III

The Role and Responsibility of the Teachers

It is by now clear to our readers that Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education is not just an ordinary school, college or university having for its sole aim the excellent training of its alumni in various academic subjects. The Mother has placed before it very high extra-academic goals. Indeed these goals are its real raison d'être; academic excellence and competence in various disciplines of knowledge is only a necessary but no more than a complementary achievement.

Now the fact cannot be overstressed that to help in the fulfilment of the real aims of SAICE, it will not do for the members of its teaching staff to be only equipped with sufficient knowledge in their respective academic subjects. They have to be a special type of human beings, indeed, seriously practising sadhakas and sadhikas. They have to be imbued with a burning aspiration to belong to the emerging humanity of the coming future and set a constant living example of all that the Mother would like to be realised in the life of its students. In other words, a great and onerous responsibility lies on the teachers of this Centre of Education and without their sincere and whole-hearted co-operation, its aims and purposes cannot be brought into fulfilment. Hence, on many an occasion, the Mother has sharply drawn the attention of these teachers to what she expects of them and what they

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have to grow into. Here are a few passages from the Mother's writings touching on various aspects of this question.

(1)"And if, among these teachers and instructors, some are not worthy of their post, because by their character they give a bad example, their first duty is to become worthy by changing their character and their action; there is no other way." (CWM, Vol. 12, p. 360)

(2)Question: "Mother, don't you think that to become a teacher or an instructor here, especially for the little ones, it is necessary to have lived in the Ashram for a certain length of time?"

The Mother's Answer:

"It is a certain attitude of consciousness which is necessary—and unfortunately, living even several years in the Ashram does not always lead to this right attitude.

Truly speaking, teachers should be taken on trial to see if they can acquire this right attitude and adapt themselves to the needs of their task." (Ibid., pp. 366-67)

(3)Question: "Mother, what do you mean by 'a certain attitude of consciousness'?"

The Mother's Answer:

"The attitude of consciousness which is required is an inner certitude that, in comparison with all that is to be known, one knows nothing; and that at every moment one must be ready to learn in order to be able to teach.

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This is the first indispensable point.

There is a second one. It is that outer life, as we know it, is a more or less illusory appearance and that we must constantly keep a living aspiration for the Truth." (Ibid., p. 367)

(4)"Whatever imperfections the teachers and instructors here may have, they will always be better than those from outside. For all who work here do so without remuneration and in the service of a higher cause. It is clearly understood that each one, whatever his worth or capacity, can and must progress constantly to realise an ideal which is still much higher than the present realisation of humanity.

But if one is truly eager to do one's best, it is by doing the work that one progresses and learns to do it better and better.

Criticism is seldom useful, it discourages more than it helps. And all goodwill deserves encouragement, for with patience and endurance, there is no progress which cannot be made.

The main thing is to keep the certitude that whatever may have been accomplished, one can always do better if one wants to." (Ibid., pp. 360-61)

(5)"Teachers must not be absent on the days and at the times of their classes. If a person is obliged to have external activities during school-hours, he cannot be a teacher." (Ibid., p. 193)

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(6)Question: "Mother, You have said that the teacher must be a discerning psychologist, a Guru. You know very well that we are far from being all that. The teachers being what they are, how should the system of education be organised in order to improve our way of teaching?"

The Mother's Answer:

"By doing what they can, knowing that they have everything to learn. In this way they will gain experience and do things better and better. That is the best way to learn, and if they do it in all sincerity, in two or three years they will become experts and will be truly useful.

Naturally, work done in this way becomes really interesting and makes the teachers as well as the students progress." (Ibid., pp. 376-77)

(7)Question: "Mother, You said the other day that there were teachers who were not capable, and that they should stop teaching. What is the criterion for assessing the capacity of a teacher?"

The Mother's Answer:

"First, he must understand, he must know what we want to do and understand well how to do it.

Secondly, he must have a power of psychological discernment in dealing with the students, he must understand his students and what they are capable of doing.

Naturally, he must know the subject he is teaching....

But the most important thing is that he must have psychological discernment." (Ibid., p. 378)

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