II The Needs of the Child The child has interest for an object when by that object he is capable of satisfying one of his needs. Hence the importance of knowing the needs of a child. As a growing being, the child has certain needs, quite a number of them, of various kinds - physical, affective, psychological, intellectual - and even some so deeply rooted and so important that they may be called "psychic needs", needs pertaining to the soul in evolution. If the parents and teachers know these needs and give them consideration and satisfaction, the child grows normally and is naturally happy. If they are ignored, two kinds of results may ensue. S

Notes and. Sources Bibliographical details about the sources listed below may be found in the Bibliography. The author's references to citations from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have been updated by the editors of his fifth edition. The new citations refer to the volumes of the Sri Aurobindo Birth - Centenary Library (SABCL) and the Mother's collected Works (MCW). The reader may note that although citations from the Mother's works have been updated to accord with her Collected Works, the original translations of her statements in French have been kept: in other words the translations used by the author have been retained. Epigraph. Sri Aurobin

III The Dawning of a New Age The synthetic vision of the Vedas and the Upanishads forcefully restated by the Bhagavad-Gita Gita, was later broken up into opposing philosophic systems, although attempt were made from time to time to recombine them into some image of the original intuitive unity. One of these attempts is the large synthesis of the Tantras. Sri Aurobindo has taken up again this unifying endeavour and reconciled opposing views of the three great Acharyas. He has shown that the main Vedantic conceptions of existence are not mutually exclusive, but rather represent aspects of the total truth. According to him, each of these views is valid an

VI The Evolution of a Class I shall now describe, on the basis of the very limited yet significant experience of this year, the response of students placed for the first time in a new class. They pass very distinctly through three stages: 1. A Stage of Adaptation: Some children understand immediately what is asked of them and enter into the spirit of the new method. Some appear passive and try their best without much live understanding. Others find it more difficult to adapt themselves; for them it is a period of adjustment and wavering. A few, very few seem unwilling or incapable of doing away with unruly and mischievous habits. Little by little a

Bibliography WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (SABCL). 30 vols. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press. Vol. 15. Social and Political Thought. 1971. Vol. 16. The Supramental Manifestation and Other Writings. 1971. Vol. 17. The Hour of God and Other Writings. 1972. Vols. 18-19. The Life Divine. 1970. Vols. 22-23. Letters on Yoga. 1970. WORKS OF THE MOTHER The Mother's Collected Works (MCW). 17 vols. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press. Vol. 8. Questions and Answers 1956. 1977. Vol. 12. On Education. 1978. WORKS OF THE AUTHOR Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on Education. Pondicherry

-05 _Sri Aurobindo^s Integral Education.htm IV Sri Aurobindo's Integral Education Dissatisfaction with the conventional education of the time may be traced back to Jean Jacques Rousseau; it was expressed forcefully later by Tolstoy. But a clear awareness of the true needs of education dawned really with this century. In the U.S.A., Dewey wrote: The child is the starting-point, the center, and the end. His development, his growth, is the ideal. It alone furnishes the standard. To the growth of the child all studies are subservient; they are instruments valued as they serve the needs of growth. Personality, character, is more than subject-matter. Not knowledge or

EDUCATION AND THE AIM OF HUMAN LIFE Publisher's Note This book is a study of the educational ideal of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and of the educational method being developed at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. Its author, Pavitra, was the first director of the Centre of Education. In the first section of the book he affirms the need of an "integral" education - one aimed at developing all the faculties of the human being, including the soul and spirit - and outlines the character of such an education. In the second section he explains the new system being attempted at the Centre of Education. In the third he summarises the educational theory a

IV The Class Work I shall not speak of the teaching of reading, writing and counting. This teaching is started in the Kindergarten and pursued during the first two years of the school. It is a subject which has received considerable attention outside and we freely use the Montessori and other similar methods, though we do not follow strictly any one of them. The classes are small (not more than10-15 children) and there is a blending of collective teaching with individual attention: we make a large use of educational games and other devices that we owe to the ingenuity of our teacher. It has been found preferable to have two teachers for one class, one of them gi

III The Educational Environment The purpose of the school environment is to give to the child the stimuli that impel him to a self-educative activity. These stimuli are produced by the multiple objects that constitute the equipment of the class-room. In theory, they have to fulfil a double condition. Firstly, they should correspond to actual needs of the children of the class; and secondly, all the needs of these children should find satisfaction in them. In simpler words, no need should be left unsatisfied, no object should be felt as useless. In practice, the environment must offer stimuli in sufficient number and variety, so that the interest of all the

I The Purpose of Education The aim of education is always twofold: there is a collective aspect and there is an individual aspect. From the collectivity point of view, education is expected to turn the individual into a good citizen, i.e., into a person who has harmonious relations with the other members of the community, who is useful to the society and who fulfils with zeal his obligations as a citizen. On the other hand, it may be expected that education will give to the individual a strong and healthy body, help him in building up his character and attaining self-mastery, and supply him with good opportunities of discovering and developing ha