Holistic: a guiding ligth for change

Abstract

A pervading anxiety marks our society. Men and women find themselves disturbed by permanent and rapid changes. The result can be disenchantment, abulia, or unrestraint. Often the result is an overinsistence on rights, with no acknowledgement of the duties that accompany them. Some people opt for personal happiness, placing a high value on pleasure in order to “be themselves”. Others choose to escape, to be self-complacent, to alienate themselves from the world. Indeed, some consider themselves incapable of finding integration with the world. 
A look back at history, though, shows that this crisis is not new and that philosophers, scientists, and educators have already formulated ideas and proposals on how to face such times. Their thoughts form a common body of ideas that act as a key bone or an axic which is a global, total, holistic paradigm. What they have said in response to their circumstance is a broad, integrated and unifying answer for our own age. Education must pick up these ideas, taking advantage of the current educational reform.