Tagore attracts all and always !!
As a child, he had the same suffering with his school education
as any child of a common school today.
He struggled to find a way to educate himself.
Matured as a person, he was full of love for all around him,
with a creativity, which was all his own.
'Yeats' observed:
"Tagore was the product of a whole people, a whole civilization,
immeasurably strange to us."
immeasurably strange to us."
This strange phenomenon compels us to look at his model of education.
Studying his model of education is more relevant today;
when we find that our present day education is rolling out humans as insects and robots:
specialized for a particular function, nil in all other attributes we call humane.
There lies the root of almost all ills of our human community, which demands
more human sensitivity in this changing age of universality !!
-Anjani
-Anjani
Biography:
1. Tagore was born on 7th May 1861 in Bengal (India) in a prosperous family.
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| Rabindranath Tagore by William Rothenstein. Courtesy:British Museum. |
2. At primary level his father provided him education in Sanskrit language, Indian philosophy & Astronomy.
3. For higher education he was sent to Bengal Academy where in he developed an aversion to prevalent dull and rigid education.
4. He was then sent to England where in he left it and further studied on his own. He gradually started writing in magazines etc.
5. He turned into a poet, dramatist, philosopher and painter. He as then awarded the title of Gurudev.
6. He got the Nobel Prize as he translated Gitanjali in English.
7. The British Indian government awarded him with the degree of Doctorate in 1915 which he eventually gave away after the Jalyanwala Bagh incident.
8. He established Vishwa Bharti on 22nd September 1921, whose aim was to create a synthesis of east and west.
9. He died in 1941.
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| Rabindranath Tagore as Baul in Phalguni, 1916. Painting by Abanindranath Tagore. Photo: Mukul Dey Archiv |
His literary and educational pursuit:
1. Rabindranath composed his first poem at age eight,
and by the end of his life, had written over:
2. twenty-five volumes of poetry,
3. fifteen plays,
4. ninety short stories,
5. eleven novels,
6. thirteen volumes of essays,
7. initiated and edited various journals,
8. prepared Bengali textbooks,
9. kept up a correspondence involving thousands of letters,
10. composed over two thousand songs; and –
11. after the age of seventy – created more than two thousand pictures and sketches.
12. He dedicated forty years of his life to his educational institution at Santiniketan, West Bengal. Rabindranath’s school contained a children’s school as well as a university known as Visva-Bharati and a rural education Centre known as Sriniketan.
and by the end of his life, had written over:
3. fifteen plays,
4. ninety short stories,
5. eleven novels,
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RabindranathTagore
in-1925 |
7. initiated and edited various journals,
8. prepared Bengali textbooks,
9. kept up a correspondence involving thousands of letters,
10. composed over two thousand songs; and –
11. after the age of seventy – created more than two thousand pictures and sketches.
12. He dedicated forty years of his life to his educational institution at Santiniketan, West Bengal. Rabindranath’s school contained a children’s school as well as a university known as Visva-Bharati and a rural education Centre known as Sriniketan.
Philosophy of Tagore:
1. As a Vedantist: He had a firm belief in the philosophy of
veda. He believed in “I am Brahma”. There is a spiritual bond
between man and man. As an Individualist: he believed in giving right
type of freedom to individual. Every individual is unique.
2. As an Idealist: He believed that the man should live for the ultimate
truth which liberates us from from cycle of birth and death. Had faith
in absolute values.3. As a Spiritualist: He believed that every individual should try to attain spiritual perfection.
4. As a Humanist: He preached human brotherhood, having faith in fundamental unity of mankind. He remarked that "even God depends upon man for perfecting his Universe."
5. As a Naturalist: He considered nature as a great teacher. God revealed
himself through various forms, colors and rhythm of nature.
6. Tagore’s Internationalism: He was an ardent prophet of world unity. He believed in world brotherhood
6. Tagore’s Internationalism: He was an ardent prophet of world unity. He believed in world brotherhood
Tagore and education:
Tagore's concerns with education were a constant theme throughout his
life and surfaced in his writings, speeches, debates, and in the
establishment of Santiniketan and Sriniketan. (His contributions as an
educationist are prolific and profound and exploring them can be the
work of a lifetime.)
1. Rabindranath Tagore went to school almost 150 years ago and it
is both interesting and tragic to note how his experiences were not
vastly different from those of the average school going child of today.
Barring a few lucky handfuls, generations of children have undergone the
same drudgery of dull text books, uninterested teachers, rote learning,
examinations and mindless discipline that Tagore endured.
The descriptions of his skirmishes with the education system a century and a half ago, ring true till this day:
In the usual course I was sent to school, but possibly my suffering was unusual, greater than that of most other children. The non-civilized in me was sensitive: it had a great thirst for color, for music, for the movement of life. Our city-built education took no heed of that living fact. It had its luggage van waiting for branded bales of marketable result.
The
relative proportion of the non-civilized and civilized in man should be
in the proportion of water and land on our globe, the former predominating. But the school had for its object a continual reclamation of the non-civilized.
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pic courtesy:http://
www.dailymail.co.uk |
2. The Parrot's Training (Tota Kahini), a short story written
by Tagore, is another entertaining and incisive look at education - one
that many of us can easily identify with.
Once upon a time there was a bird. It was ignorant. It sang all right but never
recited scriptures. It hopped pretty frequently but lacked manners. Said
the Raja to himself: 'Ignorance is costly in the long run. For fools
consume as much food as their betters, and yet give nothing in return.
He
called his nephews to his presence and told them that the bird must
have a sound schooling. The pundits were summoned, and at once went to
the root of the matter. They decided that the ignorance of birds was due
to their natural habit of living in poor nests.
3. Rabindranath Tagore, by his efforts and achievements, is part of a
global network of pioneering educators, such as Rousseau, Pestalozzi,
Froebel, Montessori and Dewey–and in the contemporary context, Malcolm
Knowles–who have striven to create non-authoritarian learning systems
appropriate to their respective surroundings. In a poem that expresses
Tagore’s goals for international education, he writes:
Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high,Where knowledge is free;Where the world has not been brokenup into fragments by narrow domesticwalls;Where words come out from thedepth of truth;Where tireless strivingstretches its arms towards
perfection;Where the clear stream of reasonhas not lost its way into thedreary desert sand of dead habit;Where the mind is led forward
by thee into ever-wideningthought and action–into that heaven of freedom,my Father,Let my country awake.
Concept of education:
According to Tagore, “God reveals himself through nature more
effectively than through man made institutions. Hence ,the education of
the child should be under natural surroundings so that he develops love
for all things around him.”
According to Tagore, "That education is
highest which not only imparts information and knowledge to us, but also
promotes love and follow feeling between us and the living beings of
the world.”
Aims of education:
1. Physical development: To include activities like swimming, diving,
climbing trees, plucking flowers, etc. Mental Development: Acc to Tagore "In comparison with bookish learning, knowing the real living directly
is true education. It not only promotes the acquiring of some knowledge
but develops the curiosity & faculty of learning and knowing so
powerfully that no class room teaching can match it.”
2. Moral
& Spiritual Development: Education should strive for a number of moral
and spiritual qualities like self discipline, tolerance, courtesy and
inner freedom.
3. Development of all faculties: Chief aim of education should
be the drawing out of the latent faculties of the child. To him a child
is more important than himself problems hence he opposed the crushing
of the child's individuality. Hence he should be given full freedom.
4. International Brotherhood: Though Tagore was a individualist yet he
believed in socialism, internationalism. Acc to Tagore individual should
develop to the fullest extent and then he should contribute his best to
the promotion of international welfare.
Curriculum:
1.Subjects: Literature and languages, Mother tongue, other Indian
Languages and other foreign languages; Mathematics; Natural sciences
such as Botany, zoology, physics, chemistry, general science; health
education; Social Sciences like geography, history, civics, economics,
and Sociology; Agriculture and Technical Subjects; Arts, Music,
Dance etc.; Philosophy; Psychology and Religion Broad-based Curriculum
2. Activities and Occupations: Dancing, Dramatics, Music, Games and
Sports, Drawing and Painting, Excursions, Agriculture and Gardening, Regional Study, Laboratory work Social Service.
3. Actual living and
Community Service Broad-based Curriculum
Teaching Methodology:
1. Teaching by Walking; The mind in the class room does not remain active
Hence by walking the mind remains active & awake, hence the child easily
grasp things. Teaching by walking is the best method of education.
2. Discussion & Question Answer; Real education is based on real problems of life hence question - answer method is effective wherein the teacher put the questions & ask the students to participate in discussions. Thus they gain essential knowledge.
2. Discussion & Question Answer; Real education is based on real problems of life hence question - answer method is effective wherein the teacher put the questions & ask the students to participate in discussions. Thus they gain essential knowledge.
3. Activity Method; This
method is of great importance because it activates all the faculties of
the body & mind. In Vishwa Bharti, he made compulsory the learning
of handicraft. He allowed any physical exercise or activity even during
the class teaching.
Qualities of Teacher:
1. Tagore gave an important place to teachers and asked them to carry
out the following activities.
2. Believing in purity and in his own
experiences, innocence of child, the teacher should behave with him with
great love and affection, sympathy, affection.
3. Instead of
emphasizing on book learning, the teacher should provide conducive
environment to the child so that he engages himself in useful and
constructive activities and learn by his own experiences.
4. The teacher
should always be busy with motivating the creative capacities of the
children so that they remain busy with constructive activities and
experience.
5. Education can be successfully imparted by understanding
childhood and giving oneself totally in love and union with it.
Comparative Study:
Naturalism vs. Idealism
Followers
Rabindranath
Tagore, Aristotle, Pestalozzi
Plato, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma
Gandhi
Discipline
Uncontrolled freedom
Regulated freedom
Teacher
Behind
the scene
Place of teacher is very high
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| courtesy: rabi bichitra, iccr, bengal art gallery |
Nature
Naturocentric (nature is
centre of reality)
Psycho-centric (mind is centre of reality)
Supremacy
Physical and natural laws
Spiritual laws
Beliefs
Does not believe in
existence of God
Believes in God
Outlook
Materialistic and mechanical
Spiritual
Emphasis
Opposes bookish knowledge
Emphasis bookish knowledge
Centre
Child centered
Teacher centered
Aims of education
Self
expression
Self realisation
Development
Autonomous development
Spiritual
development
Curriculum
Emphasis on science
Emphasis on ethics
Methods
of teaching
Learning by doing
Questioning method
Evaluation of Tagore’s
Philosophy:
According to Radha Krishnan –"Rabindranath did not claim
to produce any original philosophy. His aim was not to analyze or
speculate about the Indian tradition. He expressed in his own vivid
phrases and homely metaphors, and showed its relevance to modern life."
The modern Indian concern about education:
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The President said Indian educational institutions had dominated the world for about 1,800 years from the 6th century BC to 13th century AD and had been a magnet for scholars everywhere.
The President has been actively advocating the need for improving the quality of higher education to return our country to the days Nalanda and Takshashila enjoyed global prominence.
"India must regain the lost glory of past and once again become a centre
for cross fertilization of ideas from across the world," President
said.
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Navbharat hindi daily/18th May 2014
reporting Tagore b'day celebration on
13th May 2014 evening in Ambikapur |
Summary:
Rabindranath Tagore was primarily an educationist rather than a
political thinker. He put emphasis on 'naturalism' for framing
educational model. In education, freedom is the basic guiding force for
inculcating interest within a student who will derive inspiration from
nature to pursue any branch of knowledge he likes. The establishment of
Shantiniketan fulfilled the desired goal of Tagore in the educational
front.
#links for further reading:
#A note for reference
Gandhi and Tagore:
Since Rabindranath Tagore and Mohandas
Gandhi were two leading Indian thinkers in the twentieth century,
many commentators have tried to compare their ideas. On learning
of Rabindranath's death, Jawaharlal Nehru, then incarcerated in a
British jail in India, wrote in his prison diary for August 7,
1941:
"Gandhi and Tagore. Two types entirely different from each other, and yet both of them typical of India, both in the long line of India's great men ... It is not so much because of any single virtue but because of the tout ensemble, that I felt that among the world's great men today Gandhi and Tagore were supreme as human beings. What good fortune for me to have come into close contact with them."
#following sites consulted and thankfully shared from:
http://www.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/content/rabindranath-tagorehttp://infed.org/mobi/rabindranath-tagore-on-education/
http://www.slideshare.net/kamyathakur37/rabindranath-tagore-on-education
http://www.merepix.com/2013/01/rabindranath-tagore-rare-photos.html
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/education/india-will-soon-find-rightful-place-in-world-varsity-ranks-president-pranab-mukherjee/articleshow/35073787.cms
Some pictures of Rabindranath Tagore:
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Kaviguru with Helen Keller in NY- aami chini go chini tomare ogo Videshini..
Rare picture of Rabindranath Tagore with Helen Keller in New York in 1930.
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| In this rare photograph from The Hindu’s archives, Helen Keller, the blind American author and labour rights activist, greets Rabindranath Tagore at a meeting in New York in 1930 |
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| Albert Einstein and Rabindranath Tagore, Taken back in the year 1930 at Dhaka, where Einstein came to see Mr. Tagore |
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| Rabindranath Tagore, when in Berlin, paid a visit to Professor Albert Einstein in his cottage at Caputh near Berlin, where the two world famous men had an enjoyable time in this August 24, 1930 picture. pic courtesy:http://www.thehindu.com |
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| Rabindranath Tagore and Jawaharlal Nehru, engaged in deep conversation on November 4, 1936 at the Sylvan retreat of the poet at Bolpur. pic courtesy:http://www.thehindu.com |
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| Mahatma Gandhi's promise of meeting Rabindranath Tagore annually is honoured when he visited him at Santiniketan in this February 20, 1940 picture. Here Tagore is in rapt attention to what Mahathma Gandhi is saying. pic courtesy:http://www.thehindu.com |
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| Poet Rabindranath Tagore reclining in his bed in a railway compartment at Howrah station when he left for Shantiniketan after recovery from his illness. This photo was published on November 22, 1940. pic courtesy:http://www.thehindu.com |
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| Poet Rabindranath Tagore reclining in his bed in a railway compartment at Howrah station when he left for Shantiniketan after recovery from his illness. This photo was published on November 22, 1940. pic courtesy:http://www.thehindu.com |
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| Sir Maurice Gwyer, Rabindranath Tagore, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan come out from Sinha Sadan, Santiniketan after the Oxford University Convocation on August 7, 1940. pic courtesy:http://www.thehindu.com |
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| Mahatma Gandhi and Kasturba at a reception given by Rabindranath Tagore at Santiniketan in this February 20, 1940 picture. pic courtesy:http://www.thehindu.com |
