FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION :: INDIAN THINKERS ON EDUCATION - PART IV

SRI AUROBINDO GHOSH:

Sri Aurobindo Ghosh was born in Calcutta, then the capital of British India on 15 August, 1872. He was a revolutionary poet, philosopher, writer and spiritual master. He believes in integrating all the aspects of life, based on the evolution of consciousness. His idealistic philosophy of life was based upon  the Vedanta philosophy of Upanishads. He believes that spiritual penance, Yoga practice and Brahmacharya are necessary for the promotion of the development of human soul. He regards life as a creative process.

PHILOSOPHY: 

1. His philosophy is a happy and judicious blend of the old and new, oriental and occidental, idealism and realism, spiritualism and pragmatism.
   
2. He believes in the spiritualism of India and described the four layers and the Super mind.
3. He laid stress on the training of the five senses of the mind, mental powers and logical capacity.
4. He assumes in providing a good and creative environment to a child and teaching the best of morals is a must. He says child should be given the opportunity to think in a reasonable manner.
5. He considered Vedas as the chief source of Indian Spiritualism.
6. He believes that rebirth is indispensable for spiritual evolution. Birth and death are predetermined processes in the scheme of evolution.
7. He stresses on curriculum for primary stages  in Mother tongue.
8. He wrote the three fundamental Principles of teaching (1909-10): 

• The First- Teacher is not an instructor, he is a helper and guide. 
• Mind has to be consulted in its growth. 
• Education must proceed from direct experience.

The Four Layers Of Mind: Sri Aurobindo's believes that the four layers of mind are the principle tools of education in the hands of a teacher.
These four layers are:

• The first layer: Chitta (The past mental impression).
• The second layer: The Manas or the mind proper.
• The third layer: Buddhi or intellect. 
• The fourth layer: The intuitive perception of things.

Chitta (The past mental impression)-

1. It is the first layer of mind.
2. It is the store house of memory.
3. From this store house, the teacher has to select the needful items very carefully in order to help an educand to comprehend the fundamental knowledge pertaining to some aspects of human life.
4. Sometimes, the teacher happens to choose an unsuitable thing which obstructs in the mental development of the child.
5. Chitta needs no training, it is automatic and it represents the past experience.

The second layer- The Manas or the mind proper-

1. The Manas or mind receives the sensations from our five senses through seeing, hearing, taste, touch and smell are the basic roots of our knowledge.
2. The knowledge thus obtained is converted into ideas.
3. It is a teacher's duty to train these five senses in such a manner that the sensations received from them are correct and lead to real knowledge. 

The third layer: Buddhi or intellect-

1. The Buddhi or intellect rearranges systematically the knowledge that has been acquired by the Manas or mind.
2. Intellect is the chief tool for education.
3. Comprehensive, creative and synthetic powers are found in intellect.
4. As these powers develop, intellect goes on becoming sharper and sharper.
5. It is through intellect that an individual gives his judgement about things, imagine, thinks, observe, control various aspects of his life.
6. The power of reasoning and analysis are indications of intellect.
7. Through reasoning one is able to distinguish, compare, classify, generalize, deduce, infer and determine.
8. From the educational point of view, good development of intellect is very necessary.

The fourth layer: The intuitive perception of things-

1. The intuitive perception of things or the intuitive power helps one to experience the truth directly.
2. It develops very slowly.
3. This layer is found in rare people.
4. The reasoning faculty of intellect may not accept this intuitive power of an individual, because forgetfulness, biased imaginings mar its development.
5. It's development is beyond the scope of teacher.
6. It's development is dependent upon the student.
7. Teacher's role is the role of guide.
8. Teacher is a helper to help student grow to perfection in his own way.

FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION :: INDIAN THINKERS ON EDUCATION - PART III

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA:

SwamiVivekananda's original name had been Narendranath. He was born on 12 January, 1863 in a kshatriya family of Calcutta. Later on he became SwamiVivekananda one of the chief disciples of Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

 He was a great thinker, philosopher and reformer of India. He made the Indian religion popular all over the world. His philosophy has contributed much to the development of education philosophy in India. He wanted to make India and its country men, self-dependent, powerful and cultured. He wanted to wipe of any inferiority complex from the mind of the Indian people. Swami Vivekananda considered his Vedanta philosophy as very comprehensive and he wanted to share it with all irrespective of caste, colour, creed, sex etc.

PHILOSOPHY:

1. He believes in God as one reality. He requested the countryman to leave negativity and ego and move on reaching God-consciousness.
2. He trusts that all religions finally lead to a common destination.
3. He considers that the highest goal of any religion in the service of mankind.
4. Morality and purity are the strength.
5. He saw God in three forms: Being (sat), Awareness (chit) and Bliss (ananda).
6. He assumes in the fact that perfection is not attained from outside. In fact, it is inherent within the individual himself. He had great faith in man and he considered man as an incarnation of God.
7. He was against bookish knowledge.
8. He also said all knowledge that is infinite is in the mind, everything, that is outside is only a suggestion which uncovers the knowledge hidden in our mind. Education helps in self- development ; the science of yoga makes a personality.
9. For character formation: It is essential to get purity which should be through- Thirst for knowledge, faith, humility, perseverance, submission.
10. He insisted on teaching through Mother tongue.
11. He reiterated that religion is the inner care of knowledge and education remains incomplete without the teaching of aesthetics and fine arts.
12. He insists that the only method of education is through concentration.
13. He stresses upon women education.
14. He emphasize on mass education.
15. He presumes negative for corporal punishment.
16. He believes that the task of the teacher is only to help the child to manifest his/her knowledge by removing the obstacles in its way. The teacher should facilitate this  process of self-discovery.

 

FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION :: INDIAN THINKERS ON EDUCATION - PART II

 MOHAN DAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI:
Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 at Porbandar in Gujarat. After passing his matriculation in 1887, Gandhiji sailed for England on September 4, 1887 for studying Law. Gandhiji went to South Africa in 1893 to work as an assistant Lawyer in an important case. He does not claim any 'ism' of his own. He believed on the fact that God could be realized only through truth. He regards truth as whole and unchangeable and immortal. He believed in social service in order to reach God. He encouraged cottage and rural industries. 
 He believed on few facts like:

• Dignity of Labour.
• All should have equal wages or equality.
• Ahimsa: Non-violence and non-injury even by thought, deed or words.
• A Satyagrahi: A fighter of truth. A life of hard discipline.
• Role of female and male are complementary to each other. 
• Too much industrialization will make man slave of machine.

The Tolstoy Farm: 

It was founded in 1910 and it proved to be an ideal laboratory for Gandhiji's educational experiments. Gandhiji's concept was one step further at Tolstoy by introducing vocational training to give "all-round development to the boys and girls". Although at this stage there was no attempt to educate the children through the medium of a specific handicraft, Gandhiji enabled each child to become self-supporting by supplementing their education with vocational training. An added dimension of the Tolstoy Farm was the decision to hold co-educational classes, and indeed to encourage the boys and girls to do everything together. The ages of children ranging from six to sixteen years, the children had on an average eight hours of manual training per day, and one or two hours of book learning.

The activities at Tolstoy Farm included general labouring, cooking, scavenging, sandal- making, simple carpentry and messenger work. In addition to productive crafts, manual work of a purely constructive nature was also essential for the maintenance and development of community life. This included work such as sweeping, scavenging and water fetching. Gandhiji's objective in this context was to inculcate the ideals of social service and citizenship through all the activities of children from the earlier formative years.

PHILOSOPHY:

1. Education is necessary for the social, political, moral and economic growth.
2. He believes in vocational art and to educate the body and the mind.
3. School should be activity centered and teaching should be in Mother tongue. The state should provide free education.
4. He gave to the world  a new scheme of education- Basic education called as Wardha Scheme of education and Nai Talim.
5. He desired to establish Sarvodaya Samaj. 
6. As per him, Teacher should possess all  the values desirable by the society. Instead of being a talker, he has to be a doer, a thinker and a planner. Teacher should be a person with sincerity, honesty with love and affection.
7. He believed that children must not be equipped with too much of textbooks.
8. He stressed upon Adult education as an important aspect of National Reconstruction.
9. He believed in the fact that aims of education should be to inculcate self-reliance in students.
10. Gandhiji rejected bookish knowledge. He believed in "Learning by doing" and "Learning by living".

Death:
On January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi fell to his assassin Nathuram Vinayak Godse's bullets during an evening prayer ceremony at Birla House in Delhi.

 

FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION :: INDIAN THINKERS ON EDUCATION - PART I

 RABINDRANATH TAGORE:

Rabindranath Tagore was a renowned poet, writer, painter, social reformer and a philosopher etc. He was born on 6 May, 1861 in Bengal. He translated his epic "Gitanjali" for which, he got worldwide recognition. For this he was awarded Nobel Prize in 1913. He established the famous 'Viswabharathi University' on 22 September, 1921. It was a place for the whole world to learn Indian literature, art and philosophy. He always stresses on the synthesis of East and West. This was the main aim of his university. He believed a lot on the personal or own experiences, which help us in evaluating and learning. He believed on the interrelationship of God, human and nature. He stressed upon "self" of a human, which needs freedom and which has lot of power and energy to explore. He was not educated from a renowned university rather believed in and has undergone self-study. He believed in God and Maya. He believed on the fact that moral is important for an individual to be happy. He considered Man as the highest creation of God. His views about aesthetics is, beauty and ugliness are two aspects. Ugliness cannot be separated from art. He believed in Naturalism, Humanism, Idealism and Internationalism. 

 

 PHILOSOPHY: 

1. A child should be free from all kinds of compulsions and restrictions. He should enjoy freedom.
2. Education should be according to the realities of life.
3. To develop the child physically by providing various physical activities such as swimming, diving, climbing, various games and sports.
4. To promote mental development by providing more and more activities and experiences in the open field where nature teaches more than books.
5. To promote the moral and spiritual development of the child through self-discipline, tolerance, courtesy and inner freedom.
6. To develop an international attitude in children.
7. He believes that "Teaching while walking is the best methods of education".  
8. He emphasizes activity method because it activates the mind and body. Hence, he made the learning of some handicrafts compulsory at "Viswabharathi".
9. He considers the role of teacher to be very important. They were personified as lamp, as they help in providing a conducive environment to the child. In his works, he appeal teachers to motivate the child.
10. He believes in the fact that curriculum should be such developed that it helps the individual physically, mentally, morally, socially and spiritually to the utmost limit.

   
  

FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION :: PRAGMATISM

Pragmatism was first developed by Charles Pierce. It is closely aligned with Naturalism. It is often considered as a 'Theory of Truth'.

Aim:

1. To cultivate a dynamic and adaptable mind.
2. Education must create new values.
3. Education as continuous reconstruction of experience.

Principles:

The following are the fundamental principles of pragmatism-

1. Truth is changeable. It is according to space, time and situation.
2. As truth is changeable, the goals and objectives are also changeable over a period of time.
3. Each thought, theory, belief or object is evaluated on the basis of goodness or evilness. If it is good or yield a fruit of goodness, it is considered useful or else not.
4. Thought always are produced from activity. Firstly the activity occur and from it comes the thought.
5. Pragmatism holds pluralism. According to pluralism experience is the test of truth. The ideals and values, which are tested by experience are the true ones and real.
6. Man differs from animals due to his power of thinking. This thinking helps him to work and understand the problems and find solutions. This helps him to adjust in his environment and get adapted. 
7. Man is a social animal. He makes his life successful in the society. He has no existence outside the society.

Content:

Principles of utility, interest, activity, guidelines, experience and integration.

Teacher:

Teacher is considered as an observer.

Forms of Pragmatism:

Teaching Methods:

As per pragmatism the teaching method is based upon the interest of the child and that which solves his problems is most preferable.

 These methods provide collective occupational spirit in the school in which a student simply act as a cell in the social body. An individual works and talks/expresses on the behalf of his entire team or group. This brings the tradition, education and beliefs of all. Its a collective afford. Cognition is an activity of the students, people in a group or a society as a whole rather than an individual or does involves innovative beliefs of all. Pragmatism Believes education as a powerful tool, which integrates culture and vacation. It increases the value of a group compared to a teacher.

 Pragmatism believes in the following principles:

• Principle of living with life,
• Principle of learning by doing,
• Principle of integration.

Child:

Child is the focal point.

Discipline:

Discipline is inculcated through work and play.