Individual-focused holistic education hides culture’s shaping role
Evidence
Holistic education is not a fixed ideology but an open-ended attempt to embrace the complexity and wholeness of human life … Holistic education is essentially a democratic education, concerned with both individual freedom and social responsibility. … As this quote indicates, holistic education highlights the importance of the individual’s mental and physical health. This is also its limitation— by focusing primarily on the individual, it can hide the role of the culture in shaping who the individual is. This is sometimes called a “romantic” notion of the individual, after nineteenth-century artists and philosophers who believed that the child had a wellspring of creativity and authenticity that was corrupted by culture. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 254
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines the ‘romantic individual’ — a concept teachers will meet and need to critique.
- XREF: The ‘romantic individual’ critique connects to the polyad’s thread on seeing cultural/structural causes rather than individual blame — parallels the earlier claim that modern crisis is cultural, not individual. — connects to: Individuality is produced by entering culture, not given at birth; Wellness culture shifted from collective self-knowledge to individual self-worth — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 591; Cultural upbringing shapes human nature far more than biology does. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 173 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Individuality is produced by entering culture, not given at birth
#corroborates(0.82) - Wellness culture shifted from collective self-knowledge to individual self-worth
#exemplifies(0.75) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 591 - Cultural upbringing shapes human nature far more than biology does.
#complicates(0.70) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 173