Education In Developing Indian Society

Great Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo

The synthesis of the great philosophy of Sri Aurobindo can be  summed up in one phrase: - Realization of the sublime Truth‘ which can  be achieved through the Integral view of life, Being a superman and the Gnostic individual, Descent of Divine Power, intuition, yoga and super mind. By integral view of life, he implied ―a healthy integration of God and man”. Aurobindo placed premium on intuition and not on logical reasoning and preached the gospel of ―intuition and more perfect intuition”. His idea on yoga was aimed at divinizing the whole man and for this he advised the education of the mind.

To Aurobindo only such education was true and living which helped one to develop his latent powers and enabled him to enter into the right relationship with life, mind soul of his nations well as with the total life, mind and soul of humanity. Information cannot be the foundation of intelligence, but can help build knowledge, the starting point of further discovery and creation of fresh knowledge. An education that confines itself to imparting knowledge is no education. Education must be based on the psychology of the child‘s nature. Parents and teachers must enable the child to educate himself, to develop his own practical, intellectual, moral and aesthetic capacities and to grow independently as an organic being.

About Aurobindo

Aurobindo was born in an educated middle class family in Calcutta on 15th Aug. 1972. He went to England at the age of 7 and lived there for 14 years. He received his education at Cambridge At the age of 18, he passed the entrance examination of the Indian Civil Service. Besides English, he mastered Latin and Greek and learnt French, German and Spanish.

In 1893, on his return from England, he joined as professor of English at Baroda College in Gujarat. Here, besides devoting himself to cultural and literary activities, learnt Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and Sanskrit.

He joined the Indian National Congress and became an active freedom fighter. He was a revolutionary and was disappointed with the Moderates of the Indian National Congress. He started the Bengali daily Yugantar and English daily Bande Mataram to promote his revolutionary ideas. He was considered one of the most dangerous leaders by the British government.

From a revolutionary freedom fighter, he became a philosopher and seer. In 1908, he was sent to jail for the Alipore Bomb case. During this time, he turned to yoga, meditation and study of religious, philosophical and spiritual literature. This changed him a lot. He went to Pondicherry and spent his remaining 40 years in his Ashram there. He changed himself and involved in several educational and social activities. He proposed theories of education which catered to Indian needs. He set up an International Ashram and International Centre of education and social activities. He also started a new experiment known as Aurowill‘ as a city of human unity.

Principles of Teaching and Learning

The first principle is that ―nothing can be taught, but everything can be earned‖. The teacher is a helper and guide, not an instructor or task master. He doesn‘t impart knowledge but shows him the way to acquire Knowledge which is already within him.

The second principle is that the mind has to be consulted in its growth. It is wrong to mould the child into the shape desired by the parent or teacher ignoring and destroying the divine in the child. To face the nature of the child to abandon its own dharma is to do permanent harm says Aurobindo.

The third principle of teaching is to work from near to far, from the known to unknown. Education should be according to the nature of the child. He says man‘s nature is molded by his souls past, his heredity and his environment. The past is the foundation, the present is the material and the future is the aim and each should find its due place in any national system of education.

Q. (2) Specify five qualities of a primary school teacher and explain one of the qualities of a teacher.

The teacher of great personality has some distinct qualities, which make him unique among other professionals. Among other things, he knows his responsibility, enjoys his autonomy, and demonstrates humility in practice. The teacher knows his responsibility because he plans his teaching diligently often far ahead of the day of delivery. This enables him to reflect on the lesson and add the final touches before the day of presentation. In planning any lesson, he thinks about the pupil his age and his environment. He thinks about the content he wants to teach. He searches for reference materials to guide his selection of the content. Ashe reads the reference materials and gathers the content of the lesson, he critically reflects on them, and ensures that they are within the intellectual level of the pupil. On the basis of his experience he adds some ideals on his own which are not in the reference materials. He organizes them in sequence from what the pupil already know to what they do not know. Then he looks for the appropriate teaching materials to illustrate the lesson. He tries to dramatize the lesson to himself thinks about its effect then make final retouching here and there before he approves the lesson tentatively. He is punctual to school, well dressed, neat and tidy. At school he does what he is suppose to do without being ordered or driving about to do so. He follows the time table and teaches his lesson diligently and consistently, with every commitment and enthusiasm. He keeps his records up to date and marks his assignments promptly to enable the pupil now his errors and be prepared to correct them. The teachers enjoys his autonomy the freedom and initiative to carry out his teaching activity using whatever worthwhile method he deems reasonable and most rewarding. He does not tolerate being excessively supervised. He is conscious of the disastrous effect of the excessive supervision of the Jesuits. They were so excessively supervised that Quick and Kinlocke suggested that the amount of supervision was akin to spying and for it aimed to gain complete control over a human being, so that he becomes a mere instrument in the hands of his supervisor. That the teacher abhors being excessively supervised does not mean that he thinks himself all knowing, efficient and perfect. He acknowledges that he still has room for improvement; he has the humility to admit that the theories and principles of teaching acquired in teacher education institution are not enough to prepare him fully for his teaching activities. He therefore, believes that the better part of teaching is acquired in the field by practice and learning.