The goal of education is the same as the goal of life: to help children become, on every level—heart, mind, body, and spirit, more balanced, mature, effective, harmonious, and happy.

Education for Life is a philosophy of holistic education that emphasizes experiential learning, spiritual development, and practical skills for living such as concentration, self-discipline, and compassion which will lead to achieving this goal. Underlying all of our academic efforts is the understanding that relaxed, joyful children make the best learners. The fundamentals of the philosophy are described in the book Education for Life, by J. Donald Walters. More information can be found at www.edforlife.org

One of the core principles of Education for Life is the understanding that there are four tools we have within us to explore, learn, grow, and experience the world. These are the physical body, the heart’s feelings, our dynamic will power, and the intellect. Each should be developed and used in a balanced, harmonious way. Each is drawn on more strongly during different periods of childhood development and within each individual child. More about tools of maturity: www.edforlife.org/Methods_ToolsOfMaturity.htm

Education for Life has been used as the model for Living Wisdom Schools for over 30 years. Every school uniquely expresses the same proven principles. Education for Life is also being used by individual teachers within private and public educational settings. More information about becoming an Education for Life school: http://www.edforlife.org/Licensing.htm

Network of Living Wisdom Schools:

Nevada City, California

Palo Alto, California

Seattle, Washington

Gurgaon, India

Ananda College of Living Wisdom

Assisi, Italy: Site coming soon

If education is to address life more realistically, and actually to prepare children to meet life’s exigencies and opportunities, then … it must be seen as springing from life and reality themselves, and not from carefully worked out theories about life and reality. It must, in other words, be experiential, and not only theoretical.

---

The purpose of schooling is to pass on to students what has been learned outside the classroom, in the great school of life. But much has been learned already through the millennia about human nature, and of the ways one can find personal fulfillment in life. The need, simply, is to include these findings among the subjects covered in the classroom.

J. Donald Walters,
Education for Life