In this article, I will explore what is meant by holistic education, which will hopefully encourage educators to rethink educational systems in the West, and include more arts into school curriculums to enhance human development.

            Before reading from Susan Wright’s book, The Arts: Young Children, and Learning, I did not quite formulate how education could be thought of in terms of being holistic. I had always used the term holistic in the “body, mind, and spirit” sense in regards to food, medicine, and well being. Holistic to me has always meant that philosophies of the east could be incorporated by adding to and educating the philosophies of the west. A holistic approach represents a circular image in my mind. It takes the bigger picture into consideration, and it is not limited by any set linearism of time or thought processes.            

According to Wright, “many people are seeking an educational system where a balance is given to intellectual, interpersonal, social, emotional, and spiritual components of learning- knowledge that will help children acquire the holistic background necessary to cope with the demands of contemporary society.”  (Wright 37)

            This idea that everything is connected transfers to almost every subject. In science and nature we have the ecosystem. Mathematics and chemistry have formulas that produce a certain result after each step of calculation. Medicine, even western medicine, is administered to treat certain systems in the body. It would be foolish to only treat the symptom without having the knowledge of where the root of the problem lies in relation to the rest of the body. In fact, that is why there have been so many lawsuits against the pharmaceutical companies. There is not enough testing and thought as far as the side effects of a drug. In education, how does the learning of one subject affect the learning of others? Are all subjects interconnected?

            In studying Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, I have begun to see how school curriculums can be recreated and tailored to work with different kinds of learning by nurturing specific intelligences within individual students. A goal of this paper is to map out strategies with these concepts and demonstrate how school curriculums can be reshaped to better meet the learning and developmental needs of students via the arts and creative teaching.

            One thing Gardner emphasizes about the use of the brain regarding the intelligences is that not one functions independently of the others, rather, they function concurrently, if not, simultaneously and interchangeably of one another.

            For example, in a special education course I took, drama educator, Russell Granet facilitated a lesson where all the students were asked to draw a circle to represent their brain. We were then asked to draw how much space, if any, each of Gardner’s intelligences they thought they possessed in scale and relation to the other intelligences. When this was done, there was a discussion as to why we mapped out their brains the way they did. Everyone was then asked to hold up their brains just to show how different and unique everyone’s was. This was to demonstrate, not only the differences and degrees of everyone’s intelligences, but how everyone might have a different or a preferred way of learning. Granet also pointed out that teachers often teach in the way they learn. As far as the school curriculum is concerned, administrators and teachers need to take into account these different methods of learning and teaching, while identifying the strengths and weaknesses of individual students.

            In the book, The Arts and Human Development, Gardner mentions three systems that operate within the process of human development: making, perceiving, and feeling. “The making system concerns the schemes the organism is capable of performing; the perceiving system concerns the aspects of the environment to which the organism is sensitive; the feeling system concerns the organism’s phenomenal or subject experience.”

(Gardner 37)    This is especially important in showing how an artist is “made”. Gardner extends even further that the making system refers to the creativity of the artist, the perceiving system to the critic, and the feeling system to the audience. (42) So, while these three systems work in conjunction with each other within the individual, they also work and interact outside with the individuals that are involved with the artist’s created encounter. “Development can be seen as a process wherein the three initially discrete systems gradually begin to influence each other, with interaction eventually becoming so dominant that each system inevitably involves the other ones.” (39)  Gardner is describing how a developmental system functions within the micro or macro organisms and how it is all connected, how we are all connected. Again, this to me sounds holistic. But, perhaps at this stage, this is only touching upon some developmental psychology involved in the artistic process.

            This past October, I had the pleasure of hearing Gardner speak about his new book, “From Multiple Intelligences to Future Minds.”  While reviewing his theory of multiple intelligences, he spoke about both the traditional western and eastern views of intelligence along with its assessments of it. In the west, he said that intelligence was thought of very singularly, that it is “highly heritable”- meaning that if you have it you have it, and there is nothing you can do about the amount you have of it. In the east, the fundamental view of intelligence is dependent upon how hard one works. The harder you work, the more intelligent you will become. Growing old is respected as growing wise, not as a decline of vitality, like it is in the youth-worshipped west. Applying the eastern principle of working hard to increase intelligences gives the larger population of non-prodigy students hope and a chance to develop both strengths and weaknesses of intelligences that have been possessed since birth. There is no doubt that Gardner supports the phenomenon of natural ability or intelligences present at birth, and

identifying levels of ability that are present in students creates a foundational roadmap for further development in their skills or artistry.

            It is unclear as to whether or not psychometricians have effective enough tests to determine if the arts education actually increases standardized test scores. But, research does indicate that the arts or creative education increases the level of many skills in many subjects.

            As a theatre arts educator, I would like to veer my focus from the arts in general to theatre, literature, and language arts. In our education system, language and literature are probably more accepted and respected as academically solid subjects than theatre, but in essence, they are all very similar, especially when it comes to measuring verbal and linguistic intelligence. Plays or drama are a form literature, in which styles can also be traced throughout history. These dramatic literary works can also reflect and teach about the societies and times in which they were created. But, in terms of their developmental validity, they also function very similarly to their literary and linguistic art siblings. All literary art forms serve as the most efficient tools to develop language, literacy, and communication in general. Listening to a story or viewing a play creates empathy within the spectator (as well as the performers). Empathy is not only important as a life skill, but it is an important factor for getting students to see things and to communicate objectively. Empathy results from relating to the characters in the story. Empathy also follows from seeing new points of views and perspectives. As stated before, drama and literature can give a bigger picture to history and the society in which it was produced. It gives insight to sociological, psychological, philosophical, and ideological frameworks of the people from that particular time period. Visual arts can do this as well. Look at how much the history of art has contributed to our understanding of the time and culture that it was created in. One image that immediately comes to my mind is Delacroix’s La Liberté. This painting, along with the writings of Jean-Paul Marat help to complete our understanding of what the French Revolution was like (not to mention Weiss’s 1963 play, Marat Sade).

            David Hargreaves, in his book, Children and the Arts, analyzes how the practice of all art forms contributes to different development skills in children. I find his chapter, Children as Writers to give much insight into how children develop their storytelling skills, along with their skills of what he calls social role-taking:

            “We have seen how children spontaneously create imaginary roles, actions, and events, and how they coordinate sequential plans or narrative structures in their play, their drawing and story-telling, sometimes alone but often in collaboration with others. This process continues once children have begun to express their narratives in written form.”   (Hargreaves 94)  

            Interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences are in no doubt being exercised and expanded by storytelling. Natural developmental stages include autonomy and seeking one’s identity in society. Experiencing and appreciating different theatrical roles presents a child with a very useful means for understanding social roles. Child “play” is enhanced, and may reach new heights in human development, where regular play may be limited in.

            Hans and Shulasmith Kreitler, authors of Psychology of the Arts, ask the relevant questions “How is empathy manifested in the context of experiencing art?” and “What determines imitation and cognitive elaboration in the confrontation with each of the arts?”  (Kreitler 271)  To suggest that empathy is experienced as a result of peer pressure or a teacher defining when and why a student should feel empathetic, is possible, but it can not be fully responsible for the emotionally triggered response in the student after his or her encounter with the artistic piece. More than likely, even with the influence of others, an emotional response is given as a result of internalizing one’s own feelings and the processing and creating of one’s very own interpretation within their individual minds. This is the beauty of artistic expression, subjectivity, and the allowance for free-critical-independent thinkers.

            Going back to Wright’s chapter on Artistic Learning and Knowing, I want to emphasize to educators on what she says about “focusing the attention on how rather than what to learn will require some fundamental changes to educational practice- not only to our social values about education, but also to many of the learning activities that occur within our schools.”  (Wright 39)  It is very important for us to revisit our social values when forming and carrying out our school curriculums. How this material is taught in ways where students can truly understand not only the material presented, but themselves and each other; more about the human experience on this earth. This is one of art’s sole purposes.

            For those who are seeking to further their understanding about the role of arts education, I leave you with the wise words of Brazilian teacher, philosopher, and activist, Paolo Freire from his Pedagogy of Freedom- his comments on holistic education- for the bodily (kinesthetic), mindful (emotional), and soulful (spiritual) intellects):

            “What is important in teaching is not the mechanical repetition of this or that gesture but a comprehension of the value of sentiments, emotions, and desires. Of the insecurity that can only be overcome by inspiring confidence. Of the fear that can only be abated to the degree that courage takes its place. There is no true teaching preparation possible separated from a critical attitude that spurs ingenuous curiosity to become epistemological curiosity, together with the recognition of the value of emotions, sensibility, affectivity, and intuition.”   (Freire 48)

   -Written by Marisol Tirelli Rivera, Fall 2007       

References:

Freire, P. (1998).  Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage.  New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Gardner, H. (1973). The Arts and Human Development: A Psychological Study of the   Artistic Process.  New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Hargreaves, D.J. (1989). Children and the Arts.  Philadelphia: Open University Press.

Kreitler, H, and Kreitler, S. (1972). Psychology of the Arts.  Durham, N.C: Duke University Press.

Wright, S. (2003).  The Arts: Young Children and Learning.  Boston: Allyn and Bacon.