Make
home an educational lab
The school, home and
community are a melting pot of emotions, desires, attitudes and aspirations.
The energies that reside in these places are positive because learning, values
and education are an integral part of all of them. However a great deal lies at
a subconscious level with in the collective humanity that inhabits these
places. Thoughts of religious intolerance, stress disorder, child neglect,
caste and community feelings, environmental insensitivity and personal
competition, which create an atmosphere of discord. The mind is a garden that
contain seeds of understanding, forgiveness and love along with seeds of
ignorance, fear and hatred that make us violent or peaceful, understanding or
intolerant.
An enriched nurturing
environment will help to water the positive seeds and weed out the negative
ones. A thinking school can create a learning environment filled with
compassion and communication.
Recognition is perhaps
the most important aspect of nurturing. ‘I see you is the ability to recognize
each other’s identity and value. Among the tribes of northern Natal in South
Africa, the most common greeting equivalent to hello in English is the
expression: Sawu bona. It is literally means, ‘I see you.’ If you are a member
of the tribe you might reply by saying Sikhona, ‘I am here”. The order of the
exchange is important. Until you see me, I do not exist. Its as if, when you
see me you bring me into existence. It’s the same with children, if we don’t
bring them into existence, they will remain invisible, irrespective of their
nature.
An enlightened educator
would look dispassionately at her own personal vision and mastery before the
shared vision process begins. How do we communicate? What pressures are we
under? How so we respond? Do we give enough of our time? Are we mindful of the
vision, goals and feelings of children we interact with? Are we watering the
right seeds?
Teaching is a moral
undertaking: it is not just a set of technical skills for imparting knowledge
to students.it invovolves caring for children and for being responsible for
their development in a complex democratic society. Teachers need to think not
just about the “means” by which they teach but the ‘ends’ they are teaching
for. And that places a heavy obligation on those who teach.
There is no guidebook
that is automatically sort out ethical dilemmas for us in a world where
interpretations are ambiguous and awareness is incomplete. The greatest
teachers whether the Buddha, Christ, Ramakrishna or Nanak-never taught in
classrooms. They had no black boards or charts. They used no subject outlines,
kept no records, and gave no grades. Their students were often poor and their
methods were the same for all who came to hear and learn. They opened eyes,
ears and heart with faith, truth and love. They won no honour for their wisdom
or expertise. And yet, these quiet teachers fulfilled the hopes and changed the
lives of millions.
The concept of
education has differed greatly from its context. Every humans conceptual value
is bilateral like love growth and harmony and contextual aspects are unilateral
like hate, injustice and violence. Learning has no place for exclusives. We
have to continually create an environment whereby our schools and home become
laboratories of learning, compassion, pre-emptive justice, empathetic
listening, reflective thinking and a concern for rural, national and global issues.
