Holistic Education

Education is a fundamental process of life. No human beings are able to survive properly without education.  Education tells us how to think, how to work properly, how to make decision. Education is not just a matter of training the mind. Training makes for efficiency, but it does not bring about completeness. The training of a human mind is not complete without education. Only because of education a man are able to receive information from the external humanity, to inform him with past and receive all essential information concerning the present. Knowledge and efficiency are necessary, which brings up by education.

Education is one of the important factors which formulate the persona of a person. Education is a productive and beneficial factor in a person’s life. It is everyone’s right to get. In a phenomenon, most people argue that education is just emphasized on intelligent or brain. The intelligence is just measured from how clever the students toward the lesson without seeing their attitude, character, and moral. Without care with what they have done, of course that is so essential in education to build the students’ character. There are so many young generation or teenagers do not able to handle their emotion in facing real life. They do anything without care if it is right or wrong. From the phenomena we are as teachers have to build the students’ good character including their intelligent based on the norm and moral. The character and intelligent are the main points to cover the students based on holistic education. According Ron Miller, founder of the journal Holistic Education Review in Wikipedia, the term of holistic education is philosophy of education based on the premise that each person finds identity, meaning, and purpose in life through connections to the community, to the natural world, and to humanitarian values such as compassion and peace. It refers to the more democratic and humanistic types of alternative education. It aims to call forth from people an intrinsic reverence for life and a passionate love of learning. From the definition above the holistic education focuses on designing the knowledge based on comprehension of the information got by students. Holistic education emphasized on the students’ active in learning. The students will be more active if all their own whether mind, body and soul are involved in their experience. Holistic education is also comprehended with the students’ need and their potential aspect including their intelligent, emotional, art, physic and spiritual. So the learning strategy should be emphasized on how to learn and how the one learned. The students are expected to get the good choice by developing their character and emotion through learning to be. The school should be created as an effective place to achieve the goal of learning between learners and teachers.

The main purpose of holistic education is to develop individual potential become the more enjoyable in learning and interaction with the environment. It is because develop students’ character and emotional. So the foundation of education must be mastered by teacher because the education is normative, it is closed with philosophy and holistic. The holistic education and philosophy need each other because holistic education can be approached from the philosophy or we can say the holistic education is a part of philosophy can not separate each other. The philosophy in holistic education will create a framework in processing knowledge. It can produce the knowledge not contradict with the moral, ethic, and morality because the philosophy will lead the education in the right way.

There are various educational ideology in philosophy has been found by the philosophers, for instance idealism, realism, and pragmatism. However in Indonesia we have Pancasila as the fundamental of educational of philosophy. The Pancasila will strengthen the philosophy of education.

In terms of the various educational ideologies, the philosophy has a job to guide and develop the educational theory become knowledge or pedagogic. The philosophy will be the good fundamental in developing the educational system based on character building and create the value.  The value which arise in philosophy relate with holistic education can be forming the habit of think critically toward the human life problems, and giving comprehension to solve the problems.  So here we can conclude that the holistic education in philosophy is needed to solve the educational problems. It is because the educational problems need philosophy to handle it. The problems are the aim of education based on the life of human being aims and value as guidance of life. Value and aims of life can not approach with science but it must be used philosophy. Philosophy in education will work by a thought method of radical, systematically, and whole of education which categorized into three models speculative, perspective and analytic. The application of the model with contribute to the education than make it balance. The philosophy of education leads us to formulate the purpose and educational policy which emphasized on four goals namely the result of study, variation of experience and process, comprehend the life, universal truth in the past.      

The approach of holistic education toward students at school can be related to religion. The approach of religion toward holistic can construct the educational theory based on religion containing with belief and the value of life. The approach of religion is different than philosophy where the philosophy tends to mind, but in religion based on belief. The approach of religion guide us to believe with anything have been taught in religion the next step is we know or comprehend about it. So the main is belief first and understand the second. Based on the purpose of Islamic education, world conference on Muslim education stated that education should aim at balanced growth of the total personality of man through man’s spirit, intelligent, the rational self, feelings and bodily sense. Education should cater for the growth of man in all its aspects, spirituals, intellectual, imaginative, physical, scientific, linguistic, linguistic, both individually and collectively, and motivate all these aspects toward goodness and attainment of perfection. The ultimate aims of Muslim education lies in the realization of complete submission to Allah on the level of individual, the community and humanity at the large. Meanwhile the Islamic education has rule to make one to have good physic, intelligent, and God fearing to Allah.  

In education based on religion asked teachers to build students character in learning. It is because the religion can make conducive learning community in acting the good, loving the good and knowing the good. It also derives students to be someone who has good value in the society. In Islam, the educational system must build the good character of students and based on the good things, such as love Allah, trust, honesty, respect, responsibility, loyalty, discipline, obedience, love, caring, generosity, cooperation, justice, fairness, leadership, kindness, tolerance, creativity, unity and confidence. The value must be covered because that is relation between holistic education and religion. In conducting the class the teacher also can put good input in teaching process as a model of holistic education based on religion. At the beginning the teachers start the class with prayer and reciting Qur’an. That is as habit in my school before start the lesson. Then in the learning process the teachers should use good words in explaining the lesson in order to attract the students’ attention and comprehend well the lesson. And at the last the class will end with prayer. All of activities at school must integrate between religion and education because it can create the lifelong learners who has good mental and character. In this modern era we are really need education based on akhlaq because the degeneration moral of young generation is worried about. The sensitivity and the awareness of akhlaq or education based on religion is needed to force the bad effect of globalization toward young generation.          

Hai orang-orang yang beriman, peliharalah dirimu dan keluargamu dari api neraka yang bahan bakarnya adalah manusia dan batu; penjaganya malaikat-malaikat yang kasar, keras, dan tidak mendurhakai Allah terhadap apa yang diperintahkan-Nya kepada mereka dan selalu mengerjakan apa yang diperintahkan.(At-tahrim;6)

O you who have believed, protect yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is people and stones, over which are [appointed] angels, harsh and severe; they do not disobey Allah in what He commands them but do what they are commanded

   So the approach of religion and philosophy toward holistic education is different. It is because philosophy just based on intelligent or mind while religion based on believe.