Miller, John P. (2007). The holistic curriculum (2nd Ed.) Reviewed by Barbara Slater Stern, James Madison University

Miller, John P. (2007). The holistic curriculum (2nd Ed.) Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Pp. 200         ISBN 978-0-8020-9218-2 Reviewed by Barbara Slater Stern James Madison University November 30, 2007 Curriculum scholars and practitioners often struggle to define the field of curriculum. Is curriculum a learning program provided by the state to the teacher with goals, objectives, essential skills and knowledge clearly delineated? Is the curriculum everything that happens to a child from the time he or she leaves home in the morning until the time they return? Students of curriculum learn about the formal curriculum, the explicit curriculum, the latent curriculum, the para-curriculum, the co-curriculum, the extra-curriculum, the hidden curriculum, and the null curriculum. But, until I read The holistic curriculum I had not run across the concept of holistic curriculum as defined and explained by John P. Miller. In this text, Miller sets out first the context and then the practice of holistic curriculum centering it within the holistic education movement that he describes as both grassroots and global. (p. vii) What Miller is seeking is to “bring education into alignment with the fundamental realities of nature.” (p. 3) This means curriculum that is interrelated and dynamic and includes a spiritual dimension. Like many authors before him, Miller traces modern problems back to the Industrial Revolution (e.g., Emerson, Whitman, the Frontier Thinkers of the 1920s-30s, etc). The first chapter echoes these authors by discussing the fragmentation that modern life contains: compartmentalization, standardization and a separation of people from their natural world. Miller believes this fragmentation moves beyond just the world of work to the daily activities of people in their communities citing substance abuse, increasing amounts of violence, and a general lack of connectedness of people to their lives. He also cites an internal lack of connectedness in a spiritual sense including a lack of shared meaning and values. (p. 4) Miller then links this fragmentation with our educational system stating: “We divide knowledge into subjects, units, and lessons. Yet students can often not see the relationship between these subjects, the relationship between facts within a subject, or the relevance of the subject to their own lives.” (p. 4) He goes on to discuss the tremendous transitions we are undergoing as a society: social and political. Although he does not mention it at this point, I would certainly add economic transitions to his explanation of change. The answer to this fragmentation will be holistic education which contains three basic principles: balance, inclusion and connection. (p.6) By using the familiar yin and yang diagram, Miller describes what would bring balance to the classroom by working with pairs of concepts: individual/group; content/process; knowledge/imagination; rational/intuitive; quantitative/qualitative assessment; technique/vision; assessment/learning; and technology/program. (pp 6-9) Each of these pairs represents the yin and the yang. As he describes what each pair of terms represents, the middle way would be the way to find balance in the curriculum That is, since Western education frequently focuses on the individual, content, knowledge, rational, quantitative, technique, assessment and technology side of the scale, this book focuses on adding the group, process, imagination, qualitative, vision, learning and program. Further clarification of holistic education is illustrated through circle diagrams that categorize education as transmission, transaction or transformation. (pp. 10-13) Transmission is the most traditional with knowledge broken down and presented in a behavioral format. Transaction focuses on dialogue with presentation as problem-solving or inquiry approach. The scientific method is the way the student would approach acquisition of knowledge. The holistic educator seeks the third category, the transformation position. The focus is not only on the acquisition of content and skills, but also on the development of the whole person. Methodology includes creative problem solving, cooperative learning and integrating the arts seeking deeper connections that “make learning more personally and socially meaningful to the student.” (p. 12) The learner needs to make connections/relationships in multiple areas such as: linear thinking and intuition; mind and body; domains of knowledge; self and community; self and the earth; self and the soul. (pp. 13-14) Part I continues with chapters 2-4, where the definition of holistic curriculum is deepened by exploring the philosophic, psychological, and social context. First, the perennial philosophy provides the foundation for holistic curriculum. This is not only based on Western philosophy traced back to the Ancient Greeks but also includes Eastern thought including the Upanishads, the Tao te Ching and the teachings of Buddha. (p. 16) Miller sums up his beliefs about the perennial philosophy with five statements: There is an interconnectedness of reality and a mysterious unity (e.g., Huxley’s divine reality) in the universe. There is an intimate connection between the individual’s inner self, or soul, and this mysterious unity. Knowledge of this mysterious unity can be developed through various contemplative practices. Values are derived from seeing and realizing the interconnectedness of reality. This realization can lead to social activity designed to counter injustice and human suffering. (pp 17-18) These statements are crucial to understanding holistic curriculum as they underlie the rest of the book. It is important to note that as part of these beliefs, it is impossible to separate religion from politics as people live out their beliefs through their actions. Thus, you cannot separate spirituality from education. That moves the reader to the psychological context. Following the three positions described above, transmission is behavioral, located in the body and focused on behavior. Transaction is cognitive, located in the mind and focused on intelligence. Transformation is transpersonal, located in the soul and focused on wisdom. (p. 25) Miller then moves to a discussion of conceptions of the soul in Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, and Indigenous Religions. (pp. 26-34) This is followed by a discussion of Jungian psychology and an introduction to psychosynthesis as a way of finding our “transpersonal self.” (p. 35) Chapter 4 on the social context labels the transmission position as laissez-faire economics, the transaction position as rational planning, and the transformation position as an interdependent position. (pp. 47-53) This interdependence is ecological, geographical (bioregions), human scale, committed to non-violent change, and androgynous. This chapter concludes that holistic education “attempts to facilitate the development of the whole person including the ego. One way of seeing life is a dance between our ego and our soul.” (p. 45) By the time I had gotten this far in the book I had many questions. The first were philosophical and related to Miller’s explanation of perennial philosophy. While I appreciate Miller’s definition as it enabled me to know exactly how he was using the philosophy, I have not seen any standard books on perennialism that would delineate the philosophy in this fashion. Surely perennialsim includes a belief in universal truth, but I am unsure that values are always revealed either through contemplation or by seeing and realizing the interconnectedness of reality in this world view. Traditionally these values are revealed through dialogue (Plato) and Socratic questioning. My second question has to do with the choice to put religious explanations in the psychology rather than the philosophy chapter. I found that an interesting and somewhat controversial placement as many religions define themselves as philosophical belief systems. Then, I read Miller’s discussion of the soul in Judaism and alarm bells went off in my head—it just did not sound correct or like anything I had ever encountered in my religious education. Thus, I called a rabbi and I asked if the explanation given about Moses and the burning bush made sense. (p. 28) The answer I received was that while the rest of the material in the Judaism section—about the Kabbalah—could be acceptable, the material on Moses was not a plausible explanation for anyone who is Jewish. My third question concerns the confounding of social context with economics by labeling the transmission position as laissez-faire and the transactive position as rational planning. While Marxists would not separate the social, political and economic, I found these section headings passed off as social context problematic. This was followed by my question about the statement “It was the Roman empire’s lack of ecological sense that was mainly responsible for the Sahara Desert." (p. 50) So I headed for Google and quickly found that scientists now believe that the earth’s axis tilted causing the appearance of the Sahara desert around the time of the Roman Empire. Additionally I found articles that indicated that the Romans were aware of conservation issues and did not seriously degrade their environment in Africa. I also found that the broad statements by which ideas are categorized raised further questions. Are we to believe that only transformative education believes in social justice, non-violent change, or the importance of the environment? Or, that androgyny is simply a metaphor for wholeness. The chart on pages 62 & 63 delineating the concepts underlying the three positions (transmission, transaction and transformation) was so oversimplified that while I appreciated the need to separate (fragment) the concepts to promote understanding, the balance the author says he is seeking is clearly missing. And, while none of these concerns directly hinged on my broad focus with the concept of the holistic curriculum, I did start to become far more skeptical about what I was reading. Chapter 5 ends this Part I with a discussion of the historical background of holistic education. This chapter was particularly interesting in its choice of educators who were included and those who were omitted. To a reader unfamiliar with several of the educators discussed, their inclusion was welcome and interesting, e.g., rarely is either Leo Tolstoy listed as an educator or is Bronson Alcott studied in this manner. In summing up Part One, I could not help but think about other educators whom I have been studying, including Harold Rugg and Donald Oliver. Oliver would be a prime example of someone who moved from the transactive position (Harvard Social Studies Project/Public Issues Series) into systems thinking, process philosophy, and the work of Alfred Whitehead. Oliver’s Education and community: A radical critique of innovative schooling (1976) focused on many of the same issues that Miller sees as so crucial to understanding the current state of humankind and what will be needed to heal and move forward. Oliver's work would agree wholeheartedly with the transformation position described by Miller but not mentioned in this chapter. Part Two focuses on curriculum practice by returning to the connections/relationships described in Chapter 1 and completing a chapter on each. These chapters provide teachers with concrete instructional strategies and ideas that would enable them to enact a holistic curriculum or to integrate parts of holistic education into their classrooms. The relationships are explored in more depth by focusing on the side of the relationships that traditional classrooms often de-emphasize or ignore. Thus Chapter 6 explains intuition by describing levels of intuition and then delving into the creative process. Techniques that are suggested include visualization and metaphor. The discussion of metaphor cites Gordon but does not really describe the three instructional models of synectics—making the strange familiar, making the familiar strange and creative problem solving—steps usually associated with Gordon. Again I took issue with the either/or approach in a book that says it is about balance when a diagram (see p. 104) illustrates the traditional relationship between eggs and seeds as nonexistent and the metaphorical approach diagrams overlapping circles. It seems to this educator that most good teachers would help students make this link even if they were very traditional in their approach to education. The chapter ends with discussions of adding a critical perspective and considering multiple intelligences as part of learning to make intuitive connections. Again these are not radically new ideas, even for more traditional teachers. Other chapters look at body/mind connections calling for more instruction in the arts and teaching mindfulness (yoga, breathing). In the chapter on subject connection, Miller differentiates among multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and trans-disciplinary approaches to subject matter. While I would not use the same definitions he uses, the discussion and chart (pp. 134-134) are useful for teachers in understanding the goal. That is also true of the discussion of uncertainty/ambiguity. This latter connection is one which I believe more teachers need to focus on as students constantly want the right answer instead of seeking “best” solutions to murkier problems or unresolved situations. Steps for more creative problem solving beyond just application of the scientific method are a welcome instructional strategy for teachers as is the story model to enhance integrated learning with a focus on global, cultural, and personal change. (p. 142) The end of this chapter or the next chapter might be strengthened if under the discussion of subject and community the Foxfire approach had been mentioned as that really highlights the educational values that this chapter and this book espouse. As the book develops, the usefulness of strategies such as service learning or the planting of gardens by young children are well explained. The discussion of the importance of teaching world religions is explained. I did not find any of these strategies either new or groundbreaking. I began teaching in 1971 and teaching about world religions was part of the world history curriculum at that time. Service learning, while not always called by that name and often referred to as co-curricular, has been a part of high school for decades. The specific examples of an integrated curriculum (e.g., The World Core Curriculum (see p. 160)) supply helpful concrete examples for teachers who might want to undertake a holistic approach to learning in their classrooms. The book continues delineating the relationships including a chapter on soul connections. As in earlier parts of the book I had issues with statements that are opinions put forth as factual, such as a statement about Dante’s Divine Comedy: “the journey is really a metaphorical journey from egotism to the highest form of connectedness-love. . ..” (p. 187) Another quick Google search led me to understand that this is a Jungian psychological interpretation—one of many possible interpretations of this text which is commonly thought to be more about the Middle Ages and its politics. Given the accountability craze that is sweeping education, Miller does devote a chapter in this second edition to implementing and evaluating the holistic curriculum. I truly believe that any curriculum where students are engaged, learning, and active will yield the desired results on the standardized tests that are really anathema to holistic education. Thus, the idea that holistic curriculum would be incompatible with holistic education should not intimidate teachers, and the chapter does explain that while focusing on more authentic and qualitative forms of assessment. My larger concern is that many of the instructional strategies or techniques suggested in the book will be off-putting or upsetting to stakeholders like parents. I can remember back to the mid 1990s when the Lake County School Board in Florida passed a rule against using visualization as a relaxation technique prior to test-taking. And, while yoga and meditation are increasingly accepted in Physical Education classes, many parents, especially those who are from fundamentalist or evangelical branches of their religions, have deep and loud objections to integrating these practices in our schools. Moreover, while I fully agree with Miller in seeking wisdom from all sources, the move to maintain the Western philosophical foundation of North American education is increasingly strong. In summary, The Holistic Curriculum has positives and negatives. The underlying idea and message is positive. And, many classrooms as well as our entire educational system could stand a least some transformational approaches and strategies. The philosophical underpinnings to holistic curriculum contain the inevitable tension between beliefs that there are universal truths and that the world is a dynamic, ever evolving place which education must respond to appropriately. I am less sure than the author about the former but I surely agree with the latter. I just wish that in the need to simplify a complex philosophy Miller had not drawn such definitive lines separating the ideas and positions of approaches that frequently overlap. About the Reviewer Barbara Slater Stern is an Associate Professor in the Department of Middle, Secondary and Math Education at James Madison University. She teaches courses in curriculum, foundations and methods of teaching middle and secondary social studies. She is the editor of Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue, the journal of the American Association of Teaching and Curriculum.