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.

FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION :: NATURALISM

Naturalism:

Naturalism as the name says depends upon nature or say reality. It is a philosophical concept just opposite to Idealism. It is considered sometimes equal to Empiricism or Materialism.

It is not easily distinguished from:

• Positivism.
• Atheism.
• Determinism.
• Scientism.

Naturalism believes in reality and human's role in the reality. It believes in determining, discovering the reality by our intelligence using the tools of experience, reason and science. The scientific method is an extension of reason, so reason and science do not differ from each other. Reason believes in proper use of the rules of logical inference, while scientific method applies the rules of logical inference for drawing conclusions. 

Concept:

1. Human experience is the ultimate source and justification for all knowledge. Experience has accumulated in human memory and culture, gradually providing reason and science.
2. Ward has said , Naturalism separates nature from the God. As per this law, Nature is supreme, we can get all the answers of philosophical problems from the nature. Naturalism limits itself to causes and take little of reason.
3. Naturalism believes that all phenomenon can be explained mechanically in terms of natural cause and laws. It considers Universe is a vast "machine" or"organism".
4. Physical matter is the only reality and everything can be explained in terms of matter and physical phenomena.      
5. Naturalism does not deny the existence of God. It considers God as an unnecessary hypothesis. It believes in scientific investigation. Moral or divine things have no place in scientific explanations. Science is limited to phenomenon rather than forces, power or influences of supernatural. 
6. Naturalism is opposed by religious supporter as religion believes in morality.
7. Naturalism is a world view that believes in science, which can best understand human nature and our ability to form peaceful societies.

Definition:

1. Naturalism is opposed to Idealism and believes in matter, material as the ultimate reality.
2. Naturalism believes in nature as the whole and it is not science, but an assertion about science leaving no room for extra scientific or philosophical knowledge.
3. Naturalism is a metaphysics.

Aim:

Naturalism evolved education is free from the bondage of rigid discipline.

Principles:

1. The Universe is a huge machine. 
2. Life comes out of dead matter and is a sum total of physical and chemical reactions.
3. Capabilities of an individual are not limited by the nature.
4. The nature of man helps him to become the supreme creation of nature.
5. The present life is the real life.
6. Reality is of the external nature only.
7. The unchanging rules of nature explains us the events and occurances in the world.
8. The changes in the life of man has come up because of the invention of machines and all the discoveries.
9. The true explanation of reality can only be done in terms of physical sciences.
10. The ultimate reality is matter. God, soul, mind, the heaven and hell etc all are illusions. 
11. Thoughts depend on physical circumstances. 

 

 Content- In education:

Science, math, language, history, social sciences, agriculture, carpentry, importance to  physical education and health, drawing etc.

Methods - In education: 

Dalton, Montessori method, play, observation etc.

Teacher's role:

Observer or a facilitator.

Child's role:

Child is considered as focal point, importance is given to the child.

Discipline:

There is freedom to the children.

Discipline learned as a result of activities.

Forms:

1. Physical Naturalism: It studies the processes of matter and phenomena of the external world. It lays more stress on the external material phenomena than the conscious human being. It has no relationship with inner nature of man.
2. Mechanical Naturalism: It believes in the fact that universe is a lifeless huge machine, which gets its form through  matter and motion. It have given us the modern psychology of behaviorism. Behaviorism does not distinguish in the action of man and animal; rather human has the ability to conquer his circumstances.
3. Biological Naturalism: It believes in Darwinian theory of evolution, as per which evolution occur in sequence. Example: common things- plants- insects- animals- human beings. 

It believes in three principles of evolution:

• Adaptation of environment.
• Struggle for existence.
•  Survival of the fittest.