{September 20
Humanistic education is an approach to education based on the work of humanistic psychologists

Humanistic psychology

Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective which rose to prominence in the mid-20th century, drawing on the work of early pioneers like Carl Rogers and the philosophies of existentialism and phenomenology...

, most notably Abraham Maslow

Abraham Maslow

Abraham Harold Maslow was an American professor of psychology at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research and Columbia University who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs...

 and Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers

Carl Ransom Rogers was an influential American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach to psychology...

, and Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...

. The approach seeks to engage the whole person: the intellect, feeling life, social capacities, artistic and practical skills are all important focuses for growth and development. Important objectives include developing children's self-esteem, ability to set and achieve appropriate goals, and development toward full autonomy

Autonomy

Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...

.

Choice or Control

The humanistic approach focuses a great deal on student choice and control over the course of their education. Students are encouraged to make choices that range from day-to-day activities to periodically setting future life goals. This allows for students to focus on a specific subject of interest for any amount of time they choose, within reason. Humanistic teachers believe it is important for students to be motivated and engaged in the material they are learning, and this happens when the topic is something the students need and want to know.

Felt Concern

Humanistic education tends to focus on the felt concerns and interests of the students intertwining with the intellect. It is believed that the overall mood and feeling of the students can either hinder or foster the process of learning.

The Whole Person

Humanistic educators believe that both feelings and knowledge are important to the learning process. Unlike traditional educators, humanistic teachers do not separate the cognitive and affective domains. This aspect also relates to the curriculum in the sense that lessons and activities provided focus on various aspects of the student and not just rote memorization through note taking and lecturing.

Self Evaluation

Humanistic educators believe that grades are irrelevant and that only self-evaluation is meaningful. Grading encourages students to work for a grade and not for intrinsic satisfaction. Humanistic educators disagree with routine testing because they teach students rote memorization as opposed to meaningful learning. They also believe testing doesn't provide sufficient educational feedback to the teacher.

Teacher as a Facilitator

"The tutor or lecturer tends to be more supportive than critical, more understanding than judgmental, more genuine than playing a role." Their job is to foster a engaging environment for the students and ask inquiry based questions that promote meaningful learning.

Environment

The environment in a school which focuses their practice on humanistic education tends to have a very different setting than a traditional school. It consist of both indoor and outdoor environments with a majority of time being spent outdoors. The indoor setting may contain a few tables and chairs, bean bags for quiet reading and relaxation, book shelf's, hide-aways, kitchens, lots of color and art posted on the walls. The outdoor environment is very engaging for students. You might find tree houses, outdoor kitchens, sand boxes, play sets, natural materials, sporting activities etc. The wide range of activities are offered for students allowing for free choices of interest.

Related movements

A number of contemporary school movements incorporate humanistic perspectives within a larger, holistic context: these include the Waldorf, Montessori, Reggio Emilia

Reggio Emilia

Reggio Emilia is an affluent city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 170,000 inhabitants and is the main comune of the Province of Reggio Emilia....

, and Neohumanist schools. However, these school movements incorporate spiritual perspectives absent from the traditional humanistic approach.

See also

• Democratic school
  Democratic school
  This is a comprehensive list of current and former democratic schools. Most of these were modeled on the Summerhill School, the oldest existing democratic school founded in 1921...
  
  
• Humanistic psychology
  Humanistic psychology
  Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective which rose to prominence in the mid-20th century, drawing on the work of early pioneers like Carl Rogers and the philosophies of existentialism and phenomenology...
  
  
• Liberal education
  Liberal education
  A Liberal education is a system or course of education suitable for the cultivation of a free human being. It is based on the medieval concept of the liberal arts or, more commonly now, the liberalism of the Age of Enlightenment...
  
  
• Progressive education
• Sudbury school
  Sudbury school
  A Sudbury school is a school that practices a form of democratic education in which students individually decide what to do with their time, and learn as a by-product of ordinary experience rather than adopting a descriptive educational syllabus or standardized instruction by classes following a...
  
  
• Waldorf education

External links

• "The New Humanistic education at Gurukul" - possibly an example of new humanistic education