Compartmentalization of Knowledge vs. Holistic Learning
By KNOW Team

by Aamna Imran

Published in: Self, World
Date: 06 / 07 / 19

Have you ever wondered about the world that we live in today, what has gone wrong with 'knowledge'? Well, then this blog is for you. 

When I was a child, I never understood the philosophy of studying. Why does all this even matter, I would think. What does Newton got anything to do with my life? What is the point of knowing the minute details of how plants absorb sunlight? Laws of motions won't help me to get through this life, so why study them? Why do i have to do that burn out activity of learning all the names in the periodic table? Whats even the point? Learning all these things only to forget them a few years later? Well, this is one case scenario.

Case scenario number 2: If knowledge is supposed to turn us into change makers, revolutionaries and warriors of truth, then is our educational system making it happen for us? If not, then why? 

Case scenario no 3: Everything in Nature is so deeply interconnected. When we observe nature, we see extremely wise interdependence and harmony between everything. Then why knowledge is so compartmentalized when knowledge is derived from the very inter-dependent Nature?

Case scenario no 4: Have you ever heard about such diseases for which there is apparently no 'cure'? I'm sure all of you have. Do you hear about such socio-economic-political problems for which people believe are happening only due to coincidence, without any cause? Do you see the missing dots? Well, if the Universe is so harmonized and God who said that He did not created any disease (it can be physical, social, spiritual, emotional, psychological) without a 'cure'. Then why is it so that we hear, 'this is incurable'?

This, my dear readers, is the curse of compartmentalization of knowledge. Yes, you read that right. CURSE of compartmentalization of knowledge.

Before we go deep into that, lets understand what compartmentalization of knowledge and holistic learning is.

Compartmentalization of knowledge in the modern day educational system. Teaching knowledge in subjects, in compartments. This way of learning cannot teach you the link between physics and chemistry or any of the subjects. They are taught separately with walls in between.

Holistic learning, also known as global learning, is a learning style based on the principle that students will learn more effectively when all aspects of a person--mind, body and spirit--are involved in the experience. It provides an organic environment to a child where he is not instructed by a teacher how to learn rather he is given a conducive environment where his natural God-given learning process will flow itself. They are taught hands-on experiential learning instead of memorization of textbooks, sophisticated classroom, and one teacher handling over 30 students. 

In Holistic learning, there are no walls of knowledge. All the field, history, literature, fiction, sociology, chemistry, physics are taught holistically instead of in compartments. They are taught how to connect the dots in every field of knowledge. They are taught to seek knowledge in a way that is close to our ‘fitrah’. If you’ve ever noticed the way a child seeks to understand and investigate, you’d know what holistic learning is.

We at KNOW, have released several episodes of early Muslims and their contributions. You might have noticed one thing. Not even one of them were specialized in one or two fields alone. They professed profound knowledge at several subjects. At least, 10. Even before the golden age, look at the example of Greeks and Roman scholars, likes of Aristotle and Plato. I haven’t come across single subject of social sciences without the mention of contributions of Aristotle in it. So my question is, how was it possible for them to be able to experts of vast fields of knowledge while we can barely be an expert in one or two? What was different then and what has gone wrong now? Why is it almost impossible for us, living in a ‘modern’ era, where everything, every news, every bit of information is available at our fingertips, cannot even master at least 5 subjects so we can connect the dots better? Why are we not able to find out the cures and solutions like they did?

The answer, dear readers, lies in the ‘compartmentalization of knowledge’. While in truth, at the core level of the entity of this gigantic Universe, there are no walls, no compartments of knowledge. Just like everything in this world, when you contemplate, is so deeply and profoundly interconnected, so is the knowledge. I am a physical body and to understand it I have to study ‘biology’, but I am also a wave, an ‘energy’ whose vibration is going far away in this Universe. But I also have a ‘psyche’. I have a ‘mind’ which is just like a computer, without studying it I cannot comprehend myself nor others. I am an emotional being, I have questions that are ‘philosophical’. But I am also a social being, answers to my questions also lie in ‘sociology’. I am limited by ‘time’ and have a present, past and future, I cannot make a sense of my present nor protect my future without studying ‘history’. I also live in space, I am surrounded with ‘cosmology’. Above all, at the very core of my being, before I was born and after I will dis, I am a soul and I am in need of 'spirituality'. So how can I be whole and healthy without going to each and every compartment of my being?

This kind of holistic understanding is only possible in an organic and conducive environment where child’s learning freedom is not only limited to a piece of paper and four-walled class room but is encompassed to a natural world.

Before the World Wars, colonialism and this education system (which was designed to build slaves), man used to live without compartments, without such gaps in between and had enough time to contemplate the ‘natural world’ rather striving to find artificial solutions – what a wrong rat race. As long as man lived aligned with the laws of Nature (Sunnat ul Allah), he was at peace. When he tried to go against the creation of Allah (in this blog, seeking knowledge in compartment which is not our fitrah), we lost the race, hence the chaos in this world.

 

 

KNOW Team

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KNOW Team

We believe that everyone has something to learn, and everyone has something to teach. Our vision is to create a global education platform which empowers millions to fulfill their purpose and potential.

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