What is Integral Education?
Integral Education is a philosophy and practice of education for the whole child: body, emotions, mind, soul, and spirit. The modern practice of education for utility or for productivity is not enough for the children of the 21st century. It ignores the highest and truest parts of their being. Too often it ignores the physical and emotional development of the child as well.
Integral Education unites the ancient educational goal of self-knowledge with the modern goal of world-knowledge. Both of these goals are admirable, and the two of them must go hand-in-hand in any educational system that is integral.
Integral Education assists the child to discover for himself/herself out of his/her own temperament and being the aim of life and the purpose that he/she has to play in it. If everyone truly has a spark of the Divine as the center of his/her being, a comprehensive education must do more than ignore it or passively acknowledge it. Integral Education takes that spark, the soul, as the guiding principle for the education of each child.
“The role of the teacher is to put the child upon the right road to his own perfection and encourage him to follow it, watching, suggesting, helping, but not imposing or interfering.” – Kireet Joshi
This vision of integral education is based on the pioneering work in education of Sri Aurobindo and his collaborator, Mirra Alfassa, known as the Mother. Integral education already has a developed body of theory and more than half a century of refinement and practice at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in Pondicherry, India, as well as at many other locations.
Integral Education Philosophy
Integral education begins with the inborn qualities of each child: eyes big with wonder; boundless curiosity; small hands extended in trust to people and the world; and a profound interest in meaningful activity, self-expression, courage, laughter, and love. Integral education prizes these qualities. They are the first expression of the divine spark at the center of each child’s being. A free progress system can honor that spark by encouraging all children to excel in areas where they show the inner urge to learn. A rich and balanced curriculum in the humanities, arts, and sciences offers many opportunities for the children’s qualities to take shape, grow, and help them to make their connection to the wider world. When successful, such an education allows children to discover their unique life purpose, and – by developing that purpose – to help build a better world for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Integral Education aims to develop the whole child. The use of the term integral describes the approach to education that is based upon three key premises:
1. That each human being has many dimensions of being: including the physical, instinctual/emotional, mental, and inner and higher spiritual. Each of these parts of the human personality has distinct impulses and often contradictory tendencies that can create many difficulties or even catastrophic consequences in a person’s life. The solution offered by integral education to this divided state of ordinary human nature is to integrate the individual’s parts and dimensions around that divine spark, the soul, as expressed in the person’s central life purpose. This integration of the human personality is the foundation for any happy, disciplined, and rewarding life. Therefore integral education encourages each child to look within, progressively discover his or her unique aim in life, and harmonize the divergent impulses of one’s complex nature around one’s inmost purpose and being. This is the essence of the ancient ideal of education: know thy Self.
2. That there is in the world an interrelatedness that extends to all processes of life and all areas of knowledge. In this emerging world view, everything is intimately connected with everything else. The advent of the global world culture; the emergent ecological awareness and respect for the natural processes of Mother Earth; modern scientific discoveries from quantum physics to astronomy to the new geology to trans personal psychology; and the convergence of minds, economies, and technologies all point to this truth. Integral education provides this relational angle of vision to its students naturally, highlighting the interrelatedness of different areas of knowledge as well as the special strengths and values of each one. This synthesis of the detailed and specialized disciplines of human knowledge is the essence of the modern ideal of education: integrated world knowledge.
3. That the synthesis and harmonization of the ancient aim of self-knowledge and the modern aim of world knowledge will be the keynote of all progressive education in the new millennium. For in truth neither can be complete without the other. World knowledge and the power it brings is a dangerous commodity when entrusted to the hands of those who lack the wisdom that self-knowledge brings. Self-knowledge, without a firm understanding of the world as it is, lacks the power and the practical knowledge to envision and create a better world for all. Integral education therefore aims to integrate these two key areas of human knowledge in order to provide the child with the means to know both self and world, and to discover one’s true role, place, and aim in life.
The Whole Child
Every human being is essentially a spiritual being, or soul, who is born with a mind, life-energy (vital), and body. These parts of human nature must be integrated in healthy ways so that we can realize our highest and truest potentialities. Integral Education, focusing on developing these four aspects of being with an emphasis on balance and harmonious growth, therefore aims for the following goals:
- 1. For the Mind: a proper training of the mental faculties in the fields of the various Humanities and Sciences;
- 2. For the Emotions: an effective channeling of the life-energy into pursuits that contribute to the healthy and creative growth of the personality
- 3. For the Body: the fullest possible development of the physical being;
- 4. For the Soul: the bringing forth of spiritual qualities that allow the soul to come forward and gradually begin to govern the rest of the being
The aim of Integral Education is, therefore, to prepare our students to not only “succeed” in life and to function in society to the best of their abilities, but to embrace and exceed this purpose by increasing their perfectibility in all areas of human life and existence.
Education for the Mental Being
- To develop mental skills focused on concentration, observation, precise recording, and faithful memory.
- To develop the expansive, wide, complex, rich, and diverse facets of the mind.
- To organize ideas around a central idea or a higher ideal that will serve as a guide in life.
- To control ones thoughts, and reject undesirable thoughts.
- To develop silent, calm, mental receptivity to inspirations coming from higher regions of the being.
Education for the Vital (Emotional) Being
To develop and utilize the sense organs:
- so that they are far more accurate and sensitive than what is normally expected of them;
- in order to cultivate discrimination and aesthetic sense, the capacity to choose
- and take up what is beautiful and harmonious, simple, healthy, and pure.
To become conscious and master of one’s own character:
Free Progress Education
An important feature of our Integral Education program is the Free-Progress Method. In order to meet the individual needs of each child, embracing their whole being – mind, vital (emotions and character), body, and psychic (soul) – it is essential to provide students with opportunities to learn in a structured, yet free, environment that facilitates their maximum progress. This means that Integral Education does not stress Freedom at the expense of Progress, nor Progress at the expense of Freedom. Moreover, it does not place greater emphasis on academics at the expense of the arts, nor on arts at the expense of academics.
A Free-Progress Method allows students to excel in areas where they show special promise and have greater interest, while encouraging them to develop their whole being. The ideal to be aimed at is that education must serve the needs of the soul of the child, allowing it to follow its own unique and special rule of existence, what in India is called, Dharma. According to the Mother, the goal of such a Free-Progress Method is “a progress guided by the soul and not subject to habits, conventions or preconceived ideas.”
To make this approach practical and meaningful, Free-Progress method embraces the following principles and practices:
Children learn in a dynamic, flexible, innovative, and engaging learning environment. This means that students will have greater flexibility in choosing specific topics in all areas of study. This flexibility in curriculum implementation creates for the learner greater meaning, and thereby sustains greater interest and diligence in the learning process. The learning environment is rich in resources, providing a variety of hands-on activities, books and literature, audio-visual media, and computer technology. The school is structured, not with classrooms with desks in rows, but rather with stations and centers where students can gain first-hand experiences that are rewarding and enjoyable. Within a Free-Progress setting children find that there are many opportunities for explorations and healthy experiences of all kinds, both in the classroom and in the community at-large.
The learning process honours individual differences and cultural diversity. While respecting the individual needs of students, the Free-Progress Method allows them to explore unity in the diversity found in the world, and do so both individually, and within in groupings that transcend individual and cultural differences. An appreciation of what it means to be a Global Citizen is fostered throughout, and a respect for the cultures and traditions of the world is nurtured. Celebration of what it means to be a progressive, evolving human being, manifesting the highest and greatest good, is modeled and encouraged at all times.
Teachers respect the developmental needs of each student. All learning that takes place in a Free-Progress setting is achieved as developmentally appropriate for each individual. This means that children are not forced to prematurely develop skills for which they are not ready. At the same time, they are encouraged the “push the limits” of their growth and abilities where they demonstrate the readiness and capacity to do so. The tendency to push a child prematurely can result in the child becoming turned-off to the school experience, and thereby learn the wrong lesson, namely, that learning is not fun, not rewarding, and not interesting. By respecting their true needs, as evidenced by the students’ behaviours, interests, and capacities, the teachers help them to discover the joy of learning and to eventually become entirely self-motivated learners.
Fosters the development of consciousness, inner power, and the joy of learning. By providing a dynamic, flexible, innovative, and an engaging learning environment, honoring individual differences and cultural diversity, and having teachers that respect the developmental needs of each student, the Free-Progress Method allows children to experience a more natural, harmonious, and joyful emergence of their potentialities, and interests. And this brings greater joy in their exploration of Self and World. They enter into a school environment that is a portal to the World, rather than an artificial setting, isolated from real-life explorations. They become students of life, through the development of Self-Awareness, by discovering their deepest values and cultivating the self-discipline to follow those values, and by experiencing that life-long learning is the essence of a happy, productive, and rewarding life.
The Free-Progress Method meets and exceeds societal expectations for preschoolers. The learning standards of the society in which we live are not neglected. How those expectations are met, however, will occur in a much different way than is commonly found in many preschools. Here the curriculum, rather than being a mile wide and an inch deep, goes into much more depth of meaning, develops more refined capacities in the learners, and helps them to become the master of their own existence by providing the freedom for them to discover and manifest their own respective Dharma.