“Fantasy and imagination should be allowed to flower in the child. Talk that may seem without logic may not necessarily be irrational- it could be suprarational,” informs [sic] Dr Ramesh. He further mentions that one of the serious flaws with today’s educational system is that, “emotions are most often ignored in our rigidly regulated and tightly controlled system. But it is essential to transform them to retain the best of the emotions- vitality, love and enthusiasm. This manifestation of our divine essence cannot be nurtured through rote learning. We have to create such situations where this part is also brought forward. Thus, training of the psychic voice is an important task of the teacher”. However, mainstream education completely overlooks this aspect and hence, manufactures emotionally underdeveloped children, who are made to fit into the industrialized society. These children do not question authority, they only follow suit. The result is masses of people who do not think for themselves but blindly obey. It was in reaction to this mass-production approach that the alternative education movement began.
This movement gave an impetus to those people who believed that the child had to be driven by his/her own need to learn and know. “We believe that nothing can be taught. Education is inherent in the child, we only help in stimulating it to bring out the best in him/her”, asserts Sulochana Di, one of the teachers who have spent more than 20 years at Mirambika.”
“’We believe that nothing can be taught. Education is inherent in the child, we only help in stimulating it to bring out the best in him/her”, asserts Sulochana Di’
This is a very similar view to a professor of classical rhetoric, Dominic LaRusso, said: “I cannot teach you anything but merely point the way.”
Hi –
It’s interesting you mention a professor of rhetoric..
I don’t know LaRusso, but am eager to read him because, when I googled, I saw some commonality of interests..
You can’t teach..because where you are and where the pupil is are two different places..
but you can facilitate learning and you can inspire..
and you can correct technique or facts..
but ultimately a mind must turn inward to grasp certain things
Anon above is me, forgot to fill out the fields.
Interesting–well socrates said he was not a teacher as such a thing was not possible that he was merely a mid wife of ideas. Perhaps this arose independently or via the Bactrian Greeks? Who knows, but interesting parallel. Also, of a piece with the notion some of us current and former educators hold near–some people are not educable and some are naturals. Is it souls, is it chemistry, is it genes, culture, who knows. There is something there though…
Hi Robert –
Very true..
schooling has its uses…for credentials but
it usually polishes up the pebbles and dulls the diamonds…