Introduction to Integral Education – Part 1 of 2

This is Part 1 of selected portions from a Teachers Training Workshop conducted by Sri Sraddhalu Ranade in 2004 in New Delhi.

Online premiere: 8, April 2023.

Sraddhalu (0:01:01):

THE WORLD IN CRISIS:

A brief background about this workshop: What we will take up here in these three days will be not so much different techniques of education, but rather: a different mindset, a different approach, a new attitude. And from that new attitude, we will discover that many techniques flow.

And all the techniques that you may have learnt over the years from specialised training sessions will fall into place into a larger spontaneous harmony, and at the end of these three days, our objective is that: effective teaching should flow spontaneously, effortlessly from a new attitude. So the larger thrust of these three days will be an inner psychological change. And in order to make this change effective, it is most advantageous if we approach it consciously through all senses, from the heart most importantly. And let's see where this leads us. In the first session this morning, I would like to lay down:

The foundations of this new approach; from this new attitude: the principles that will flow, the different elements which are involved in education, and recasting the entire constitution of education in a new mold. It is important to place our work as teachers in the larger context of the world situation, otherwise we tend to subdue the crucial role that we play in modern life. When you look at this larger picture, the world all over is in a crisis, a crisis of such gigantic proportions that nowhere before in human history have we faced so much turmoil on such a large scale, on so many different levels of human life.

We have a crisis: in international relations; in national life and administration; in politics; in religions; in administration of companies; economic crisis; social crisis; caste-based crisis; family crisis, practically all families are tending to break up; and finally the individual internalised crisis, where we don't know what is the right thing to do.

At every moment in life we are faced with so many conflicting pulls and pushes: What is the right thing? If I do this, that will not be satisfied. If I do that, this will not be satisfied. And this condition of crisis is increasing, we see no signs of any improvement. If anything at all, we might say: the last 50 years have seen a greater intensification of the crisis than the last 500 years; and the last 5 years have seen more intensification than the last 50 years. At this pace of a geometric progression, either we are heading for a huge explosion and collapse or a breakthrough into something totally different that we cannot even imagine. The political system is in crisis, yes, but education also is in crisis.

And education is in fact the key to overcoming the crisis, because after all with education we are preparing the new generation which will run the world. And if this generation is brought up in an environment where there is a condition of strife and conflict and chaos, where they imbibe those very qualities in their hearts and minds, when they go out in the world, that is exactly what they will share.

(0:05:12):

In our hands as teachers and parents lies the fate of the future of the world. We must never forget that what we have is the most important task for civilisation's survival. Teaching is not just a job. It is a sacred responsibility. But the difficulty we face: Why are we teaching? What are we teaching? And how shall we teach? If we are not clear of the ‘why we teach’, we may not be clear of the other two.

You may want to teach simply because, well, a child has to survive in the jungle, then you teach only survival skills, you don't need to teach anything else.

You may want to teach because ‘I want my child to get a good job and be comfortable in life’, then you teach only what is necessary for the job, some vocational background and training.

But I want my child and all children to be good human beings.

Now that demands a greater spectrum and wider perspective of content of teaching. But that's not the highest. What is the highest goal that I should set for myself and for my child?

I want my child to be a good human being capable of exceeding his humanness.

It is this which makes human beings special that at every step we are trying to rise out of our limited scope of humanness and achieve something beyond, the example mentioned earlier of the founder of this institution, Mr. APJ, to be able to overcome not only physical disability, but the circumstances which have limited and constrained your growth and possibilities, and to rise far beyond, to be able to remould those very circumstances, not only exceed oneself, exceed nature. It is this drive which makes the human species so special. And it is this which we have to set for ourselves as the objective of education.

THE PARTS OF THE BEING

If this be: Why I am teaching? What am I going to teach the student? What is the student really made of? What are the parts of him that I have to address? Obviously the body. That's the framework, that's the base through which I act. What will I train the body? The body's natural instinct is survival. It does not try to exceed beyond that. Well, I can teach the body to be strong, healthy, supple. I can teach the child how to eat, how to sleep, how to work, skills. But that's not all. There is something deeper which is possible by which I will exceed the body's capacity. What is that? The body to be spontaneously beautiful, beautiful not in its appearance alone. I can paint my face with makeup. Will I be beautiful? Not necessarily. There is a glow which comes through.

You will have seen photographs in the National Geographic, where a very old person, more than a hundred, with lines all over the face, and the smile and the gaze and the expression is so beautiful, radiant. This the body can bring out irrespective of the form. The form is only a means, the beauty is inherent. In the material world of which the body is a creation, the divine consciousness expresses itself through beauty. Beauty is a necessary part of our training and development. Beauty not just in the glow that comes, beauty in the movement. When you lift your hand to drink a cup of water, is the movement beautiful, harmonious, elegant? When you walk, do you spontaneously radiate a harmonious movement or is your walking jagged, confused, chaotic as the consciousness within? Well, we want to push that also to its extreme.

And then after the body, what? The emotions, that which binds us and makes us relate to the universe and the families of people around us. Unfortunately, most of us have never consciously had occasion to train our emotions. That's why even as adults, when we enter a point of conflict with emotions, we fight like kindergarten children. We raise our voice, we repeat ourselves more and more insistent, and that's how we try to prove that ‘I am more right than you’. But that's not the best way to express our emotions.

(0:10:18):

Anger spontaneously bursting out uncontrollably is a common experience. And we have not learnt to deal with it. Much like the kindergarten child. This also we want to develop. Because when we are able to develop our emotions to flow spontaneously, all the emotions are colours of life, they enrich life, they make life worthwhile and more beautiful. And by bonding through emotions, 1 + 1 becomes 3 and not 2. But that's not enough.

The mind, which is the main thrust of the modern education, that too. Because it is the mind which is always seeking for perfection. The mind is never satisfied with what is. It wants to see: how to improve, how to organise, how to optimise. Planning, strategy, understanding, perception: these are the characteristics without which life cannot be made more perfect. And perfection of life is what we seek also. But the mind is not just analysis. There is also the right brain, the synthesis, the insight, the comprehension, the inspiration, the intuition, the creativity.

But all of these three developed fully will still make us thinking animals, beautiful thinking animals, but not yet the special feature of humanness, which comes from the fourth dimension, which is deep down at the core of my ‘I’-ness. Not the ‘I’ that likes to show off, but the ‘I’ deep down where I feel: ‘You know, I'm actually a very nice person! If only people knew me for what I am, then they would all like me! But somehow I'm not able to get that part out, what comes across is a reaction, I'm reacting to circumstances! But if only they could look beyond the surface, that core of me where I feel something so beautiful, sweet, tender, spontaneously loving, caring, where I feel a peace, a joy, a love, harmony, flowing as if from the source of a spring.’ That is what we may call ‘the psychic’ or ‘the essence’, the ‘soul’ within.

It is from there that rises all of our deeper and higher aspirations, the need to exceed ourselves, the glow of beauty which is reflected in the body, the power which flows through your emotions or the knowledge that reflects in your mind. And still with the fourth dimension we would not have fully achieved our highest potential, there is still a higher fifth dimension which perhaps we may not dwell on so much in this workshop, but nevertheless we will keep at the back of our mind as a reference because without that we do not complete life, life's purpose.

The fifth dimension is that realm beyond mind which we call ‘the spiritual’. It is a realm of consciousness in which spontaneously peace, delight, knowledge, power is self-existent. It is that which the sages have referred to as the Sat-Chit-Ananda. To be able to realise that as our native home and birthright and to manifest that will complete our evolution and the purpose for which we came on earth.

But for today, we will dwell more on these first four dimensions and perhaps in passing only touch upon the fifth. If this is the broad framework of the development we have to create, awaken in the child, in ourselves even, then how shall we go about it? The modern system of education is actually not so modern. It is the creation of a much earlier era of what is today known as the ‘industrial age’ in Europe, 200 years ago.  And as a result of the fact of its being an industrial age, the entire thought process of an age is determined by the single idea of that age, which is machinery, industry, factory. And obviously society from that coloured lens is seen also as machinery. Education is seen as factory. Child is raw material. So the mindset with which they approached education was this industrial mindset. And I want to emphasise this fact ‘mindset’. The details of the process come as a result of the mindset and are secondary. The error being made in the last 20, 30 years when people have tried to change the educational system is to tinker with the details, the mindset has never been addressed. You cannot overcome the mindset by changing details of application.

(0:15:32):

What is this mindset? Child is raw material. Thrust him in through the gate of the factory. Inside is the machinery that chops, twists, cuts, shapes the child. And then at the end of that whole product assembly line process, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3 assembly line, you have the testing: Is this piece properly cut up? Or, is it defective?

So the examination. Huge fear. Which tests on a single standard, this entire mass production assembly line, and that which is defective is thrown out as rejected, failed, and the rest which passes has to go and fit into society like a wheel in a machine: ‘You are designed for this and nothing else, cut off all other interests, stick to this.’ That is your designed speciality. And obviously the humanness through all this machinery is squeezed out of existence. Our children are churned out from all these schools with their faces losing their joy, happiness and creativity with every passing year. At the day of the exam, you look at their face! You see death! There is no joy. There is no life. And after the exam, reaction, freedom, ‘Finally I am free’. And what do you do? You not only throw away your books, you throw away all that you learnt.

I do this with college students, school students, I ask them: You have just finished an exam two months ago, what do you remember of it? Everybody says, ‘Nothing’. ‘I'm glad to have forgotten it’. Something is fundamentally wrong. Isn't it? But see how the mindset then proceeds. If in the examination system, we have set this rigid structure, where: we are looking for uniformity, we are ignoring individual variation, we are mass processing, we want objective measurement of evaluation; you push out knowledge, focus on information in the training. Because after all what you are is determined by the exam: cut out knowledge, leave information only.

But still further when you go, you begin to limit yourself to objective information, not even subjective information. And you boil down your entire content of education to ‘history test’: How many wives did King Henry the VIII-th have Name the first computer that was invented and in which year? How does it matter to me? Is this the standard you want to set for me? I must have 14 wives? Or what is the value you are trying to communicate? ‘No, this is just factual information you should know because it's part of your history.’ That's all.

But then wait! The school's reputation is now set by the pass-percentage: ‘I will guarantee 90% pass-percentage, so come to me and pay more.’ ‘And in order to ensure that I can live up to that guarantee, I will have an additional exam to sift out only those who will be able to get to that high standard of pass-percentage.’ And it goes down backwards every year. Until today it has reached that point where in Bombay an elite school admits children at kindergarten with an examination which lasts four hours in which the child is suppose to recite the mathematics tables, name his parents, address, phone number, Prime Minister of India, and the last question was: Name that object that spins at the top of a helicopter. In case you don't know, it's called a ‘rotor’. And a 2-year-old child is supposed to have known that. What's the point?

You teach the mathematical tables at the age of 2, you are going to cause brain damage, because the brain is not ready for that, the brain is turning to sensory development, you push it to abstract thought, you skip a step in between, what do you end with? Dyslexia. Dyslexia studied today with brain scans confirms that it is in fact a stage of development skipped, which would have been naturally developed through sensory development. We are making our children sick. There is an epidemic of dyslexia going around all over the world and especially in India. Why? Because of the way we teach. Because of this perversion that has come from the mindset of the industrial age. And when we tinker with the content of education, we have not touched the mindset. And real teaching, what happens?

(0:20:27):

It's not taking in schools. After school, well my class I had 60 people to a teacher, we could never ask a question, so after school, I go for tuition, tuition where the teacher is going to meet me one-to-one and explain to me what I should have learnt in school. But wait. Tuition became big business in the last 10 years. So the tuition class has now become 30 students. Well, it's better than the 60 in school, but still it's not enough. So after 3 hours of tuition, I go home and say, ‘Mummy, I didn't understand this, please explain to me, please sit with me and explain to me’. And here is some personal contact, some love, some affection, some understanding. And ‘Mummy explains it and I say, yes, now I've understood’. So I have to repeat the entire process of learning again and again simply because we didn't pay attention to doing it properly right at the beginning. This is the end result where worldwide children resort to suicide from the sheer pressure and fear of the exam.

In Japan it's worse, that's the most competitive extreme, parents suicide because their children didn't do well in exams. Every year. Every year. It has not changed. It is increasing. Kerala, which is today the most educated state, has the highest suicide rate, has the highest depression rate. It's good for the business of psychiatrists. But certainly something is seriously wrong. So what is it that's wrong in this mindset? Or what shall we just set it all aside and see: What is the mindset which is innate to our hearts? There is something deep down within us where we know what is right for our child. Many of you would be mothers and recall the first experience after your child was born and you looked into the eyes of your child. What happened then?

When the child looked at you with that sweetness, tenderness and love, your heart burst open and a flood of love poured out to him. You never knew you were capable of such love and self-giving. Where ‘I’ don't matter anymore, all that ‘I am’ is poured into this child. Who taught you that? The child! He taught you how to love him. You didn't know how to love him.

You were worried: Will I be a good mother? But when he looked at you, he taught you how to be a good mother, and thereafter, at every moment you knew. You knew what the child needs. He is crying. People ask: Why is he crying? And you say: Well, he is hungry. Or another time he is crying, they ask: Why is he crying? You say: He is feeling hot in this room.  How did you know? The child taught you. Somewhere is this bond in your heart where you know, you are identified with the child.

That knowledge is there in all of us of what we need to give the child to nourish and build him, to help him to be himself truly. What is that knowledge deep down, especially in the context of the Indian civilisation? Our vision of life of the child is very different. We look upon the child not as a monkey to be beaten into shape and trained. For us, every child is a soul in evolution, a spark of God, come down here on earth to grow through experience. It has come with a purpose. It has already chosen the broad lines of life and experience that it wants. Perhaps it has even chosen the environment of the family where it is born because that will help best the experience it wants. My task then is to relate to this spark of God. There is no question of inferior or superior. I have to try to understand the child and help him to be what it has chosen to be, not impose my mind and my ideas on him.

And like a seed sprouting, my task is to nourish, not cut up and twist and shape. I will pour water, I will give fresh air and sunlight, and the plant will bloom by itself. He knows whether he has to become a stalk of wheat or a stalk of rice, whether it will bloom to be a beautiful red flower or a tiny pink rose. He knows. It's there in the seed. I have nothing to worry about. From this new perspective, the foundation of our new mindset, attitude to education, will be this one idea: every child is a soul in evolution.

(0:25:22):

And you will see from this one attitude, all else will flow, down to the details of all the most advanced techniques you have learnt of how to teach mathematics. And I will show you how they are connected to this also. They will flow from this mindset. So through these three days, this is the mindset which will be our foundation. Well, now with this new foundation, as we proceed, let us then organise: the movement, the process, the yajna of education.

THE FIVE ELEMENTS OF EDUCATION

In any task of creation, there are, we say, five elements. Psychologically, the five elements have many symbols, but here in any creation are five elements involved: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Ether. Symbolically in education, these represent: Earth- the student. This framework of personality which is being moulded, through which the soul in evolution wants to express itself and experience life. The student, like the clay, ready to be moulded, and yet the clay has its own intrinsic qualities. Some clay is more malleable, some clay is more stiff, some clay is more shiny, some clay is more soft, whatever, there is some unique distinctive feature, we call it ‘swabhava’, temperament, of the child, inborn, or brought by the soul. This is the first element, the child, earth.

The second element of education is the water, that is, we, the teachers. The water pours itself into the earth, nourishing the earth, helping it to soften and remould itself the way it wants. Our task is to pour ourselves and nourish the child to become himself.

Third comes the fire, the fire of knowledge. The jar moulded by the water and earth, the jar cannot hold its content of ambrosia unless it has been baked by the fire of knowledge. So that is the third element in education which bakes the child, preparing him, strengthening him with the fire of knowledge. And watch what happens with baking. The water evaporates, leaving only the child himself as he is meant to be.

Fourth element, the air, which is the means by which we communicate, the means of transmission. How do I communicate my experience, my insight, my knowledge to this child? What is the medium and the process of that medium?

And finally, the fifth element, the ether, the environment in which this whole yajna of education takes place, and the environment, the most subtle, is also the most powerful. Because it is moulding from outside and from inside, unknown to us.

So let's now dwell upon all these five elements and elaborate what comes from this new mindset, this new insight from our hearts. All that we will discuss in the next three days will not be new to you and yet will not be old either. You will discover that all that we are speaking of is there in your heart and has to resonate from there. If it does not resonate, then it is not true. If it resonates, it's because deep down you already know it, only that knowing is covered up. And the purpose of this workshop is to bring it out in the open and let it flow. So let's dwell on each of these elements.

Going backwards from the ether, the environment is both, is all three: physical, psychological, and spiritual. But it moulds us powerfully. How? The conscious mind, when it tries to learn something, the mind itself is a filter. I will tell you, ‘Sit down and learn good vocabulary’. You struggle to learn. The subconscious mind learns differently, there is no filter, it just soaks up like a sponge. I leave you in front of Cartoon Network Television, I come back after 10 minutes, and you can repeat all the swear words that you have learnt in 5 minutes.

How did that happen? As you watch TV, the conscious mind stops functioning. The subconscious mind is exposed, and all that you watch is just swallowed up, soaked up, and then comes out spontaneously, it's in you, deep down, it doesn't have to pass through the conscious mind. You watch someone watching TV, you will see their pupils are dilated, and their eyes don't blink. These are the two standard symptoms of mild hypnosis.

(0:30:38):

A child, we as adults, are hypnotised when we watch television. Clinically confirmed. It's not just a, an image I'm using, it's not a metaphor, it's an actual measurable fact. And that is why we learn so rapidly the words we hear on TV, good and bad. We will discuss on the last day how to use the television and the media as powerful mediums for education. But for now, know its negative impact and know that we have to correct it. Well the subconscious soaks rapidly from the environment, physical environment. If I grow up in a school where everything is kept dirty, there are cobwebs all over, where the desk is scratched, unpainted, and the chairs are broken, that's what I learn as the standard  for my life, that’s what becomes the character of my mind and my heart and my actions.

Look at a government office which is not well maintained, you'll find the people full of inertia. You go to another office, a corporate office or even a government office which has got corporatised, where everything is clean, neat, beautiful, people are working efficiently. It's because the environment moulds our personality. The physical environment make the classroom beautiful. Involve children in beautifying the classroom. Why should we do it and just let them come and sit in it? Let them experience the joy of turning something and making it beautiful. You've all experienced what happens when you clean your room or your home. After you've swept it all, all the dirt, and thrown away all the garbage, you feel clean inside. Again, it's not just an image we're using.

It's a fact, measurable psychological fact, that we become cleaner inside, our thoughts become clearer, our emotions flow more smoothly. So get children to participate in maintaining the environment, making it beautiful. It's not enough to have slogans out there on the road saying, ‘Keep Delhi Green’. I see a slogan, thanks, I've switched off the next moment. It's when I've done it once, that I will automatically do it thereafter, otherwise there is a hypocrisy which forms. We’ll dwell on that a little later. If this is the external environment, there is the psychological environment of the school.

What is the ambience of education? Are you permitted to question, to think for yourself, to be creative? Or, are you stuck in a rut, ‘Do this only’, ‘Don't trouble me’, ‘Don't ask questions’? And that's often a character of a school or of a teacher in a class or a subject. So I have seen a teacher who came to class the very first day and said, ‘Children, no nonsense in my class, I know you are all very mischievous, and if you try to do any nonsense here, you will have it from me’. Straight away the children shut their minds and hearts, and for the rest of the year we considered that teacher the most boring, there was nothing to learn there. But a teacher who actively provokes you to think, asks you questions, challenges you, and doesn't necessarily give you answers, compels you to find answers, creates a different environment of a vibrant creativity, and that is the message that goes into the subconscious, a child realises: it is good to ask questions, it's  good to think for myself. Otherwise they become passive.

There is a spiritual atmosphere also, an ambience where there is a serenity, a joy and a beauty, which also can be consciously cultivated. Sometimes it has a formal symbol in the activities or in the physical space, sometimes a small centre for meditation, or as we began the programme this morning with a small prayer, the physical symbol helps to connect us to that ambience and helps to build the ambience, but it must be there also. There are also indirectly messages we communicate to our children through our behaviour and example, which is the most powerful moulding influence. And we will come on that later and dwell on it. That is also an implicit curriculum. The point is, all that comes from the ether is an implicit curriculum as opposed to the explicit curriculum where you say, ‘Do this’ or ‘Don't do this’. The implicit is what the child absorbs from what you do, not what you say.

(0:35:31):

So this is the message we have to communicate to the child through the implicit curriculum of the environment of the ether, the example we set. We now come to the next element of education which is the air, the means by which we communicate knowledge. In this, remember the child as a soul in evolution, already is a spark of God and therefore carries within him like a seed potentially all knowledge. In the seed is the knowledge of how to grow, how to make the fruit, how to become the flower, how to find the sun.

And then someone tells you, ‘Look at this problem in this way’, gives you a different perspective of the problem, and suddenly you say: Aahaa it's obvious! It's so simple! What do you mean by that experience ‘Aahaa it's obvious, it's simple’? What is it? Introspect. I realised that I already knew it. I knew it and I just discovered that I know it already, it's so obvious. That's what you mean by ‘obvious’, ‘It's so simple, I know it’. But I was not looking at it the right way. I was looking at it from behind a screen. You remove the screen, and so I know it. This experience of ‘Aahaa I know it’ is always accompanying the true learning, true knowledge. If I have not the, got the ‘Aahaa experience’, I have only learned something by heart, I have not got it, I have not understood it, I have not become it.

We have to strive to create the ‘Aahaa experience’ where the child feels he already knows what you are talking of. Then only he has actually learnt. All the rest will be washed out after the exam. And this ‘Aahaa experience also teaches us something very important. All that is worth learning and is going to be learnt is there somewhere inside, I have only to uncover it.

NOTHING CAN BE TAUGHT

This brings us to the first principle of education we will formulate: Nothing can be taught. It's a powerful idea. Nothing can be taught. So what's our job as teachers? I thought I was going to come to class to teach you. No. My task is to uncover the screens that prevent the child from recognising the knowledge within him. Because I cannot convey knowledge. I can lead him to the experience through what I speak, what I show, what I suggest. But I can't teach.

It's like taking the horse to the water, you can't make him drink, you can't make him experience ‘Aahaa’ just by badgering him with ideas and words. So you must be able to recognise where is the screen in the child and then pull it out. It means, some part of you identifies with the child. Now this psychological process of identification is very important. It's what we did instinctively as mothers. When we knew the child is crying because he is uncomfortable or because he is hungry or because he wants to sleep, some part in you identifies and then makes out, ‘oh this is what is needed’.

So this ability to be able to identify with a child and know ‘What is the barrier? Why can't you understand what I'm trying to say?, and then touch that barrier and remove it. “Nothing can be taught” is a very powerful principle. How then shall we teach? And I will bring in here two powerful instruments for communication of knowledge. And these two instruments are actually already given to you by Nature. Never forget that Nature has a tremendous investment in the survival of the species. She has to implant in the child all the necessary tools for learning because in the forest the parents might be eaten by a tiger, and this baby has to grow on his own and achieve all that he is capable of.

And Nature implants these two tools. And these two tools are reflections of still deeper tools, which we will discuss later when we discuss our own preparation as teachers. But I will mention the connection as we go along. These two tools are: First, that every child has an insatiable curiosity. Nature has gifted, implanted this curiosity.

(0:40:08):

Think about it: Why should a baby ever bother to be curious? It can't help being curious, because the impulse is there. So from the moment he is born, he wants to know his world. You whisper in the child's ear, and he turns immediately. Why? He wants to know what is the source of the sound. You tinkle bells, and the child wants to touch. You show a bright picture, he wants to look. You give him a toy in his hand, he wants to bend and break to test his strength. This impulse of curiosity is the single most powerful force in the child. If you can feed that impulse and build it, your task as a teacher is practically done for you, because the child will learn on his own.

It's a great gift of Nature. What will we do to feed it? Offer the child a variety of experiences to provoke further curiosity, and as the child grows first through the senses, it begins to think and ask questions. Answer every single question. Encourage the questions. And look at what we do normally actually in life? Child comes and bothers me, ‘Oof, don't disturb me now! Can't you see I am busy? Why do you ask such silly questions? You will understand when you grow up’. ‘Mummy, where did the sun go at night?’ ‘You will understand in your physics class, don't bother me, I’ll, we'll discuss later.’ ‘Where did I come from?’ ‘You'll understand when you grow up.’ ‘Why do people get married?’ ‘You'll tell me when you grow up.’ Standard responses. But the child learns rapidly that ‘I'm not appreciated for questioning’. And after all he wants his mother to love him, so he stops questioning, he suppresses the impulse. And a few years later when they are teenagers, we complain, ‘Children today are not interested in learning’.

We are at fault for having suppressed the impulse. So you will actually encourage the impulse. If I don't know the answer, I’ll say, ‘Look bata, I don't know the answer, but it's a very good question, why don't we ask somebody who knows the answer?’. Or if you are capable, lead him gradually to finding the answer. At first when they are too young, you answer it. But as they grow older, you lead them to the answer by saying, ‘By leading with questions until they discover the answer’. You are encouraging them to think for themselves. But at every step, you must never rebuff a child for questioning, whatever the age. If I am busy, I say, ‘Look, this is a very good question, but I am busy now, we'll discuss later, remind me later’. But never rebuff the curiosity.

The second gift of Nature, which will be one of our powerful tools when nothing can be taught, is that every child looks upon us, teachers and parents, as their gods. We are the ones they worship, respect, emulate, imitate, instinctively. So you ask a child: ‘What will you be when you grow up?’ ‘I will be like my daddy’ or ‘my mummy’ and the same thing they are doing. They look upon you, watch you carefully, and next moment you find them doing exactly the same thing. Children at the age of 2 or 3 hardly self-aware you will find the mannerisms of their parents, instinctively imbibed, psychological temperaments instinctively imbibed. A parent who is depressive, the child will acquire the character of tendency of depression. So use this tool powerfully.

The child wants to imitate. Give him good examples to imitate. To begin with yourself, ‘I'll set the standard’. It's not enough I tell the child, ‘You must always tell the truth’. That's not the standard. Because next moment I'm telling the child, ‘If so and so calls, tell him I'm not at home’. That's the standard I have set. It is alright to tell a lie as long as the other fellow doesn't find out, and that's the message the child will get. So I have to actually practice what I want the child to be. Whether I tell him to do it or not, it doesn't matter, because he'll acquire that, in fact, telling me even interferes sometimes, with certain rebellious types. Just do it. Set the example. The problem is ‘I am not a very good example’. ‘I know, I'm doing well, but I'm not a very good example, I fail, I have my weaknesses’. But let the child see that you're trying to live by your ideals. That itself is the example.

To know that ideals cannot always be practiced, but one must try at every step, as hard as one can. That itself is the greatest ideal. Isn't it? And still beyond, ‘I offer other examples of people greater than I, perhaps the best examples of history of each kind of quality I want to imbibe in the child, examples of courage, heroism, selflessness, love’.

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And through those narrations, the child identifies and becomes. You watch children listening to a story, their mouths fall open, their eyes are wide, they are no more looking at what you are doing, they are in a different world. They have become the hero, and they suffer with the hero, they are overjoyed with the hero, they weep, they experience courage. And all the facets of values you want to bring in, they experience it. Values cannot be taught by explanation. The error we make today, ‘Okay, today there is a lack of values in society, so let's have a Value class’. What do you do in Values class? ‘Don't steal from your neighbour.’ ‘Be good to your friends.’ ‘Don't tell lies.’ ‘Blah-blah-blah.’ ‘Learn by heart.’ ‘Here's an exam, vomit it out.’ ‘I've understood, but tomorrow when I go to a shop and I see a pretty object and the shopkeeper is not around, my fingers itch to reach out and take, my mind says, value-value, but my heart wants.’ Because the mind is different from the heart. What do I do then? I take the object, and then the mind justifies the action by saying, ‘Anyway the shopkeeper is cheating everybody, so what if I take away one thing?’.

The child has become a hypocrite. This teaching of values through the mind encourages hypocrisy. And this is the character of the educated elite today. Unconsciously. Can't blame them. It's the education nurturing. That's why in the cities, you cannot trust people, you don't know what they think, their actions are different from their words. You look in their eyes, you don't know what's behind. Whereas you go into the villages, the uneducated people, anywhere in the world for that matter, you look into their eyes, there is no veil, they are, and it flows in their eyes, it shows. They speak and they act the same way.

So the education has created hypocrisy because of this error of the approach by which we teach values. Values have to be taught by experience and not by explanation. After experiencing, explain all you want, ‘Because it already means something to me’. So how will I make a child experience value of courage, love, selflessness? I don't have occasions in school where a child can fight a tiger and experience courage. In the army, they have a very interesting system of provoking these things. They put you in that situation. They want to make you feel self-reliant, they'll throw you in the middle of a forest, with necessary training before. Fight your way out!

We can't do that to young children, obviously. You do that to the older ones, they want to do it on their own anyway. But with the young ones, you can't. What do you do there? They identify when they listen to a story. Just as we all, even today, identify when we watch a movie, the sound, the sights, and we enter into that world. When the hero weeps, we weep. And someone says, ‘Why are you being so silly? Why should you weep? It's just a movie. Come on’. No. The joy of the movie is the identification. And I come away from a good movie somehow having grown, I've learned something. And those values are there now, in life spontaneously they appear. So narration of stories will be the most powerful means. And then we will create occasions through games and other means by which several other values can be also brought forth. So showing good examples from history through narration of stories will be the most powerful way, but in between my example itself will be the first step.

So the two gifts of Nature: insatiable curiosity; and spontaneous imitation through worship; these are the two gifts nature has implanted. To connect it to the deeper truth of it, behind these two is two keywords: faith; and will; something in us which knows; and the impulse to action. These are the two things in a child in this form. Later we will use these two movements for ourselves also to train ourselves better. Well, this is the approach to take when nothing can be taught, the first principle of education.

THE MIND MUST BE CONSULTED IN ITS GROWTH

The second principle of education which also comes out of this deeper insight is, because the soul has come with the purpose, because there is a swabhava, a temperament already in the child, it is wrong to force the child to become something that he is not. So the second principle of education is that the mind must be consulted in its growth. This idea from the West to cut and twist and shape the mind of a child is barbaric.

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The truer idea, the ecological and the spiritual idea, is to nourish and let the plant grow. So you must allow the child, take into account his temperament and encourage his strengths by which he will overcome his weakness. If you focus too much on the weakness, the child will fall back helplessly. Now what do we do here? The mind must be consulted in its growth. Our task as teachers first is to observe the child: What is his temperament? What kind of a child is he? What are his aspirations? What are his instinctive movements?

And observing that, I am going to change the character, content, emphasis of how I teach and relate to him. Take a simple example, a child who has just done some mischief, he has broken a rule, instinctively we apply the same standard to all children, long session of scolding and preaching. But no. There are three broad types of temperament. There are the types who understand by explanation, to them you explain, ‘See this is bad because it leads to such and such result’, and the child will immediately change, you don't need to say anything more.

There is another type which has a more emotional temperament, which is, which has a lot of self-respect, there you tell the child, ‘Look, this behaviour is not worthy of you’. No explanation needed. ‘It's not worthy of you’, that's enough. The child has got the message, he won't repeat it. And there's a third type, which is the more sensory type, where you have to show the child the consequences, ‘Look, if you keep doing this, then I will be forced to do that, that will be the consequence of your action, if you keep disturbing your neighbour, then I will have to ask you to sit on a chair where there is no neighbour’, that makes sense to him.

So know the temperament, then what you do, what you teach goes straight incisively in a single word. There is another aspect to temperament: As you watch children, you will find, the way they learn is also tied to their temperament. There are broadly three types of temperament for learning: One learns by observing, watching, visual. These children love to read. I'll give you some symptoms by which you can recognise these types. They get engrossed when they read a book. You know they are visual types. They are generally good with mathematics, because mathematics involves symbols visually shown, that's the only way we know to teach math.

But we'll see there are other ways to address the other two types. And that's why these types will do well in abstract thinking, but they do poorly, these types will do, yeah, they do well in abstract thinking, they do poorly in sensory training. Now this is one type, visual. The second type is the auditory. These children won't read books, they will come to you and say, ‘Please explain to me’. What you do in your explanation will be an exact repetition of the content of the book. You may even read out the book, and they will understand. But if you tell them to read, they won't understand. They have a dislike and aversion to reading. Some of us, even as adults, you will recognise this tendency, ‘I understand very well, I am very interested, but I don't want to read, I want to hear it’. These children, you will know by the fact that they get engrossed by listening to a story and have aversion to reading the story.

The third type are the kinesthetic, touch-feel child. These children want to hold in their hands. Only when they hold, then they understand. Now many of you would have been compelled at some point or the other to learn to use computers. And some of you will have recognised this tendency in you that the fellow explains rapidly ‘click-click-click and see, it's so simple’. ‘No please I have not understood, make me do it.’ So I put my finger on the mouse, keyboard, and I go ‘click’, ‘click’, ‘click’, when I have done it with my fingers, ‘Okay, now I have got it’.

There are others who watch the ‘click-click’ and say ‘Okay I have got it’ and then can repeat it. They are the visual types. This kinesthetic type needs to do it, then only they understand. So if you are talking to them about a story, give them something to hold relating to that story. If you are talking to them about chemistry, physics, mathematics, history, languages, until they hold, they have not understood. These are the ones who are often dropouts from school, who often underperform though they are intelligent. And we don't understand why. This child is so capable but he is not interested. He does things on his own but somehow in class, in academic studies, he is poor. Why?

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Because he wants to do something, not sit in a chair and listen to you. So you have to give him a tangible connection. See how, how interesting this point is, this principle, that the mind must be consulted in its growth. You have to observe and know the temperament of the child. There are children also with four other temperaments. This is not the manner of learning nor standards of conduct. This is the basic temperament of the psychology. Four facets to it, which in the traditions were often referred to in specific terms.

One temperament who is attracted to knowledge, ‘I want to know, I want to understand, I want to learn’. If I have an emotional problem with somebody, I'm not just going to go and make up, I want to understand why this problem took place. Why did that fellow behave the way he did? And the other fellow says, ‘What does it matter? You just go and make up’. ‘No, I will not make up till I understand.’ This emphasis on knowledge is fundamental to their temperament.

There's another type, the second type, which wants to take up challenges, courage, leadership, heroism, dynamism of action. These are the people who are best as leaders, they want to do adventures, they want to overcome themselves, they want to protect, help, they are very generous. You ask their help, ‘Can you help me out with this?’, ‘Yes, surely’. Whether they are capable or not, they don't think. ‘How will I help?’ ‘I don't know, he has asked for my help, I can’t refuse, I go.’ Very generous.

The third type is the type who wants to enjoy, who wants to have lots of things, feel sense of possession, organise, structure, arrange, control things. They are very good organisers.

And then there is the fourth type. They say, ‘Look, leave me alone, let me do my work quietly’. They will work in meticulous, precise detail. But you tell them, plan out, lead a group, think about it. ‘I can't do that, you tell me what to do, I will do it well.’ You'll notice, even amongst ourselves, there are these emphasis of temperament, you'll notice among your friends, family members.

These were the, this was the truth behind what was earlier known as the ‘Varna’. Varna was not caste. Caste is Jaathi. In modern times, the two have got mixed, and that's the cause of the perversion. Varna is a psychological type which has little to do with heredity. It has to do with you specifically. Are you drawn to knowledge? To dynamism, action, leadership? To enjoyment and organisation? Or  to perfection and work?

The four colors correspond to four powers of the soul or the power of, powers of God known as: Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati. They are four divine powers: Knowledge, Power, Wealth, and Perfection in work. These are powers of God which we have all to manifest. Ultimately all four facets have to be trained in each one of us, then only we will be complete human beings.

But to begin with, there is one temperament which predominates. Start with that. Now why it is important to recognise the temperament, not just for the success of what you are trying to do with the child, but because a child grows most by following his temperament. Let me give you an example: You take a tiger. I have got a tiger into my zoo and I say, ‘Well tiger, it so happens that my zoo is run by me, and I am a vegetarian, so tiger, I am sorry, you will have to become vegetarian, here is grass, eat’. If he is hungry enough he will try to eat. But within a few weeks he will fall sick and probably die. If I take a rabbit and say, ‘Look rabbit, I want you to become strong, come eat meat with me’, the rabbit will have indigestion.

Now recognising temperament is important because by following your natural temperament, you grow in strength and capacity. By turning away from your temperament, you weaken in your capacity and lose interest.

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So many children today have been pushed into grooves of specialisation which are not what they wanted, and they lose interest. You bring them back into their groove, they do very well. ‘No, but my counselor told me I had better marks in mathematics so I should go into engineering and not art because there is not much scope, I won't earn much in art, but I want to do art, I want to creatively express myself, but my parents say, no, you won't get enough money, there is very little job potential, become an engineer.’ ‘So I do my engineering, I am bored throughout, I lose interest, I become passive. And though I am capable, I can't turn it to my full potential.’

You must recognise the temperament, feed the child to grow in that temperament  more and more and through that he will overcome his limitations. Well this is the second principle of education that the mind must be consulted in its growth.

And we also realise that we cannot punish because the temperament needs to be sometimes passed through a certain experience. There are types who want to make a mistake in order to learn. There are types who watch others make mistakes and learn. And if I know that this child needs to make a mistake, well, I'll help him to go through that and come out of it quickly. But I won't punish him as hard as I would the other fellow. I won't even punish probably if I understand the temperament fully because I know the impulse which drives him.

FROM THE NEAR TO THE FAR

The third principle of true teaching now comes again as a direct corollary of all that we have discussed so far that there is a natural sequence in which the child is developing and learning. By breaking that sequence, I am causing harm. And what is that sequence? That it grows from the near to the far. That which is simple, obvious, tangible and close to me now is the starting point. That which is abstract and distant is my goal. But I must take the step in front of me, I can't take the step there. And on several dimensions. Near to far means, on the physical level from the senses. Train the senses first and then the abstract faculties.

You will see that there is a natural unfolding sequence in the brain's and nervous system's development in the child. First, the nervous system is aiming for pure sensory stimulation. As he grows older, he is awakening to emotional responses. As he grows older, he awakens to intellectual development. Near to the far. There is a sequence. Within that sequence are sub-sequences. Within the first 8 to 10 years, let's say, there is predominantly the sensory development, within which the first pure physical senses, then emotions through senses, then thought through senses.

Then comes the awakening of stronger emotions, drives, passions, and within that again there is a sensory experience, ‘I want to feel excited, please tell us a ghost story’. And children squirm in fear as you say the ghost story, then you say ‘no-no, I won't tell the story if you are so afraid’. ‘No-no, please tell us, we want to feel afraid.’ So in the emotional development also there is a sensory element.

Then the pure emotions, ‘He is my best friend, he is my best enemy, I am in love with this fellow, I don't like that fellow’. And then, the rationality in this, in the emotions, which is ‘Why do people behave that way?’.

And then the third step comes, when the predominantly intellectual development, generally I would say, 17 upwards, sometimes sooner, but that's generally the point where they become self-aware: ‘ ‘I’, my life as opposed to all else. Don't interfere in my life, I tell my parents, let me do what I want.’ Because the identity of the mental ego now is forming and crystallising. Within that, again, ‘I will break all rules’ with the senses, emotions.

And then pure intellect comes when you start asking ‘What do I want to do with my life?’. This is a purely abstract question. ‘I am no more worried about what I am doing, where do I want to go?’ So you see, there is a gradual sequence. And in that sequence, it is programmed, you are not choosing it. ‘The brain in there;, ‘the impulse of nature’, whatever you want to call it. If you skip a step, that gap remains and cannot be filled in easily later. If I have not trained my physical senses at the age of 3 or 4, I can't tell an 18 year old, ‘Come, let's sit down and train our senses, observe different colours’. It's boring for him.

Notice what Nature has done. It's a very interesting trick she has used that at every level, the part which has to be developed now becomes the most interesting activity for that child. At the age of 2 and 3, pure sense development is the only interesting thing. At the age of 20, 21, understanding reality is the most interesting thing and everything else in between. So observe. Observe the child: What is the most interesting thing for this child? What grips his attention most? And notice what is the specific level of personality which is now being trained by nature, and help that, make that the window, through which you will teach all else.

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From the near to the far, this is the physical sequence. But near to far also involves factual content. I want to teach you history. The common mistake made in most history books, history starts with ancient world. What am I interested in the ancient world? I want to know the world now, that's my world that I live in. Shouldn't that be first learnt how to live my life in my home and in my school? What will I do with abstractions of people who used to dress like this or like that? Means nothing. Worse still, the ancient worlds they start with are all outside India, they have no cultural connection to me, my family and my life.

So you are starting with abstractions, and then later you will learn about yourself, that's the very opposite of what is needed. The child wants to know about himself. So I will start with your family, ‘You know your grandfather was this, and he did this, these were the ideals he lived’. Immediately the child acquires a sense of self-respect, strength from the fact that ‘Here is a standard set by my extension in the past’. Today, there is a very important problem we are facing in the country: corruption. And people want to set corruption right by again, ‘moral preaching’. It doesn't work. Why does a person become corrupt? If somebody comes and offers me a bribe, what is my response? ‘How dare you offer a bribe?’ Of course, if the bribe is high enough, I'll start thinking, weighing pros and cons. But till then, if it's small enough, 5 rupees, ‘How dare you offer me a bribe?’. Why? What is this dare-idea? ‘I am a person of self-respect and I will not fall below my standard.’

Who set my standard? What I know myself to be. What do I know myself to be? What's around me, the standard set by my environment: when you know your great-grandfather fought for India's freedom was jailed and suffered like Bhagat Singh, ‘I value the freedom I have got’. Children today don't value India's freedom simply because they don't know what went into it. The history of the freedom movement has been suppressed. We are told, it was won by people going on fast and sitting quietly in non-violence. It was not true. The greater change was brought about by those who fought for freedom, as you have seen in the film of Bhagat Singh. Their sacrifices are not listed. Our history book even today doesn't say Bhagat Singh fasted for 40 days. You have to wait for the film to come here. Bhagat Singh is dismissed in one paragraph. He also fought.

You have to tell them about themselves and their past and the suffering that the past has gone through to bring us where we are. Now, this is the standard of me and my life. Corruption in the society today is because we have not set that standard, because we do not know our past and therefore don't have self-respect. To set it right, bring self-respect.

A very important observation Sri Aurobindo makes:  Notice all the civilisations which have become great. They have all worshipped their ancestors and known of their suffering. Israel today is surviving against the most extreme pressures surrounded on all sides and the pressure from, on every front. What have they done to make themselves strong? Every child is taught, ‘Six million Jews died so that you can be free, be worthy of your freedom’. ‘What will you do which is worthy of the sacrifice of those six million?’ And what a tremendous moral strength this gives you.

But we have not been told that 30 million Indians died in the first 50 years of British rule. We have not been taught that in our history books. Do you know 30 million Indians died of starvation, the most horrible death? Because the British refused to let them grow grain and wanted them to grow what was raw material for their industries. If you think that was the beginning of British rule, let's look at the end.

1942: middle of the war, in Bengal and Orissa, 4 million Indians died of starvation. You are not taught this. Why did they die? Because the grain they had grown in their fields was taken away by the British and stored in their godowns in case it was needed for the war. This is just one sample. They should know. Start with their history, start with themselves, things which will make them proud and give them self-respect: my family, my school, my city, my state, my culture, my community, my country, my region, my world, near to the far.

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Again near to far has a third dimension, which is in the sequencing of how you present in the classroom. What happens with physics or mathematics, or physics or chemistry class? What do we do? ‘Today we will do theory.’ So, on the blackboard x y z equals a b c z y b 1 2 3 equals exclamation. ‘Wa-wa-wa’ you say. ‘Very good, you know much, I am not understood, I like practical chemistry.’ Why? ‘I get to do things.’ So after theoreticals, we go to practicals. ‘Wait-wait-wait, this is acid, you will not touch it.’ ‘Wait-wait-wait, this is dangerous, you will not smell it.’ ‘I will do it’, like white-coated lab assistant does his mixtures, poof, there is smoke and you say, ‘Wa-wa,  magic show ah?’. Practical chemistry is fun. What have I learnt? Nothing. Except those who are visual, they get it by watching.

To go near to far means, I will bring in chemistry class, ‘You get a lemon, you bring some chalk, you bring some atta from home, next time’. You have brought things in your hands which you know from your home. Bring it into class, we pour the lemon and the chalk, we watch the bubbles, see, smell this gas. Yes, now the same experiment we will repeat in the lab with lemon juice-like thing but much more powerful. You taste lemon, ‘It's acid-na? Katta!’ ‘Now acid which is thousand times more powerful, if you put it on your tongue, it would melt your tongue, that kind of acid, so I won't let you touch it, but it's basically the same thing.’ Chalk, I'll get purified powder, but it's the same thing like your chalk, and I do the experiment. He has understood, because it has gone from his senses to the more abstract.

So from the near to the far is a powerful principle by which we will rearrange the entire content of what we teach from age 1 to 20, and within a class from first minute to last minute, and within the year from first month to last month. So this, three principles we have spoken of:

• Nothing can be taught.
• The second principle: the mind must be consulted in its growth.
• The third principle: grow from the near to the far.

And to assist these are two important gifts of Nature: insatiable curiosity; and spontaneous imitation and hero worship.

In this last principle we have spoken of, from the near to the far, there is a powerful implication. If I want to teach you something you don't like, say, I used to hate biology. Teacher says, let's study biology. I say, no thanks. What do you want to study? I love computers, I love electronics, that is my temperament. Teacher says, fine, let's study electronics. That's near to me, biology is far. So I will start by studying what the child finds close to him. But then the skilful teacher says: Do you know which is the most powerful computer in the world? Your brain! If we had to make a computer that powerful, it would be as big as the moon. Imagine, if you can understand how the brain works, and make a computers that powerful, what a great contribution it will be to the world?

So you are evoking from the heart the sense of higher ideals or even heroism of doing something for society. But what am I doing? I am talking to him through the window of computers: of biology, brain. So we study the brain and how it works using the terminology of computers. But you know your brain is not limited to your skull, it extends down into the spine, it's all continuation of your brain, and through the spine it extends down into your arms to your fingers, the nervous system is just an extension of the brain. You can't understand how the brain works unless you know how the nerves function, and how the nerves get information, how they send out orders for the fingers. When I lift a glass, there are one million operations going around to perfect precision.

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We are talking of robotics. How would you design the perfect body and the brains controlling it? Ha? The child thinks he is studying computers, but I am teaching him biology. Any subject can be taught through the window of any other subject. Start from the near, get to the far through the window of one subject. And there is no limit on this, because all knowledge essentially is one. You can flow from anything to anything. You may have to work a little to find the link, but there is always a link. Be sure of that. So from the near to the far is a very powerful tool as you will see.

Well, with these three principles of education, we take up the challenge of transmitting knowledge, the principle of air. But remember, these three principles are so powerful together. Any problem in education that you face, any question, any challenge, turn back to these three, and you will find here a hint of how to resolve that problem. Keep this in mind.

These are sutras. You know what is a sutra? Our ancients enjoyed this very much. They would take a whole vast body of knowledge and condense it into some essential truths and then they would tell you ‘Here is this essence, dwell on it, by dwelling on it you would get back all that body of knowledge’. These three are sutras. The whole education can be understood in its application through these three.

Well, we move on then. There are two special techniques I want to elaborate which derive from what we have discussed so far and which relate to how the brain functions. Remember, if the mind is not consulted in its growth, the mind cannot function too well. You must know how the brain learns, then you can rearrange the content of your presentation that the brain absorbs spontaneously. So how does the brain learn?

THE LEARNING PROCESS

The very interesting knowledge which we have today acquired through studying the brains working through MRI scans, but which confirms what our traditions always spoke of. The first thing we realise is that the brain is not comfortable with studying in bits. When we observe the MRI scan, the brain takes information that you are studying, it puts it in the temporary memory for a while, temporary, and then after I have stopped studying, I go out and play in the garden, the brain now takes up what is in temporary memory, rearranges it and puts it in permanent memory, during the time when I am playing in the garden.

But if instead of playing in the garden, I finished my class and I started learning something else, the new learning goes and replaces the old learning in the temporary memory, never giving it a chance to go into the permanent memory. And all that I learnt earlier is erased. What a huge waste of time! How much struggle! How much pain to achieve so little result! Imagine, if we could understand this brain's working and sequence our subjects accordingly!  So what does the brain want to do? It wants a gap in between. It wants a gap of play in which it is not learning new things, where the temporary memory can be reorganised and put in permanent memory. This phase we call ‘assimilation’. First, there is a learning, absorption. Second phase, assimilation.  There is a third phase. Watch what happens when a child has learned something interesting in school. First thing, he is excited about it, he comes home and tells you, ‘Mummy you know what we did in school today?’ and repeats all that he has learnt. So the third phase which the brain instinctively wants is reexpression, in your own words as your experience.

Absorption. Assimilation. Reexpression.Three steps by which the brain learns. If you follow the three steps, the brain has got it as an experience in permanent memory. If you skip a step, you lose what you have learnt. How shall we put this in practice in a classroom? Because after all our time is structured, period wise. How did we do it in the past? And then we'll see, how we'll do it in the future. In the past, they have understood this very well, and they would take up a single subject for a whole day, so that the assimilation automatically takes place at night, even allowing for time in between. Or they would take up a single subject for a whole week, sometimes in extreme cases for a whole month, then drop that whole subject entirely, go to the next subject. By then you've gone through the process, three-step process, many hundred times of everything you've learnt. It's all deep-deep-deep.

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Today's teaching in snippets, alternating subjects, is the cause in fact of the fickleness of the mind. The modern mind has this one special feature: It's extremely fickle, it can't hold attention for too long. Compare ourselves with our grandfathers, grandparents generally. You find they could hold attention and extend it for a long time. We have lost that capacity because we don't hold attention for more than a period. If you go to a public function, if you are a speaker there, you ask, how long should I speak?  They'll say 40 minutes. Beyond that, people get restless. Why? You know all our life as students, we have learnt to pay attention for 40 minutes only. So now as an adult, the internal school bell rings, bling-bling-bling, 40 minutes hogaya, change of class, why is the speaker still talking? That's how it works. We have only trained the minds to pay attention for that short time.

And the earlier system of training a single subject for a whole day or a month developed the power of concentration to that extreme. I can hold attention as long as needed. Observe what a child does instinctively during exam preparation. Where you have allowed him free time, now the brain functions instinctively the way it wants. What does he do? I take up one subject and study for three hours, then I throw away the books, ‘Mummy, I'm sick of it, I'm going out and playing, I can't take it anymore’. I go through that cycle. I come back and then I revise again. Isn't it what you do?

Two, three hours at a time. That's what the brain wants. How will we do it in class? There are several ways you can approach. One is: Limiting yourself to a single period, within the period, I will go through the three steps’. So we will study something, now we stop studying and allow assimilation time. During assimilation I will tell the students: ‘Don't further study the rest of it, just go over what we have discussed, think about it, dwell on it, make notes, be quiet, that's all, don't talk. You want to sit, close your eyes, daydream, that's also fine. You want to sit and chant something quietly, fine. But after this 5 minutes, I am going to ask you to present to me what you have understood, so prepare for that’.

That's assimilation.

At the end of those 5, 10 minutes, I'll tell now: ‘You tell me in your own words.’ The problem with that is, they will just try to mug up in the 5 minutes and vomit it back. We don't want that. We want them to say what they have understood. So I will give them the special dimension. I will say: ‘You tell me what was the most interesting thing that you liked here?’ . Now they are not interested in mugging up, ‘What was interesting for me’. ‘Or you tell me how you would present it better?’ Or a third person, I say: ‘What new ideas can you add to what has been discussed?’ . So I try to bring in an element of: creativity, innovation, independent thought, and let them freely speak, I encourage them, I don't mind if they don't cover all that we have discussed, but ‘Say it in your own words as your experience’.

So in a single period I may bring these three steps. Unfortunately, the typical 40-minute period is not enough. I would even recommend if you can, within your school, or within your subject, organise two periods at a time. Instead of doing mathematics six periods in a week, one period a day, we can do mathematics two periods at a time, three times a week. It's still the same duration of the week. So, timetable wise there's no problem. But you restructure the timetable to put two periods at a time. That gives you more time, a little over, almost one and a half hours, we can go through the three-step process. Not once. If needed, twice, if there's a lot of content in a day. But generally you can do it once.

And bring a fourth step of some creative-innovative dimension also to make the class even more interesting. There is still a third way of dealing with it, which is a way by which we trick the brain. See at the end of the day, how does the brain decide that a new subject is started? I am teaching maths, now I start teaching languages. How does the brain know it's a new subject and it overwrites the old? It has to do with the sense of the content. So we are going to fool the brain. The whole of today, the first four periods, we are going to talk to the brain about trees. Only in the first period, which is geography class, we will talk of trees as the theme through geography. In the second period, which is my language class, I'm going to talk about trees as a language study. The fourth, third period is mathematics. All the examples are from trees, branches, growth, etc., for maths.

(1:25:01):

So the brain thinks, it's a one continuous class of trees, and you do your subjects in your own way. So setting a theme over several subjects. Some coordination between teachers is needed, but it's tremendously powerful. The end result of that day: The child goes back saturated with trees, ‘Oh I'm sick of trees, my brain is numb with trees’. Good! Because now his brain filled with it is continuously churning internally and does the assimilation process. If you have of course sequenced internally within a class also three stages, fine. But nevertheless ‘This is one class I had’. Nothing overwritten. All held there. This is a very powerful technique. Immersion in learning. Sustaining a state of concentration for a duration.

Often after our workshops, we have had parents, teachers coming to us and saying, ‘You know, my child can't concentrate. What can I do to improve his concentration?’ . So this is one of the fallacies we have as teachers and parents, we say, ‘He can't do something’. So I have to break through the fallacy, I ask, ‘Why do you say he can't concentrate?’ . ‘Well, when he is studying, he only studies for 15 minutes and then starts getting distracted.’ So I say, ‘What, how long is he distracted?’ . ‘About 5 minutes, he comes to me, eats something’, or whatever. Then what does he do? ‘Then he goes back to his studies.’ He is not incapable. The brain's requirement of the period of assimilation is what causes him to take a break. It's normal. It's necessary. Except his attention span today is of 15 minutes, which is fine.

If you allow this process and consciously nourish it, even explaining to the child the importance of taking breaks for assimilation and means of assimilating, then gradually the 15-minute period will become longer and longer. You will still need assimilation, maybe even longer assimilation, but your attention span will increase by following what he is already doing. There is nothing wrong with your child. It's normal.

How will we help the child to improve assimilation? A very interesting study was done recently in one of the Indian universities, I believe it was in Baroda, I am not sure, where children were made to chant OM between two periods for 2 minutes. Remember, the whole objective is, ‘We don't want to change the existing structure, let's add something to it so that children learn better’. That's the mindset today. So they add 2 minutes of OM between class breaks, and they found retention improved dramatically. What they didn't understand is precisely this: that you are offering time for assimilation.

And in that assimilation time, we were chanting OM which creates a sense of peace and harmony and allows the brain to function freely. The power of OM is something which we will discover tomorrow,. But in principle, just listening even to soothing quiet music would have achieved the same result. Relaxing, going to sleep, playing a game, even that would have achieved the same result. OM has of course the advantage of creating harmony, so it amplifies, within 2 minutes you get the result of a game of 10 minutes perhaps.

Another class was taught to practice asanas every day at a fixed time, separate from the studies. Initially those who were, there were two groups, one group didn't do asanas, the other did asanas compulsorily. Those who were not doing asanas were very happy initially, ‘Oh we don't have to spend 1 hour extra for these exercises’. But in three months, the difference of performance between these groups was so dramatic that those who were doing asanas came to, those who were not doing asanas came to the researcher and said, ‘You are partial to them, why don't you teach us asanas also?’ . What did the asanas do? They have actually helped to bring a stability in the nervous system, and the body is the basis for your mind. Your mind cannot function unless the brain is supportive of it, and the stability of the body, peace, harmony brought into the body makes a very big difference. We'll touch upon it later as we go along.

But you see this importance of bringing stillness in between or even as a general character for the whole day to help assimilation. When you try to remember things, if you are excited and agitated, do you remember well? If you are quiet and concentrated, you remember better. So the condition of the mind to be still and quiet helps in absorption and assimilation and even comprehension. There are exercises which help to make the mind quiet. One of them is called ‘chitta shuddhi’, purification of the substance of mind. Chitta is the substance of mind.

And we will discuss some of these exercises as we go along. But you understand all those exercises we will discuss later are related centrally to this idea: absorption, assimilation, becoming more efficient.

(1:30:13):

All that we discuss in the next three days is deeply interwoven, interconnected, because it is one experience arising from one attitude, perception, mindset. That's why I am emphasising some links, but we proceed now. Immersion. The advantage of immersion is that what would normally take one week to teach can be compressed in two days. In schools where they have begun to implement this three-step process in the classroom, keeping the duration of period the same and sometimes doubling it, they found, in, in a class such as geometry which not too many people appreciate, in a geometry mathematics class, what normally they would cover in two months was achieved in one month, they said, with better comprehension, better retention and more interest.

And that's a dramatic saving. Imagine, freeing up an entire month for play, more learning, more creativity, there's a lot of time. One of the difficulties you will face when you try to implement some of what we discussed in these three days: Where do we have the time? The time is there, because by optimising how we teach, we actually free up all the time which is otherwise wasted, aAnd you'll have lots of time. Well, this was one important thing: immersion, learning through the three-step process.

There is a second facet related to this, in helping a child to awaken to knowledge: that you can teach by provoking creativity. We always think of teaching as ‘I come to school and tell them what it is’. No. I can provoke creativity and provoke answers from children. And I have tried this in certain classes. You can't do it in all, all the time. But you can do it in all classes some of the time: that you ask questions. So I came to class, I told them: ‘Today I will not tell you anything, you will teach me, but I will ask questions’. So I take up something topical. It so happens it is raining that day. ‘Where is all this water coming from?’ What do children say? ‘From the clouds.’ ‘How do you know?’ ‘We have studied all this, they told us in the previous year.’ ‘How do you know what they said was right?’ They start thinking.

See, they have never been taught to question what they know. ‘Tell me, if it was coming from the clouds, then why doesn't it rain, I see so many days there are large clouds and there is no rain? I thought a cloud is floating up there, if it's made of water, it should fall immediately.’ Now you see, you have a problem. Even as teachers, you have a problem. Can you answer my questions now? Okay, we will go through this process in detail in the afternoon, where I will take up several such examples of how you can do.

But here is an example of how you can teach through questioning and get them to find answers. And the result for them is, it provokes tremendous activity of thought. We want that to happen. Every subject you must introduce elements where you will provoke them to think and find answers. Sometimes there is no one answer, many answers. Sure, go ahead. Otherwise, we have today, because of this industrial mentality taught children to sit dumbly in class, we are actually suppressing the thought-force of the nation.

Today India, culturally and in most other areas, is still of a very high standard. We have declined somewhat, but still we are among the highest in the world, at least in culture, in capacity. But as a nation we lag because we have lost out two things: discipline, applying oneself by force of will; and second is, thought-power, independent thinking. We have put ourselves in the mode of the slave because we have been slaves for too long, and the mind has been conquered, it thinks itself slave.

So always when we have a problem, we look outside: How are they doing it? Let's imitate. We started after freedom with imitation: of the political system, of the educational system, management system, economic system. All four have fallen to disaster. Today we are rethinking. But slowly. Struggling to think. We don't want to think. We are actually proud of the fact that there are so many ‘simple-minded’ people. We like simple people. We don't want children who are too bright, they are precocious, they are arrogant. ‘I like that child, he is always quiet, smiling, sweet, he never questions and troubles me.’ No.

Surely be quiet, smiling, sweet. But think! Start thinking for yourself, be creative! And we have to provoke thought and creativity. If you want this nation to rise to its peak, you have to provoke that. That's the only thing we lack today. All else is there, even the wealth is there. There's lots of wealth in the country. That's why all these investors are coming. They're not coming to give you money, they're coming to take money. Investor means, one who takes back more than he gives you. Where is that thing coming from what he is taking back? It's there in the country, but it's locked up. Wealth locked up in our minds or in our homes or in our lockers or in our pockets or in our muscles. And we have to regenerate. Bring it out! Bring it out! So you have to provoke thinking. Whatever the subject, try to think of: How I can make it provocative And how I can get them to think for themselves? We'll take up ways to do it when we discuss project work later.

Shall we end with an OM for assimilation altogether? Three, three times! OM OM OM.

The following text was present at the end of the video.

Integral Education Workshop

for Teachers & Parents

This DVD is made from the recording

of a three-day teacher-training workshop

on Integral Education.

The aim of this workshop was not so much to

discuss different techniques of education, but rather

to lead participants into a radically different way of

experiencing education and our role in it as teachers

and parents—and gradually even to grow into a

new attitude to the whole of life itself, for the two

are inseparably bound.

This is the first part of a series

of DVDs on Integral Education and

a companion to the book of the same name.

For more information email:

IntegralEducation[at]gmail.com

or visit

www.WisdomSplendour.org

Filmed in 2004, Apeejay School,

Sheikh Sarai, New Delhi, India.

Made in Auroville, India.

August 2006.

Edited and produced by

Fabrice Dini and Sergey Stanovykh

Drawings by Emanucle Scanziani

Developed by Wisdom-Splendour

In collaboration with

Mother India Foundation

Copyright: © Sraddhalu Ranade 2006

Warning: All rights reserved. Any unauthorized

copying, duplication, selling, hiring, renting,

lending, distributing, radio and television

broadcasting is strictly prohibited.

Wisdom-Splendour