Tagore: Ideas in Practice

Re-living Tagore’s ideals
Rabindranath Tagore, a writer, thinker, philosopher strongly felt the need to revitalize the existing educational system. In his famous article ‘My School’ he cites: ‘We devote our sole attention to giving children information, not knowing that by this emphasis we are accentuating a break between the intellectual, physical and the spiritual life.’
A close look at majority schools in our country substantiates Tagore’s findings.

§ Academic excellence takes priority over pursuit of art, craft, dance, drama and sports. These activities have got space in the curriculum though as mere tokenism as co-curricular activities.
§ Hardly an effort is made to nurture these competencies in every child.
§ Emphasis on academics is also reinforced by parent’s expectations which build enormous performance pressure on children.
§ Examinations in India remain paper and pencil tests which require a child to be a proficient reader and writer. What if a child is good at logical reasoning and spatial drawing but fails to perform in a paper and pencil test? How valid is such a test? Does it measure child’s learning?
Tagore critiqued schools for grinding out uniform results.
§ Education of the heart, the spiritual self hardly finds any space in the curriculum. It is mostly confined to prayer meetings, value education slots in the timetable or special cultural events. The approach remains in form of a monologue. Whether it is the teacher or the textbook both feel compelled to narrate some stories emphasizing values. Rarely do we find text that investigates values with reasoning.
Tagore commented, ‘The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes life in harmony with all existence. I believe that the object of education is the freedom of mind which can only be achieved through the path of freedom.’ Thus Tagore envisaged a culture of investigation of the world and introspection of the inner self.
He was a proponent for experiential education. In his article he quotes, ‘I well remember the surprise and annoyance of an experienced headmaster, reputed to be a successful disciplinarian, when he saw one of the boys of my school climbing a tree and choosing a fork of the branches for settling down to his studies. He believes in an impersonal knowledge of the tree that is science but not in a personal experience of it.’
A pertinent question here is to probe ourselves as teachers and leaders, ‘Do we provide children this personal experience of nature or is it limited to a few nature walks without talk?’
§ Learning, by and large remains encapsulated between the four walls of the classroom in contradiction with the child’s intrinsic nature to explore.

Some suggestions
§ Curriculum should emphasize education of the mind, body and spirit in an integrated way. Thus a trans-disciplinary approach rather than compartmentalized subject delivery is proposed. Efforts should be made to integrate child’s personal knowledge. His/ her local language, customs, culture should get adequate representation in the text and teaching.
§ A shift from teaching children to learning with them needs to be emphasized. Thus there needs to be a real question for investigation for both the teacher and the learner. An ethos for inquiry centered learning is key.
§ It is important to explore nature. Thus being with nature, studying it through direct personal experience and observation is fundamental.
§ Diverse learning styles of children needs acceptance in the classroom. This implies that the same concept can be taught in a variety of ways to make it comprehensible. For example concept of symmetry can be taught through demonstration on the board, asking children to collect symmetrical objects from nature, through origami, drawing etc.
§ Varied modes of assessment should be used like maintaining audio-tapes, video records and portfolios. Assessment should be on a variety of tasks and in a variety of setting like individual, group, formal presentations and informal get together. Rubrics can be used to assess children on a developmental continuum and the teacher needs to effectively gauge child’s learning and challenge his/ her thought. Thus the teacher needs to scaffold children through challenge and support model.
§ A culture of reflection needs to be ingrained in the system for helping children peep into their values, beliefs and actions and investigate them rationally. Instead of conformity to beliefs, Tagore envisaged reasoning and assessing one’s reality with respect to harmonious existence.