by Mandy Stussman ’14

The average American student spends more than 4,000 hours in high school. Over 700 days of their adolescence are spent in classrooms. All that time is devoted to thought, enrichment and learning. Knowledge helps people process the world around us.  It is a weapon, sharpened through years of schooling.

Some educators, however, worry that traditional American education dulls the full potential of students by focusing on linear brain processes and logic at the expense of creativity and intuition.

The human brain consists of two major masses – the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere. The left brain deals with language, numbers, critical thinking and logical reasoning. Emotions, sensations and intuitions are associated with the right brain. It absorbs music and art, responds to visuals and sees things as a whole.

Modern public schooling in America historically focuses on the intellectual benefits of the left hemisphere in all classes aside from art and music. A quote attributed to Albert Einstein says “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

As defined by Ron Miller, the founder of the journal Holistic Education Review, holistic education is based on the premise that each person finds his identity and purpose through connections to the community, the natural world, and humanitarian values such as compassion and peace. It is the weaving of new knowledge into everything students already understand, and the combining of all subjects into one instead of isolated paths. Students learn through relating instead of through repetition, and use both sides of the brain to absorb the information.

The idea of holistic and whole-brain learning emerged in the 1980s as parents searched for a more fulfilling education for their children. Lucila Telles, a Graduate Rudge of The Ohio State University, which largely utilizes holistic teaching, describes a holistic education as, “rooted in concepts of wholeness, integration and interconnectedness.”

This type of learning has sprouted in all levels of schooling and is widely used in both Canada and Europe, though scarcely in the United States. However, American school systems are increasingly embedding holistic learning into new curriculum and instruction. MCPS’ 2.0 curriculum aims to combine subjects and make connections to the real world that would utilize both brain hemispheres and develop students who can think creatively by using the information they learn in school in all parts of their lives.