Teacher’s Training Programme

Introduction

An increasing number of leaders of thought and action have begun to inquire deeply into the maladies of our times and it is increasingly realized that these maladies are results of a disequilibrium between the ideals that mankind has been labouring to formulate during the recent centuries and the disconcerting actualities which refuse obstinately to change. With the passing of every decade, we seem to be coming nearer to a point where the realisation of the ideals will become imperative and where, at the same time, it will seem impossible to accomplish this realisation. In other words, we seem to be heading to an acute crisis.

A huge structure is being built up with an increasing insistence on efficiency needed for industrialized society, leaving practically no room for the growth of profounder human and spiritual consciousness which alone can rightly and wisely guide human volition in taking decisions in the critical times that seem to lie ahead of us. While under the pressure of the technological development, the world is shrinking, and we are dreaming of the possibility of a planetary civilization, we have not yet the required corresponding psychological development which can enable the human consciousness to sustain such a planetary civilization. On the contrary, there is a growing preponderance of those impulses which can thrive only through ignorance, fragmentation, discord and violence.

As we study the situation, we feel convinced that it is a vain chimera to believe that the world can be changed without a radical change in the human consciousness. It seems, therefore, right and just that the wisest leaders of today have declared unambiguously that the future of the human race is dependent exclusively upon a radical transformation of human consciousness and that one of the most important means of effecting this transformation is an integral and value-oriented education.

Happily during the first decades of the present century, some of the greatest educationists of India devoted their life-time to the actualization of the needed new educational system. The fruits of their pioneering experiments are available to us, even though they have not been sufficiently acknowledged or appreciated. In recent years since the Independence, an increasing stress is being laid on the formulation of objectives of education that aim at uniting science and humanism, ethics and aesthetics, and material welfare with spiritual welfare.

All these initiatives and experiments have been bold and great and inspiring, and all of them are still at various stages of growth and development; great lessons have to be learnt from these experiments, and we have here a great fund of educational research that can guide us in the tasks of value-oriented education and of the entire transformation of our educational system. Value-orientation should be the central focus of education and teachers should be given the necessary training in the effective methods of development of values among students and teachers.

Philosophy of Value-Oriented Education – I

The need for value-oriented education requires clarification.

I - Value-Oriented Education Inherent in the Concept of Education

There are at least three fundamental assumptions of the educational process:

(a) There is, first, the pursuit of man to know himself and the Universe and to relate himself with the Universe as harmoniously as possible. This pursuit constitutes the very theme of human culture. And education derives its fundamental thrust from the cultural setting at a given point of time.

(b) Secondly, there is a process of transmission of the accumulated results of the past to the growing generation so as to enable it to carry forward the cultural heritage and to build the gates and the paths of the future.

(c) And thirdly, there is in the process of transmission, a deliberate attempt to accelerate as far as possible the process of human progress.

In its very nature, education is a normative endeavour. Being at once a product or instrument of culture, education tends to promote the highest aims of culture. Hence, education tends to be a process of training whereby individuals in the society are enabled to embody progressively those values, which we in our highest thought and aspiration come to regard as something most desirable. It is in this context that education encourages and fosters the arts and sciences as well as technologies whereby man and the Universe can be ideally interrelated. At the same time, the idea of human progress is built up, and education endeavours to discover and apply efficient means of the right rhythm of acceleration of individual and social progress as also of human progress in general.

Education is thus in its nature value-oriented.

Today’s conditions necessitating value-oriented education.

The conditions through which human culture is passing today provide additional reasons for value-oriented education:

An increasing number of people of thought and action feel that humanity has been gripped by serious maladies and that these maladies are the result of our disequilibrium between the ideals that mankind is labouring to realise during the recent centuries and the disconcerting actualities which refuse obstinately to change. With the passing of every decade, humanity seems to feel more and more acutely that the realisation of its ideals has become imperative, while at the same time, it seems almost impossible to accomplish this realisation. It is; therefore, felt that humanity is passing through an acute crisis.

A huge structure is being built up with an increasing insistence on efficiency needed for industrialised society, leaving practically no room for the growth of profounder wisdom which can rightly guide human progress in the critical times through which we are passing today.

As never before, humanity is able to envisage several alternative possibilities of the imminent future and it is felt that human volition can play a decisive role in selecting, planning, designing and actualising these possibilities. As never before, humanity is convinced that the most desirable course for the human race is to strive with fixed determination for human unity, global peace and for the advancing of the three great ideals of progress, namely, liberty, equality and fraternity. As never before, there has been an increasing perception that the most effective means for achieving these desirable objectives is value-oriented education.

This feeling is reinforced by the fact that while under the pressure of technological development, the world is shrinking and we are dreaming of the possibility of a planetary civilisation, for which we have not yet secured a corresponding psychological development, which could enable human consciousness to sustain such a planetary civilisation. On the contrary, there is a growing preponderance of those impulses, which can thrive only in ignorance, fragmentation, discord and violence.

In India, there is a feeling that the country is sinking under the weight of problems such as those of terrorism, corruption, and plutocracy, and it is realised that solutions need to be sought at a level that is far deeper than the level at which we are now thinking and acting and that special attention has to be paid to the promotion of values that can counteract the increasing destruction of the country and its culture. Against this background, both from the global point of view and from the Indian point of view, we need to develop and practice value-oriented education.

II- But what is the Meaning of Values?

As understood in the context of educational philosophy, values refer to those desirable ideals and goals which are intrinsic in themselves and which, when achieved or attempted, evoke a deep sense of fulfillment to one or many or all parts of what we consider to be the highest elements of our nature.

In a sense, the word “value” is basically indefinable, since it denotes a fundamental category and it is itself the highest genus of that category.

There is a common understanding that truth, beauty and goodness (satyam, shivam, sundaram) can be conceived as the supreme values of life. They are intrinsic in character and they are ends-in-themselves. Even if there are wide differences as to what is meant by these three terms, there is an agreement that they are the most desirable ideals and mere orientation towards them inspires development of those states of our being and becoming in which we can hope to find some kind of ultimate fulfillment.

III - Basic Issues

There is a view that values are relative and subjective in character. It is, therefore, argued that individuals should be left to themselves to determine their own value systems and that educational institutions should confine themselves only to those domains where objective knowledge is discernible or determinable.

There is also a view that value systems stem from religious beliefs, and since these beliefs are dogmatic in character, they conflict with the demand of reason, and hence, they have no place in education, where one of the chief objectives is to cultivate among students the pursuit of rational and scientific temper.

According to some educationists, values, even if they are determinable, cannot be taught and for this reason also, it is argued that there is no rationale to bring value-oriented education within the purview of schools and universities.

On the other hand, there is a view that value systems have determined the orientation of civilisations, and these value systems should be emphasised in the educational system. It is also argued that there should be a rigorous inquiry into those values, which transcend relativity and subjectivity. It is also argued that many religions and moral systems advocate certain common values and that these common values, when identified, could be recommended for any education system in its value-oriented programme. It is also argued that there is a common agreement in the world in respect of rights and responsibilities, and many of them are even incorporated in constitutions and legal systems. All these are value-oriented and these values should constitute the core of value-oriented education.

A recent and disturbing increase in the trend of drug addiction among youths tends to reiterate the necessity of education that promotes the values of self-control, discipline and right habits of thought and conduct among youth.

IV - The Question of the Relativity and Subjectivity of Values

If we examine the history of value systems, we find that there have developed several standards of conduct, which can be arranged in an ascending scale or ladder.

The first is personal need, preference and desire. There is no doubt that the standards of conduct based on what the individual feels to be his own needs, whether these are constrictive or derived from desire or instinct or egoistic pressure, it is bound to be relative and subjective. The individual would then be the measure of all things, and what is good for one individual is good for him and what is good for another is good for that other. Might would be right; and there could be no place for any impartial or universal law of action. When man is primitive, historically or psychologically, he tends to be individualistic and egoistic and tends to create standards of action or conflict, which result in self-seeking and self-aggrandisement.

But no individual can live in isolation, and no individual can be allowed by the very fact of his social existence, to impose upon others what an individual considers to be his good, based upon his personal need, preference or desire. Every social group tends to create its own standards of conduct and impose it upon its individual members.

In erecting the group’s standards, there are several strands of consideration. At the highest level of these strands is what may be called objective utilitarianism. According to it, an action is to be judged by the consequences it produces, and if the consequences are pleasant for the largest number in the society, then that action is judged to be better than any other action.

There is also another form of objective utilitarianism, according to which an action is judged to be good not merely by reference to the pleasure that it produces but also by the degree to which it promotes both knowledge and character. According to this view, there is a hierarchy, and the value to be attached to knowledge is greater than the value to be attached to pleasure, and the value to be attached to character is greater than the value to be attached to knowledge. It maintains that an objective calculus can be created in every social group on the basis of these criteria and social law can be framed on the basis of this calculus.

It is argued that objective utilitarianism forms a higher step in the ladder of evolution of value-systems, and that the standards and prescriptions it proposes cannot be termed to be as relative or subjective as those created merely by personal need, preference or desire.

However, it is still subject to criticism that it is not able to resolve the conflict between the social good and the individual good.

A higher law of morality seems to prescribe what may be called intrinsic good or intrinsic right without reference to consequences. Indeed, at a higher level of development of civilisation and culture, we find a law of conduct emerging from the moral intention and will, and moral will is considered good because it is goodwill. Here goodwill is recognised to be goodwill intrinsically, merely by reference to intention and motive and not by reference to what issues in the form of actual action and its consequences.

In one of the forms of this view, which can be termed as rationalistic and objective intuitionism, an objective criterion is attempted to be laid down by which the intrinsic rightness can be adjudged. It points out that an action can be adjudged to be right if it can be willed universally without self-contradiction.

It is at this level of a value-system that we attain to the concept of absoluteness and objective of the good and the right, and we have the concept of love, justice, right reason, or of the categorical imperative.

From a certain point of view, the answers given by rationalistic intuitionism, may meet the criticism that morality is relative and subjective. Shastras of Dharmas have often been erected at higher levels of culture, and they have been thought to be objective and universally justified on the grounds of right reason.

But we find that even in arriving at the standards of absolute love, absolute justice, absolute right reason, we are not able to resolve the state of disequilibrium. Right reason dispassionately considering facts of nature and human relations in search of satisfying norm or rule is unable to rest without modification either in the reign of absolute justice or in the reign of absolute love.

Man’s absolute justice easily turns out in practice to be a sovereign injustice. Again, justice often demands what love abhors. It is, therefore, difficult to find an absolute and objective agreement where a given particular action can really be adjudged to be right, where love and justice can meet together in harmony and where absolute right reason can unalterably indicate in actual situations of life what is conceived to be absolute justice or absolute love.

A distinction needs to be made between the human thrust towards the values of the right reason, absolute love and absolute justice, on the one hand, and various manifestations of this thrust in the form of certain specific and particular actions, on the other. While it is true that there can be differences of opinion as to whether certain specific actions are absolutely good – or not – and here relativity and subjectivity do enter – there is still no doubt that goodwill is independent of personal need, desire or preference; the judgment of goodness of goodwill is free from relativity or subjectivity. In other words, there is in the human consciousness the possibility of the development of goodwill that can be considered to be objectively good.

This discussion has important consequences for value-education. If value-education proposes to prescribe any particular specific action or any particular value-system by any specific and preferred criteria, then the criticism against subjectivity and relativity in regard to the same would stand with considerable force. But if the proposal is to promote thrust and aspiration towards goodwill, then the case for value-education can be set on sound and strong footing.

This would mean that it is preferable to propose value-oriented education rather than value-education. For value-education is likely to end up with prescription of do’s and don’ts and this prescription will have a weak ground. But if our aim is to provide in education, conditions for the promotion of the growth of aspiration towards goodwill and cultivation of goodwill, and if an attempt is to provide to each individual the inspiration and means to transcend his own limited needs and preferences and egoism, so that in his own personality, subjectivity is progressively attempted to be transcended, then such education can be defended both philosophically and pedagogically. Such education can be properly called value-oriented education.

Value-oriented education should then be defined as a progressive and exploratory process of development, which promotes unconditional pursuit towards goodwill. This education leaves each individual free to determine the contents of the good and the right, provided they are motivated by goodwill.

Not value-education but value-oriented education, not prescription but exploration – this is the conclusion to which we seem to arrive, when we consider the domain of values and its study and practice through processes of education.

V - Values Prescribed by Religions and Moral Systems

In view of the above analysis, it appears that there is no need to labour unduly on preparing lists of values and to enter into controversies as to which values should be advocated, whether they should belong to one specific religion or the other, or of one particular moral system or the other, or of one particular culture or another. Value-oriented education is to be a process of development of goodwill, and its method would be that of an exploration of the realm of values, and, again, what is to be emphasised is to orient the students to the dimensions of values rather than to the prescription of do’s and don’ts of any set of values. If properly explored, this would lead to the exploration of various other sets of values, so that each student would then be free to determine for himself or herself what values one should adopt as a result of a sincere exploration of the realm of values.

Under the guidance of this general and overarching spirit of value-oriented education, we may take the Socratic view that Virtue is Unity and that no virtue can be fully practiced unless in the course of practice, all virtues are embraced. There is no harm in preparing lists of virtues, and we may even contemplate hierarchy or relationships among virtues. But all this can be encouraged as a part of exploration, allowing every student to arrive at his or her own conclusions.

Indeed, it is very useful to explore and compare one set of realms with other sets of values.

In the process of exploration, it is certainly salutary to emphasise those values, which foster unity and harmony, integration and integrity of the nation and human unity and peace. Inevitably, those values, which have been laid down as binding under constitutional law as rights or duties will also come to be emphasised and cultivated as a part of citizenship. Also, in our own times, there are universal declarations of rights and responsibilities and these also have to be underlined and cultivated amongst students. In the process of education, however, examination of these values and even a critical examination has to be fostered and has to be considered as a part of the pursuit of value dimension.

VI - Integral Value-Oriented Education

A very important concept that has become predominant in recent educational thought is that of integral education. At the international level, this concept came to be centrally highlighted by UNESCO through its famous report “Learning to Be”, which laid down “that the aim of development is complete fulfillment of the human being, in all the richness of personality, complexity of form of expression and various commitments.”

It is increasingly realised that in the contemporary world, the humanist and the technologist are finding themselves in greater and greater need of each other and the scientist and the mystic are getting ready to embrace each other.

It is being acknowledged that human personality is complex and that each major element of the personality needs to be integrated with the totality in a harmonious manner. In other words, the physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic and spiritual do not stand in juxtaposition, but they have among them a constitutional relationship. The physical and the vital can, to a great extent, be controlled and guided by the mental, and to a certain stage of development the mind can act as a leader. But the leadership of the mind is rather restricted and often fails and fails disastrously in controlling or leading the vital and the physical. Reason is opposed by Unreason, and conflict between the two, as seen today, is extremely grave. Moreover, as the rational, ethical, and aesthetic powers of the mind begin to develop, they begin to collide among themselves. It is, therefore, being recognised that the psychic and the spiritual powers of the human personality need to be brought forward so as to establish the true integration of all the powers of the being.

In our present system of education, we are too occupied with mental development, and we give preponderant importance to those qualities, which are relevant to subject-oriented and examination-oriented systems. In contrast, the concept of integral education implies a simultaneous integrated process of the development of the qualities and values relevant to physical education, vital education, mental education, psychic and spiritual education.

In the domain of physical education, the values that are implied are those of health, strength, plasticity, grace and beauty. In the domain of emotional education or vital education, the values that are pursued are those of illumination, heroism, and harmony. In the domain of the rational development, the values that are to be sought after are those of utmost impartiality, dispassionate search for truth, calm and silence and widest possible synthesis. The values pertaining to aesthetic development would be those of vision of beauty and creative joy of the deepest possible aesthetic experience and expression. Values that the moral being ought to seek are those of sincere goodwill and obedience to whatever one conceives to be the highest. In psychic education, the values to be sought after are those of the aim of life, the highest development of the individuality free from egoism and knowledge that guides the inmost and harmonious relationship between the individual and the cosmic, and fulfilment in the light of the supreme discoveries of the ultimate reality, whatever it may be. The values of the spiritual domain are those of highest unity and oneness and pursuit of perfection of all parts of the being and of instruments of personality.

Integral value-oriented education is a matter of research, and the results of this research indicate the need to simultaneously develop knowledge, will, harmony and skill, and that this development should be for each individual a system of natural organisation of the highest processes and movements of which he or she is capable.

It may be observed that integral value-oriented education could be pursued independently of any particular, moral or religious doctrine or any particular spiritual discipline. Whether one belongs to one religion or the other or to no religion, one can pursue this integral process through a process of exploration, even experimentally and experientially.

VII - Morality and Spirituality

In any sound philosophy of value-oriented education, an effort should be made to arrive at clear conceptions of morality and spirituality, since both are distinct and yet related, and both need to be distinguished from religion. Again, this matter is very important in the context of the Indian system of education, since the Indian Constitution clearly states that “No religious instruction shall be provided in educational institutions wholly maintained out of the State Funds”, and that “No person attending any educational institution recognised by the State and receiving aid out of State Funds shall be required to take part in any religious instruction that may be imparted in such institutions or to attend any religious worship that may be conducted in such institutions or in premises attached thereto unless such person or, if such a person is a minor, his guardian has given his consent thereto.”

As far as the distinction between morality and spirituality is concerned, it may be said that much depends upon what we intend to include in our definition of the word “morality” or in the word “spirituality”. In Indian thought, a distinction between morality and spirituality has been clearly made and we have two definite terms, naitik and adhyatmik each having its own specific and distinguishing connotation.

The word “morality” connotes a pursuit of the control and mastery over impulses and desires under the guidance and supervening inspiration of a standard of conduct formulated by thought in consideration of man’s station and duties in the society or in consideration of any discovered or prescribed intrinsic law of an idea. Morality is often conceived as a preparation of spirituality. Spirituality, on the other hand, begins when one seeks whatever one conceives to be the ultimate and the absolute for its own sake unconditionally and without any reservation whatsoever. Moreover, while morality is often limited to the domain of duties, spirituality is fundamentally a search of the knowledge that liberates (sa vidyā ya vimuktaye). As it is declared, true knowledge is not intellectual knowledge but spiritual knowledge.

Both the moral and the spiritual are to be distinguished from what is called “religious” when we speak of religious instruction. Religion, which can be called sampradāya has the following distinguishing features:

Specific religious dogma regarding the nature of Reality, laid down in scripture or by traditional founder, prophet or incarnation;
Every specific religion has, as its essential ingredient, certain prescribed acts, rituals and ceremonies;
A religious authority to which religious matters are referred and its decisions are final. Both moral and spiritual values can be practiced irrespective of whether one believes in one religion or another or whether one believes in no religion. Both morality and spirituality can be independent of the rituals or ceremonies and of any acts specifically prescribed by any particular religion. Furthermore, both of them are independent of any authority expect that of one’s own free judgment and direct spiritual experience.

(4) It is also useful to distinguish religion from what in India is called dharma. Dharma is not any religious creed or dogma nor a system of rituals, but a deeper law of the harmonious and interdependent growth of the deepest aspirations of the collectivity and of the individuals that constitute the collectivity. Dharma can be regarded as an ordered system of moral and spiritual values.

(5) Spirituality proceeds directly by change of consciousness, change from the ordinary consciousness to a greater consciousness in which one finds one’s true unegoistic being and comes first into direct and living contact and then into union with the Spirit. In spirituality, this change of consciousness is the one thing that matters, nothing else. Spirituality not only aims at the total change of consciousness, but its method is that of a gradual and increasing change of consciousness. In other words, spirituality is an exploration of consciousness through a progressive change of consciousness.

(6) In spiritual consciousness and the knowledge that it delivers, there is the fulfillment of the highest that morality and religion in their deepest core seek and succeed only when they cease to be limited within their specific boundaries. It replaces the moral law by a progressive law of self-perfection spontaneously expressing itself through the individual nature. In this operation, no more is the imposition of a rule or an imperative on the nature of an individual. The spiritual law respects the individual nature, modifies it and perfects it, and in this sense, it is unique for each individual and can be known and made operative only during the course of the change of consciousness. In its progressive movement, it may, if necessary, provide a sort of long period of governance by a moral law, but always as a provisional device and always looking for going beyond into a plane of spontaneous expression of the Right and the Good. To spiritual consciousness, moral virtue is not valuable in itself, but only as an expression of a complex of certain qualities, which are, for the time being, for the given individual, necessary and useful in an upward journey. For the spiritual consciousness, what is commonly called vice has, too, behind it a complex of certain qualities, which have a certain utility in the economy of Nature, and can, therefore, be converted by placing them in their right place, as a complement to what lies in consciousness behind what are commonly called virtues.

(7) Spirituality is not confined merely to the aspect of conduct; it includes all works and strives by the method of a progressive change of consciousness for the perfect harmonisation of all the aspects of works; and through this striving it realises also the unity of works with the highest Knowledge and the deepest Love.

(8) For spiritual consciousness, that which is commonly called agnosticism, scepticism, atheism, positivism or free thinking has behind it a concern and a demand for a direct knowledge, which, when rightly understood, recognised, respected and fulfilled, becomes a powerful element of spirituality.

(9) For spirituality always looks behind the form to the essence and to the living consciousness; and in doing so, it brings to the surface that which lies behind, and its action is therefore of a new creation. Spirituality transcends the forms and methods of morality and religion and recreates its own living and progressive forms.

(10) In the words of Sri Aurobindo:

“Spirituality is in its essence an awakening to the inner reality of our being, to a spirit, self, soul, which is other than our mind, life and body, an inner aspiration to know, to feel, to be that, to enter into contact with the greater Reality beyond and pervading the universe which inhabits also our own being, to be in communion with It and union with It and a turning, a conversion, a transformation of our whole being as a result of the aspiration, the contact, the union, a growth or waking into a new becoming or new being, a new self, a new nature.”

VIII - Values of Indian Culture

(a) It is natural that Indian education underlines the importance of what can be called Indian values.

(b) In Indian thought, a distinction has been made between the ego and the self. According to Indian thought, egoistic personality is ridden with self-contradiction and conflicts and true self is the integrating centre in which physical, vital, mental and other personalities are harmonised. Pursuit of self-realisation is held out in Indian educational thought as one of the supreme spiritual values.

(c) There are, indeed, certain other values which are uniquely Indian, in the sense that even though these values may be commonly shared by India and other countries, they are pursued in India either with a certain special zeal and dedication or pursued with a certain speciality or completeness. For example, the value that we attach to the ideal of tolerance is something special in India. In fact, the word tolerance itself is not adequate to convey the intended meaning. In the ordinary idea of tolerance, there is still a feeling that our own preferred idea is somewhat superior to the other contending ideas. On the other hand, what is peculiarly Indian is the sentiment and the recognition that various principal contending ideas are all equally legitimate ideas and that superiority lies not in holding one idea as some preferred idea but in trying to find such a synthesis that each idea finds its own highest fulfillment in it. What is uniquely Indian is that the value and ideal of synthesis has been pursued throughout the long history of Indian culture as the most desirable goal – and that too repeatedly and with very special insistence.

(d) Along with the basic idea of synthesis, there is also the accompanying idea of unity, mutuality and oneness in diversity.

(e) Similarly, what is meant by secularism in the Indian context is uniquely Indian. According to the Western idea, secularism means a tendency or a system of beliefs, which rejects all forms of religious faith or worship. It means something that pertains to the present world or to things, which are not spiritual or sacred. In the Indian context, however, secularism means comprehensiveness in which all religions receive equal protection, treatment and respect, and in which there is place for every one whether he belongs to one religion or another or to no religion. Again, Indian secularism encourages us to approach everything, whether material or spiritual, with a sense of sacredness. In Indian secularism, there is freedom for the propagation of each religion without hindrance or bar and there is also the freedom to promote and propagate synthesis of religions. At the same time, Indian secularism insists on the promotion of moral and spiritual values, which are common to all religions and to no religion as also on the promotion of a synthesis of science and spirituality. Secularism so defined and understood is, thus, a very special value that is uniquely Indian.

(f) There are several other Indian values, which require a special mention and which should find their right place in our educational system. The sense of joy that is behind various festivals in India, which are shared by the people of the country is something, which can be understood only when one enters into the heart and soul of Indian culture. The Indian idea of the rhythm of life and the law of harmony, expressed by the word Dharma is also uniquely Indian. Again, the value that we attach to pursuit of knowledge, to the pursuit of purity, to the pursuit of wisdom is something unique, in the sense that these things are valued most and they are cherished most, and on the call of which we are inspired to renounce everything. We feel that all this and many other values, which are uniquely Indian, should be encouraged and fostered.

(g) It is noteworthy that the great Indian values, some of which we have mentioned above, became dynamically vibrant during the period of India’s struggle for freedom. In fact, this period was marked by the rise of great men and women who embodied these values and enriched them. Again, it was during this period that these values guided and shaped great movements and events. Thus a study of our nationalist movement provides a perennial source of inspiration, and it should be a part of a programme of value-oriented education.

Philosophy of Value-Oriented Education– II

We are passing through a critical stage of a battle between the best possibilities and the worst possibilities. At a time when forces of unity and harmony can triumph and science and technology can be used to abolish poverty and deprivation, precisely at that time, the forces of violence and gravitational pulls of impulses of the lower human nature are pressing forward on a global scale. Rationality, in which humanity has placed great trust for arriving at the fulfillment of its ideals of true knowledge and comprehensive knowledge, appears to be overtaken by the forces of Unreason. It has, therefore, become imperative to explore deeper and higher dimensions of human resources by means of which we can successfully work for the victory of the ideal dreams, which have inspired the onward march of civilisation.

It is in this context that the theme of education for character development has emerged with some imperative force. And our eyes have turned to the dimensions of values, the dimensions of will-power and the dimensions of cultural, ethical and spiritual potentialities. These dimensions have not yet been sufficiently explored, but we have begun to uncover what lies in our present framework that would meet our urgent need to uplift ourselves and the coming generations.

In India, our constitution has been wisely prefaced with the ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity in its very Preamble. It has guaranteed certain basic fundamental rights and it has given a chapter on Directive Principles of the State Policy, which although not legally enforceable, embodies ideals and values, which are salutary for the progress of India on the lines which had come to be articulated and cherished during the Freedom Struggle.

In 1976, realising that apart from Rights, there is a need to emphasise responsibilities, obligations and duties of the citizens; Article 51A was inserted to lay down certain fundamental duties. It is to that Article that we have recently turned our focal attention, with the hope that its operationalisation in the field of education would bring about a new climate of recovery of forces that can regenerate national ethos, unity and integrity.

Government of India did well, therefore, in appointing a high level committee, in July 1998, to operationalise suggestions to teach fundamental duties to the citizens of the country. This Committee was chaired by Mr. Justice J.S. Verma, the former Chief Justice of India, and it submitted its final Report to the Minister of Human Resource Development on 31st October, 1999.

The Verma Committee has done well to highlight the work which has been done by the International Interaction Council in drafting a Declaration of Human Responsibilities.

This Council had a preliminary meeting in Vienna, Austria in March 1996, April 1997, and the Plenary Session was held in Noordwijk, Netherlands, in June 1997. On 1st September 1997, the Inter-Action Council proposed a universal declaration of human responsibilities, just one year before the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations. A number of former prime ministers, former presidents, and leading personalities in the fields of thought and practical action have endorsed this draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities. The basic point that has been made by the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities is that the concept of human obligations serves to balance the notions of freedom and responsibilities. Without a proper balance, unrestricted freedom is as dangerous as imposed social responsibilities. It declares, in effect, that if we have a right to life then we have the obligation to respect life; and if we have right to liberty, then we have the obligation to respect other peoples’ liberty too. In other words, the golden rule of responsibility is that we do not do to others what we do not wish to be done to us; or that we should do unto others as we would have them to do unto us.

This draft declaration, which has now been submitted to the world community at large reaffirms that the time has come to talk about responsibilities, about obligations. It also shows that the action taken by the Government of India to set up a Committee of Teaching Fundamental Duties is timely and that while have talked for decades of value education, we have now to take decisive action in implementing the programmes of value education.

Let us recall that various commissions and committees of the Government of India have underlined the importance of value education and important recommendations have been made to distinguish morality and spirituality from religious creeds, so that imparting of moral and spiritual values does not come within the purview of the prohibition that is laid down in the Constitution to impart religious education in educational institutions that are financially supported by the Government. Dr. Radhakrishnan had made a distinction between a religious education and education about religions and advocated that there is no constitutional disability in imparting education about religions in our educational system. The Sriprakasa Committee had advocated moral, emotional and cultural education as understood in their widest connotations. The Kothari Commission recommended value-education that is in coherence with the development of science and scientific temper. The National Education Policy, 1986, devoted one full section to value education.

Unfortunately, our curricula, by and large, have changed little or only marginally. The main difficulty has been that there has been a long drawn out debate on what values should be promoted and what place should be given to the study of religions, which are closely connected with value systems. In answer to this debate, there is one thing which is very clear, and that is the Fundamental Duties, which have been listed in the Constitution, which represents national consensus and which has some kind of binding force.

The Fundamental Duties include, first and foremost, the obligation on the part of the citizens to abide by the Constitution and to respect its ideals and institutions. In large terms, this would mean obligation to secure justice, liberty, equality and fraternity as also the values that are embedded in the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of the State Policy. In declaring that these duties will include the obligation to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom, we have a wide spectrum of values, spiritual, moral, economic, social and political. Again, in laying down the obligations to value and preservation of the rich heritage of our composite culture, the Constitution has stressed the wide range of values that have come to be cherished right from the times of the Veda to the present day, which has played a role toward assimilation and synthesis. Again, in laying down the duties to develop scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform, the emphasis has been laid on the value of truth, knowledge and freedom from dogmatism and obscurantism – all that is valuable in modernism. In requiring everyone to protect and improve the natural environment and in renouncing practices that are derogatory to the dignity of women and in developing compassion for living creatures, some of the most pressing problems of contemporary times in the fields of environment and empowerment of women has been taken into account. Finally, by insisting on striving towards excellence in all the spheres of individual and collective activity, a great ideal has been stressed in respect of the perfectibility of the individual and the society and their harmonious relationships.

This is not an occasion to bring out the implications of these duties and salutary effects that the operationalisation of duties in the field of education could bring about. It must be said, however, that this operationalisation should be regarded as a good beginning in the right direction, although the highest goals of man-making education of which Swami Vivekananda spoke will imply a still greater effort and we should not lose sight of this higher goal and the need for still greater efforts.

There is a dimension of values, which transcends the dimension of duties. That dimension is the spontaneous perception and commitment to ends-in-themselves. If I love a friend only as a matter of duty, it is, in a sense, not as valuable as I do so out of my spontaneous appreciation and admiration for him and for his achievements and qualities. Love for my own country as a duty is inferior to the love of a patriot that arises spontaneously in his heart and soul, as he looks upon his country as the very source of his breath and life. Search for truth is an end in itself; search for goodness is an end itself, search for beauty is an end itself; and they have to be encouraged not as duties but as irresistible demands of our being as we begin to uncover deeper and higher depths of our Selves, which transcend the limitations of egoism.

Self-knowledge and self-control are the true foundations of value education. As Socrates had pointed out, virtue is knowledge, and it is when knowledge is rightly pursued, that pursuit of virtue attains its right place as a spontaneous action and it has lustre brighter than that obtains in performance of our duty.

These reflections have two important consequences in our formulations of value-education. Firstly, value-education does not merely remain a matter of do’s and don’ts; it becomes a process of exploration, and it crosses the border of constraints that are felt in the performance of duties and leads us into a realm of freedom of which discipline for performance of duty is a happy product. Secondly, value education opens before us the gates of the harmony between truth, beauty and goodness, which impart to us the sources of true humanism and even our true godliness.

It is necessary to bring out, even though briefly, these important dimensions of value education, since it will help us better to prepare our curriculum of value-education in its wider aspects, and also to prepare corresponding programmes of teacher-education.

The role of the teacher in education is irreplaceable, and unless the teachers’ programmes or training are conceived in the light of the full implications of value-education, we shall not be able to equip the teachers with the right inspiration and with the required tools. If value-education has suffered so far, it is because teachers’ training programmes fall short in many ways of an ideal system. We require redesigning of programmes of teachers’ education, both pre-service and in-service; in a certain sense, we need to overhaul our entire system of teacher-education, keeping in view that value education is absolutely imperative and unless a good teacher is himself value-oriented, we cannot fulfill the objectives of value education.

We have to realise that methods of value education have to be different from those, which are required in respect of many other subjects. The reason is that in value education what we need is not merely the cultivation of cognitive faculties but also affective and conative faculties. One cannot merely give lectures on value education and expect to fulfill the objectives. Just as swimming cannot be taught merely by lecturing, but by leading the learner to jump into the water and help him in the practical art of swimming in the midst of water, similarly, value education requires of the teacher the ability to inspire the students to enter into the waters of life-situations and give him practical abilities and art of practicing values in concrete situations of life. In a sense, it may be said that value education is perhaps the most difficult domain among all domains of education.

Without going into details, it may be said that we need to undertake a three-pronged exercise in the teacher education programmes:

Firstly, our programmes must be so inspiring that teachers come to look upon the task of teaching as sacred;

Secondly, the curriculum of teachers’ training programme should have the component of the theory of value-education, both in terms of the foundations of Fundamental Duties and of the values, which lie beyond the domain of duties; and it should have also a component of practical art of the practice of exploration of values in life-situations.

And thirdly, the duration that is normally assigned to teacher education programmes should be sufficiently enlarged. A most salutary combination would be to propose an integrated programme of teacher education of the duration of five years on the completion of class XII, leading to a qualification equivalent to post-graduation. That has also consequences for career development and other aspects relevant to the structure and framework of teaching profession. But this is an aspect, which needs to be looked into separately.

In any programme of education for character development, we need to ask three important questions. Firstly, we have to determine with greater precision what we mean by character and how the development of character can be stimulated and nourished through the processes of communication and information, cultivation of faculties, and the methods by which the states of consciousness, which express themselves in virtues can be stabilised. For character development is concerned with what may be called being or the central core of the individuality, which tends to grow into universality and sovereignty of transcendence. Indeed, the concepts of individuality, universality and transcendence can be communicated to some extent in the form of information which relates to the history of these concepts and how these concepts have been interpreted by different thinkers, scholars and practitioners and how they have been applied in life and in the development of civilisations and cultures. Indeed, this information can kindle the inner urge of the individual to grow inwardly and to fashion the processes of learning, which can properly be called the processes of learning to be. But still, the part played by communication of information in the development of character is only peripheral or of primary importance and not of chief importance.

A greater part is played in the character development by the development or cultivation of faculties and if we study numerous faculties that human personality comes to posses, we shall find that they relate to four main groups namely, (1) those which pertain to understanding, comprehension, synthesis, universality, knowledge and wisdom; (2) those that relate to will-power, fearlessness, courage, heroism, control, mastery, power and strength; (3) those that relate to imagination, sensibility, emotional refinement, harmony in relationships, friendship, co-operation, loyalty, allegiance, and unfailing love, and (4) those that pertain to skills of expressions, patience, perseverance, endurance, love for precision, and detailed execution of command, order, system and search for perfection. Unfortunately, in our curricular framework preponderant emphasis is laid upon communication of information, but no deliberate attempt is made to the task of stimulating the cultivation of faculties; and yet, if faculties develop among our students, they do so because faculties have an inborn stress in themselves to push forward their developments. But a more rational and careful curriculum should provide guidelines, occasions and exercises by which faculties can be cultivated consciously and systematically.

But of even greater importance in character development is the role-played by development of attitudes and states of consciousness. The depth of seriousness, which accompanies the process of search or quest, will determine the quality of search or quest and its eventual success. And the states of seriousness result from the cultivation of sincerity. If we examine closely, we shall find that what we call virtues are basically manifestations of certain states of consciousness; it is virtues that constitute character; and the stability of character depends upon the stabilisation of those states of consciousness which constitute virtues. How to develop, therefore, virtuous states of consciousness and how to stabilize them should constitute a major constituent of education for character development?

Closely connected with this first set of questions is the second set of questions which relate to the aim of life. The moment we raise the question of aim of life, we begin to address ourselves to something that is central in our being, in our potentialities and in what we can become and can be fulfilled. No great character can be built where the aim of life remains a matter of doubt or tends to be neglected or retained for consideration or amusement in our hours of idleness or superficial leisure. Indeed, the theme of the aim of life should become a theme of exploration, and during the process of exploration one has to pass through periods of doubts, periods of long reflection, periods of experimentation and even of uncertainty. Educational process should provide both time and scope for this kind of exploration and every student should be provided with enough material in respect of this theme. Indeed, no prefixed aim of life should be proposed and no indoctrination or dogmatic assertions should be thrust upon the mind and heart of the student. But the educational process should allow each student a process of exploration, experimentation and reflection as a result of which a mature decision is arrived at as to what aim of life one should pursue. It will then be seen that the quality of life and the quality of character reflect the quality of aim of life that one determines to realise.

Finally, there is a third set of questions, which are also relevant to the development of character. These questions relate to the ways and means by which students become conscious of the methods of learning and methods by which character can be developed. In other words, character development has to become a conscious process, a deliberate process, voluntary process. Students have to become conscious of the psychological complexities and how the tangles of instincts, desires, emotions, will-force, powers of thought, and imagination and the powers of aesthetic, ethical and spiritual consciousness can be understood, disentangled and yet controlled, mastered and harmonised. This perhaps is the most important part of education for character development. Here we have to focus upon the process by which students can gradually become conscious of their inner being, of their potentialities, of their own character so that students can take upon themselves the task of fashioning and perfecting what is best in them.

Philosophy of Spiritual Education

Philosophy of Spiritual Education – I

Why do we need Spiritual Education? What does it really mean? Is it practicable? And what reforms could we propose in our educational system so as to have the right place for spiritual education in it?

All these are important and difficult questions, and within the short time available, we can only touch upon them very briefly and inadequately.

We need spiritual education, firstly, because we want a true national system of education. Education, in order to be national, must reflect that basic urge, which is distinctive of our national history, which is the real genius of our country, which accounts for the amazing continuity of our long and complex history, and which continues to burn even in our decline and darkest periods and serves as the saving light. Veritably, it can be said that what distinguishes Indian cultural history from any other cultural history, is its genius for spirituality and profusion of spiritual developments and great treasures of spiritual knowledge and experience. If we are to search for our cultural identity, — and do we not see the upsurge for cultural identity everywhere in the world today, even when there is an unprecedented demand for internationality, universal citizenship, and oneness of humanity? We can say that the first task of India is to understand what may be called Indian spirituality, its synthetic tendency, its catholicity, and its power to rejuvenate springs of culture and irrigate the paths of perfection of intellectuality, vitality of heroism and vitality and capacity to build strong physical foundations in various domains of life. In this context, our need for spiritual education stands out as an article of supreme importance.

But this is not all.

We need spiritual education not only in India but everywhere because it is becoming increasingly clear that the present crisis through which humanity is passing today can be effectively met only if the entire humanity knocks the doors of spirituality, for that alone seems to hold out the promise of the power that can deliver us. This is evident from the way in which the West is turning to the East. This is also evident from the counsels of some of the greatest historians of our times, who have pointed to India and Indian spirituality for the cure of the decline and fall of the Western civilisation that is built upon the vital and pragmatic drives and intellect as the sole and highest governor of social building.

And when the West is turning to India for some spiritual light, what is it that will enable us to respond? The best way by which we can prepare ourselves to give the right response is to build up the sound edifices of a robust system of education with due place assigned to spiritual education.

Thirdly, with the growing stress on the creation of a classless society or a society that aims at equality and equity, freedom and brotherhood, there is an increasing stress on every individual to participate as fully as possible in the activities of the totality of the society. As a result, individuals are required to expand their horizons, develop multiple interests and responsibilities and equip themselves with the capacities and powers that can be chiseled only by the development of an integral personality. Hence, there has been unprecedented emphasis in our times on integral education for the complete human being. The complete human being is not a sum of its parts, each one put in juxtaposition of the other. Each part of our personality, physical, vital, mental, rational, aesthetic, ethical and spiritual, — has its constitutional relationship with the other and it has to be discovered and, instead of juxtaposition, there has to be integration. And what is the integrating point in a personality is a matter today of psychological investigations. It is easy to admit the Indian psychological contention that nothing can integrate the physical and the vital as the mental, manomaya pranashariraneta, to use the expression of the Taittiriya Upanishad; — but considering that the conflict in the mind itself of its rational, aesthetic and ethical elements as also the conflict between the Reason and the Unreason are becoming acute, we need to turn to still higher levels of integration and admit still higher principles, — principles of spiritual consciousness, which are supramental in character, — vijñânamaya and ânandamaya, — to use again the terms of Taittiriya Upanishad. And this underlines, by implication, the theme of spiritual education as the overarching domain of integral education.

Fortunately, we have a good fund of spiritual knowledge in the roots of our cultural history, if only we make the effort to recover it. We have also been continuously developing spiritual experimentation and renewing it right up to the present day. And the significant fact is that in our renascent India, our greatest experiments in education were inspired by the ideals of spiritual education.

Philosophy of Spiritual Education – II

But let us ask the central question: “What is spiritual education? And what are the real issues pertaining to spiritual education as far as its nature and methodologies are concerned?” There is here a great deal of inadequacy of inquiry, and a good deal of confusion. In the first place, spiritual education tends to be confused with the un-examined concept of “religious education”. And it is argued that because religious education is constitution-ally not allowed to be promoted by the State funds, even spiritual education, which is more or less religious education, has to be exiled from the portals of education in our country.

As against this, it must be stressed that there is a clear distinction between spiritual education and religious education. It may be said that the distinguishing feature of a religion is a doctrine or a belief or a dogma. Every religion has its distinctive doctrine, “prescribed acts”, its rituals, ceremonies, social and religious institutions. On the other hand, what is distinctive of spirituality is its stress on the psychological contention that there is a vast domain of states of consciousness, which are beyond and deeper than mental consciousness and beyond and deeper than the realm of doctrines, beliefs or dogmas. Spirituality can be developed by Yogic methodised effort that is scientific in character, since it can be practiced without any prior belief, and the conclusions or results of that effort can be repeated, verified and expanded by questioning, correction, revision, enlargement, deepening, and heightening. Secondly, another distinctive feature of spirituality is its spontaneous attitude and effortless and abiding stability of consciousness that is marked by universality, silent concentration and contemplation, which is free from the fever of desires, clamours of egoism and prejudices of partiality and attachment. These states of consciousness, these attitudes and these abiding experiences are not states of opinions and beliefs; nor are they tied up with one or the other dogma, and they depend upon no rituals or ceremonies or social or religious institutions. Thirdly, various states of spiritual consciousness tend to constitute four psychological traits of personality, which are commonly found universally among all who have gone beyond mental consciousness or who stand on the borderlines of the mental and spiritual consciousness. These psychological traits are connected with those powers of the Spirit, which flower as the sage, as the hero, as a saint and as a servant. And integral spiritual education would aim at the integral personality that combines and synthesises the sage, the hero, the saint and the servant, — the kind of personality that is illustrated so remarkably in the personality of Sri Krishna, who had, as the Gita testifies, both essential knowledge and comprehensive knowledge that marks the culmination of sage hood; he was dynamic and heroic, since he battled from early boyhood and throughout his life for the upholding of justice and unity of people; and he was full of divine love, which has been sung as an immortal theme of harmonious unity, duality and multiplicity; and he readily agreed to serve with consummate skill as the charioteer of his friend and disciple, Arjuna.

Philosophy of Spiritual Education – III

Underlying the sage is the drive for knowledge, which does not rest merely on the questioning and opinion-making, but which strives for the discovery of the truth and certainty of the truth as also the certainty of comprehensive truth. Orientation towards truthfulness and indefatigable labour and arrival of mastery to live in truthfulness and to gain deeper and deeper knowledge in regard to any subject matter by means of concentration and contemplation, — this entire process, this orientation and this mastery is what may be rightly termed as a process of spiritual education. To arrive at sage hood, to arrive at that quietude and tranquility and calm and silence and peace in which knowledge can grow spontaneously, — this may be regarded as one of the aims of spiritual education.

Another power of the spirit develops into what may properly be called spiritual heroism. Whereas the sage-hood is the culmination of the powers of knowledge, the state of spiritual heroism is a result of the development of the powers of Will. It is often argued that spiritual consciousness encourages withdrawal from action and it leads to world-negation and to the belief in meaninglessness of world and life. It is true that the states of silence and peace point to world-transcendence, since there is something like going beyond all the dynamism of action. But it is not inevitable that world-transcendence must necessarily mean world-negation. Psychologically, knowledge always stands to be superior to Will, but knowledge can also inspire such dynamism of action that Will can never possess, unless it gets rooted in knowledge and gets issued from knowledge. What is the secret, we might ask, of the tremendous potency of action of Buddha that made him the greatest personality that ever walked on the earth? It was his utter silence, a silence that was not blank but that was filled with will and compassion. What is the secret of Christ of going up to the gallows so as to bleed on the cross and manifest that great heroism, which battles for the truth and sacrifices everything for the sake of the entire humanity and prays that his prosecutors be pardoned for they knew not what they were doing? It was that power of the Will, which was rooted in knowledge and in peace that “passeth understanding”.

Spiritual heroism involves the practice of the Yogic method of arriving at perfection of action, the path of Karmayoga, just as the path to sage hood is the path of knowledge, jnanayoga. The methodised effort here involves a great psychological change brought about by three stages, first, of the control and abolition of desire for fruits of action, second, of the control and abolition of the sense of egoistic doership of action, and third, of the mastery that arises from the discovery and the operation of the impersonal and universal will without any hindrance from our subjective egoism or preferences.

The third power of the spirit flowers in sainthood. The state of consciousness that constitutes sainthood is marked by universal goodwill, sympathy and friendliness and harmony that extends to the totality of interrelationships. The methodised yogic effort here involves, first, the awakening of our inmost being that is capable of intense sympathy, compassion, spiritual love and harmony, secondly, of concentration and contemplation of internal communion with the subjective and the objective forces of unity and diversity, and thirdly, of internal union with the highest possible source or sources of love, joy and beauty. Sainthood consists of effortless inspiration to be engaged in works of friendliness, charity and service inspired by compassion.

The fourth power of the Spirit grows into universal spiritual servant-hood, which is reached by the combination of the yogic processes that are required for spiritual heroism and sainthood, but it has also a special mode, which insists on the development of skills that are required from the highest level to the lowest level of activity as also the sense of obedience to all that is considered to be issuing from the highest Knowledge, Will and Love. The true servant-hood is scrupulous both in regard to the development and employment of all the skills that are required to accomplish the minutest demands of work; it is this consciousness which is ever vigilant and has spontaneous readiness to execute what is demanded from above; it omits nothing that is to be done, and when the work is done, nothing is found forgotten. To arrive at the state of spiritual servant-hood is the highest glory of spiritual effort and spiritual education.

It will be seen that in attaining various states of spiritual consciousness and various traits or aspects of spiritual personality, various psychological processes, and their scientific handling of materials of Knowledge, Will and Emotion are adequate, and the aid of dogmas, rituals, ceremonies is not indispensable. Thus spiritual education can be so conceived and designed as to be free from those methods and practices, which are uniquely related to religious education.

Philosophy of Spiritual Education – IV

At the same time, spiritual education need not be averse to what can be called the spiritual core of religions, — the core, which transcends the limitations of doctrines, dogmas, rituals and ceremonies or prescribed acts or specific rules connected with social and other institutions rooted in religious doctrines. Religious education can be distinguished from education about religions, and spiritual education is quite consistent with the study of various doctrines and institutions connected with different religions, biographies of religious founders, a comparative study of religions, sources of their conflict and means and methods by which these conflicts can be resolved. This study should, however, be guided by a wide and strict philosophical discipline, which demands impartiality, rational scrutiny and detailed understanding of the relationship between reason and revelation, reason and dogma, and reason and spiritual means of knowledge such as intuition, inspiration, and discrimination.

Spiritual education will admit those elements of studies in ethics and practice of ethical values, which are not tied down to any particular religion and its exclusive claims. The aid that can be received from ethical education, which deals with purification of the powers of knowledge, will and emotion, must be fully welcomed in the programmes of spiritual education. All ethics is fundamentally a process of self-control, and spiritual education will admit all processes of self-control, which are related to self-knowledge and to the development of sage-hood, spiritual heroism, sainthood and spiritual servant-hood. The programme of spiritual education will also encourage the philosophical study of standards of conduct that have developed at various stages of human history and will aim at establishing the clarity of the concepts of Freewill versus determinism, of goodwill, of the categorical imperative and others in the attempt to understand how this clarity is a great aid in the practice of ethical values, virtues and austerities that aim at purification, strengthening of will-power and transcending those limitations that lead to the conflict between the rational, ethical and aesthetic.

Spiritual education will have no quarrel with all that is rational and all that is scientific. The insistence on the pursuit of truth that is inherent in rational and scientific education must be welcomed in the processes and methods of spiritual education. True spiritual education will aim at the harmonisation of spiritual knowledge, philosophical knowledge and scientific knowledge; in the ultimate analysis, all knowledge tends to be one or holistic, and liberating oneself from the rigidities of the dogmatic assumptions that hinder the true processes of knowledge, one can arrive at a spontaneous harmony among all studies and practices, which aim at the discovery and practice of impartial search for the truth and a comprehensive truth. Spiritual education will never prohibit but always insist on philosophy and science, their methods, and scrupulous adherence to their specific criteria and to critical and self-critical inquiry into these criteria.

There are three great domains of aesthetics, — music, art and poetry, — which are normally encouraged and promoted among young people. If they are rightly interwoven in our educational system, they can constitute powerful means of spiritual education. In fact, art comes very close to spirituality because both art and spirituality insist on depth of experience. In art, experience of an object leads to the formation of images, and the artist employs various techniques for giving expressions to these images in forms of beauty so that the substance and style correspond to each other as intensely as possible. Intensity of experience, vision of the truth and its images, and harmonious forms of expression, — these are the elements of all art. Music, painting and poetry — these three forms of art, when combined together, can become perfect education of the soul. In poetry, the instrument is the rhythmic word, in painting it is the colour and proportion and charm, and in music it is the melody and harmony of sounds. Colour, sound and word are extremely close to the Spirit, and that is the reason why the spiritual sage easily becomes a poet, and the spiritual saint easily becomes a poet-singer and a musician and every spiritual seeker becomes an artist of life and expresses his art of life in various other arts through which harmonious forms of joy and beauty can be expressed. In an ideal system of education, art will be used for spiritual education and spiritual education will be used for promoting artistic expression. Essence of all art is the discovery and expression of rasa, and one of the definitions of the Spirit is that it is rasa (raso vai sah).

Spiritual education will also take great care to train and purify the vital impulses, vital drives, vital emotions, vital desires, vital attractions and longings and vital activities of acquisition, possession, influence and enjoyment. Spiritual education will not kill the dynamism of the vital, but will employ the methods of illumination, love, harmonisation and heroism so that the potency of the vital can act effectively and victoriously. The vital will be purified, trained and perfected, so that the dynamic traits of human personality get their proper treatment of transformation. It will be realised that all that is heroic and noble, great and powerful but which is still raw or unripe or mixed will be purified but not discouraged, will be heightened and perfected but not blunted or impoverished. Spiritual education will not aim at weakness but at strength, not at escape from action but at mastery of action.

Just as mental and vital education can form part of spiritual education, even so, physical education, too, can be so conceived and practiced that it forms part of spiritual education. First is the question of attitude towards the body. There are those who consider the body to be the tomb of the spirit, but the right understanding of the body will show that the body is the indispensable instrument of the practice of every ideal. Shariram adyam khalu dharma-sâdhanam – this is how the Sanskrit adage lays down. Secondly, the values of physical education are perfectly harmonious with the totality of values of vital, mental and spiritual education. One great value of physical education is that of health, and it is very well known that good health of the body is indispensable for the integral health of the entire being. Yogic methods of pranayama and âsanas clearly indicate how the physical and spiritual are interrelated, and in India we have elaborate science of the relationship between the gross body and the subtle body as also of the centers or charkas of subtle body, the opening of which is essential for the fullness or perfection of the body, life and mind as also of spiritual realisation and manifestation. The recent discoveries of the powers that lie embedded in the organic cell of the body are amazing, and it has been found that the spiritual and supramental powers, when captured by the cells of the body, can effect even the mutation of the human body. It is with this high aim that the possibilities of physical education that our educational system should provide full facilities for the perfection of the human body. For that perfection can be a vehicle of the highest possible spiritual manifestation.

It may be remarked that spiritual states of consciousness can be obtained only when the capacities of the body, life and mind are first maximised and purified, and these capacities can again be perfected when the powers of spiritual states of consciousness can, by their descent, penetrate into them and spiritualise them. The total programme of spiritual education is, therefore, a very long one, and it should be undertaken as a life-long programme. But for that very reason, it can suitably commence as early as possible. An appropriate programme needs to be chalked out.

Philosophy of Spiritual Education – V

Three principles characterise the programme of spiritual education, which necessarily includes education of the body, life and mind. First, there is insistence on the pursuit of truth, — truth as it is and not as one would like it to be; and this pursuit demands a high degree of rigor and scrupulous care, which discourages hasty arrival at conclusions, exaggerations of claims, and disregard for patient processes, which are required for verification. Particularly, in matters connected with the development of higher faculties, one needs to learn how to avoid wishful thinking and clouding of clarity and sincerity. Haphazard experiences and sporadic experimentations with truth lead to disbalancement and avoidable pitfalls into error and misjudgment. In all scientific inquiries, these difficulties present themselves, and where spiritual education enters into the field, one has to be more scientific than the current sciences demand of the scientist; for current sciences deal with objective facts, whereas spiritual processes involve both objective and subjective facts. This is the reason why spiritual education should constantly be surcharged with relentless patience, perseverance and unfailing discrimination between appearance and reality, as also between darkness, confusion and light. Asato ma sadgamaya, tamaso ma jyotir-gamaya, mrityor ma amritam gamaya – these three great aspirations should pervade the atmosphere of educational processes as they did in the Upanishadic times.

The second characteristic follows from the first, and that is the cultivation of the spirit of harmony between the teacher and the pupil, between educational administrators and all the partners of education. Spiritual education demands right attitudes among teachers and pupils. Spiritual education is totally child-centered, and this child-centeredness is so great that the teachers should expect to interweave their own outer and internal progress with the outer and internal progress of the children entrusted to their care. The teachers have always to be ready to uplift children’s enthusiasm to inquire, to question and to explore and experiment in regard to various processes of learning; teachers cannot afford to be task-masters and create revolt in the minds and hearts of the children; teachers have to realise that they have no external authority, and the only authority that they have issues from their intense care to develop their own purity and their own increasing expansion and mastery over knowledge; the relationship between teachers and pupils should reflect the interrelationship between inspirations from teachers and aspirations from pupils. Only on that basis harmonious teaching-learning processes can be assured. In the ultimate analysis, teachers will have to be themselves children leading other children.

Harmony depends upon goodwill from oneself and goodwill from others. Among teachers themselves, there has to be the reign of mutuality of goodwill; and similarly, educational administrators have to realise that if there is one place where administrators are real servants and not masters, it is in the field of education; and an educational administrator has to promote educational aims and ideals, and this can be done only where there is a good deal of consultation and absence of arbitrary decision-making. Administrators have to ensure that all support that is needed for a smooth functioning of the educational processes will be forthcoming, and they will act as promoters of goodwill among the parents of children, management, pupils and teachers.

All this demands tapasyâ, an austerity that aims at friendliness, right types of exchange and mutuality, co-operation and an inner sense of fraternity.

The third characteristic is that of liberty. If there is one field where freedom must rule without any abridgement, it is in the flowering of the spiritual consciousness; spiritual development cannot be brought about by compulsion; all that is desirable should be voluntarily accepted or voluntarily self-imposed. It is for the teachers to create such conducive conditions that, all that is desirable comes to be valued among pupils as also in the general atmosphere. Even if something is to be compulsory, under certain circumstances, that compulsion fades away as soon as possible, and it becomes interwoven in the process of self-discipline. Problems of conflict between liberty and discipline often arise, but the solutions depend upon how discipline is enforced, not by external means, but by internal adhesion on the part of all the concerned. Discipline is best when it is self-discipline and when it is the child of freedom. It is only when the child comes to accept a process of discipline that the teacher has the right to demand from the child unwavering adherence to discipline, whenever there is deviation from discipline out of unjustifiable relaxation or idleness or a whim of momentary defiance or negligence. No education and much less spiritual education can be perfected without discipline, just as even in the functioning of the physical body, every part and every organ has to function with the perfect sense of discipline and co-ordination. In the very atmosphere of the educational process, there must be an overriding sense of self-imposed discipline and it must be the responsibility of everyone to adhere to what is accepted as a part of discipline. Absence of compulsion, minimum of rules and overriding self-discipline coupled with a freedom of choice given to every individual to pursue his or her own lines of inquiry, pace of progress and direction of progress, — a combination of these elements would lead to the resolution of problems that are bound to arise when the entire education process is to vibrate with freedom, joy, creativity and happiness that comes from constant progress.

It is mistakenly thought that spiritual education should be pursued, if at all, only at advanced levels of education. Actually, a study of child’s psychology indicates that children are, in many ways, budding angels; with their innocence, unpretentious sincerity, ready obedience and their sense of trust and confidence in all those who can deal with them with love and encouragement, children are often morally and spiritually superior to the adults. A number of children respond splendidly to truth, beauty and goodness, and if they receive the right encouragement in the right manner, the formation of the character can greatly be imprinted with orientation towards these great values. These values are imbibed by children, not so much by lectures as by encouragement that they receive from their teachers and parents. A good story, — long or short, — if told at the right moment can make a tremendous impact, which cannot be wiped out throughout the entire life, and it continues to inspire the right action even in times of crisis and under heavy pressures of temptations.

Philosophy of Spiritual Education – VI

Three remarks may, however, be made which relate to the question as to how spiritual education can be introduced in our present system of education and what reforms in the present system would be necessary, if we are to make spiritual education an effective instrument of the aims that we have in view, — particularly in regard to turning our system into a genuine system, as an instrument of enhancing the global effort to meet the challenges of the contemporary crisis, and as an aid to the fulfillment of the idea and practice of integral education.

It may be recalled that all major Reports on education, Commissions and Committees have acknowledged and underlined the theme of value-education, and even of moral and spiritual education. Dr. Radhakrishnan had recommended a series of measures by which moral education can be a preparation for the spiritual education; he had also recommended the need to provide for study of different religions. He had stressed the importance of the spiritual state of silence and made recommendations as to how this state of consciousness can be promoted. The Kothari Commission Report had also emphasised the need to synthesise science and spirituality and even brought out the truth of the ancient Indian ideal, which spoke of true knowledge as that which leads to spiritual liberation, — sa vidya ya vimuktaye. Shri Prakasa Committee had given detailed recommendations in respect of moral and spiritual education. Value-education came to the forefront during the 70s and 80s, and there was also a report on imparting value-orientation to teachers’ training programmes. The National Education Policy – 1986 had one full chapter on value education and had underlined the need to foster eternal values and values embedded in Indian culture through the entire educational programme in the country. The duties of citizens as laid down in the Constitution include the promotion of Indian heritage, which implies the study of Indian spirituality. With all these enabling factors, there should be no great difficulty to propose and implement spiritual education.

There are, however, those who maintain that the mind is the highest faculty of the human being; that the limitations of mental consciousness can never be broken, and that there is no such thing as spirituality or that there are no spiritual states of consciousness. But this contention is now as outmoded as the contention that anybody unacquainted with modern developments of Physics may hold out that the atom is the last limit of unimaginable outburst of energy. There are also those who feel that spiritual education will foster communalism; but this is only a superstition. In reality, communalism can rightly be combated only if we can foster universality and unity, — which in the ultimate analysis can be accomplished through spiritual education. The greatest antidote to communalism, we might affirm, is spiritual education. There are, however, those who maintain that the ideals of spiritual education cannot be made practicable in our present system of education. Here, it may be acknowledged that since the present system of education was primarily designed to manufacture clerks, and since this system has changed only slightly since the advent of the British, and even after their departure, it is but natural that such a sublime theme as spiritual education may not find place in that so-called Indian system of Education.

But – and this is the second remark – if we are to introduce spiritual education, three things will have to be undertaken: firstly, we have to change the present system of teachers’ training so radically that every teacher under training receives education for integral development of personality, which will, by implication, include the overarching programme of spiritual education; (ii) the present lecture-oriented, book-oriented, syllabus-oriented, and examination-oriented system will have to be replaced by child-centered and youth-centered education that will employ dynamic methods of exploration, experimentation, practice of values and those processes, which will lead to the fostering of spiritual states of consciousness and powers; and (iii) we shall have to institute widespread education of parents and other partners of education so that the theme of spiritual education finds full support of the people.

None of these things is impracticable or impossible, but we cannot minimise the difficulties involved in these tasks. It must, however, be emphasised that because the tasks are difficult, we tend to find excuses to escape from these difficulties. But difficulties have to be overcome, and we must chalk out a programme of overcoming these difficulties and implement that programme with perseverance and without any depressing or cynical thought.

And this brings us to the third remark. Our state, whether in the country or in the world, presents us a powerful confrontation between the best possibilities and the worst possibilities; it is a battle being fought at a critical point, and if we do not act, we shall automatically be registering ourselves as members of the army of those who are working for the realisation of the worst possibilities; if, however, we make a choice and join the army of those who are working for the realisation of the best possibilities, we can be sure that we shall have done the right thing and that, irrespective of immediate results, we shall have enhanced the power of that force which is best for our country and the world. To work for spiritual education is to my mind, to join the army, however small it may be, that holds out the promise of the eventual fulfillment of humanity.

Learning-Teaching Process—A Synoptic View of the Present Situation

We are passing through a great transition. The old is becoming obsolete and the new is still in the process of emergence. The olds ways of learning and teaching are found to be too rigid and too outmoded. A greater application of psychological principles is being increasingly demanded. It has been urged that the training of the young requires on the part of the teacher a deep psychological knowledge. According to some thinkers, the present educational system is a huge factory of mis-education. According to them the spontaneity of the child is smothered at an early stage by our mechanical methods which are prevalent in our educational system. They contend that the child is not a plastic material which can be moulded according to educators’ design, but it is a closed bud having its own inherent capacity to flower and blossom, meeting only the favourable climate conditions such as the right atmosphere, environment, inspiration and guidance. Each child, according to them, is a psychological entity, having its own specific individual needs of growth which have to be understood and developed by the same kind of knowledge and tact by which a good gardener tends to varieties of plants and trees in his garden. Just as each plant needs to be individually looked after, even so, each child, it is contended, is required to be looked after individually. It has been further held that each individual is a great potential dynamo of energy, and if we do not deal with that potentiality, only very little gets actualised, and the rest remains dormant and uncultivated. This means a tremendous waste both for the nation and the world. Not to tap the full potentialities of each individual is thus psychologically unsound and economically unproductive. It has, therefore, been urged that our educational system should either be set aside altogether through some kind of ‘deschooling’ or radically changed in such a way that each individual is provided with conditions and facilities under which he can grow towards his fullness on the lines that are psychologically appropriate to him.

There is another line of thinking according to which it is not enough to develop the potentialities of the individual but also to direct these potentialities towards their highest values. It has been argued that the psychological development of the individual is an extremely dangerous process, unless the development is guided by wisdom and skill and directed towards certain desirable and sublime ideals. There is a risk, it is argued, of succeeding in developing only highly egoistic and selfish individuals, if we insist only upon development and do not take a great care to insist on the discovery of the right values, aims, objectives and ideals. It has, therefore, been urged that education should be value-oriented and should provide those conditions and facilities under which individual is enabled to discover the highest possible values and embody them as effectively as possible in thought, feeling and action.

An unprecedented education experiment which is taking place in different parts of the world today has resulted in the formulation of new models of learning-teaching process. It has been argued that learning is a process of transmutation; transmutation of innate reflexes into organised and conscious perceptions, visions and actions, transmutation of innate drives into wise and skilful pursuit of means and ends, and transmutation of innate tendencies into a harmonious integrated personality. It has been contended that there are observable and discernible processes by which the process of learning or of transmutation can be accelerated. We are often asked to consider the tremendous feat of learning that the child performs in the first few years of its life. It has been contended that the child learns so fast because all its occupations are occupations of learning. For the child, all play is learning, and all learning is a play. Again, it is contended, the child learns so fast because the child deals with its universe with its total being by the exercise of all its faculties and by a concrete urge of experience. It has been argued that our entire learning process should be so changed that we are able to create for the learner the same conditions which obtain in the child’s encounter with its universe. Some educationists have, therefore, pleaded for a search of a school that has no walls, and for studies that have no boundaries.

It has also been argued that the learner learns best under the conditions of freedom to choose, under teacher’s wise guidance, what he wants to learn and what he should learn. The learner should have also the freedom of pursuing his studies at his own pace. This argument is further intensified when it is seen that an indispensable condition of the moral and spiritual development is secured only when the learner is given ample opportunities to exercise his free will.

Learning by doing is being increasingly advocated. At the same time, it is being recognised that there are, for different categories of learners, different ways of learning. Some students learn better through aesthetic experience, some others through manual work, while still others through intellectual or meditative contemplation. It has, therefore, been suggested that an ideal system of education should provide to each learner that method or such combination of methods which is suitable to his specific needs of learning.

Self-learning is being given in several experiments a pre-eminent place. Individualised programmed instruction, for example, follows an instructional model which aspires to produce an effective communication for securing precisely defined goals of learning, in a manner timed to meet the needs of the individual, mostly with the help of programmed teaching and learning material. An important variant of individualised learning is that of learning by consultation with the teacher, as and when needed. Lecture system, which caters to group learning, plays a minor role in experiments which emphasises self-learning. Even the syllabi and examination system are required to be radically changed in the context of a system based upon self-learning.

Project systems try to combine self-learning with group-learning. Projects may be directed towards an exploration or towards producing some practical action under certain actual situations. In a model that is known as Info-Bank, the learner is required to define what he is interested in and the kind of approach that he wants to undertake. The learner is given the freedom to govern his reading and practical activities and to judge the knowledge acquired and its significance. In some educational experiments, a combination of different information materials is made available to the learner and he is given the freedom to construct and control his own learning process and the environment suitable for the chosen learning process. In yet another instructional model, individual learners learn from one another by informing and consulting one another mutually from time to time. At a higher level of consultation, there is experimental testing and feedback. In some models, the learner takes over the roles of those responsible for action and decision in simulated environment. In some cases, problems to be solved are frequently more complex and make the acquisition of external information necessary, while in others the required information is supplied in advance. In the ‘Workshop Model’, the learner work like colleagues, supported, if necessary, by organisers and advisers, on the solution of real problems with which they are confronted. In this model, the learning of the methods of work is as important as the production of results.

Educationists are perplexed by the phenomenon of unprecedented explosion of knowledge. Teachers and learners are required to deal with this explosion, and efforts are being made to discover accelerated methods of learning and teaching. The necessity of continuous or lifelong education is also being underlined. At the same time, teachers and students are required to distinguish more clearly than ever before, those aspects of knowledge which are essential from those which are of peripheral importance.

There is also today an unparalleled width and depth of enquiry, which necessitates a new kind of learning-teaching process that would be at once comprehensive and yet peculiarly specialised or varied so as to suit each individual.

Again, there is today, a great quest all over the world towards the synthesis of knowledge and synthesis of culture. Ancient knowledge is being recovered in the context of the modern knowledge. The humanist and the technologist are finding themselves in greater and greater need of each other. It is being increasingly recognised that the learner should not only develop his rational faculties but should also pursue moral and aesthetic tendencies. In India, we go farther and underline the need of a synthesis of science and spirituality. Against this background, there is a quest to discover a point of convergence where different sciences and humanities can meet in a synthesis of knowledge. There is a search for an all-embracing project of work-experience that would generate a continuing process of lifelong education. And there is a search for a programme of learning that would necessitate a spontaneous harmony of the needs of a personal development with the needs of collective development. It is being asked if there is a tool of acceleration of the summing up of the past and the unfolding of the future. And it is asked if there is a method and content of education that would necessitate an automatic synchronisation of studies, work-experience and flowering of faculties and values. It has become necessary, both for the learner and for the teacher, to discover or invent such methods by the employment of which the explosion of knowledge can be contained and personality can be developed which would harmonise, progressively, the wideness of the humanist and the skills of the technologist, the disciplined will-force of the moralist and the refined imagination of the artist, and the scrupulous knowledge of the scientist and the sublime vision, wisdom and ever growing perfection of the profound and wide spiritual culture.

It is seen that there are today powerful trends that necessitate a continual revision of the contents of education as also a continued refinement of the learning-teaching process.

It is against this background that there is a serious thinking in our country to determine the new role that the teacher is called upon to play. The situation in India is in a sense more complex than in many other countries of the world. India is passing through a tremendous period of scientific and cultural efflorescence. This period was marked by a powerful phase of the national freedom struggle during which the Indian subcontinent passed through an unprecedented churning of mental, aesthetic, moral and spiritual ideas. In the course of this churning, profound experiments in the field of education took place, the lessons of which need still to be assimilated. There grew in India during this period an irresistible sentiment to give the children and the youths of our country a new kind of education, which is freed from the fetters of the system given to us by the British and which would ensure development and promotion among students and teachers not only of the highest values of physical, emotional, mental, aesthetic, moral and spiritual culture, but also those values which are uniquely Indian, and which would at the same time promote a new kind of synthesis appropriate to our own composite culture. India has developed a kind of secularism which needs to be properly defined, understood and promoted. We have to build up young men and women who would have pride in the Indian heritage and our composite culture. This would mean that we have to transmit to the children and youths a true knowledge of India, of India’s complexity, of India’s greatness and of India’s innate tendencies to harmonise and synthesise.

The task that lies ahead of Indian education is difficult. With the turn of the century we are being called upon to take into account the educational needs both of today and of tomorrow.

Learning-Teaching Process—Basic Ideas

There is a need to clarify the term, value. Evidently the word ‘value’ is not to be taken in the sense in which it is used in Economics. The word ‘value’ as understood in the context of educational philosophy refer to those desirable ideals and goals which are intrinsic in themselves and which, when achieved or attempted to be achieved, evoke a deep sense of fulfillment to one or many or all parts of what we consider fulfillment to one or many or all parts of what we consider to be the highest elements of our nature. In a sense, it may be urged that the word ‘value’ is basically indefinable since it denotes a fundamental category and it is itself the highest genus of that category. At the same time, there is a common understanding as to what is meant when it is said that Truth, Beauty and Goodness are the supreme values of life. They are intrinsic in character and they are ends in themselves. They are considered to be the most desirable ideals and they occur to us whenever we try to conceive of those states of our being or becoming in which we are likely to find some kind of ultimate fulfillment.

All true education is fundamentally a process of training whereby the individual is enabled to embody progressively, those values which we in our highest thought and aspiration come to regard as something most desirable.

If the human nature is analyzed, it is found that there are various energies in us which can be distinguishable under various categories, such as physical, emotional, mental, aesthetic, moral and spiritual. These energies are mostly latent in us and only a part of them are actually active. Even the active part of our energies needs to be developed and directed towards their highest development and towards their highest point of fulfillment in their respective values. But the task of education is not limited merely to the development of our active energies but also to bring out our latent capacities and lead them to their rightful goals and ideals.

The teacher should therefore have a sound knowledge of the psychology of man and should know the secrets of the principles underlying the development of both our active and latent capacities.

In the present system of education, we are too preoccupied with the mental development; and we give a preponderant importance to those qualities which are relevant to the present examination system. We are thus not giving so much of importance to the development of the powers of understanding as to the powers of memory. We do not emphasise the development of imagination as much as we emphasise the power of knowing facts. We do not give importance to the pursuit of Trust as much as to the pursuit of piecemeal assemblage of topics and subjects which are prescribed in the syllabus. Recently, attempts have been made to ameliorate this situation and some place is being given to physical education and aesthetic education. But the situation is far from satisfactory, and when we come to the domain of moral and spiritual values, the situation is confusing and it seems, a deeper exploration is required before we give to ourselves some definite idea as to what they mean and what place they can be given in our systems of education.

The situation in regard to moral and spiritual values is complicated by the fact that there are today several powerful trends of thought in the light of which morality has come to be regarded as something relative and spirituality is being dismissed as some indefinable category of irrationalism. It is sometimes held that scientific method is the only door to knowledge, while morality and spirituality can at best be a kind of emotional response. It is, therefore, sometimes argued that what needs to be advanced in our educational system is scientific method and scientific knowledge and that each individual should be left to do what he likes in regard to his moral and spiritual tendencies. As against this, it is being increasingly felt that no education can be complete or even worthwhile if it does not provide to the individual not only the knowledge of the history of moral, religious and spiritual ideas which are a great part of the human heritage but also a non-dogmatic but disciplined process by which the individual is enabled to embody those values which seem to our human thought as indispensable to the survival of human race at the present critical juncture of human history and to the eventual development of a greater civilisation than we have had hitherto. It is, for instance, universally agreed that pursuit of peace is one of the most desirable things that we should encourage in education all over the world. Nobody seriously argues that this is a value, which each individual should be left free to pursue or not to pursue and that it should have no place in our educational system. And, we may note that pursuit of peace implies the pursuit of a number of interrelated values such as unity, harmony, mutuality, friendship, faithfulness and sincerity. As a matter of fact, there is in the realm of values an intimate interrelatedness, and once we admit any given value, we are perforce led to admit the entire range of values.

Nonetheless, it must be admitted that it is not easy to settle the question as to what precisely is the relationship between the realm of values and the realm of knowledge, how precisely pursuit of science and pursuit of values should be related to each other, and how precisely we should encourage the pursuit of values in our system of education. There are, however, some guidelines that we can derive from the contemporary educational thought and from some of the great educational experiments conducted in India or elsewhere.

In the domain of physical education, the values that we ought to seek are those of health, strength, plasticity, grace and beauty. In the domain of emotional education, the values that we ought to seek would be those of harmony and friendliness, of courage and heroism, of endurance and perseverance and of irresistible will to conquer the forces of ignorance, division and injustice. In the domain of the mental development, the values that we ought to seek would be those of utmost impartiality, dispassionate search for the Truth, Calm and Silence, and widest possible synthesis. The values pertaining to the aesthetic development would be those of the vision of the Beauty and creative joy of the deepest possible aesthetic experience and expression.

Values that we should seek in the moral and spiritual domain are those of sincerity, faithfulness, obedience to whatever one conceives to be the highest, gratitude, honesty, benevolence, generosity, cheerfulness, selflessness, freedom from egoism, equality in joy and suffering, in honour and dishonour, in success and failure, pursuit of the deepest and the highest, of the absolute and ultimate and progressive expression of this pursuit in thought, feeling and action.

It would be observed that the pursuit of the above mentioned values is not intrinsically related to any particular moral or religious doctrine or any particular spiritual discipline. One can pursue these values as something intrinsic and as ends in themselves, irrespective of whether one holds any particular doctrine of ethics, religion or spirituality. Whether one belongs to one religion or the other or to no religion one can pursue these values devotedly and zealously. This point is extremely important in the context of the Indian situation where there are a number of religions, including atheistic religions, and where there are people of no religion. This is again important in the context of the fact that our Constitution clearly states that “No religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained out of the State Fund” and that “No person attending any educational institution recognised by the State or receiving aid out of State fund shall be required to take part in any religious instruction that may be imparted in such institution or to attend any religious worship that may be conducted in such institution or in any premises attached there to unless such person or, if such person is a minor, his guardian has given his consent thereto.”

A question is often raised as to whether there is any valid distinction between moral and spiritual values. In answer, it may be said that much depends upon what we intend to include in our definition of the word ‘morality’ or in the word ‘spirituality’. In Indian thought, the distinction between morality and spirituality has been clearly made and we have two definite terms, naitika and adhyatmika, having their specific and distinguishing connotations. The word ‘morality’ connotes a pursuit of the control and mastery over impulses and notes a pursuit of the control and mastery over impulses and desires under the guidance and supervening inspiration of a standard of conduct formulated thought in consideration of man’s station and duties in the society or in consideration of any discovered or prescribed intrinsic law of an ideal. Morality is often conceived as a preparation for spirituality. Spirituality on the other hand, begins when one seeks whatever one conceives to be the ultimate and absolute for its own sake, unconditionally and without any reserve whatsoever. Moreover, while morality is often limited to the domain of duties, spirituality is fundamentally a search of the knowledge (sakshatkara) of the highest and the absolute by direct experience and manifestation of this search in every mode of living, thinking and acting.

What is called religious, and what in Indian terminology is termed as dharmik is clearly distinguishable from the moral and the spiritual. The differentia by which religion can be distinguished from morality and spirituality are:

(i) a specific religious belief which is so exclusive that one cannot accept it irrespective of whether one holds that religious belief or any other or none at all;

(ii) every specific religion has, as its essential ingredient, certain prescribed acts, rituals and ceremonies;

(iii) a religious authority to which religious matters are referred and the decision of which is final.

Both moral and spiritual values, particularly those which are enumerated above, can be practiced irrespective of whether one believes in one religion or another or whether one believes in no religion. Both morality and spirituality can be independent of rituals and ceremonies and of any acts specifically prescribed by any particular religion. And both of them are independent of any authority except that of one’s own free and direct experience.

It is thus clear that education in moral and spiritual values is quite distinct from ‘religious instruction’. What is required is instruction and training in the entire realm of values – physical, emotional, intellectual, imaginative, aesthetic, moral and spiritual, which can be pursued by any individual irrespective of whether he accepts any religion or no religion.

In addition to the values which are enumerated above, the value-orientation in education must also include, specifically, those values which are being promoted by UNESCO of which India is a Member-State. This would mean that our educational system should encourage the value of world peace, international understanding, and unity of mankind. UNESCO has also put forward through a comprehensive ideal and value, namely, “to be”. This ideal has been highlighted in the Report of the International Commission on the development of education, which was constituted by UNESCO in 1971. While explaining the ideal of “to be”, M. Edgar Faure, the Chairman of the Commission, stated that one of the underlying assumptions of the Report is “That the aim of development is the complete fulfillment of man, in all the richness of his personality, the complexity of his forms of expression and his various commitments.”¹

The ideal of “to be” is distinct from the ideal of “to acquire” and “to process”. The ideal of “to be” refers to that direction of effort which leads individual to look deeply within himself and to find in his inner being the source of his varied potentialities, and the source of a fulfillment is some kind of perfection that transcends egoism and which rests in a vast and integrated self-hood.

It is pertinent to note that the Indian educational thought has constantly emphasised the value of wholeness of integrality and comprehensiveness. In Indian thought, a distinction has been made between the ego and the self, between aham-bhava and Atman. According to the Indian thought whereas egoistic personality is ridden with self-contradictions and internal conflicts, and it is the integrating centre in which varied personalities are harmonised and integrated personality is thus a recognised ideal that the Indian educational thought has held out as one of the supreme spiritual values. In its, fullness, the idea of integrated personality connotes the perfection of a fourfold personality that harmonises wisdom, power, love and skill in works. It is therefore recommended that the pursuit of this fullness of integrated personality may be regarded as one of the highest values which should be pursued in our educational system.

There are, indeed, certain other values which are uniquely Indian, in the sense that even though these values may be shared by India in common with other countries, they are pursued in India either with a certain special zeal and dedication or pursued with a certain specialty or completeness. For example, the value that we attach to the ideal of tolerance is something special in India. In fact, the word tolerance itself is not adequate to convey the intended meaning. In the ordinary idea of tolerance, there is still a feeling that our own preferred idea is somewhat superior to the other contending ideas. On the other hand, what is peculiarly Indian is the sentiment and the recognition that various principal contending ideas are all equally legitimate ideas and that superiority lies not in holding one idea as some preferred idea but in trying to find such a synthesis that each idea finds its own highest fulfillment in it. It is true that all true tendencies towards synthesis whether found in Plato or Marx, whether in the West or in the East, have this special characteristic. But what is uniquely Indian is that the value and ideal of synthesis has been pursued throughout the long history of Indian culture as a most desirable goal – and that too repeatedly and with a very special insistence. Therefore, a special emphasis should be laid in all our learning process towards the seeking of synthesis not only as an ideal of intellectual development but also as a cherished ideal of Indian culture.

Along with the basic idea of synthesis, there is also the accompanying idea of unity, mutuality and oneness in diversity. That in spite of there being varying centrifugal forces, there are also supervening, powerful and harmonising centripetal forces operating in the Indian life and that the Indian culture finds its deepest fulfillment not in any exclusive denial but in comprehensive affirmation (or in denial of all denials) need a special emphasis. And that our education should be so reoriented as to give a pre-eminent place to the pursuit of the culture of unity in diversity.

Similarly, what is meant by secularism in the Indian context is uniquely Indian. According to the Western idea, secularism means a tendency or a system of beliefs which rejects all forms of religious faith or worship. It means something that pertains to the present world or to things which are not spiritual or sacred. In the Indian context, however, secularism means comprehensiveness in which all religions receive equal protection, treatment and respect, and in which there is place for everyone whether he belongs to one religion or another or to no religion. Again Indian secularism encourages us to approach everything, whether material or spiritual, with a sense of sacredness. In Indian secularism there is freedom for the propagation of each religion without hindrance or bar and there is also the freedom to promote and propagate synthesis of religions. At the same time, Indian secularism insists on the promotion of moral and spiritual values which are common to all religions and to no religion as also on the promotion of a synthesis of science and spirituality. Secularism so defined and understood is thus a very special value that is uniquely Indian.

There are several other Indian values which require a special mention and which should find their right place in our educational system. The sense of joy that is behind various festivals in India which are shared by people of the country is something which can be understood only when one enters into the heart and soul of Indian culture. The Indian idea of the rhythm of life and the law of harmony, expressed by the word “Dharma” is also uniquely Indian. The place that India has given to womanhood and to motherhood, in particular, is again something very unique to India, and which cannot be explained in terms which are current in the world, whether in the context of any orthodox attitude or in the context of what is known as feminism. Again, the value that we attach to the pursuit of knowledge, to the pursuit of purity, to the pursuit of wisdom is something unique, in the sense that these things are valued most and they are cherished most, and on the call of which we are inspired to renounce everything. All these and many other values which are uniquely Indian should be encouraged and fostered.

There are indeed certain elements which are Indian, which are basically contradictory of the true Indian spirit, such as casteism, regionalism and fanaticism. These have, of course, to be rejected, and they should find no place in our educational system. India has always opposed ignorance and division. This has been India’s dominant theme, and even today, our Indian system of education must declare itself opposed to anything that produces ignorance, superstition and division.

It is noteworthy that the great Indian values, some of which have been mentioned above, became dynamically vibrant during the period of India’s struggle for freedom. In fact, this period was marked by the rise of great men and women who embodied these values and enriched them. Again, it was during this period that these values guided and shaped great movements and events. Thus a study of our nationalist movement provides a perennial source of inspiration, and a special emphasis should be laid on this study in our educational system, particularly, in the programmes related to the training of teachers.

Learning-Teaching Process—Can Values Be Taught?

There is a profound Indian view about teaching which declares that the first principle of teaching is that nothing can be taught. This paradoxical statement may seem at first sight incomprehensible. But when we look closely into it, we find that it contains a significant guideline regarding the methodology of teaching. It does not prohibit teaching, since it is stated to be the first principle of teaching. It does, however, suggest that the methods of teaching should be such that the learner is enabled to discover by means of his own growth and development all that is intended to be learnt. It points out in other words, that the role of the teacher should be more of a helper and a guide rather than that of an instructor. This would also mean that the teacher should not impose his views on the learner, but he should evoke within the learner the aspiration to learn and to find out the truth by his own free exercise of faculties.

The truth behind this role of the teacher is brought out by the contention that ‘nothing can be taught’ to the mind which is not already concealed as potential knowledge in the inmost being of the learner. One is reminded of the Socratic view that knowledge is innate in our being but it is hidden. Socrates demonstrates in the Platonic dialogue, ‘Meno’², how a good teacher can, without teaching, but by asking suitable questions, bring out to the surface the true knowledge which is already unconsciously present in the learner. As we know, Socrates and Plato distinguished between opinions on the one hand, and knowledge, on the other. They point out that whereas opinions can be formed on the basis of questionable sense experiences, knowledge which consists of pure ideas is independent of sense-experience and can be gained by some kind of experience which is akin to remembrance. In other words, according to Socrates and Plato, knowledge is ‘remembered’ by a process of uncovering.

Again, according to Socrates and Plato, virtue is knowledge. Therefore, what is true of knowledge is also true of virtue. Just as knowledge cannot be taught but can only be uncovered, even so virtue too, cannot be taught but can only be uncovered. But here again, it does not mean that there is no such thing as teaching or that the teacher has no role to play. It only means that the teacher has to be cognisant of the fact the learner has in him a potentiality and that his role consists of a delicate and skilful operation of uncovering what is hidden or latent in the learner.

There is, indeed, an opposite view, which is advocated mainly by behaviourists, who maintain that the learner has no hidden potentialities except some rudimentary capacities of reflex responses and that anything and everything can be taught to the learner by suitable processes of conditioning which can be designed according to the goals in view. Thus Watson claimed that learners can be trained to become whatever you design them to become. According to this view, everything can be taught; all virtues and values can be taught and cultivated by suitable methods of conditioning.

It is not our purpose to enter into a debate with behaviourism. But it is a fact that even behaviourism acknowledges that conditioning presupposes innate reflexes, and that the process of conditioning is dependent upon a reward-punishment system which, whether acknowledged or not, can be explained only if the learner has within him an innate drive towards some kind of goal seeking and fulfillment. In other words, even if we admit that external stimulation and conditioning are effective instruments of learning, it does not mean that stimulation and conditioning could work upon a subject that would be devoid of an innate capacity or drive to respond.

Moreover, the claims of behaviourism have been questioned by several rival theories of psychology. The school of mathematical logic, for example, rejects behaviourism and prescribes that the aim of teaching should be more limited and that the claims as to what can be taught should be more modest. It maintains that the aim of teaching should be to teach procedures and not solutions and that the methods should be so employed that the mental processes are taken in the direction of mathematical logic. The Gestalt psychology maintains that there are in the learner basic perceptual structures and schemes of behaviour which constitute some kind of basic unity. It underlines, therefore, the presence of an innate intuition in the learner and it prescribes intuitive methods based on perception, which are found largely in audio-visual pedagogy. Psychoanalysis has discovered an unimaginable large field of innate drives of which our active consciousness is normally unconscious. But Freudian form of psychoanalysis which posited eros and thanatos as the two ultimate but conflicting innate drives in man, has been largely overpassed by Adler, Jung and others. Modern psychic research is discovering in the subconscious a deeper layer which can properly be termed as subliminal, since it is found to be the seat of innate capacities of telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. As psychology is advancing, we seem to be discovering more and more of what is innate in the learner. At the same time, we are becoming more and more conscious of the necessity to be increasingly vigilant about the methods which we should employ in dealing with the learner.

It is, however, sometimes argued that there is a valid distinction between knowledge and values and that while knowledge can be taught values cannot be taught. But when we examine this view more closely, we find that what is meant is that the methods which are valid and appropriate in the field of learning in regard to knowledge are not applicable to the field of learning in regard to values. We may readily accept this contention, and we may insist on the necessity of recognising the fact that corresponding to each domain of learning there are valid and appropriate methods and that the effectivity of learning will depend upon an ever-vigilant discovery of more and more appropriate methods in each domain of learning. It is clear, for example, that while philosophy can be learnt by a process of discussion, swimming cannot be learnt by discussion. In order to learn to swim one has to plunge into water and swim. Similarly, the methods of learning music or painting have to be quite different from those by which we learn mathematics or physics. And indeed, when we come to the realm of values, we must recognise the necessity of a greater scruple in prescribing the methods which can be considered to be distinctively appropriate to this field.

One specialty of the domain of values is that it is more centrally related to volition and affection, rather than to assume that value-oriented education should be exclusively training of volition and affection. This point needs to be underlined because of two reasons. Firstly, it is sometimes assumed that value-oriented education should be exclusively or more or less exclusively limited to certain prescribed acts of volition and that the value-oriented learning should be judged by what a learner ‘does’ rather than what he ‘knows’. In our view, this is too simplistic and exclusive, and we should avoid the rigidity that flows from this kind of gross exclusivism. Secondly, this is an opposite view – it is sometimes argued that learning is primarily a cognitive process and, therefore, value-orientation learning should largely or preponderantly be limited to those methods which are appropriate to cognition. This too, is a gross exclusivism which should be avoided. While methods appropriate to volition and affection should be more preponderant, methods appropriate to cognition also should have a legitimate and even an indispensable place. This is reinforced by the fact that the striving towards values stirs up the totality of the being and cognition no less than volition and affection is or can be stimulated to its highest maximum degree, provided that the value-oriented learning is allowed its natural fullness.

Instruction, example and influence are the three instruments of teaching. However, in our present system of education, instruction plays an overwhelmingly important role, and often when we think of teaching we think only of instruction. It is this illegitimate identification that causes much confusion and avoidable controversies. If we examine the matter carefully, we shall find that in an ideal system of teaching, instruction should play a much less important role than example and influence of the teacher. It is true that in the domains of learning where cognitive activities play a more dominant part, instruction through methods other than lectures and discussions should play a larger role.

In a system of education, where teaching and instruction are almost identified there is very little flexibility where example and influence can play their legitimate role. Moreover, our present system is a continuous series of instruction punctuated by homework and tests which accentuate the rigidity of procedure and mechanical adherence to schedule of timetable, syllabi and examinations. In this rigid and mechanical structure, the centre of attention is not the child but the book, the teacher and the syllabus. The methods which are most conducive to the development of the personality of the child such as the methods of self-learning, exercise of free will, individualised pace of progress, etc., do not have even an elbow room. Indeed, if this is the system of education and if we are to remain content with this system of education, most important elements of learning will for ever remain outside this system and we cannot confidently recommend any effective system of learning, much less any effective programme of value-education.

It is hoped that sooner rather than later, our system of education will change in the right direction. An increasing number of educationists and teachers will come forward to break the rigidities of our educational system. It is possible to make our system more and more flexible and with the right type of training imparted to teachers, a more healthy system of education will eventually be introduced and will become effective.

To comment on our present system of examinations, apart from a number of undesirable aspects of our examination system, the one which is particularly conducive to what may be called “anti-value” is the tendency which promotes the idea that passing of an examination and earning of degree is the aim of education. Radical measures should be adopted to combat this idea and to introduce such changes in our examination system whereby the educational process can remain unalterably fixed on the right aims of education.

A radical change in the examination system is a necessary condition of any meaningful value-oriented education.

It is sometimes argued that values can best be taught through the instrumentality of a number of subjects rather than through any specific or special subject, whether call it by the name of “moral education” or “ethics”, or “value-education”. There is a great force behind this contention and a well-conceived programme of studies of various subjects should naturally provide, both in their content and thrust, the requisite materials for value-education.

The question, however, is whether our current programmes of studies have been so carefully devised as to emphasise those aspects which can readily provide to teachers and students the required opportunities, conditions and materials for value-education. But even if our programmes of studies are revised, there will still remain the specific area of value-education which should receive a special, although not exclusive, attention and treatment. In other words there should be a core programme of value-education in the totality of educational programmes. This core programme should be so carefully devised that various threads of this programme are woven into the complex totality of all the other programmes of studies. And yet the central theme of value-education would not form a mere appendage of all other subjects but would stand out as the overarching and the supervening subject of basic importance. A suitable study of this core programme should form an important part of teachers’ training programmes in our country.

An Outline Programme of Value-Oriented Education and Relevant Pedagogical Suggestions - I

Education is a vast cycle, and one sector of education has repercussions on all the other sectors of education. Our teachers need to be value-oriented not merely to tone up our teachers’ training programmes but to rightly equip them as vehicles of values for the benefit of our children and youths. By his very nature, teacher is a transmitter, a messenger, a carrier. Our determination of what he has to transmit will depend upon what we determine to be valuable for our children and youths. This point has been kept in view while presenting the following outline of a possible programme of value-oriented education which could be treated as a core of the totality of the teachers’ training programme.

1. Philosophy, Education and Values:

Man in the Universe: Philosophical views: Indian and Western

Aim of Human Life: Various views: Supra-cosmic, Supra-terrestrial, Cosmic-terrestrial, Integral

Man’s need of progress.

Progress and Education

Aims of Education: Western and Indian themes;

UNESCO’s ideals and recommendations “Learning to be”. The idea of Learning Society.

Education for International Understanding, Peace and Human Rights.

Philosophy of New Methods of Education

A synoptic view of the recent trends in Learning-teaching processes.

Philosophy of Values: Definition of values, moral and spiritual values, aesthetic and emotional values, values of intellectual and physical culture, Ideals of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Philosophy of Indian Values.

2. Psychology, Education and Values:

Man and Personality

Development of Personality: Ego, Memory and Self: Indian and Western views, Planes and Parts of the Being: Inconscient, Subconscient, Physical, Vital, Rational, Aesthetic, Ethical, Psychic, Spiritual.

Multiple Personalities in Man

Conflicts within Man

Harmonisation of Personalities

Freedom from Ego-consciousness

Integration of Personality

Higher Levels of Personality;

Multi-dimensional Personality;

Balanced Personality;

Personality of Equanimity;

Fourfold Personality of Wisdom, Power, Harmony and Skill.

Education of the Body and Values of Physical Culture;

Education of the Vital and Values of Vital Culture;

Education of the Rational, ethical and aesthetic being and values of mental culture;

Education of the inmost being and values of psychic and spiritual culture;

Concept of Psychological Perfection

3. Science and Values:

Nature of Scientific thinking;

Pursuit of the Value of Truth through Science;

Science and Self-knowledge;

Striking facts revealed by Science;

Appearance and Reality of Matter;

Life in Plants;

Extraordinary Phenomena of Intelligence in Birds and Animals;

The Mysteries of the Human body;

Interdependence of Body and Mind;

Role of Intuition in Discoveries and Inventions;

Idea of the Fourth Dimension;

Man and Evolution;

Possibility of Mutation of Species;

Man and his Mutation;

Science, Man and Values.

4. Philosophy and Values:

The Nature of Philosophical Thinking;

its distinction from scientific thinking;

Philosophy and pursuit of the value of Truth;

Philosophy and the Idea of God

Proofs of the Existence of God

Attributes of God: Omnipresence, Omniscience, Omnipotence.

Theories of Good and Evil:

(a) Utilitarianism;

(b) Intuitionism;

The problem of Evil, Suffering and Death;

The problem of Transformation of Human Nature.

5. Religion, Spirituality and Values:

Distinction between Religion and Spirituality;

Salient Features of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism and Judaism;

Detailed study of the Lives of Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Mahavira, Zoroaster, Jesus, Christ, Prophet Mohammed, Guru Nanak, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda;

Selected Parables, myths and legends;

Indian Catholicism, Secularism, Tolerance and Synthesis;

Psychology of Worship and Prayer;

Psychology of Action without Desire;

Psychology of Concentration;

Meditation and Contemplation;

Central spiritual Experiences;

Liberation from the Ego;

Cosmic Consciousness;

Transcendental Consciousness;

Spiritual Transformation;

Yoga as practical psychology;

Yoga as Science of Spiritual Experiences;

Systems of Yoga;

Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo;

Synthesis of Science and Spirituality

6. Art and Values:

What is Art?

Artistic experience: Some Accounts:

Leonardo Da Vinci, Beethoven

Rabindra Nath Tagore

Six Limbs of Indian Art:

(a) rupabheda: The distinction of forms;

(b) pramana: proportion, arrangement of line and mass, design, Harmony, perspective;

(d) lavanya: the seeking for beauty and charm for the satisfaction of aesthetic spirit;

(e) sadrishya: truth of the form and its suggestion;

(f) varnikabhanga : the turn, combination, harmony of colours.

Art and the pursuit of Value of Beauty:

Beauty in relation to poetry, music, painting, architecture, dance and drama: some illustrations.

7. Psychological Exercises of Aspiration, Will and Introspection as aids to the pursuit of values:

Examples? What do we need to write here?

8. Environment and Values:

Harmony with Nature

Love for Vegetable and Animal Kingdom

Ecological Balances and Need to protect Earth to receive protection of Earth

Eco-development programmes

9. Works of Community Service, Courage and Heroism:

Examples? What do we need to write here?

10. Physical Culture and its Values:

(a) Health;

(b) Strength;

(d) Grade; and

(e) Beauty

An Ideal Sportsman: Meaning of Gymnastics, Athletics, Aquatics, Combatives (Indian wrestling, judo, karate), Games (Indian and Western)

A Daily Programme of Physical Culture (Theory and Practice)

11. Selected Stories, Plays and Passages of Literature that inspire the pursuit of Truth, Beauty and Goodness:

Examples? What do we need to write here?

Creation of Educational Environment through Exhibitions, Interior decoration and stimulating atmosphere.

Lessons of History as an aid to the pursuit of Values:

Examples? What do we need to write here?

Theme of Unity of Mankind in the world History.

12.Practical suggestions and Hints to Teachers:

(Considering the overarching importance of the suggestions and hints, we propose to present details in the next Section).

An Outline Programme of Value-Oriented Education and Relevant Pedagogical Suggestions - II

(1)

The secret of teaching values is to inspire and kindle the quest among the students by means of one’s own example of character and mastery of knowledge. It is by embodying values within ourselves that we can really radiate values to our students.

Value-oriented education should not be conceived as an enunciation of a series of Do’s and Don’ts. The idea of a series of Do’s and Don’ts implies a belief that there are certain actions which are absolutely good, and there are others which are absolutely bad. An inner process, however, shows that our actions derive their value only in relation to the inner motive and the inner consciousness from which those actions emerge. It is not actions in themselves but the inner qualities behind actions which are important. The given right quality may express itself in different forms of actions. And each of these actions would be right, since behind each one of them there is the living vibration of right quality. On the other hand, there are several actions which may apparently seem to be good and right in their outer form, and yet, if they are not spontaneous expressions of the right quality, they cease to have any moral and spiritual value.

A good teacher should, therefore, have a sound psychological knowledge of the different parts of the being, of the different qualities that come into play in various actions, and of the right laws of the development of personality in relation to the development of capacities and values of an integrated personality.

As noted elsewhere, values cannot be taught the same way as lessons of information. Instruction should form a minor role, and a major role should be assigned to intimate contact and individual guidance. The role of the teacher is to put the child on the right road to his perfection and encourage him in his growth by watching, suggesting and helping but not imposing or interfering.

All occasions of daily life should be utilised by the teacher to bring his student nearer to the realisation of the ideal. There are occasions when children express wild impulses and passions, and often they are in revolt. Children have their own daily battles of loyalties and friendship, and there are moments of desperate depression and of violent enthusiasm. There are occasions when children get vexed, become sulky and go on strike. All these occasions are occasions for value-oriented education. With patience and perseverance, the teacher can utilise all these occasions to show the truth and light and to awaken among the children the right sense and the right directions of true progress.

(2)

Some further guidelines which may be helpful to teachers at different levels of guiding and helping the children are:

(a) It may first be noted that a good many children are under the influence of their inner psychic and spiritual being which shows itself very distinctly at times in their spontaneous turning to truth, beauty and goodness. To recognise this turning and to encourage wisely and with a deep sympathy would be the first indispensable step.

(b) The most important quality to develop among the children is sincerity.

(d) The undesirable impulses and habits should not be treated harshly. The child should not be scolded. Particularly, care should be taken not to rebuke a child for a fault which one commits oneself. Children are very keen and clear-sighted observers: they soon find out the educators’ weaknesses and note them without pity.

(e) When a child commits a mistake, one must see that he confesses it to the teacher spontaneously and frankly; and when he has confessed it he should be made to understand with kindness and affection what was wrong in the movement and that he should not repeat it. A fault confessed must be forgiven.

(f) A child should be encouraged to think of wrong impulses not as sins or offences but as symptoms of a curable disease which can be remedied by a steady and sustained effort of the will – falsehood being rejected and replaced by truth, fear by courage, selfishness by sacrifice, malice by love.

(g) Great care should be taken to see that unformed virtues are not rejected as faults. The wildness and recklessness of many young natures are only overflowing of an excessive strength, greatness and nobility. They should be purified, not discouraged.

(h) An affection, that is firm yet gentle, sees clearly, and a sufficiently practical knowledge will create bonds of trust that are indispensable for the educator to make the education of a child effective and value-oriented.

(i) When a child asks a question, he should not be answered by saying that it is stupid or foolish, or that the answer will not be understood by him. Curiosity cannot be postponed, and an effect must be made to answer questions truthfully and in such a way as to make the answer comprehensible to the student’s mental capacity.

(j) The teacher should ensure that the student gradually begins to become aware of his deeper self and that with this growing awareness the student is able to harmonise and resolve his inner conflicts.

(k) It should be emphasised that if one has a sincere and steady aspiration, a persistent and dynamic will, one is sure to meet in one way or another, externally by study and instruction, internally by concentration, revelation or experience, the help that one needs. Only one thing is absolutely indispensable, namely, the will to discover and realise. This discovery and this realisation should be the primary occupation of the being, the pearl of great price which one should acquire at any cost. Whatever one does, whatever one’s occupation and activity, the will to find the truth of one’s being and to unite with it should always burn like fire behind all that one does, thinks and feels.

(l) At higher levels of development, teacher should use the methods of daily conversation and books read from day to day. Books should contain lofty examples of the past, given not as moral lessons but as things of supreme human interest. These books should also contain (a) great thoughts of great souls; (b) passages of literature which set fire to the highest emotions and promote the highest aspirations; and (c) records of history and biography which exemplify the living of great thoughts, noble emotions and inspiring ideals.

(m) Opportunities should be given or created which would enable students to embody progressively higher and nobler values.

(3)

There are important aspects of the mental, vital and physical education which contribute to the value-oriented education. They can be briefly mentioned:

(a) In its natural state the human mind is limited in its vision, and narrow in its understanding. It is often rigid in its conceptions, and a certain effort is needed to enlarge it to make it supple and deep. Hence it is very necessary to develop in the child the inclination and capacity to consider everything from as many points of view as possible. There is an exercise in this connection which gives greater suppleness and an elevation to thought. It is as follows:

A clearly formulated thesis is set; against it is proposed an anti-thesis, formulated with the same precision. Then by careful reflection the problem must be widened or transcended so that a synthesis is found which unites the two contraries in a larger, higher and more comprehensive idea.

Another exercise is to control the mind from judging things and people hastily and without sufficient data. True knowledge is always at a higher level, and one must be able to reach not only the domain of pure ideas but even of deeper experiences. Therefore, the mind should be trained to be silent and to search deeply in order to derive knowledge from higher regions of pure ideas and deeper experiences.

One may suggest a further exercise: Whenever there is a disagreement on any matter, as a decision to take, or an action to accomplish, one must not stick to one’s own conception or point of view. On the contrary, one must try to understand the other person’s point of view, put oneself in his place and, instead of quarrelling, find out a solution which can reasonably satisfy both parties. There is always one for men of goodwill.

A wide, subtle, rich complex, attentive, quiet and silent mind is a powerful base not only for the discovery of supreme values but also for manifesting them in our outer actions, thoughts and feelings.

(b) The vital being in us is the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence of dynamic energy and desperate depression, of passions and revolt. The vital being is, however, a good worker, although most often it seeks its own satisfaction. If that is refused totally or even partially, it gets vexed, sulky and goes on strike.

An exercise at these moments is to remain quiet and refuse to act. For it is important to realise that at such times one does stupid things and can, in a few moments, destroy or spoil what one has gained in months of regular effort.

Another exercise is to deal with the vital as one deals with child in revolt, with patience and perseverance, showing it the truth and the light, endeavouring to convince it and awaken in it the goodwill.

A wide, strong, calm but dynamic vital, capable of right emotion, right decision and right execution is an invaluable aid to the realisation of supreme values.

(c) The body by nature is a docile and faithful instrument but it is very often misused by the mind with its dogmas, its rigid and arbitrary principles, and by the vital with its passions, its excesses and dissipations. It is these which are the cause of bodily fatigue, exhaustion and disease. The body must, therefore, be freed from the tyranny of the mind and the vital and this can be done by training the body to feel and sense the presence of inmost harmony and peace and to learn to obey its governance.

The emphasise in physical education should be laid on the development of health, strength, agility, grace and beauty through various exercises, whether done by Yogic Asanas or by other methods of physical culture such as gymnastics, athletics, aquatics, combatives, games and sports. When the body is rightly trained, it will learn to put forth at every minute the effort that is demanded of it, for it will have learnt to find rest in action, and to replace through contact with universal forces and energies what it spends consciously and usefully. By this sound and balanced practice, a new harmony will give right proportions and the ideal beauty of form.

There are many sports which help to form and necessitate the qualities of courage, hardihood energetic action, initiative, steadiness of will, rapid decision and action, the perception of what is to be done in an emergency and dexterity in doing it. Another invaluable result of these sports is the growth of the sporting spirit. This includes good humour and tolerance and consideration for all, a right attitude and friendliness to competitors and rivals, self-control and scrupulous observance of the laws of the games, fair play and avoidance of the use of foul means, equal acceptance of victory or defeat without bad humour, and loyal acceptance of the decisions of the appointed judge, umpire or referee. More important still is the custom of discipline, obedience, order and habit of teamwork which certain games necessitate.

In the words of Sri Aurobindo:

“If they (the above qualities) could be made more common not only in the life of the individual but in the national life and in the international where of the present day the opposite tendencies have become too rampant, existence in this troubled world of ours would be smoother and might open to a greater chance of concord and amity of which it stands very much in need. The nation which possess them in the highest degree is likely to be strongest for victory, success and greatness, but also for the contribution it can make towards the bringing about of unity and more harmonious world order towards which we look as our hope for humanity’s future.”

(4)

Works of community service should be included as a part of the total educational process. But to make community service truly value-oriented, emphasis should be laid on the true spirit with which the proposed work is to be done. Requisite spirit can be developed progressively through certain successive stages. For example, the work inspired by desire or by restlessness should be replaced by the work done with ever-growing skill and perfection. At the higher stage, work should be one in order to discover its relationship with one’s own inmost and highest aspirations. At a still higher level, work should be looked upon as an offering, without any sense of bargain. At still higher stages, work should be done in consonance with the highest ideal that is being progressively worked out in the world, namely, the ideal of solidarity, unity and harmony. The entire discipline of work should be looked upon as tapasya, which should be carried out not only in right spirit but also with efficiency and skill. The true morality and spirituality demand meticulous care in handling material things, and one should not tolerate one’s own forgetfulness or idleness. There should be a living worship of things, materials, tools, and processes of works. There should be an increasing awareness that matter too is sacred.

(5)

An important element in children’s development is the presentation of dreams of a new world, a world of peace and international understanding, a world where truth alone would prevail, a world where beauty and goodness would pervade all that we see and experience.

Stories and plays to illustrate these dreams would be an effective instrument. Artistic imagination that would refine sensitivity and sense of beauty should be developed right from the early stages of education. Even ordinary habitual things of daily life should be taught as activities of art and beauty, activities such as those of bathing, cleaning the teeth, dressing, sitting and standing require art and refined sense of beauty should be brought home to children and young students.

Students should be encouraged to live in harmony with nature and to develop the habit of calm and intimate company of plants and flowers.

At a little higher stage, students may be introduced to the art of listening to music. Acquaintance with some selected ragas (Indian) and harmonies (Western) should be encouraged. Exhibition of books of beauty in its various aspects should also form part of the programmes in schools. A great stress should be laid upon physical fitness as an essential part of the pursuit of beauty.

Those who have special interest in music, dance, art and poetry should be given special facilities so that they can develop their interests and capacities in these fields.

Examples of poetic excellence should also be presented to the students in various ways. An idea should be emphasised that just as there is beauty in the harmony of physical forms, even so there is beauty in the harmony of the forms of thoughts, words, feelings and deeds.

At a still higher level, special emphasis may be laid on the powers of expression, such as faultless recitation, poetry and dramatics. A special emphasis should be laid on the study of the appreciation of art and music.

(6)

A. Since stories play a great role in providing inspiration to the children in regard to values, teachers should prepare various compositions of stories and plays from the world literature which would satisfy at the best the following criteria:

(i) They should have been written a language that chaste and beautiful;

(ii) They should be full human interests, which however, do not involve plots of mischief and cunning; and

(iii) They should be able to create an atmosphere of peace and harmony and a spontaneous inspiration for Truth, Beauty and Goodness.

(Some illustrative stories are given in one of the appendices).

B. Teachers should also endeavour to:

(a) Select and compile exercises (i) of remembering and repeating noble aspirations and thoughts; (ii) observation and accurate descriptions; and (iii) control of senses and speech and behaviour;

(b) Identify subjects and topics which develop sense of wonder;

(d) Identify topics and subjects which may relate to the free choice directed towards control and mastery over lower impulses and towards excellence in studies and works;

(e) Identify topics that would help students to widen and heighten their consciousness;

(f) Select topics related to self-knowledge and to the methods of concentration by which human consciousness can be developed not only horizontally but also vertically so as to create states of consciousness in which mutuality, harmony and true brotherhood could flower spontaneously;

(g) Identify subjects and topics related to values needed for a new world order of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity; and

(h) Finally, identify subjects and topics related to the Values of the Synthesis of the East and the West.

(i) However, to reiterate that if the teacher is to play his right role in the promotion of value-oriented education, the teacher himself should be value-oriented. It is only when he is himself value-oriented, that he will be able to give the necessary inspiration, help and guidance to his students. As noted elsewhere, values cannot be taught merely by discourse, just as swimming cannot be taught merely by lectures. A good teacher of swimming has to be a swimmer himself, and he should be able to take the learner into the waters to make him swim. Similarly, a teacher of values should himself be a seeker and aspirant of values, and he should be ready to walk with the learner on the long and difficult path of realising and embodying values.

New Roles for the Teacher and Methods of Training at the Teachers’ Training Institutes

It is noteworthy that the role of the teacher is sought to be determined during the recent decades not only in the context of providing the dimension of values in our system of education but also in the context of providing more effective methods of education. These two contexts are not mutually exclusive, and they tend to lead to conclusions that converge upon the important point, namely, that the role of the teacher is not merely that of a lecturer.

According to one extreme view, the method of lecturing should be eliminated altogether from our educational system. It has been suggested that teaching should be done through teaching machines or through such devices which involve methods of self-learning.

Against this extreme view, it has been argued that the method of lecturing is indispensable, not as an exclusive method, but as an integral part of the totality of various methods. It has been argued, for instance, that lecturing is a practical demonstration to the students of how a complex and rich mind operates while dealing with a subject in question. It has also been held that lectures are or can be useful under at least five circumstances, namely, (a) when a new subject is to be introduced; (b) when a panoramic view of a given topic or subject is to be presented; (c) when collective awareness regarding a subject matter needs to be created; (d) when a discussion on a given problem is sought to be stimulated and conducted; and (e) when some general information is to be provided for any collective purposes. It has also been urged that lectures are effective instruments when results of a recent research or discovery are to be communicated, particularly, when no written material is as yet available. Finally, no one seriously disputes the tremendous value of an inspired speech, particularly when it flows from profundities of knowledge and experience.

At the same time, it has now come to be increasingly realised that the most essential and indispensable role of the teacher is to try to understand his students and to help each one in his growth and development. In this view, the first thing that the teacher should do is to observe his students at work and at play, with deep insight and sympathy. The second step should be to provide to the whole group of his students as also to each member of the group the necessary stimulus in the right direction. This stimulus could be in the form of a lecture or in the form of a conversation or a suggestion or a demonstration or a general or intimate remark. That a given teacher should be a good lecturer is understood, but it is increasingly felt that he should also be capable of formulating short and striking words and ideals which can be communicated briefly and effectively. He should also be capable of knowing when a personal or individual explanation to a given student would be useful and fruitful. There are occasions when silence is more eloquent than a speech. And, above all, the teacher should by his enthusiasm and his own uplifting example, provide a stimulating atmosphere that would inspire his students to work, joyously and eagerly, towards excellence.

It is admitted that these are difficult things, and that we are led to demand a great deal from the teacher. But it is argued that the changes that are coming over the entire human race, and the exigencies of the crisis through which mankind is passing today impose upon us an imperative to demand from our teachers qualities and capacities which are not so common. It is, therefore, urged that teachers have to play roles which are largely new and which are admittedly difficult.

The International Commission on the Development of Education, established by UNESCO, submitted its report in 1972 under the title: Learning to be. In this report, certain far-reaching recommendations have been made in regard to teachers and teachers’ training programme. It has been, for example, pointed out:

One of the essential tasks of educators at present is to change the mentalities and qualifications inherent in all professions; thus they should be the first to be ready to rethink and change the criteria and basic situation of the teaching profession, in which the job of educating and stimulating students is steadily superseding that of simply giving instructions.³

It has been further pointed out that the present day divisions between formal and informal, school and out-of-school, child and adult education are steadily fading. Therefore the conditions in which teachers are trained should be profoundly changed so that, essentially, they become educators rather than mere specialists in transmitting pre-established curricula. The teaching profession will not be in a position to fulfill its role in the future unless it is given, and develops itself a structure better adapted to modern educational systems.

It needs to be pointed out that widespread and efficient use of new technologies in education is possible only if sufficient change takes place within the system itself. Therefore the teacher training programmes should be so modified that teachers are equipped for the different roles and functions imposed by new technologies.

The qualities, capacities and skills that should be aimed at among teachers should include:

(a) A spontaneous but well-cultivated interest in observing students with deep insight and sympathy;

(b) Psychological tact to deal with collective and individual needs of growth of students;

(d) A cheerful and enthusiastic disposition capable of inspiring students to pursue values and excellence with sincerity and dedication;

(e) Capacity of guiding and counseling, more by suggesting and by uplifting example rather than by lecturing;

(f) Capacities not only for a formal education but also for non-formal and informal education;

(g) Capacity to handle self-learning equipment, audio-visual instruments and various kinds of new learning materials including worksheets, workbooks, programmed books, test papers with auto-correcting components and other materials required for vocational guidance;

(h) Knowledge of art and science of educating the personality in all its aspects with a special emphasis on integration, harmony and excellence.

As a practical measure the methods which are currently employed in the teachers’ training institutions should be so changed that the trainees would have the opportunity of first hand experience of new methods and techniques of learning during their training programmes.

A working model could be described as follows:

(a) Teachers under training should at the outset be provided with a document explaining the new roles for the teachers as also various new methods and techniques involved in the learning-teaching process;

(b) Trainees would be required to indicate their willingness to employ new methods of learning in their own training;

(c) Trainees would then be advised to study their various subjects, as far as possible, through the process of self-learning (it should be made clear that the burden of completing the course of training will be on themselves, and that they will be free to progress at their own pace);

(d) Educators of the trainees would be available for consultation, as and when needed, for shorter or longer duration, by prior appointment, or at certain hours of the day, without any prior appointment;

(e) Educators would deliver lectures from time to time, as and when necessary, but these lectures would be much fewer than in the ordinary system of education;

(f) Educators would combine lectures with seminars, tutorials, demonstrations, exhibitions and individualised guidance so as to make the process of training as effective as possible;

(g) Each trainee would undertake a project, the report of which would, at the end of the training period, indicate his pursuit of excellence and values which are sought to be promoted through the training programme;

(h) The training institution should provide opportunities and facilities to the trainees to handle audio-visual equipment, new learning-teaching material, worksheets, programmed books, teaching machines and other latest instruments meant for individualised learning as also for various other methods which are sought to be employed in new emerging models of teaching-learning;

(i) Educators in the training institutions would devote themselves to extending to the trainees the necessary help, guidance, counsel and inspiration;

(j) Educators would give to the trainees individualised tests from time to time, as and when necessary, with a view to giving opportunities to the trainees (a) to revise what they have studied; (b) to ascertain the degree of proficiency achieved; (c) to stimulate and encourage them to study further; and (d) to develop new interest and new lines of studies;

(k) A record of progress would be maintained by each trainee in which he will record, among other things, books read and results achieved at various tests; (this record would, however, be for the trainees’ own personal use and not for any official purposes).

In order that the candidate is free to direct his own training programme he should be free to take or not to take any particular test during the training programme, except when in the view of the educators he is unable to use his freedom intelligently and prudently and is therefore in need of compulsory compliance with the advice and directions of the educators.

At the end of the training period, the candidate would have the possibility of taking a Public Examination, provided that he obtains from the head of the training institution a testimonial that he has shown during the training period qualities of regularity, punctuality and diligence in work as also disciplined behaviour.

The Public Examination should consist of a written test and an oral test.

The written test will consist of at least four papers. Of these, one paper will cover the programme that has been suggested as the core programme of value-oriented education. The second paper would pertain to achievements of Indian culture, national struggle for freedom, ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, and the theme of Unity of Mankind. The next two papers would pertain to any combination of subjects that the student might have chosen to specialise in.

In the oral test, each interviewee would have the opportunity to explain the report of the project that he might have submitted earlier, on completion of the training period. In addition, the interviewee will be tested in respect of the depth of knowledge of subjects of his specialisation as also in respect of the general attainments of the development of personality and dedication of serious thought and to high ideals.

The interview should be of duration of at least half an hour.

One of the serious maladies of the written tests is that of cheating practiced by a number of students. Various suggestions have been made to cure this malady. Our own suggestion would be to arrange the written tests on the following lines:

(a) There should be a question bank in every concerned library where a number of questions pertaining to various topics of studies could be available.

(b) Students should be free to get themselves acquainted with the questions pertaining to their own subjects and topics.

(c) In the examination hall, a selection from the totality of these questions, classified subject-wise (and topic-wise, if necessary) should be available.

(d) These questions would be printed on a specially designed paper, each question of a separate slip on one side only. The other side of the slip would be blank and the slip would be so folded that only the blank side would be visible from outside.

(e) Each student would be permitted to pick up any questions by lot, and he would be expected to answer any four or five of these questions.

(f) For every question, there would be separate answer sheet, and at the commencement of the answer, the student would be required to paste the question slip.

(g) Thus, every student will have a separate set of questions, and there would be no possibility of leakage or of cheating.

Candidates who would be declared successful at this Public Examination would be entitled to appointment, on a competitive basis, to a teaching post in any secondary school. He will similarly be entitled to appointment in any higher secondary school, provided that he has the requisite postgraduate qualifications as well.

A Programme of Studies Related to India and Indian Values

The important question of proposing a programme of studies related to values cherished by India and the theme of Indian heritage and composite culture as also a programme of the study of the national freedom struggle is addressed here.

In an earlier Chapter reference has been made to certain values which are uniquely Indian. For instance, the value and ideal of synthesis has been pursued through the long history of Indian culture as one of the most desirable goals – and that too repeatedly and with a very special insistence. The ideal of unity and national and international harmony, the values of mutuality and oneness in diversity have also been emphasised. The sense of joy that is behind various festivals in India and of the Indian idea of rhythm of life and the law of harmony, expressed by the word “Dharma” have also spoken of. The place that has been given to womanhood and motherhood is something very unique to India, and an emphasis should be laid on the study of the contribution that women have made in the making of India. Above all, an overriding importance has been attached in India to the pursuit of knowledge, of purity, of heroism and of wisdom.

Referring to the period of India’s struggle for freedom, this period was marked by the rise of great men and women who embodied Indian values and enriched them, and that a study of our nationalist movement provides us a perennial source of inspiration. Therefore, a special emphasis should be laid on the study of our struggle for freedom in our educational system, particularly, in the programmes related to the training of teachers.

It is undeniable that the sound knowledge of the history of India is the sure basis of our understanding and the appreciation of the values that have evolved through vicissitudes of events and movements which have shaped the story of our vast subcontinent. Unfortunately, most of our books on Indian history contain the record of the rise and fall of dynasties and kingdoms, and they pay only a perfunctory attention to the vast and overwhelmingly important story of the cultural achievements of the Indian genius. Biographies of great leaders hardly find any place in our textbooks. Even the biographies of great monarchs, which do find some place, relate only to the political life rather than interesting and inspiring aspects that relate to pursuit of art, science, philosophy, religion and ethics. Our students may indeed come to learn something of the life of Ashoka and Akbar but very little of Nagarjuna and Abul Fazal.

The chronology of events of Indian history is very complex, and our history books often present this chronology in such a way as to render a synoptic view of Indian history extremely difficult. In any case, our textbooks fail to present to our students a connected story of the development of essential ideas and movements which are directly related to the values which need to be underlined.

A study of Indian history should be encouraged among all teacher-trainees as one of the central aims of education is to provide to every student irrespective of whether he wants to be a doctor or an engineer, an artist or a scientist, a writer or an artisan, should become a true Indian and should receive from his teacher, whatever his specialty, that great heritage of Indian culture to which he is a natural heir. This would mean that all teachers, whether their specialisation is in the field of mathematics or language, in science or literature, in home-science or physical culture, should have the necessary equipment which would enable them to transmit Indianness to the children and students who would be placed under their care. This does not mean that every teacher should be a specialist in Indian history but he should have at least a sound and authentic idea of Indian culture and of those achievements which fill us with pride in our heritage.

Therefore, the aim should be to provide to teacher-trainees a bird’s eye view of Indian history and some detailed idea of some of the great movements and events as also of inspiring biographies, not only of kings and queens, but also of our great builders of religion and spirituality, of philosophy and ethics, of language and literature, science and technology, of art, of music and dance and sculpture and architecture. In addition, a brief idea of the various aspects of Indian life and of the values which are embedded in arts and crafts, in music and dance, in festivals and in the general attitude relating to the ultimate aims of life which provide a clue to the enigma of the continuity of Indian culture and to the problems of building up a greater and more glorious cultural edifice for the Indian people should be provided.

Finally, as explained above, a somewhat detailed account of the story of the freedom struggle which constitutes our immediate past which presents us with a record of an unusual stirring of the Indian spirit which has thrown up large waves of ideas and motives which seem destined to guide India’s course towards the future should also be included.

This would show the need for a new model of the presentation of Indian history. What exactly should be a new model is an extremely important question, and it calls for a special treatment at the hands of experts. In practical terms, a few important lines on which a programme of the study of Indian history should be envisaged as an integral part of the teachers’ training programme, is outlined:

Part I: A Rapid View of Indian History

(i) The question of India’s antiquity

(ii) Mohenjodaro and Harappa

(iii) Upanishad; Ramayana and Mahabharata

(iv) Vasistha, Vishwamtira, Lopamudra, Yajnavalkya, Maitreyi

(i) Buddha and Mahavira

(ii) Buddhism and Jainism

(iii) Invasion of Alexander the Great

(iv) Chandragupta Maurya

(v) Ashoka

III

(i) Kushans and Kanishka

(ii) Chandragupta, Samundragupta and Vikramaditya

(iii) Gupta Period: the Golden Age of India

(iv) Kalidasa, Varahamihira, Aryabhatt, Brahmgupta

(v) Fa-Hieun’s account of India

(i) Harsha Vardhana

(ii) Huen Tasang’s account of India

(i) The coming of Islam, Tenets of Islam

(ii) Succession of Sultans, Razia Begum

(i) Babar’s account of India

(ii) Beginnings of Sikhism: Guru Nanak

(iii) Akbar

(iv) Abul Fazal, Faizi and Tansen

(v) Jahangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb

(vi) Great Saints: Narsi Mehta, Tulsidas, Meerabai, Surdas, Chaitanya, Tukaram

(vii) Establishment of Khalsa: Guru Gobind Singh

(viii) Vijay Nagar

(ix) Annals of Rajputana

(x) Rana Pratap

(xi) The rise of Maratha Power

(xi) Shivaji

(xii) Sufism

VII

(i) Arrival of Europeans in India. East India Company

(ii) Conflict and chaos of the 18th century

VIII

(i) Triumph of the British over Rivals in India

(ii) War of Independence of 1857

(iii) Rani Lakshmibai, Nanasaheb and Tope

(i) Renaissance in India and struggle for Freedom

(ii) Raja Ram Mohun Roy, Dayananda, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda

(iii) Birth of Indian National Congress

(iv) The first demand, The Moderates: Ferozshah Mehta, Ranade and Gokhale

(v) The demand of the Nationalists Swarajya as the goal

(vi) Tilak and Sri Aurobindo

(vii) The Mantra of Bande Matram

(viii) Birth of new literature, art and science

(ix) Bankim Chandra, Jagdish Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore

(x) The Revolutionaries

(xi) The coming of Gandhi

(xii) The role of Annie Beasent

(xiii) Jalianwala Bagh

(xiv) Chittranjan Dass

(xv) Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru

(xvi) Political ideology of Satyagraha

(xvii) Non-cooperation and Awakening of Masses

(xviii) New leaders emerge

(xix) Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Azad, Vallabbhai Patel, C.Rajagopalachari

(xx) Declaration of the goal of Complete Independence

(xxi) Jail experience of eminent leaders

(xxii) Gandhi and Jinnah

(xxiii) Gandhi and British Viceroys

(xxiv) Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose

(xxv) Gandhi and his constructive programme

(xxvi) Freedom struggle becomes a mass movement

(xxvii) Role of women in the freedom struggle

(xxviii) New Constitution of 1935

(xxix) Congress leaders join the government

(xxx) Congress leaders withdraw from the government

(xxxi) The British repression. Problems of communal disharmony. Churning of Indian masses

(xxxii) Second World War and India

(xxxiii) Cripps proposals

(xxxiv) Rejection of Cripps proposals and Quit India Movement

(xxxv) Subhash Chandra Bose and Indian national Army

(xxxvi) Defeat of the Axis Powers and the End of the Second World War

(xxxvii) Attlee and Mountbatten

(xxxviii) Acceptance of the tragic proposal of Partition

(xxxix) 15th August 1947 Birth of Free India

(i) Jawaharlal Nehru and Free India

(ii) The new Constitution of India 1949

(iii) India adopts Planning

(iv) Problems of contemporary India

(a) National integration

(b) Poverty and unemployment

(d) Power and productivity

(e) Integrated rural development

(f) Indian and her neighbours

(g) India’s educational policy

(h) India and the world

(i) New cultural awakening

(j) Science and spirituality

Part II: Achievements of Indian Culture

1. Religion and Spirituality:

(a) The aim of life and paths of wisdom

(b) Materialism, Asceticism and the Middle Path

(d) True understanding of religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism.

(e) Synthesis of spiritual experience.

2. Indian Literature:

(a) Sanskrit and Tamil

(b) Birth of modern Indian languages

3. Indian Art:

(a) The aim of Indian art

(b) An in-depth of one of the schools of Indian painting, dance, drama, sculpture or architecture

(d) Indian arts and crafts

4. Indian Philosophy and Science:

(a) Methods of knowledge: Intuition, Reason and Sense-experience

(b) An in-depth study of one of the great Indian scientists or philosophers

(d) Indian systems of Yoga, their synthesis

5. Theme of Heroism in Indian Culture:

(a) Spirit of adventure and the creed of the Indian fighters

(b) An in-depth study of one of the greatest heroes of Indian history

6. Indian Festivals:

(a) An in-depth study of one of the festivals of India

(b) Festivals of India and national integration

7. Indian Sports and Games:

(a) Place of physical culture

(b) An in-depth study of Yogic Asanas and their relationship with physical health and higher fulfillment

(d) Modern India and the world of sports

8. The Theme of Perennial India:

(a) The greatness of India and continuity of Indian culture

(b) A diagnosis of the weakness of contemporary India

(d) India and the ideal of human unity

Part III

An in-depth study of the one of the following themes:

(a) Secularism, tolerance and synthesis in Indian culture

(b) Unity and diversity of India

(d) Synthesis of democracy and socialism in the Indian context

(e) The contemporary Indian youth: His aspirations

(f) The young India’s cultural efflorescence

(g) India and new paths of progress

What is to be Done?

Making of a teacher differs significantly from making, say, of an advocate or a surgeon. The teacher is more than a mere skilled performer in a branch of his profession. Of course, he must have the best of skill in accustoming the pupil to the austere joy of mastering a difficult theme, be it quadratic equation or the equation E=MC2 or any other theme. But, in the end, when the frontiers of knowledge change, the importance and even the validity of what is learnt may not survive. What survives is the discipline of learning and the values acquired in the process. Whatever be the topic teacher teaches the ultimate values of his professional endeavour bear on the habits of living and thinking and enjoying life – the art of life – on what the pupil loves and cares for. Thus, the teacher fashions the life of the pupil – which is the one single theme of all of education. Skills in teaching are, no doubt, important but they do not take the teacher far. An otherwise unashamedly dissolute teacher may teach effectively; he also influences lives of the pupils no less, but sadly. Contact with great and good teachers as also with great ideas is the foundation of moral and spiritual education. The most effective weapon of a teacher is the silent power of example; it matters in the end and always. It is, therefore, necessary that teacher education should aim not at merely cultivation of professional skills but in making of man – a man of higher character and noble vision. This consideration brings to teacher-education a very different purpose and responsibility which are not equally relevant to other professional education.

It is, this concern which influences in suggesting a unique type of organisation which will necessarily perform functions analogous to those of the professional bodies such as the Indian Council of Medical Education and Bar Council, but which, in addition, will be vested with responsibility of stimulating an organised thinking on the fundamental problems relating to philosophy and practice of education and their bearing on the problems of human values as well as those of national development and international solidarity.

We are not unaware of the magnitude of the problem of teacher education; the large number of teachers that need training of different kinds and different levels (including the university level) and at different periods in their career. The entire process has to be viewed as a whole in a well conceived and integrated fashion and with sensitiveness to the intellectual and human values which has been emphasised in this book.

The National Council of Teachers’ Education, which was established under Resolution of the Ministry of Education dated the 21st May, 1973, was an important step in the direction of promoting a systematic reflection and action in regard to all matters concerning teacher-education. But the role of this Council has been only advisory in nature. Thus the results have not been very effective. The reports of the four regional study teams appointed by this Council in February, 1978, have revealed several glaring deficiencies in the functioning of teacher education institutions at both elementary and secondary levels, and they reinforce the necessity of evolving a more effective machinery or agency.

Most of the teacher education institutions suffer from lack of adequate facilities, and they do not adhere to the norms regarding physical facilities or provision of adequate staff. Colleges of education are general either under-staffed or the staff are under qualified. There are serious curricular deficiencies, and evaluation in teacher education is far from satisfactory. There is no uniformity in the duration of teacher education. This is particularly so in the case of teacher-education related to the elementary level. In some States, it is only one year programme while in others it is of two years’ duration. Moreover, due to various reasons, academic sessions for B.Ed. are delayed, and in some cases, effective teaching lasts only for three to six months, although the number of working days in a teacher education institution is expected to be at least 220 in a year.

Many private colleges have sprung up and in a number of degree colleges, teacher-education courses have been instituted without ensuring the availability of suitable facilities and qualified staff. Even capitation fees are being charged, thereby commercialising teacher education.

In this context it would be pertinent to refer to the reports of the enormous corruption not only in seeking admission to teacher training institutions but also in passing the examination with inadequate or even proper training. The teachers who have gone through this polluting mill and profited by it can hardly be expected to stand for high principles of rectitude and correct behaviour.

In many universities, correspondence courses leading to the awarding of B.Ed. and M.Ed. degrees have been started. But serious questions are being raised as to whether such correspondence courses are really relevant in a field where a personal contact between the trainer and the trainee is extremely important, and where the major objective is making of the man in the teacher and not merely a technician. These questions require an urgent answer in view of the fact that the number of students both in regular colleges and in correspondence courses has considerably increased.

There is in our country a backing of untrained teachers in several States. And since there is no manpower planning in teaching profession, it is difficult to suggest any rational policy which States can follow in regard to the intake of fresh student-teachers.

It seems obvious that urgent measures need to be taken to:

(a) Introduce effective changes in the teacher education curriculum, particularly with a view to providing a powerful orientation towards value-education, which has been the main subject of our book;

(b) Suggest a rational duration for pre-service and in-service teacher training programmes;

(d) Suggest measures for the maintenance of standards of teacher-education and to meet various deficiencies and avoid evils which are prevalent in the field of teacher education.

The Central Government should create a National Organisation which would have adequate powers and functions to ensure that the teachers who would be in charge of the care of the children, adolescents and youths of our country are not only well-trained in professional skills related to their subjects of specialisation but will also have effective personality and character capable of providing the needed guidance and inspiration to the growing minds and hearts of the young, as also a wide vision of our country and the world serving as a sure basis for patriotism, international understanding and voluntary optimism for a peaceful, progressive and glorious future.

The need for such a national organisation arises from three important considerations. Firstly, the National Council for Teacher Education which is already a national organisation, has expressed the view that it lacks authority to implement its resolutions and that it should be reconstituted as an autonomous body for accrediting the teachers’ training institutions at all levels in the country and to function effectively in this regard with the universities and State Governments. Secondly, there is a need in the country to established and/or to support certain pace-setting value-oriented institutions for teacher education, at least one in each State and Union Territory which would serve as models and which would ensure State-level research and experimentation in teacher education. These pioneering and pace-setting value-oriented institutions should be rational in character and they should embody national policies in regard to teacher education. There should thus be a national body charged with functions and powers to establish and conduct these pace-setting value-oriented institutions. Thirdly, the evaluation of teacher-trainees, which needs a radical change, can be effectively handled, if the proposed national organisation is empowered to hold National Public Examinations which would reflect high and competent standards.

In practical terms, establishment of a National Council of Teacher Education – very different in scope and purpose from the existing one is necessary.

The aims of the proposed Council should be:

(i) To keep under review the institutions and programmes of teacher education in the country at all levels and to maintain high standard of teaching, research and examinations in the field of teacher education with a view to developing attitudes, skills and personality which would reflect the image of the teacher embodied in this book.

(ii) To establish and maintain:

(a) Institutes of Teacher Education – designed especially to educate the staff of the colleges of teacher education in India; and

(b) pace-setting model institutions of teacher education, preferably one in each State which should be utilised as centers for radiating new ideas and values in the region on the lines suggested in this book.

(iii) To provide aid, financial, material and human, and advice necessary for coordination and maintenance of high standards of teaching, examination and research and to stimulate thinking on problems of teacher education.

(iv) To function as an accrediting authority with powers to recognise or derecognise teacher training institutions and degrees awarded by them.

(v) To conceive of an implement programmes of strategies for bringing the existing teacher education institutions to conform to the aims and objects laid down by the Council.

(vi) To organise preparation of variety of resource material including material for audio-visual aids and use of educational technology necessary for promoting high standards of work in teacher training institutions.

(vii) To perform such other functions as may be conducive to the realisation of the aims and objectives of teacher education visualised by the Council on the lines suggested in this book.

(viii) To organise or support seminars, conferences, symposia as also to set up committees and panels for the promotion of the objectives, functions and activities of the Council.

The Government of India should undertake legislation under its powers of concurrency to create the proposed organisation. The proposed national organisation should be fully financed by the Central Government to enable it to discharge its functions and to provide financial aid to teacher education institutions.

In addition to the present composition which consists of the Union Minister for Education as the President and 40 other members representing State Governments, University Grants Commission, All India Council for Technical Education, Planning Commission, National Council of Educational Research and Training, Ministry of Education, Central Advisory Board of Education, 13 experts and a Member-Secretary, there should be an executive body consisting of a fulltime Chairman and five fulltime members, all appointed by the Central Government, and it should have the power to appoint standing committees and other committees for carrying out various functions and responsibilities. The Member-Secretary of the Council will also be Member-Secretary of the executive body. The Chairman and Members should be eminent educationists, teachers and educational administrators.

The proposed national organisation should be in charge of implementing the value-oriented programmes of teachers’ training. The first step in implementation will be to prepare the educators of teacher-education. For this purpose, selection should be made from among those candidates who are willing and competent to undertake a special programme of training. The trained educators should have the possibility of being appointed in the pace-setting value-oriented institutions as also in other institutions of teachers’ education.

The value-oriented programmes that we have suggested in this book should be fully implemented in the pace-setting value-oriented institutes which will be established by the proposed national organisation. In these institutions, two streams are recommended. In the first stream, there will be admitted those candidates who are willing to pursue the value-oriented teachers’ training programme in its fullness over a period of five years leading to master’s degree, after plus two stage of the 10+2 structure. In the second stream, there will be those who wish to have two-year specialised training at these pioneering institutions after successful completion of their three-year degree course or after completion of Master’s degree course in any discipline, or after having qualified themselves for admission in an entrance examination conducted by the proposed national organisation. The same facilities should be provided as far as possible in other teacher training institutions also.

The two year teacher education programme may be provided on an optional basis in such a way that candidate has a possibility of completing the course in two phases, the first of one year duration in the institution and the second year’s course may be completed over a maximum period of five years through several summer or other short courses to be organised specially for this purpose by the institution concerned. The teachers who completed the first year’s course may be permitted to teach in a secondary school as probationary teachers and will be confirmed only completion of the second year’s course.

As far as the curriculum for the two-year teacher education course is concerned, a detailed programme of studies related to value-education is already given in earlier chapters. However, implementation of this curriculum in the existing one year teacher education course may take some time. So as an interim measures, the teachers’ training institutions should introduce three special papers in their present teachers’ training programme. These three papers will be related respectively to: (i) and (ii) philosophy and psychology of value-oriented education; and (iii) India and Indian values. These three papers will be proposed to all the teacher trainees as optional papers in place of any other three papers which are at present prescribed for the teachers’ training programme. In addition, teachers’ training institutions may be recommended to incorporate in their total programme of teacher’s education as many elements as possible from amongst all the various suggestions that have been made in regard to value-orientation in the book. This can only be a temporary measure, till the full programme is implemented, which should not be delayed unduly. This temporary measure is not difficult and that ready means can be found to incorporate the suggestions in the papers connected with philosophical and psychological foundation of education and philosophical and sociological study of education and emerging society. The new paper should be conducted in the manner and in the atmosphere as suggested in earlier chapters by people who are competent to do so, and care should be taken to provide to the teacher trainees not only the theoretical knowledge but also practical experience. Finally, all teachers’ training institutions in our country should progressively adopt value-oriented education in its fullness.

The proposed pace-setting value-oriented institutes may not only offer teacher training courses for secondary level but also offer teacher training facilities for teaching at the elementary school level. The duration of this teacher education programme (for teaching at the elementary school level) should be two years after the senior secondary (+2). The curriculum for teacher education at the elementary level besides enriching and upgrading the knowledge of the teacher-trainee in the school subjects, should also impart necessary pedagogic training. The pedagogical aspects of teacher education at the elementary level will be similar to those outlined in earlier chapter for secondary teacher education, except that the same basic principle will have to be presented in simpler language so that the teacher trainees may comprehend.

The value-orientation should be treated as a central thrust not only of our teachers’ training programmes but also for our schools and colleges meant for the children, adolescents and youths. The aspirations of the value-oriented teachers can be fulfilled only if increasing number of schools and colleges in our country begin to provide value-oriented education.

The proposed national organisation should undertake appropriate programmes for educating parents in the ideas and ideals of value-oriented education.

Before concluding it would be appropriate to emphasise the need to provide in-service training in value-oriented education to all the teachers who are at present engaged in teaching. The national organisation may frame a suitable scheme in this regard as soon as possible. The teachers in colleges and universities should also pursue a programme of value-oriented education and undergo training in this regard also need to be underlined.

The teachers are destined to play a major role in the shaping of the destiny of mankind. In view of the fact that destiny stands today in a balance, fraught with dangerous possibilities of upheavals, catastrophes and cataclysms, central attention must be paid to the task of building up a large number of men and women into teachers who can stand in the coming days as hero-warriors and as leaders and pioneers dedicated to the highest values, the promotion of which alone can ensure the survival and fulfillment of the human race. In this task, programmes of value-oriented education are indispensable.

Learning - Teaching Process

Sri Aurobindo’s Philosophy of Indian Nationalism-I

We are passing through a great transition. The old is becoming obsolete and the new is still in the process of emergence. The old ways of learning and teaching are found to be too rigid and too outmoded. A greater application of psychological principles is being increasingly demanded. It has been urged that the training of the young requires on the part of the teacher a deep psychological knowledge.

According to some thinkers, the present educational system is a huge factory of mis-education. According to them, the spontaneity of the child is smothered at an early stage by our mechanical methods which are prevalent in our educational system. They contend that the child is not a plastic material which can be moulded according to educators’ design, but it is a closed bud having its own inherent capacity to flower and blossom, requiring only the favourable climatic conditions such as the right atmosphere, environment, inspiration and guidance.

Each child, according to them, is a psychological entity, having its own specific individual needs of growth which have to be understood and developed by the same kind of knowledge and tact by which a good gardener tends to varieties of plants and trees in his garden. Just as each plant needs to be individually looked after, even so, each child, it is contended, is required to be looked after individually.

It has been further held that each individual is a great potential dynamo of energy, and if we do not deal with that potentiality, only very little gets actualized, and the rest remains dormant and uncultivated. This means a tremendous waste both for the nation and the world. Not to tap the full potentialities of each individual is thus psychologically unsound and economically unproductive.

It has, therefore, been urged that our educational system should either be set aside altogether through some kind of ‘de-schooling’ or radically changed in such a way that each individual is provided with conditions and facilities under which he can grow towards his fullness on the lines that are psychologically appropriate to him.

There is another line of thinking, according to which it is not enough to develop the potentialities of the individual but also to direct these potentialities towards their highest values. It has been argued that the psychological development of the individual is an extremely dangerous process, unless the development is guided by wisdom and skill and directed towards certain desirable and sublime ideals.

There is a risk, it is argued, of succeeding in developing only highly egoistic and selfish individuals, if we insist only upon development and do not take great care to insist on the discovery of the right values, aims, objectives and ideals. It has, therefore, been urged that education should be value-oriented and should provide those conditions and facilities under which the individual is enabled to discover the highest possible values and embody them as effectively as possible in thought, feeling and action.

It has been contended that there are observable and discernible processes by which the process of learning or of transmutation can be accelerated. We are often asked to consider the tremendous feat of learning that the child performs in the first few years of its life. It has been contended that the child learns so fast because all its occupations are occupations of learning. For the child, all play is learning, and all learning is play. Again, it is contended, the child learns so fast because the child deals with its universe with its total being by the exercise of all its faculties and by a concrete urge of experience. It has been argued that our entire learning process should be so changed that we are able to create for the learner the same conditions which obtain in the child’s encounter with its universe. Some educationists have, therefore, pleaded for a search of a school that has no walls, and for studies that have no boundaries.

Learning by doing is being increasingly advocated. At the same time, it is being recognised that there are, for different categories of learners, different ways of learning. Some students learn better through aesthetic experience, some others through manual work, while still others through intellectual or meditative contemplation. It has, therefore, been suggested that an ideal system of education should provide to each learner that method or such combination of methods which is suitable to his specific needs of learning.

Self-learning is being given in several experiments a pre-eminent place. Individualized programmed instruction, for example, follows an instructional model which aspires to produce an effective communication for securing precisely defined goals of learning, in a manner timed to meet the needs of the individual, mostly with the help of programmed teaching and learning material. An important variant of individualized learning is that of learning by consultation with the teacher, as and when needed. Lecture system, which caters to group learning, plays a minor role in experiments which emphasizes self-learning. Even the syllabi and examination system are required to be radically changed in the context of a system based upon self-learning.

Project systems try to combine self-learning with group learning. Projects may be directed towards an exploration or towards producing some practical action under certain actual situations. In a model that is known as Info-Bank, the learner is required to define what he is interested in and the kind of approach that he wants to undertake. The learner is given the freedom to govern his reading and practical activities and to judge the knowledge acquired and its significance. In some educational experiments, a combination of different information materials is made available to the learner and he is given the freedom to construct and control his own learning process and the environment suitable for the chosen learning process. In yet another instructional model, individual learners learn from one another by informing and consulting one another mutually from time to time. At a higher level of consultation, there is experimental testing and feedback. In some models, the learner takes over the roles of those responsible for action and decision in simulated environment. In some cases, problems to be solved are frequently more complex and make the acquisition of external information necessary, while in others the required information is supplied in advance. In the ‘Workshop Model’, the learners work like colleagues, supported, if necessary, by organizers and advisors, on the solution of real problems with which they are confronted. In this model, the learning of the methods of work is as important as the production of results.

Against this background, there is a quest to discover a point of convergence where different sciences and humanities can meet in a synthesis of knowledge. There is a search for an all-embracing project of work-experience that would generate a continuing process of lifelong education. And there is a search for a programme of learning that would necessitate a spontaneous harmony of the needs of personal development with those of collective development. It is being asked if there is a tool of acceleration of the summing up of the past and the unfolding of the future. And it is asked if there is a method and content of education that would necessitate an automatic synchronisation of studies, work-experience and flowering of faculties and values. It has become necessary, both for the learner and for the teacher, to discover or invent such methods by the employment of which the explosion of knowledge can be contained and personality can be developed which would harmonise, progressively, the wideness of the humanist and the skills of the technologist, the disciplined will-force of the moralist and the refined imagination of the artist, and the scrupulous knowledge of the scientist and the sublime vision, wisdom and ever growing perfection of the profound and wide spiritual culture.

It is seen that there are today powerful trends that necessitate a continual revision of the contents of education as also a continued refinement of the learning-teaching process.

India is passing through a tremendous period of scientific and cultural efflorescence. This period was preceded by a powerful phase of the national freedom struggle during which the Indian subcontinent passed through an unprecedented churning of mental, aesthetic, moral and spiritual ideas. In the course of this churning, profound experiments in the field of education took place, the lessons of which need still to be assimilated. There grew in India during this period an irresistible sentiment to give the children and the youths of our country a new kind of education, which is freed from the fetters of the system given to us by the British and which would ensure development and promotion among students and teachers not only of the highest values of physical, emotional, mental, aesthetic, moral and spiritual culture, but also those values which are uniquely Indian, and which would at the same time promote a new kind of synthesis appropriate to our own synthetic culture. India has developed a kind of secularism which needs to be properly defined, understood and promoted. We have to build up young men and women who would have pride in the Indian heritage and our synthetic culture. This would mean that we have to give to the children and youths a true knowledge of India, of India’s complexity, of India’s greatness and of India’s innate tendencies to harmonise and synthesise.

The task that lies ahead of Indian education is difficult. We are being called upon to take into account the educational needs both of today and of tomorrow.

Notes

Learning to be, 1979, Paris, p – vi.
↩
Professor Kireet Joshi, The Good Teacher and The Good Pupil, ed., Auroville Press, Auroville, 2005 (reprint), pp. 119-131. Plato, Protagoras and Meno, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1985, pp.130-8.
↩
Learning to be p. 216 (UNESCO, Paris, 1972)
↩

At the Feet of the Mother.

Teachers training

Teacher’s Training Programme

Introduction

Philosophy of Value-Oriented Education – I

Philosophy of Value-Oriented Education– II

Philosophy of Spiritual Education

Learning-Teaching Process—A Synoptic View of the Present Situation

Learning-Teaching Process—Basic Ideas

Learning-Teaching Process—Can Values Be Taught?

An Outline Programme of Value-Oriented Education and Relevant Pedagogical Suggestions - I

An Outline Programme of Value-Oriented Education and Relevant Pedagogical Suggestions - II

New Roles for the Teacher and Methods of Training at the Teachers’ Training Institutes

A Programme of Studies Related to India and Indian Values

Learning - Teaching Process

Sri Aurobindo’s Philosophy of Indian Nationalism-I

Notes