On 5\u20136 September 2026, educational leaders, academics, and pesantren\nadministrators will convene in Jakarta for the Global Islamic Holistic\nEducation Summit (GIHES). The name of this forum caught my attention\nwith one specific word: holistic. Long before this term became the theme\nof an international meeting, pesantren had already been practising an\neducation that knows no strict boundaries between the classroom and\nlife.<\/p>\n
Therefore, ahead of GIHES, I wish to offer a small, perhaps somewhat\nunsettling, observation: if we truly wish to discuss holistic education,\nit may be time to shift the core of education from a hidden curriculum\ntowards a holistic curriculum.<\/p>\n
The term \u2018hidden curriculum\u2019 did not arise because educational\nexperts lacked vocabulary. It emerged from anxiety regarding the real\nlives of children in schools. In 1968, Philip W. Jackson published \u2018Life\nin Classrooms\u2019. He did not merely view the classroom as a place where\nteachers deliver lessons and students receive them; he viewed the\nclassroom as life itself. There are active children and those who wait;\nthose who are frequently praised and those who are reprimanded; those\nwho are fully engaged and those who slowly withdraw. They sit in the\nsame room, but they do not necessarily experience the same\neducation.<\/p>\n
Schools easily identify children capable of answering questions.\nThere are grades, rankings, and exam papers. But what about the child\nwho attends every day, causes no trouble, does not stand out, is rarely\nquestioned, and almost never receives praise? They are present, yet\nalmost invisible.<\/p>\n
Are they not learning? Of course, they are learning. It is simply\nthat perhaps it is not the subject matter we are currently measuring.\nThey learn when they may speak and when they must remain silent. They\nlearn what it feels like to wait and not be chosen. They learn who\nreceives attention, who holds power, what kind of answers earn praise,\nand what behaviours invite reprimand.<\/p>\n
Jackson observed classroom life through crowds, praise, and power.\nChildren, it turns out, do not only learn mathematics, language, or\nhistory; they simultaneously learn how to live within a social structure\ncalled a school. This is where we recognise the hidden curriculum: a\ncurriculum that is unwritten but learned; not listed in the timetable\nbut experienced; not tested at the end of the semester, but leaving a\nlasting imprint on the child. Up to this point, I agree.<\/p>\n
However, after more than half a century of discussing it, I am\nbeginning to ask a somewhat \u2018rebellious\u2019 question: if we already know\nthere is a hidden curriculum, why do we continue to allow it to remain\nhidden? If its hiding place has been discovered, then let us no longer\nkeep it hidden.<\/p>\n
Jackson helped us discover the hidden curriculum. The challenge for\neducation today is to stop letting it remain hidden. This is where I\nwish to shift the core of education from a hidden curriculum towards a\nholistic curriculum.<\/p>\n
I am not suggesting that the hidden curriculum is wrong. The concept\nis highly valuable because it reminds us that children do not only learn\nfrom what we teach; they learn from what they experience. However,\neducation should not merely be the work of a detective, uncovering what\nis hidden. Education is the work of design.<\/p>\n
If the environment educates, the environment must be designed. If\nrelationships educate, relationships must be nurtured. If praise and\nreprimand educate, both must be managed. If experience is the teacher,\nthe student\u2019s experience must not continue to be treated as a mere\nbyproduct of the curriculum. It must enter the very heart of the\ncurriculum itself.<\/p>\n
At this point, John P. Miller provides a very clear framework.\nHolistic education, according to him, strives to develop the human being\nas a whole: intellectual, emotional, physical, social, aesthetic, and\neven spiritual. Its framework rests on three pillars: balance,\ninclusion, and connection. This means that education must not only grow\nthe mind while allowing the heart, body, social relations, and inner\nlife to function in isolation.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/time-to-bring-education-out-of-hiding-1788321690", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }