“To love to learn is the most precious gift that one can make to a
child, to learn always and everywhere”.
–Mirra Alfassa
One cannot know which philosophy is right for any given situation or
curriculum, unless he has taken his seat above them. In any case, the finest
present one can give to a child would be to teach him to know himself and to
master himself. To know oneself means to know the motives of one’s actions and
reactions, the why and the how of all that happens in oneself. To master
oneself means to do what one has decided to do, to do nothing but that, not to
listen to or follow impulses, desires or fancies. (On Education, July 1930).
Philosophy of Integral Education
Integral education attempts to discover how the many partial truths of
educational philosophies and methods inform and complement each other in a
coherent way, while acknowledging that the whole truth is still evolving and
can never be completely captured. Integral education includes approaches to
education from biological, neurological, societal, cultural, psychological, and
spiritual fields of study. It involves considering the individual and
collective aspects of teachers and students, as well as the interior and
exterior modes of experience and reality, termed the four quadrants (see graph
below). An integral approach also considers the many developmental lines in a
human being —cognitive, emotional, interpersonal, artistic, moral, spiritual,
and others. In addition, the Integral framework understands that these lines
evolve in stages, or levels, such as pre-conventional, conventional, and
post-conventional, and that each human being passes through these levels and
cannot skip any one. It also acknowledges the importance for an individual’s
development and motivation of states of consciousness. Lastly, integral
education considers types, people’s enduring tendencies and inclinations toward,
for example, introversion or extraversion; agency or communion; and orderliness
or spontaneity.
Summarized, an integral approach to education is one that works to include all of these different elements (quadrants, lines, levels, types, and states) as fully and as intentionally as possible in the learning and teaching experience (Next Step P1, n.d.).
Why Integral Education?
An integral approach to education supports the continuing growth of
learners and teachers along the entire spiral of development over the full span
of life, in other words, from cradle to Cosmos!
This education philosophy not only works for the students but also
brings a phenomenal transformation in the teachers as well. It is a philosophy of
interdependence, mutual growth and change.
Self-Reflection:
For me schooling was full of lectures. Rote method of learning and
pressure after pressure. The routine classroom scene was, teacher came,
delivered and left. When I had the chance to revisit my school recently, to my
astonishment and embarrassment, I had failed to remember few of my teachers and
after serious recollection was I able to place them. That is the kind of impression;
they left no positive imprints nor negative on me. I was blank.
So I asked myself, what could I do differently? How can I make a
difference in each one of my students? What is the missing component and the
secret? After a lot of self-reflection and introspection, it came to me. The
answer was sincere Love. Love towards teaching and educating, love towards
children and a sincere interest in seeing them emerge as individuals under your
care. We teachers cannot replicate parents; we do not have to, but can become
the strongest of scaffolds for their continuous development.
I attended many interviews and asked many questions. I worked in a few
schools and finally got my calling. I got an opportunity to work at a school
that had its roots in Holistic Education based on Sri Aurobindo’s Integral
Education philosophy. Here we were ready to experiment with just about anything
that would work for our students from Glen Doman to Maria Montessori under the
broader wing of IE.
Role of teachers in Integral Education:
1. Complete self-control not only to the extent of not showing any
anger, but remaining absolutely quiet and undisturbed under all circumstances.
2. In the matter of
self-confidence, must also have a sense of the relativity of his importance.
Above all, must have the knowledge that the teacher himself must always
progress if he wants his students to progress, must not remain satisfied either
with what he is or with what he knows.
3. Must not have any sense of essential superiority over his students
nor preference or attachment whatsoever for one or another.
4. Must know that all are equal spiritually and instead of mere
tolerance must have a global comprehension or understanding.
5. “The business of both parent and teacher is to enable and to help the
child to educate himself, to develop his own intellectual, moral, aesthetic and
practical capacities and to grow freely as an organic being, not to be kneaded
and pressured into form like an inert plastic material.” (The Human Cycle,
1954).
Educational Aims:
All studies, or in any case the greater part of studies consists in
learning about the past, in the hope that it will give you a better
understanding of the present. You must take great care to explain to the
students that the purpose of everything that happened in the past was to
prepare what is taking place now, and that everything that is taking place now
is nothing but a preparation for the road towards the future, which is truly
the most important thing for which we must prepare. It is by cultivating intuition
that one prepares to live for the future.
The School: The school should be an opportunity for
progress for the teacher as well as for the student. Each one should have the
freedom to develop freely. A method is never so well applied as when one has
discovered it oneself. Otherwise, it is as boring for the teacher as for the
student. (On Education, Feb 1968).
Conclusion:
The best thing I found in this philosophy was that we are encouraged to
think outside the box and revolutionize teaching practices. We are encouraged
not to try to follow what is done in the universities outside. We are
discouraged from pumping into the students more and more data and information.
Let us not give them so much work that they may not get time for
anything else. You are not in a great hurry to catch a train. Let the students
understand what they learn. Let them assimilate it. Finishing the course should
not be our goal.
We should make the curriculum in such a way that the students might get
time to attend the subjects they want to learn. They should have sufficient
time for their physical exercises. We do not want them to be very good
students, yet pale, thin, anemic.
If this way they will not have sufficient time for their studies, that
can be made up by expanding the course over a longer period. Instead of
finishing a course in four years, you can take six years. Rather it would be
better for them; they will be able to assimilate more of the atmosphere here
and their progress will not be just in one direction at the cost of everything
else. It will be an all-round progress in all directions.
I agree that it is a complete rat race out there, but are we really
looking at the quality of graduates than the quantity of toppers? It is time to
rethink our objectives and goals for the future (On Education, Feb 1968).
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