Period of Picasso is the period between 1901 and 1904, when he painted essentially monochromatic paintings in shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other colors. ! `Prescriptive lesson-plans, like prescribed drugs, offer only limited choices,' says Gilmore. `That's why complementary education, as in the holistic fields of health, is likely to be more person-centred than system-centred. Inwardly in·ward·ly adv. 1. On or in the inside; within: a window opening flared inwardly. 2. Privately; to oneself: and outwardly, life is full of choices. If we ourselves don't learn how to make choices, then they are made for us.' |
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