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영어

This article is to investigate a meaning of Holistic Education Movement in the
perspective of spiritual education. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, this article will be focusing on the understanding of knowledge in Waldorf education, in particular, "the experience of knowledge" in its educational practice in contrast to the conception of knowledge in modern education. Here, relying on a historian of American Education at Columbia University, Douglas Sloan's critique of the
conception of modern knowledge, the questions of what the consequences of this view have been, and with what methods Waldorf overcomes the problem of the narrowing of knowledge and knowing, will be asked in order to consider where our spiritual education has been and should go. Sloan specifies the assumptions that implicitly or explicitly portray the educational problems of the century.
Many of the difficulties in modern education derive from the problem of knowledge caused by its narrowing perception and conception. Waldorf education makes the gaining of knowledge a full-fledged human experience. By helping the child to "experience" knowledge that encompasses his body, soul, and spirit, Waldorf education contributes to appreciation of the dignity and the individuality of the growing child. The comprehensive understanding of the child's development from kindergarten through high school makes Waldorf education advance the holistic experience of knowledge through one's willing, feeling, and thinking.
As Douglas Sloan writes, "The possibility of a living, harmonious, and meaningful world can only be grasped and realized by a thinking and knowing that are themselves living, whole, and engaged." The education reform we need most today specially in spiritual education is a radical renewal of our thinking that brings us back to the original contact of human being with the world. In this regard, the Waldorf experience of knowledge that is living, whole, and engaged should gain special attention in the current holistic educational reform movement.