“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think” ~Albert Einstein.
Through my school and college life I never gave thought on purpose and methodology for education. For me education was taking as much knowledge/ information as possible from books and gets the reward in the form of marks. It was the general perception that education was reading books, getting information and retaining that information. I don’t remember I had ever given emphasize on why am I doing or learning certain things. But after my two kids I slowly got into reading for right education, different pedagogy schools are using and the philosophy behind all these practices. My daughter started her schooling in American so I also got a chance to see education there. The Heritage gave me the 1st glimpse of experiencing learning in India. All this was helping me built good knowledge of education and its philosophy and joining IAAT gave shape to my thought. When I think my role as a teacher, one thinks I always want is my relationship with my children. I believe it is very important to develop a trust, respect and strong relationship between teacher and children for any type of learning to happen. The class should be free from fear. Education has to be child centric and this is only possible when children start feeling comfortable in the atmosphere and with the people he/ she are staying all day. The classroom should give enough opportunity for all children to ask question and their doubt. I strongly believe these questions lead to curiosity and curiosity help them to get to the answer. Education is nothing but to develop this process of learning in every child.
“Good teaching is more a giving of right question than a giving of right answer” ~Josef Albers
The purpose of doing/learning something should be very clearly defined. It is important for any teacher to answer why are they doing this? Also it should be relevant to the social context. The children should be able to make connect with what they are doing and why they are doing. For example when we are teaching multiplication children should know where they are going to use it similarly doing map should have the social context. This explanation helps to create interest among children and hook them more to the learning of that topic.There should be lot of teaching through doing. Theory class should be supported by practical class, where children can do themselves and see what they have been taught. Enough time should be given to children to explore their learning and justify them with evidence. In fact this is the first step for children to question their learning and develop a new theory or concept. It is very important for them to understand nothing that is done in class is always correct and there can always be a possibility of some other explanation with proper evidence. So education has to infuse this behavior in children and practical class help a lot in this aspect.
“Tell me, I will forget. Teach me, I will remember. Involve me, I will learn.” ~Benjamin Franklin
The classroom discussion plays a very important role in education. The purpose of the teacher is not to give questions to the student but to have a conversation, to direct that conversation such that the student draws the inference from it on their own. . The objective of helping the student should be to create a space where they can take their questions and learn to look for their own answer. Guidance should be to create an environment for the student to think for themselves rather than relying on second hand information. Learning should be to find the truth, not just know another fact. Schooling is the holistic approach. We need to have overall development of both mind and body. So it is very important to keep physical activity as part of our daily routine. Mirambika is one good example to see how physical class can help both teacher and children to be fit physically and also opportunity to develop bond between them. Childhood is the best time to inculcate healthy habits and manners like good food habits, sensitivity for each other, work in team and help you friends. Since children spend more time in school than in home it becomes more important for schooling to include these aspects of learning.
If every child is unique and the natural potential of a child is different than how can we help as a teacher by keeping the goal same for every child? To see growth in every child it is very important to bring deferential teaching into your class. It is very important to understand each child and hi/ her capacity and accordingly plan his learning gaol.
As a teacher in making, I closely relate to the following philosophies:
I have been able to gather from the various philosophies, that being a teacher is a tremendous responsibility. In order to do justice to my role as a teacher, foremost, I need to be on a path of self-awareness. Only then, I will be able to create an environment in the classroom where each child is free to express himself, explore his surroundings and search his own answers. Being teacher I would like to equip each and every child the necessary tools and behavior for success in life. Giving smile and vision to any child who I come across is my dream and this dream gives me the hope and courage to keep trying.
“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think” ~Albert Einstein.
Through my school and college life I never gave thought on purpose and methodology for education. For me education was taking as much knowledge/ information as possible from books and gets the reward in the form of marks. It was the general perception that education was reading books, getting information and retaining that information. I don’t remember I had ever given emphasize on why am I doing or learning certain things. But after my two kids I slowly got into reading for right education, different pedagogy schools are using and the philosophy behind all these practices. My daughter started her schooling in American so I also got a chance to see education there. The Heritage gave me the 1st glimpse of experiencing learning in India. All this was helping me built good knowledge of education and its philosophy and joining IAAT gave shape to my thought. When I think my role as a teacher, one thinks I always want is my relationship with my children. I believe it is very important to develop a trust, respect and strong relationship between teacher and children for any type of learning to happen. The class should be free from fear. Education has to be child centric and this is only possible when children start feeling comfortable in the atmosphere and with the people he/ she are staying all day. The classroom should give enough opportunity for all children to ask question and their doubt. I strongly believe these questions lead to curiosity and curiosity help them to get to the answer. Education is nothing but to develop this process of learning in every child.
“Good teaching is more a giving of right question than a giving of right answer” ~Josef Albers
The purpose of doing/learning something should be very clearly defined. It is important for any teacher to answer why are they doing this? Also it should be relevant to the social context. The children should be able to make connect with what they are doing and why they are doing. For example when we are teaching multiplication children should know where they are going to use it similarly doing map should have the social context. This explanation helps to create interest among children and hook them more to the learning of that topic.There should be lot of teaching through doing. Theory class should be supported by practical class, where children can do themselves and see what they have been taught. Enough time should be given to children to explore their learning and justify them with evidence. In fact this is the first step for children to question their learning and develop a new theory or concept. It is very important for them to understand nothing that is done in class is always correct and there can always be a possibility of some other explanation with proper evidence. So education has to infuse this behavior in children and practical class help a lot in this aspect.
“Tell me, I will forget. Teach me, I will remember. Involve me, I will learn.” ~Benjamin Franklin
The classroom discussion plays a very important role in education. The purpose of the teacher is not to give questions to the student but to have a conversation, to direct that conversation such that the student draws the inference from it on their own. . The objective of helping the student should be to create a space where they can take their questions and learn to look for their own answer. Guidance should be to create an environment for the student to think for themselves rather than relying on second hand information. Learning should be to find the truth, not just know another fact. Schooling is the holistic approach. We need to have overall development of both mind and body. So it is very important to keep physical activity as part of our daily routine. Mirambika is one good example to see how physical class can help both teacher and children to be fit physically and also opportunity to develop bond between them. Childhood is the best time to inculcate healthy habits and manners like good food habits, sensitivity for each other, work in team and help you friends. Since children spend more time in school than in home it becomes more important for schooling to include these aspects of learning.
If every child is unique and the natural potential of a child is different than how can we help as a teacher by keeping the goal same for every child? To see growth in every child it is very important to bring deferential teaching into your class. It is very important to understand each child and hi/ her capacity and accordingly plan his learning gaol.
As a teacher in making, I closely relate to the following philosophies:
- Tagore’s philosophy says that a child should not be unhappy in their school, in their life, or in any institution.
- J Krishnamurthy speaks a lot of a child being an integrated individual, having a deep Psychological revolt of intelligence (that comes from self –knowledge) as per this approach, Integrated men and women, who are free from fear, are the only human beings who are in enduring peace.
- A teacher needs to instill, and help develop values in them, for example: kids fighting in the class, bullying or teasing each other, cannot be left as it is, or dealt with anger. The right action needs to be taken by talking to them, what made them do this, getting into the crux of their anger or behavior, finding the cause and then catering to that need with love and affection , helping them think or realize on their own what is right and wrong. A teacher constantly needs to deal with such things wisely, with great affection. Kids with low self worth, cannot be left to improve with time, a teacher will have to give a lot of attention, love and encouragement. The emotions need to be taken care of.
- Gandhi ji's Nai Talim, gave emphasis in the role of the teacher and the relationship between teacher and children. He believes that education is not about putting in information, but drawing out hidden potential of children. Emphasized more on the importance of work and craftsmanship, I agree mostly with it. For a learning journey to be complete I feel the child needs to understand the importance of doing things with their own hands, the usefulness of the crafts , its history and geography--- with this the learning becomes holistic Managing a child’s learning is also a teacher’s responsibility; she needs to establish the connection Between what they know, what they want to know, and how they can find more. To illustrate this point : while discussing on the Water as an important resource in my practice classroom, children came out with lot of information they had on water sources, where it comes from, its utilities, the teacher kept brainstorming and writing on the board, discussing every possible question they had, what they think, how can they help save water. Can they survive without water? Teacher gave some inquiry questions to the children to delve deep and find out more.
- Aurobindo’s philosophy: His teaching has a big impact on my thinking towards education. “Nothing can be taught, a teacher is just a helper and a guide, he does not impart knowledge he shows his students how to acquire it. I personally relate to this aspect of the philosophy a lot, where I think a teacher needs to bring out the best in the child, which is true to its nature, for this the teacher needs to be aware of not overpower the child with their personalities or way of thinking rather facilitate the child in developing a personality and a thought process of its own. A child cannot be forced to abandon its own Dharma, everyone in them have something divine, something of their own. The aim of education should be to help the growing soul to draw out that in itself which is best and make it perfect for a noble use. To work from near to far, to help a child grow naturally in its surrounding, if something is to be brought in from outside, it should only be offered not forced on the mind, as a free and natural growth is the condition of genuine development. For eg: if a child from a village school who speaks regional language is put into a regular city school, it will be difficult for him to survive in an environment which is alien to him.
- A.S Neil says that “the function of a child is to live his own life not the life that his anxious parents think he should live, not a life according to the purpose of an educator who thinks he knows best” This strengthen my feeling that a teacher’s role should be to encourage children in their whole process of evolution and not just impose information on them. To let the child grow into a unique human, the child has to go forward and experience new things himself. Teacher should always be standing behind as a guide, as a mother to give hand and support in needs.
I have been able to gather from the various philosophies, that being a teacher is a tremendous responsibility. In order to do justice to my role as a teacher, foremost, I need to be on a path of self-awareness. Only then, I will be able to create an environment in the classroom where each child is free to express himself, explore his surroundings and search his own answers. Being teacher I would like to equip each and every child the necessary tools and behavior for success in life. Giving smile and vision to any child who I come across is my dream and this dream gives me the hope and courage to keep trying.
Philosophy Assignment
Assignment based on the readings by Aurobindo; and the Mother
Imagine that you are a school teacher. In what ways do you think you would incorporate `the three principles of true teaching’ in your daily practice? You may imagine a day in your life as a teacher, as you write this answer, and try to make it as detailed as possible. (Please provide concrete examples from your own experience and observations.)
Before going ahead with describing my day in school as a teacher, I would like to talk about the three principles of true teaching from Aurobindo’s. First principle of teaching says that ‘nothing can be taught’, he strongly believed that we as teachers are more like guides who encourage students and show a way to walk on, reaping success in life and society. In any case, we should abstain from being an instructor as this does give opportunity for an holistic growth to students.
Second principle says that the mind has to be consulted in its own growth. He gave importance to individual identity. According to him, teaching should be based on individual’s nature, quality, interest and capacity. We can’t bring the kids under the bracket of same fixed curriculum and have them follow the same. To help child reach his fullest potential, we as teachers have to let the child grow in his natural way.
Third principle of Aurobindo talked about the method of teaching. He emphasized on teaching based on the ‘concept of near to far’. He said that the teaching should be done in such a way that children should be able to associate themselves with any topic. The topic should be familiar, local, and contextual and should be related to one’s everyday life. It is much easier for children to understand any topic if they can relate themselves to it and visualize it.
When we talk of ‘near to far’ principle, I would like to elaborate this with few examples. Both of my kids are studying in The Heritage School at Gurgaon. This school has designed booklet for word problems, which they start with the kids at very early age. When my son got the booklet my first expression was ‘will he be able to do them? And isn’t it too early for them?’. I went through his math, I found that all of the sums were designed on real situations. Words like School play ground, Jungle Gym, M G road, Sohna Road, Delhi Metro and many more similar types were used. I observed that when he was reading the sum the familiar words used to keep him excited and motivated, he felt a connection as he was able to visualize them. This in turn helped him to understand the sum, and then solving those was much simpler. I remember during our time whenever we used to get word problems, our first question used to be ‘what do we have to do, is it addition or subtraction?’ Our concepts and way of studies were quite different, the only thing we learnt was four arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Word problems used to revolve around them only.
I would like to put another example of how ‘near to far’ can be useful in education. These days we have started attending teacher’s lesson plan meetings. Teachers were discussing about introducing different type of maps to the kids; one was a thematic map of Indian forests. Some teachers were concerned whether theme of forest would be good enough for the kids to relate to. They discussed this among themselves and came with two suggestions, one was to use rain in India as it is a rainy season and another was to use ‘bus route’ of our school transport. Students should be able relate and grasp map concept better as rain and transport both are contextual and local to them. Additionally, they should be able to retain the taught concepts longer.
Let’s get to Aurobindo’s first principal - “Nothing can be taught. “ It has a very wide, deep meaning. We all learn to talk even when no one taught us how to talk, how to speak.
There are many people who move from their native location. Over the period they learn the local language of their stay. In the process, they even don’t know when they learnt the new language which may be far different from their mother tongue.
My kids stayed in US since their early age for a fairly long time and naturally because the context was English, they picked up speaking English fluently without any special effort from us. In fact, they had developed American accent but few years ago, when we returned to India, we put our good effort in helping them learn speaking Hindi.
Within few months of coming they picked many Hindi words from their surroundings and today they are equally good at communicating in Hindi.
It is important to mention here that there are many things we learn by observing others. In fact, seeing, observing and learning has a longer impact on one’s learning. Again I would like to give one example here, In USA, we used to visit zoo around quite frequently and this helped my kids develop seeing animals in different perspective. Now, they are not scared of animals anymore, they treat them as a part of our ecosystems, they are sensitive towards them. It created a very deep interest in animals which in turn made them curious to know more and more about them. Even, my daughter now, a seventh grader, wants to pursue her career in wildlife and often keeps of asking many questions on wildlife. According to me, it is very important to have interest in something and learning follows automatically.
Aurobindo has also talked about ‘mind has to be consulted for its growth’. It is very important that the learning should be in co- ordination with the mind of the children. Each child is unique in his interests, capacity and contextual being is different. ‘Mind of the child’ primarily gives importance to each child their age, interest, capacity and the time they take to learn. Take the example of Sachin Tendulkar; he is one among the great cricketer of our time. Academically he was an average or below average boy. Surely, he would have preferred to go to play ground than to school. Therefore, it is very important to give importance to other aspects of learning like sports, music, dance, art also. Kids should be encouraged to participate in more activities. They should be exposed, guided and given ample opportunity to experiment with variety of things. As they grow they themselves will start showing success in activities they are most excited and passionate about. Doing this, who knows, we would have more of Tendulkar, Wright Brothers, Hershey Milton’s, Bill Gates, and Aziz Premjis around us.
These three principles are the pillars of education our society and nation needs. Being an educator is a responsibility with (farfetched social bearings) I will practice these principles in my class and will make the lesson plan according to these. Life is full of examples, some from teachers and some from students. Each of these examples, with localized contextual information when brought in the classroom, can help me shape the children’s future.
Assignment based on the readings by Aurobindo; and the Mother
Imagine that you are a school teacher. In what ways do you think you would incorporate `the three principles of true teaching’ in your daily practice? You may imagine a day in your life as a teacher, as you write this answer, and try to make it as detailed as possible. (Please provide concrete examples from your own experience and observations.)
Before going ahead with describing my day in school as a teacher, I would like to talk about the three principles of true teaching from Aurobindo’s. First principle of teaching says that ‘nothing can be taught’, he strongly believed that we as teachers are more like guides who encourage students and show a way to walk on, reaping success in life and society. In any case, we should abstain from being an instructor as this does give opportunity for an holistic growth to students.
Second principle says that the mind has to be consulted in its own growth. He gave importance to individual identity. According to him, teaching should be based on individual’s nature, quality, interest and capacity. We can’t bring the kids under the bracket of same fixed curriculum and have them follow the same. To help child reach his fullest potential, we as teachers have to let the child grow in his natural way.
Third principle of Aurobindo talked about the method of teaching. He emphasized on teaching based on the ‘concept of near to far’. He said that the teaching should be done in such a way that children should be able to associate themselves with any topic. The topic should be familiar, local, and contextual and should be related to one’s everyday life. It is much easier for children to understand any topic if they can relate themselves to it and visualize it.
When we talk of ‘near to far’ principle, I would like to elaborate this with few examples. Both of my kids are studying in The Heritage School at Gurgaon. This school has designed booklet for word problems, which they start with the kids at very early age. When my son got the booklet my first expression was ‘will he be able to do them? And isn’t it too early for them?’. I went through his math, I found that all of the sums were designed on real situations. Words like School play ground, Jungle Gym, M G road, Sohna Road, Delhi Metro and many more similar types were used. I observed that when he was reading the sum the familiar words used to keep him excited and motivated, he felt a connection as he was able to visualize them. This in turn helped him to understand the sum, and then solving those was much simpler. I remember during our time whenever we used to get word problems, our first question used to be ‘what do we have to do, is it addition or subtraction?’ Our concepts and way of studies were quite different, the only thing we learnt was four arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Word problems used to revolve around them only.
I would like to put another example of how ‘near to far’ can be useful in education. These days we have started attending teacher’s lesson plan meetings. Teachers were discussing about introducing different type of maps to the kids; one was a thematic map of Indian forests. Some teachers were concerned whether theme of forest would be good enough for the kids to relate to. They discussed this among themselves and came with two suggestions, one was to use rain in India as it is a rainy season and another was to use ‘bus route’ of our school transport. Students should be able relate and grasp map concept better as rain and transport both are contextual and local to them. Additionally, they should be able to retain the taught concepts longer.
Let’s get to Aurobindo’s first principal - “Nothing can be taught. “ It has a very wide, deep meaning. We all learn to talk even when no one taught us how to talk, how to speak.
There are many people who move from their native location. Over the period they learn the local language of their stay. In the process, they even don’t know when they learnt the new language which may be far different from their mother tongue.
My kids stayed in US since their early age for a fairly long time and naturally because the context was English, they picked up speaking English fluently without any special effort from us. In fact, they had developed American accent but few years ago, when we returned to India, we put our good effort in helping them learn speaking Hindi.
Within few months of coming they picked many Hindi words from their surroundings and today they are equally good at communicating in Hindi.
It is important to mention here that there are many things we learn by observing others. In fact, seeing, observing and learning has a longer impact on one’s learning. Again I would like to give one example here, In USA, we used to visit zoo around quite frequently and this helped my kids develop seeing animals in different perspective. Now, they are not scared of animals anymore, they treat them as a part of our ecosystems, they are sensitive towards them. It created a very deep interest in animals which in turn made them curious to know more and more about them. Even, my daughter now, a seventh grader, wants to pursue her career in wildlife and often keeps of asking many questions on wildlife. According to me, it is very important to have interest in something and learning follows automatically.
Aurobindo has also talked about ‘mind has to be consulted for its growth’. It is very important that the learning should be in co- ordination with the mind of the children. Each child is unique in his interests, capacity and contextual being is different. ‘Mind of the child’ primarily gives importance to each child their age, interest, capacity and the time they take to learn. Take the example of Sachin Tendulkar; he is one among the great cricketer of our time. Academically he was an average or below average boy. Surely, he would have preferred to go to play ground than to school. Therefore, it is very important to give importance to other aspects of learning like sports, music, dance, art also. Kids should be encouraged to participate in more activities. They should be exposed, guided and given ample opportunity to experiment with variety of things. As they grow they themselves will start showing success in activities they are most excited and passionate about. Doing this, who knows, we would have more of Tendulkar, Wright Brothers, Hershey Milton’s, Bill Gates, and Aziz Premjis around us.
These three principles are the pillars of education our society and nation needs. Being an educator is a responsibility with (farfetched social bearings) I will practice these principles in my class and will make the lesson plan according to these. Life is full of examples, some from teachers and some from students. Each of these examples, with localized contextual information when brought in the classroom, can help me shape the children’s future.
Feedback from teacher:-
A good answer. You have taken pains to understand the 3 principles, reflect upon them and then correlate with your own observations and ideas. The examples you have provided are apt and relevant.
A good answer. You have taken pains to understand the 3 principles, reflect upon them and then correlate with your own observations and ideas. The examples you have provided are apt and relevant.
