Holistic Art Education: A Transformative Approach to Teaching Art

Overview & Synopsis

Education in recent years has tended increasingly to narrow its focus, zeroing in on only those academic skills tested in high-stake assessments while ignoring many other aspects of children's development. Opposing this trend is an alternative movement, holistic education, which is concerned with cultivating and balancing all dimensions of the individual, including physical/sensory, emotional, and cognitive aspects, as well as social, moral, and spiritual attributes. The author discusses possible implications of the holistic paradigm for the future direction of visual arts education, beginning with some of the key features of contemporary holistic education, especially as they relate to a transformative approach to teaching art. (Contains 3 figures.)