A proposed alternative public school in Toronto, using a holistic approach to education. ⇒
2 December 2008, late morning
This link was found via Mefi.Projects.
This is a post from my link log: If you click the title of this post you will be taken the web page I am discussing.
They need a better website and editorial assistance. It’s a lot of rambling right now.
And what’s the basis for the 7 teaching principles? Are these principles based on research in education? I do think there should be choices within the public school system. Not sure if I would send my kids to a “holistic” school as described by this website. It sounds a lot like homeschooling.
Stephen Colbert had an economic prof as a guest last night describing some pilot school projects where students receive $50 for getting an A in each subject as a way to provide incentive to stay in schools. http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the-colbert-report/full-episodes/december-1-2008/#clip117434
by tiff on December 2 2008, 6:01 pm #
Yeah, I thought it sounded a bit too new-age granola, but what do I know about schooling children. Maybe my friend Limin has an opinion.
by ramanan on December 2 2008, 6:24 pm #
Yeah, I’m not really good at voicing my opinions through text, but here goes…
I won’t get into the nitty gritty of what holistic education is because you could easily google it for yourselves and by no means am I an expert at it anyway.
It’s definitely a “trendy” (and I use this word without any negative connotations) thing at OISE within certain groups, especially Dr. Jack Miller whom the school references in many of their documents and is on their advisory board.
Again, I stress that I’m not an expert in holistic education, but I do subscribe to many of its ideals and I suppose the Seven Teaching and Learning Principles as well. That being said, I don’t know how I feel about needing a school so focused on these ideals. I’m confident that most teachers understand the strength in teaching towards these themes and creating well rounded students within the public and private school system and do make attempts to teach in this way. Sure, some aren’t as successful as others, but I’m sure that it was thought about at some point in their preparation into the classroom.
I guess this school is just targeting these Seven Principles as a focus of their school, which I can’t necessarily fault them for. It would be like finding fault in the Montessori system (which I am also not an expert in). It’s just a specific lens that these educators are going to teach to and a framework that this school has created based on their thoughts of what kind of environment is needed to foster the full potential of the students.
There is TONS of research supporting teaching practices subscribing to the principles and many professional development initiatives are centered around them. So if you want to call these principles “holistic education” – it’s everywhere already.
I would hope that even for people who aren’t in education a lot of the stuff that this school talks about is just common sense stuff that is important in a child’s schooling. It’s just packaged with a fancy name here.
Sometimes holistic educators have a way of making their stuff sound a little, rainbows, butterflies, unicorns and all that good stuff (again, no negativity here) but that’s just part of the schtick.
I have regular correspondence with one of the members of the advisory board, so perhaps I’ll chat with her about the school and see what’s up.
I’m also planning on taking a course with Dr. Miller in the future – maybe I’ll have more insight about this at that time.
Oh, and I’m hesitant about extrinsic rewards. I learned too much about Alfie Kohn in B.Ed. Pros and cons to everything.
by Limin on December 3 2008, 10:01 pm #
Yeah, paying children to behave, or do well in school, etc, is silly. Not everything you do in life is going to come with a reward. Also, at some point, you’re going to encounter people who won’t buy you a bike if you finish your report at work. It teaches a bad lesson.
by ramanan on December 4 2008, 9:01 am #