The Earth Charter International is happy to announce a new book, The Holomovement: Embracing Our Collective Purpose to Unite Humanity, published in 2023. In chapter 10, “Quickening Holism: The Essential Role of Education”, Peter Corcoran discusses the important role of education and the Earth Charter to Holism. The book defines the Holomovement, an old idea that focuses on healthy relationships with each other and all the Earth and deals with integrating “scientific, spiritual, aesthetic, and artistic truths and sensibilities, including all forms visible and invisible.”
In his chapter, Corcoran explains how the Earth Charter’s ethical discourse influenced the Holomovement’s educational philosophy linking awareness and action. He states that education “can and should play a central role in the conscious evolution movement linking cosmological awareness and concrete action – thereby quickening holism.” He sees the EC as a tool to teach the importance of universal responsibility to the Earth and to each other; quoting “reminds us that fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions and ways of living.”
Corcoran believes that the task of education is to create a better future. We need a philosophy of education that combines gratitude, indigeneity, reciprocity, a reverence for life, and ethics from the Earth Chater. This task should not be relegated to the young; older people also need to work towards this to create a positive future. Education should result in expanding a sense of self from the individual learner to seeing our role within the universe.