The Holistic Learning and Spirituality in Education Professional Interest

Communities of ASCDpresents

Powerful Conversations

about

the spiritual and soulful

aspects of the whole child

Gary Babiuk

Co-facilitator of PIC

Assistant Professor

Faculty of Education

University of Manitoba

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Presentation Plan

Introductions

Sharing successes and challenges

What is holistic learning?

What is spirit and soul in education, the inner life of students?

How can we nurture these in our classrooms?

Examples

Sharing Ideas / Discussion / Questions / Share Resources

Introduction to the Group

1.Name / Position / School / Location

2.Why did you choose this session?

Try to keep it to under a minute

Pair and Share

1. What are you currently doing that seems to be bringing the essence of spirituality / soulfulness into the classroom / school?

2. What challenges / issues /questions / concerns do you have?

In March 2007, during the annual conference in Anaheim, California the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) launched a new initiative committed to improving the education of The Whole Child. It also outlined a The Learning Compact that stated, “The prevailing question is not about

what children need to succeed. The research is clear. They need supportive environments that nurture their social, emotional, physical, ethical, civic, creative, and cognitive development.  

The question becomes: Who bears responsibility for creating this environment? The answer is: The whole community” (2007, p. 10).

For further information or to find The Whole Child Report online visit www.ascd.org/ and choose from the Initiative and Programs Menu on the left side of the page The Whole Child.

This initiative and compact certainly moved beyond the narrow academic achievement focus of children’s intellectual levels as measured by standardized tests, under the influence of the No Child Left Behind policies. It’s measure of success, academic achievement, is a short-term goal, a point in time, measurable and sometimes fleeting.

On the other hand

a focus on the significance of what is being learned and its relationship to the whole child is a long-term goal and harder to measure. Both are needed as measures of success. The focus on academic success over the last few years has left education unbalanced.

We have sacrificed the long-term goals that are significant for students such as their dreams, their gifts to the world, for short term learning success, higher test scores.

The ASCD initiative did turn the focus toward the needs of the whole child, an attempt to balance our success goals, but there seems to be an aspect of the inner life of the child, the spiritual or soulful, that is absent from this wider focus.

It is interesting that ASCD had focused on spirituality in education in its 1998/1999 edition of Educational Leadership entitled “The Spirit of Education”.

In that issue a number of authors explored spirituality and religion in education. One of the contributors to that issue, Rachel Kessler (2000), indicates that although “the fears of integrating a spiritual dimension into the classroom have not gone away

… the editors [of Educational Leadership] received a windfall of unsolicited manuscripts of outstanding quality and won a Bronze Excel Award from the Society for National Association Publication for the issue. This journal has begun a long-overdue conversation that we can no longer postpone-a rare open moment in ourfield and in our culture to speak what has been unspeakable for decades. (p. xiii)

It seems that ASCD has missed this opportunity to continue the dialogue about the “unspeakable”, the spiritual nature of children in The Whole Child initiative.

Although there is a focus on the emotional aspect in the ASCD initiative, which according to Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, is a crucial component of determining how well children learn, and creativity is mentioned, a more expansive view, which would include the spiritual or “inner” life of the child is ignored.

For many this area has not been included in educational discussions because it is seen as synonymous with religion, which in the case of the United States is not allowed through the separation of church and state in their constitution.

So how can we fill the gap left in the ASCD Whole Child initiative?

How can we help educators and parents see that dealing with spirituality and inner life in schools and classrooms does not have to religious?

Before we look how we can develop classrooms and schools that create space for students to connect to their inner life / spirit.

Lets look at few definitions of what it might mean to be holistic, spiritual and soulful in our teaching.

Principles Holistic Education

BalanceInclusionConnection

From “The Holistic Curriculum” by John P. Miller

BalanceInterdependent / Independent

Environment / Economy

Sacred / Material

Inner / Outer

Global / Region / Nation

Balance continued

Female / Male

Process / content

Imagination / Knowledge

Intuitive / Rational

Quality / Quantity

InclusivenessTransmission

Curriculum ------------------------- Student

TransactionCurriculum <------------------------- Student

TransformationCurriculum intersects with Student

ConnectionLinear Thinking - Intuition

Relationship between Mind and Body

Relationship among domains of knowledge

Relationship between self and community

Relationship to the earth

Relationship to the soul (inner life)

Description of Soul and Spirit “There was a time when people reflected

deeply in the nature of the “interior life,” as they called it, and the meaning of the cosmos. Today we surrender most of this reflection to scientists. Not having thought much about their inner lives, people are often confused when faced with the traditional distinction between the soul and the spirit, but distinguishing these two dimensions of experience can be helpful.”

“We might notice, for instance, how much we are motivated by the spirit in our concentration on the future, on understanding, and on achievement. We might then see how we neglect the soul, which has complementary but very different values, such as slowness, the past, inaction, feeling, mystery, and imagination.”

“To suggest a distinction between soul and spirit is not to advocate a separation of the two. In the contrary, it seems best to arrive at a place where in effect the two work together, as in a marriage or partnership.”  From Thomas Moore’s Care of the Soul

(p32)

From Carl Jung

“Without soul, spirit is as dead as matter, because both are artificial abstractions; whereas man [humans] originally regarded spirit as a volatile body, and matter as not lacking in soul.”From Thomas Moore’s Care of the Soul (p33)

From the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet“Soul is at home in the deep, shaded valleys. Heavy torpid flowers saturated with black grow there. The rivers flow like warm syrup. They empty into huge oceans of soul. Spirit is land of high, white peaks and glittering jewel-like lakes and flowers. Life is sparse and sounds travel great distances….Desolation is of the depths, as is brooding. At these heights, spirit leaves soul far behind.” (p34)

From James Moffett’s Chapter on Spirituality and Education in The Universal Schoolhouse 

Meaning of Spirituality:

Secular meaning

…the sense of moral or benevolent. In common parlance, spirited people are simply full of life and of themselves.”

Team spirit or “esprit de core”  

James Moffett continued

‘witty’ or ‘lively’ as well as ‘scared’ 

Society has secularized over the centuries, the sense of spirit and its cognates has also become more material and metaphorical.

We drink spirits and eat ‘soul’ food

Sacred meaning- 

“The common denominator might be of morality and mind, energy and essence. Even these material meanings converge on the immaterial. Morality comes from mores and or customs and therefore does not depend on religion. Nor do vitality and energy, mind and wit. The essence of something is abstract and may perfectly well be understood as purely a mental or psychological category.”

“Morality contrasts with materialism in the sense of selfishness and meanness. Mind commonly contrasts with matter, as does energy in the scientific sense. Philosophers contrast essence with existence. So a concept of immateriality underlies even with secular, material meanings.”

James Moffett’s The Universal Schoolhouse (p.18-19)

Even were we not to accept any metaphysical meanings of spirituality, this convergence of secular meanings alone warrants spiritualizing education.

It is intended to include everyone

- it brings out our daily efforts to improve our life and not just think of our own wellbeing

 

- it energizes these efforts with a life force common to everything

- it validates the inner life and sense of personal well-being

- it calls us back from surfaces to essences

- it invites us to seek commonalities beneath commonplaces, for the sake of mind

as well as morality

- it’s a toast to wits with spirit

“Even in its most sacred sense, spirituality does not depend on religion. Spirituality may be what all religions share… “ (p22) Spirituality as attention and perception of yourself and the world around you.

In Montgomery Halford (1998) the author outlines a interview with Nel Noddings, she states,

“Spirituality is an attitude or a way of life that recognizes something we might call spirit. Religion is a specific way of exercising that spirituality and usually requires an institutional affiliation. Spirituality does not require an institutional connection. (p. 29)

In his book The Element, Sir Ken Robinson (2009)

describes another aspect of the inner life, what he calls “the element”. It is more expansive than just creativity as he defines it as ”… the meeting point between natural aptitude and personal passion” (p. 21).

He also states that “the element” is more than just happiness or enjoyment but is when people

“… connect with something fundamental to their sense of identity, purpose, and well-being. Being there provides a sense of self-revelation, of defining who they really are and what they’re really meant to be doing with their lives” (p. 21).

Why is it so important to include the spiritual, inner life of the whole child in classroom and schools?

Parker Palmer (1998) indicates that “spirituality – the human quest for connectedness-is not something that needs to be ‘brought into’ or ‘added onto’ the curriculum. It is at the heart of every subject we teach, where it waits to be brought forth” (p. 8).

Douglas Sloan (2005) suggests that “ … our modern educational assumptions and practices imply images of the child and of the adult as essentially other than human - merely an animal to be socialized, a computer to be programmed, a unit of production to be harnessed and utilized, a consumer to be won…” (p. 27).  

He advocates that we can still turn this modern trend around and assist our students to develop

“… a being of body, soul, and spirit; a being of interwoven intelligence, emotion, intention, and perception, all capable of infinite growth and development.

This, our full human being, contains within itself the resources for countering and transforming all the forces that would reduce the human to nonhuman”.

(pp. 43-44)

All of these authors are considering our inner life. This is the place that we think, dream, and try to understand our place in the world and universe. These aspects of the human condition are not always addressed in schools, as there is a fear of bringing religion into a secular public school. But no matter what we do, our children bring this inner life with them into our classrooms, just as they bring their emotions, thoughts, and physical needs.

How can we nurture soulfulness and spirituality?

What can we do in our schools and classrooms to provide space for students to connect their inner lives with their educational lives?

From Parker J. Palmer’s To Know As We Are Known. Education as a Spiritual Journey (p. 71-75, 1993)A learning space has three major characteristics, three essential dimensions:

Openness -

It is more than the commonsense meaning of space. To create space is to remove the impediments to learning that we find around and within us, to set aside the barriers behind which we hide so that truth cannot seek us out. So creating a learning space means resisting our own tendency to clutter up our consciousness and our classrooms.

Boundaries –

The openness of a space is created by the firmness of its boundaries. The teacher that wants to create an open learning space must define and defend its boundaries with care. Not only will this keep the space open, it will also keep the students from fleeing that space.

Hospitality -

means receiving each other, our struggles, our newborn ideas, with openness and care. It means creating an ethos in which the community of troth can form, the pain of truth’s transformations be borne.  

How do we create a learning space with these qualities?- physical arrangement such as a discussion circle with the teacher in the circle (or Circle of Voices)- Conceptual space through assigned readings and lecturing to set the stage for critical discussion and the need for student attention and critical questioning, drama, silence, and making space for feelings.

From John P. Miller’s Education and the soul. Toward a Spiritual Curriculum (2000)A soulful curriculum recognizes and

gives priority to the inner life. It seeks a balance and connection between our inner and outer lives. Traditionally, schools have ignored the child’s inner life: in fact, our whole culture tends to ignore the inner life.

Elements:

- Visualization / Guided Imagery- Creative Writing / Poetry- Storytelling- Autobiography / Journal

Writing- Visual Arts- Drama / Improvisation - Music / Dance- Integrating subjects through

the Arts

- Meditation

- Relaxation

- Skill Development( Intra and Interpersonal Skills)

- Connecting Subject Matter withStudent’s Inner Life

- Connection to Earth – gardening,outdoor experiences, etc

Soulful School –

There are no recipes for developing a sanctuary: or a soulful school. However we can begin to create conditions that allow for the development of soul. Some things school staffs can do include:

1. Recognize the importance of the nonverbal / silence

2. Pay attention to the aesthetic environment of the school and classroom

3. Tell stories about the school

4. Have celebrations and rituals

5. Truth and authenticity

6. Nourishing Voices

Soulful Teacher – How we can nurture the teacher’s soul in ways that will make teaching richer and more fulfilling. This is a radical departure from traditional professional development but does not displace PD but helps ground and balance the teacher.  * Contemplation - regular practice in yoga, tai chi, meditation, walking

*Living Contemplatively

Soulful Learning

The principles are:1. The sacred and secular cannot be separated2. The dominance of the secular has led to a repression of our spiritual life.3. An awareness of soul can restore a balance to our educational vision.

4. We can nourish the student’s soul through various curriculum approaches and teaching / learning strategies.5. The authentic and caring presence of the teacher can nourish the student’s soul.6. Soulful Education must be accountable7. Teachers need to nourish their own souls.8. Parents can do much to nourish their children’s souls.

From John P. Miller’s Education for Wisdom and Compassion. Creating Conditions for Timeless Learning. (2006)

- Work on Yourself

- Be Fully Present

- Recognize the Importance of the Nonverbal

- Honor Silence

- Develop a Rhythm

- Integrated Timeless Learning with other forms of Learning

- Balancing Spontaneity and Planning

- Don’t Forget the Body

- Live your own truth

- Acknowledge the Mystery

- Let Your Humanity Come Through

How do we bring about the holistic curriculum in schools?We must realize that change is inherent is the life of school and that it is interdependent and dynamic. We must no longer try to resist or impose something artificial on the students and ourselves; instead, we give something that is life-sustaining and vital. Here are a few principles that are part of an organic approach to change (p.195-97)

1. Vision is an important catalyst for change

2. Vision is organic

3. Have a focus, but avoid detailed plans

4. Change occurs at the most basic level from inside out, in other words, deep change occurs when it arises from within the teacher’s being.

5. Accept conflict

6. Change is not linear

7. Acknowledge the non-verbal dimension

8. See the school as a living organism, not a factory

From Rachael Kessler’s Nourishing Adolescents’ Spirituality in Holistic Learning and Spirituality in Education (2006) “To achieve the safety and openness required for meaningful exploration of spiritual development, students and I work together carefully for weeks and months. We create ground rules – conditions that students name as essential for speaking about what matters most to them.” (p.102) The teacher also has to be willing to nurture their own spiritual development.

The following are the domains of adolescent spiritual development:1. Search for Meaning and Purpose. 2. Longing for Silence and Solitude 3. Hunger for Joy and Delight 4. Creative Drive 5. Call for Initiation 6. Deep Connection

- to self- to one other person or to a meaningful

group- to nature, to their lineage or to a higher

power

Teaching “about” Spirituality

Teaching “for” Spirituality

Teaching “with” Spirituality

Creativity as an entry point into the education of the spirit / soul through drama / art / dance / music

Practical Examples

1. Reggio Emilia (Fu et al, 2002)

2. “Big Picture” Schools (Littky & Grabelle, 2004)

3. Jubilee School (Babiuk, 2000)

4. Meditation in Grade 8 classroom (MEd thesis in progress)

5. Touching Hearts, Educating Minds School (Njus, 2009)

More examples

6. Finding Soul in Schools – (Kessler, 2000)

7. A public school community in Toronto, The Whole Child School, in 2007 created a school based on the ASCD Whole Child initiative and a holistic curriculum (JP Miller, Whole Child Education, 2010, pp. 117-127).

- Finally, in keeping with a long American tradition of pragmatism and with the strategy of the seventeenth-century mathematician Blaise Pascal, why not assume that the spiritual view is true? Give it the benefit of the doubt? People who do so tend to feel better, treat others better, and fare better in their endeavors. If both the secular and sacred understandings of spirituality would bring to educational reform just what has been missing, what is there to lose? Even if you understand spirituality only as metaphor or myth, it can help you to think big and see deep when contemplating education and societal transformation. You don’t have to convert to benefit. Since an education that accommodates all possibilities for everybody is desirable anyway, it does not depend on believing in Spirit. But if a metaphysical framework helps us learn to save either our hides or our souls, regenerate society and nature, why not bet on life being more rather than less.” (p32)

Palmer (1998) indicates that he is not an advocate for state-sanctioned religion or any imposition of religion in public school but does advocate for the exploration of the spiritual dimension. As he states so eloquently“But I am equally passionate about

not violating the deepest needs of the human soul, which education does with some regularity.

As a teacher, I have seen the price we pay for a system of education so fearful of things spiritual that it fails to address the real issues of our lives - dispensing facts at the expense of meaning, information at the expense of wisdom. The price is a school system that alienates and dulls us, that graduates young people who have had no mentoring in the questions that both enliven and vex the human spirit. (p. 6) 

In our efforts to improve the achievement of our students let us not forget the spiritual dimension. Let us all work together to ensure that our students learn in a “spirited” learning community that provides time and space for them to connect their inner lives to their educational lives.

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