Hello, and welcome to my BLOG!
As I mention at the top, this BLOG is aimed at discussing and sharing a variety of things. However, at the moment I am primarily concerned with my dream - to start a school that does not coerce children to do the "right things".
My first entry here is related to that very dream -
Here's my idea in gist:
VISION STATEMENT:
All through my student days, in spite of being regarded as an "intelligent" child, I suffered badly in the hands of "formal education".
At home I was thankful to have sensible parents, who brought me up mostly, to borrow A. S. Neill's expression, in an atmosphere of "self-regulation", and generally allowed me the space to explore my own inner self.
At home I was thankful to have sensible parents, who brought me up mostly, to borrow A. S. Neill's expression, in an atmosphere of "self-regulation", and generally allowed me the space to explore my own inner self.
I often dreamt of a school that was fun to be in, where teachers did not merely shove information down children's dyspeptic throats, but showed them paths that lead to creativity and learning!
Subsequently, working as art-teacher in various schools (both mainstream as well as the so-called Alternative in India) and with related non-government organisations in various parts of the country, this dream has constantly hounded me, throughout the self-defeating rigours of institutionalised academic service.
Subsequently, working as art-teacher in various schools (both mainstream as well as the so-called Alternative in India) and with related non-government organisations in various parts of the country, this dream has constantly hounded me, throughout the self-defeating rigours of institutionalised academic service.
Around the time that I quit my last teaching job (2003), I came across "SUMMERHILL: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing" by A. S. Neill. That book, along with my subsequent studies of Neill's ideas, and the present reality of Summerhill School in Sussex, England, has been a life-altering experience.
After that point, I have begun to seriously consider the option of starting a school that I myself feel comfortable with. This desire is primarily driven by a self-centred motivation, more than any wish to 'change the world'. I know that working with children is what I want to do in life – so, I am eager to design and construct a space where I can do so without having to conform to the usual attitudes towards children and their 'upbringing', which I find self-defeating and pointless.
I hope to start a free, democratic, residential school, somewhere in West Bengal, India, where children will be allowed to lead their lives through "self-regulation", rather than being coerced into set patterns by adult caretakers.
One of the central intentions of this school would also be to generate Ananda, which is a Sanskrit word, denoting a complex idea that revolves around the notion of multi-dimensional fulfilment in life; such fulfilment being possible only through a thorough and unrestrained exploration of an individual's unique identity. The meaning of the word is distinctly different from "pleasure" or "fun" – its closest English approximations would be "joy" or "bliss".
Though I do not have a fix on the name for the school as yet, I hope to have the word "Ananda" as part of it. For the time being I'm using the name "ANANDA-CIRCLE" for convenience.
We would be concerned with the overall well-being of the students' body, mind and soul. We would intend to approach the education of a child not merely as a means for developing certain tangible parts of the being (the brain, for example), but as a holistic development of the complete person.
More than imparting an 'education' that is fundamentally geared towards shoving information and techniques down their throats, our foremost concern would be each child's growth as a human being. And then, if and when the student so requires, to facilitate their own efforts at honing abilities to subjectively process available information and choose a meaningful direction for the implementation of the various techniques they might wish to master. We would be concerned about the spirit of the child – his or her unique identity in the totality of Nature.
More than imparting an 'education' that is fundamentally geared towards shoving information and techniques down their throats, our foremost concern would be each child's growth as a human being. And then, if and when the student so requires, to facilitate their own efforts at honing abilities to subjectively process available information and choose a meaningful direction for the implementation of the various techniques they might wish to master. We would be concerned about the spirit of the child – his or her unique identity in the totality of Nature.
Children at our school shall be given the same respect and 'status' as adults. They will be free to choose what, when and how they study, what they wear, eat or believe in. They will be afforded 'freedom', not 'licence', in matters that involve their own individual growth and living. They will also have full participation in the governance of the school, through a system of democratic voting.
To fulfil these aspirations, the school has to have certain fundamental characteristics:
1. The foremost requirement would be a body of staff comprising of adults who have actually internalised the attitude required to treat children respectfully, without becoming unnaturally indulgent or permissive.
2. The project must be conceived as a primarily-residential school…
3. …Rather, a community of children and adults, where each individual child has the right to decide how they want to spend each day, and their whole life in the long run.
4. They would be free to attend or not attend any and every teaching period.
5. They would be free to shift from one course/combination to another at any time during the academic session.
6. However, no one individual's right to such 'freedom' would supersede their responsibility to respect the freedom of other individuals. So, a kid may choose to spend a month without taking a bath, by all means, but a teacher would then have as much right to turn him/her out of their class-room because they can't bear the stink! And similarly, an adult might want to take a ride on a child's bicycle, but supposing the kid did not trust the adult for some reason, s/he might well ask the adult to go fly a kite – the bicycle belongs to the child, after all!
7. There would be no compulsory tests and examinations, or a predefined academic standard, which they would be compelled to live up to. The school will offer some form of a school-leaving Board Examination (the IB curriculum sounds best fitted for this purpose, for now) – however, there will be no official or moral compunction for students to take such a test, they could as easily spend all their school years in the carpentry studio, if they so pleased!
8. Therefore, by the school ethos, 'academic work' will not be afforded any special importance, over any other endeavour that a child may wish to pursue.
9. Community life and school governance will function within regulations set down by democratic vote at regular general-meetings, where each individual, adult or child, will have the same status as any other. No one, including the principal, will have veto powers over democratic decisions.
10. Children must not be moralistically hounded by adults regarding their personal habits, cultural preferences, social standards, and so on.
11. Finally, proximity to Nature; that is trees, the wilderness, the sun, moon, wind and fire, wild-life, birds and the bees are much-desired prerequisites! Such exposure, I feel, has an inherent ability to smooth-out socially-acquired selfishness and the ego-centric materialism that is becoming the hallmark of this day and age.
In gist, the central effort at our school would be to allow children the freedom to learn to regulate their own lives, rather than live through adult instructions. Our belief being that they would, in the process, pick up vital life-skills that would in the long run, enable them to access their own inner qualities and individual uniqueness'.
In gist, the central effort at our school would be to allow children the freedom to learn to regulate their own lives, rather than live through adult instructions. Our belief being that they would, in the process, pick up vital life-skills that would in the long run, enable them to access their own inner qualities and individual uniqueness'.
