Many people believe that wisdom is related to knowledge and life experiences. While this is true, the development of wisdom also depends on the frameworks for thinking that we use to consciously perceive, raise questions about, and give meaning to the various knowledge systems and life experiences we participate in. If we are concerned with promoting wise living, our education system must move beyond narrow notions of literacy, or simplistic competencies, and begin to nurture diverse and complex (meta)-cognitive frameworks in every learner. Jude Collins, Professor of Teacher Training in Northern Ireland, describes that "The problem with competency-based curriculums is that learning becomes a matter of being able to perform certain tasks efficiently (and so does teaching). And the importance of looking at a wider horizon -- the relationship between what’s being taught and social matters, political matters, matters of value and worth -- become not just beside the point, but not even thought about."

Consider the following features of integrated and holistic thinking. To what extent, does factory-schooling value or develop such decision-making frameworks in our children?

  Evaluation of long term future consequences of present decisions;

  Consideration of second-order consequences (side-effects or surprise effects);

  Ability to make creative plans and strategies for the future, to monitor and modify plans ("rolling planning"), and to conduct evaluations to detect early warning signs of possible problems;

  Skill in "systemic" thinking (capacity to see the whole as well as its parts, micro and macro contexts, and multiple rather than single causes and effects);

  Capacity to detect inter-relationships and to assess their importance, which is often greater than that of the individual elements they inter-link.

"Some Features of Integrative Thinking" adapted from Botkin, J. et al. No Limits to Learning, Bridging the Human Gap. Oxford: Pergamon Press Ltd., 1979.