Educate
the
Whole
Child

It’s time to let the wholeness of the child engage with the wholeness of the world.

WHAT IS

WHOLE CHILD EDUCATION

AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

To the extent that we narrow the purpose of schooling to what can be measured, we fail to
engage those sides of children that must be developed in order for them to pull learning
from life. We also increase the likelihood that
they will be bored, question the value of school,
and in some cases even drop out.

Instead of starting with the questions “How do we prepare kids to compete in the 21st century
global marketplace?” or “What will insure that graduates all have command of basic skills?”,
suppose we start by asking what qualities we want to encourage in children as they grow toward
adulthood.

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OUR

SCHOOLS

Escuela Manzo

Tucson, AZ

Manzo Elementary or Escuela Manzo sits in the Hollywood section of Tucson, and with its gardens and chickens serves as a food source and environmental inspiration for the community.

Compass School

Westminster, VT

Compass School’s unusual model accommodates both independent and public school students for its sparsely populated rural communities in Vermont. The school is open admissions and this arrangement works well for them. Upon graduation, students enjoy a high level of college acceptance.

The Project School

Bloomington, IN

The Project School started with the founding educators’ collective dream to create an authentic, democratically-led school grounded in core beliefs and values of heart-mind-voice, which are infused into everything happening in the school.

OUR

RESOURCES

Educate the Whole Child now offers a graduate level 12-credit certificate – Teaching the Whole Child.  In partnership with Vermont’s Castleton University, a suite of four online courses  may be taken as a series or independently. See details here.

Educating for Human Greatness

Stoddard dares to propose we teach as if we could make a difference in areas like integrity, initiative, and imagination. Subjects like reading, writing, and math are taught, but as tools to help grow the qualities of human greatness.

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Play in the Preschool Classroom

Ashiabi’s 2007 article, “Play in the Preschool Classroom: It’s Socioemotional Significance and the Teacher’s Role in Play” (Early Childhood Education Journal, Vol. 35, No.2) provides a detailed description of the benefits of play in early childhood education. 

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Catching Up or Leading the Way

For a broad look at why whole child education is important and how it fits into global developments and America’s ability to compete, see Yong Zhao, Catching Up or Leading the Way, particularly Chapter 7, “What Knowledge Is of Most Worth?”

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