A Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth

It is universally admitted that the possibility of an acceleration of man's quest of himself and of the universe constitutes the basic premise of all education.

What precisely is man? What is the nature of the universe? And what is the secret formula of the equation of man with the universe? These are the central questions that education fosters, and it carries forward the accumulated answers from age to age.

But how can they be fostered and by what means can the answers be carried forward at the highest possible speed? These constitute the very heart of the problem of the educational process.

Evidently, these are very difficult questions, and the teacher or the educationist, in attempting to answer them, assumes great responsibility for his own age and for posterity.

The task of the contemporary educationist is rendered particularly difficult by the extraordinary conditions of his times. It has been aruged that one of the urgent needs of our education is to appreciate the significance of certain combinations of tendencies and circumstances that are developing in the world today;

and to allow them to determine the necessary changes in the objectives and contents of education.

It has been pointed out that there is today a phenomenon of unprecedented explosion of information, which necessitates a continuous or life- long programme of education. There is also today, it is underlined, an unparalleled width and depth of inquiry, which necessitates a new kind of education that would simultaneously be comprehensive and specialized or varied so as to suit each individual. Finally, it is urged that the modern man is today, as never before, subject to psychological turmoil, necessitating a new dimension in education that still remains undefined and insufficiently explored.

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This is not all. We are led to perceive deeper and deeper layers of recent thought and experience, and they all have a profound bearing on education. There is, for instance, today a great quest all over the world for the synthesis of knowledge and culture. Ancient knowledge is being rediscovered in the context of modern knowledge. The humanist and the technologist are finding themselves in greater and greater need of each other; and the moralist and the artist are obliged to understand each other; and the scientist and the mystic are getting ready to embrace each other. The educational implications of these development are obvious. Our educational syllabi have to reflect the latest trends of synthesis, and our educational objectives must include the idea of preparing a new kind of man who can consciously and progressively harmonize within himself the broad vision of the humanist and the skill of the technologist; the disciplined will-force of the moralist and the refined imagination of the artist; the scrupulous knowledge of the scientist and the sublime vision, wisdom and ever-growing perfection of the mystic.

At a still deeper level, we have perhaps the profoundest affirmation of our times, .which is likely to have the most decisive effect on the entire domain of education. According to this affirmation, man is undergoing today a crisis which is evolutionary in character, a crisis that occurs in species at a time when some kind of mutation is imminent. According to this view, education is or can be made a most powerful instrument of the evolutionary mutation. It proposes, therefore, a thorough revolution of education in which the aim would be to cultivate, sharpen and transform the faculties and powers of personality leading towards an unprecedented perfection that would enhance man's capacity to collaborate consciously with the upward march of evolution.

There are also today powerful trends of revolutionary methods of education which seem to correspond to the emerging new ideals and contents of education. These trends attack severely the three main pillars of our ordinary educational methodology, namely, the lecture system, the syllabus system and the examination system. They insist upon a free choice

for the student to choose his own subjects of study, his pace of progress and even his teachers. They urge recognition of individual differentiation, necessitating variation in psychological treatment, presentation of materials of study, and criteria of judgement of performance. They also make forceful demand for new syllabi that would correspond to the needs of the psychological growth of the students.

It is against this background that we come to appreciate the contemporary educationist's discovery of the child. Formerly, education was merely a mechanical forcing of the child's nature into arbitrary grooves of training and knowledge in which the child's own inner being was the last thing considered. The discovery that education must mean bringing the drawing out of the child's total potentialities to their highest possible value, and that it must be based on the psychology of the child is a great step forward towards a healthy system of education. In the movements of the Kindergartens, in the system of Montessory, and in other experiments in the East and in the West, this discovery constitutes a basic foundation. In fact, it may be said that a new handling of the child in the light of this discovery is the essential ingredient of the very definition of what may be termed New Education.

Children are, we are told, the most important people. As soon as they are on the scene, everything must revolve round them; everything must cater to their needs; everything must be organized to suit the demands of their growth and development. The unhappiness of the child, its loneliness, its insecurity—these are a sure index of the malady of society.

The most important task is, we are told again, the consideration of the child in the process of learning, in the process of relating itself to the environment, in the process of continuous self-exceeding. This implies a concern for the psychology of the child, for the dreams of the child, for his problems of everyday battles and friendships, for the sights and scenes in the environment, for the stories that are told, the books that are read, the influences that fashion interests, character and decisions, the methods of encouragement, the structure of education, the aim of education, and verily the entire system of education.

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As said earlier, the modern educationist has made a new discovery of the child, and he has been wonderstruck by the tremendous feat of learning that the child performs in the first few years of its life. What is the secret, he asks, of this tremendous speed of learning?

The child learns so fast, he answers, because it has no other occupation than that of learning; or rather, to the child, all the occupations amount to the occupation of learning. For it, all play is learning, and all learning is play. The child learns so fast because it has before it a living book, the open Book of Nature itself. And it 'reads' this Book of Nature with its total being, by the happy exercise of all its faculties, by the concrete urge of experience.

The modern educationist is led to apply these propositions to all aspects of education, and he finds that such application implies a radical change in the content, method and structure of education. And, above all, in the very aim of education.

A new dimension has been added to education. And a number of questions confront the educational world;

there is a new quest.

There is a need, it is felt, to relate the child and the universe in open unity. There is thus a search for a school that has no walls, and for studies that have no boundaries.

There is a quest for a formula that would contain the endless explosion of knowledge implying a knowledge of the essence that would contain the knowledge of endless manifestation. And 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 life-long education. And there is a search for a programme that would necessitate a spontaneous harmony of the needs of personal development with the needs of the collective development of humanity.

Is there, it is asked, a tool for the acceleration of the summing up of the past and the unfolding of the future? And is there a method and content of education that would necessitate an automatic

synchronization of studies, work-experience and flowering of faculties?

And, finally, there is a deeper search still—the search for the secret of perpetual progress and of perpetual youth. This is a fascinating quest, and even to witness it is an educative experience.

An important counsel that is being given is that education must proceed, not so much by rigour or by pressure of time and external necessities, but by the pressure of atmosphere and environment, by a happy attraction, by noble example and influence. The child and the book of nature should remain a constant model for the educational scene.

It has been recommended that, in all education, two great tendencies must be united: the tendency of the highest imagination and the tendency of the most rigorous realism. The two are not opposed to each other, but they are complementary; they help each other, and in a certain sense, they are really one, or can be fused into oneness.

It has been suggested that among all educational activities, the most significant one is that of the search for definitions, for meaning, for the highest aim of life. This search is not limited to this subject or that, it does not begin at one stage and end at another. This search is, however, most essential; all syllabi of all subjects can help in this search; but it cannot be restricted within the four corners of any given syllabus.

There are some overall important questions which should be set to stimulate original reflection, introspection, and a search for meaning. What, for example, is the nature of thinking? How is science distinguishable from mathematics and philosophy? What is the essence of literature and music and art? Is history meaningful? Is there an aim in history? What is technology? What are the best methods of learning technology? What is truth? How do we know truth? And how best can we serve it? What is one's specific role in the progress of the world? And how can one train oneself to fulfil this role? What is action? How does one remain calm even in the midst of action?

Many of us will find it difficult to answer these questions. These questions are questions for students

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of all ages, meant to be thought over for years and years. They are like questions of the Book of Nature, which give joy and exercise, but do not pressurize one for answers within a fixed time limit.

The entire movement of New Education is against fragmentation, division and artificiality. Learning by snippets has to go. We make our lessons, most uninteresting, and then complain that the children are not attentive. We not only divide knowledge into artificial compartments, but divide the child also. The new trends oblige us to consider the child as a whole, and to provide for an integral education.

It has been declared that what we need is man- making education. But we cannot make man by lop- sided development, by a mechanical emphasis on one aspect or another. What is important is not so much information, but the power of concentration which can command information at will. Unfailing concentration and irresistible will—this twin power has to be the basis of man-making education, and this has to be applied to the various functionings of the mind, life- force and body, and, overarching these powers and functionings, there are the domains of the inner and higher personality. There has to be a detailed and comprehensive programme of education. The body has to be trained to develop health, strength, plasticity, agility, grace and beauty. Emotions are to be cultivated for the growth of nobility, courage, leadership and creative action. The mind should be developed to have the power of subtle and complex intelligence, broadness of vision, quietude, intuition and mastery of authentic knowledge. But above all this, there has to be an inspiration to fathom deep and rise high in search of truth and its dynamic execution in life and action.

Man-making education implies a sound knowledge of man and his potentialities. It is significant that modern trends tend towards a deeper knowledge not only of the outer man but also of the inner man. In education too, it is being realized more and more that man is the best subject of study for man.

In fact, it is being suggested that the theme of man and evolution can provide the focal point of a new programme of studies. This would meet the needs of the synthesis of knowledge; and it would enable a synchronization of studies, work experience and the all-round development of personality.

Modern science, in its conception of evolution, -finds a converging point of the knowledge of matter, life and mind. At the same time, our Indian theories of evolution have conceived of man as an instrument of further conscious evolution. And latest philosophical speculations, we are told, affirm the idea of evolution, and, in varying degrees, come quite close to the Indian promise of the future evolution of-man into a gnostic being.

This theme is global in character, and its call is to the whole being of man. Once undertaken, it keeps one on the track of continuous self-development and self- exceeding. It can, indeed, be designated as a universal programme of quest.

Education that would yield to these new trends will evidently need a new structure and challenging methods of free and accelerative progress. Here too, there are valuable suggestions.

A basic suggestion is to organize a system in which the 'formal' and the 'non-formal' aspects of education would blend together as one single process of learning.

The new structure should permit "multi-entry system' and 'non-sequential progress'. A new 'power-house model' has been proposed, a model in which studies and work-experience are harmoniously blended and co-related.

The new stress is on the process of self-learning. And yet it is realized that self-learning should be assisted by the wise counsel and guidance of teachers. It is also recognized that while self-learning is of fundamental importance, there is also a great need for group-learning and group-work. A structure that would knit together the demands of all these elements of the learning process would be completely new, and it would alter greatly the role of teachers. It would also eliminate, to a large extent, the system of lectures. It would necessitate a system of evolutionary syllabi which would evolve and grow in accordance with the needs of the growth of the students. Tests would be woven into the process of learning, and education would no more be a process of merely passing tests and 'earning' credits.

All these suggestions give rise to the picture of a new system of education, but they indicate also that a number of difficult things need to be tackled patiently

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and laboriously in order to realize a practicable working of this system.

Great educationists of our times have, however, warned us that no outer structure can be a substitute for inner involvement and persistent effort. If this inner thing fails, they tell us, the outer things will stagnate, crumble, and perish. Therefore, above everything, and at all times, the insistence should be on an attitude, a new heart and a new spirit. Systems and structures are important, but of even greater importance is the spirit that will permeate the systems and structures.

This insistence on the right attitude and on the right spirit is extremely important. And we may justifiably hope that the first priority will be given to it while proposing changes in the educational system.

What Should We Do in India?

The educational world abounds today, as we have seen, in new ideas, new trends. The aims, methods and contents of education are being reviewed, revised, even revolutionized. We seem to be on the threshold of a new beginning.

New trends are packed with force and power; they have a message worth learning, and they elevate us to new heights. But the assimilation of new trends by the Indian educational system has been a difficult task. It is a continuing process, but the pace of progress seems to be slow. Our educational system is complicated by a number of factors which do not admit of a homogeneous solution. The burden of the past hangs heavily upon our schools, colleges and universities, .and it has greatly opposed the pressure of the new trends.

At the lowest of our problems regarding education is the need to fulfil the aim of universal education, and, at the minimum, to fulfil the aim of providing education to all children in the country up to the age of fourteen.

We should have achieved this goal long ago; and so, no matter what difficulties come in the way, we must accomplish this task at the very earliest.

It is now being realized that the main cause of our failure in this domain has been our inelasticity as regards changing the formal system of education. This realization is significant. For, at one time, the argument was that our first task was to expand possibilities of enrolment, and that the question of adopting new methods and reforms in education could be considered only at a later stage. Now the argument is that if we are serious about educating large numbers, then this can be done only by abandoning the old rigid methods and adopting new ones. It is now proposed that a large portion of full- time institutional instruction should be replaced by a programme of part-time education supplemented by non-formal education and self-study; that the 'single- point entry' system should be replaced by a 'multi- point

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entry' system; and that the 'sequential' character of the system must be modified. Educational technology is now being harnessed to new methods of education. Even in regard to mass media, new projects are being undertaken.

It is as though very practical necessities oblige us to embrace new trends. This is a sign of the time. Even if we continue to cling to the past and refuse to change, the very circumstances will necessitate change. It is, therefore, better to change by choice rather than under pressure.

At the next higher level of our educational problem, we have issues that relate to the more profound aspects of education: the diversification of courses, work-experience, vocationalization, orientation towards vocational proficiency, raising standards of education, and equalization of opportunities. There are problems of higher education, students' welfare, stress on fine arts, cultural efflorescence, right motivation of teachers and students towards excellence, modernization of syllabi, and reforms in the system of tests, lectures, and curricula.

Modern educational thought has made a powerful impact on our approach to these issues. There have been, in recent years, a number of educational conferences, particularly in connection with the new formula of 10+2+3 for school and undergraduate education. A new idea of 'units' of studies has been proposed, and there is the corresponding idea of 'unit' tests, evaluation and feedback. The report of UNESCO, "Learning to Be', is receiving wide and serious attention. Its recommendations in regard to life-long education and learning society have been welcomed. An attempt is being made to formulate the idea of work-experience, not only in the context of Basic Education, but also in the light of UNESCO's recommendation of the need to relate education to life. It is heartening to note that education in aesthetics is to be given a place in the new pattern. Stress is being laid on physical education. It is also proposed that education for moral and spiritual values will be provided.

All this seems to be quite good, and the effort that lies behind the new proposals needs to be encouraged. But the question is: why are our students and youth not enthused by these proposals? Our pioneering

educationists, who strove hard for a system of National Education, had constantly emphasized the need to appeal to the living enthusiasm of children and youth. They had dreamt of transforming the school into a playground, of transforming the school into a nursery of living souls. Are our proposals conducive to the realization of this dream? We feel we need to go still deeper and grapple with problems which are awaiting solution at our hands.

That deeper layer of problems relates to what may be called the very heart of education. And it would seem that unless we concentrate on this focal point, we may not find the right key to any problem. For all problems of education, as of every other field, are interrelated, and they all seem to hang upon this central issue. It is the issue of the infusion of a new spirit in our education. We want an education that will provide not merely information, but a deep inspiration. We want the youth to be inspired wholly in their full being. We want to prepare the youth to be free from dogmatism, communalism, casteism, divisions. We want our youth to be filled with the free man's worship of the country, of the spirit of Mother India. We want our youth to be soldiers and warriors to fight against ignorance, selfishness, and all that obscures and obstructs our path to a glorious future of humanity's unity and harmony. We want our youth to be the creators of the new future, but all these great and noble ends can be realized only if we succeed in evoking among the youth a living spirit and a vibrant light. To kindle that light and spirit is the central issue of education.

An answer to this issue is crucial, for that will give us the fundamental direction. There is, indeed, an answer. In recent years, it has been put forward forcefully, and presented in glowing terms. But, perhaps, it is not sufficiently understood. There is even an Indian formulation of this answer, much more profound and even more practicable. But this Indian answer is unfamiliar, even unknown, to most of us.

In this answer, we may find the remedy. In simple terms, the answer is that education should be so conceived and organized that it permits freedom of growth and fullness of the development of personality. In technical terms of modern educational thought, the answer is contained in the formulae, 'learning to learn' and 'learning to be’.

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Within the simplicity and brevity of this formulation is concealed an immensity and all-embracing integrality. 'Learning to learn' and 'learning to be' are not merely two elements among several other elements of education. They are proposed to be all-pervasive processes of the entire education. They are proposed to be also the all-pervasive contents of education. It is not as if the development of personality is one aspect of education, and that education for profession is. another. Education for personality and education for profession are, according to it, one and the same process. It says, in effect, that the secret of profession lies in personality, and that, education for personality development, rightly conceived and executed, will automatically and spontaneously provide to each individual what is needed by him for his profession. The technique of professional technology and that of the flowering of personality are not opposed to each other. In the correct process of education, they are interrelated, they help each other, and ultimately, fuse into each other. Similarly, freedom of growth is not merely a method of growth; it is not as though freedom is one method and discipline is another. What is meant is that discipline is the child of freedom, that freedom, if it is directed towards growth, necessarily flowers into a kind of self-discipline which no rules can envisage or execute. Again, it is affirmed, freedom is not merely a process. Freedom is the stuff of our physiological nature, and that the entire stuff and content of our being can grow and flower only through freedom. Light and freedom are intrinsic to each other, and hence the central significance of the principle of the freedom of growth.

This answer spins us into an altogether new hemisphere of vision. But we should invite the attention of educationists to the Indian experiment which has been going on in remote corners of different parts of the country, quietly and unobstrusively. It may be found that there has emerged, through this Indian experiment, an Indian answer to the problems of freedom and of the development of personality.

The Indian experiment, which had its indigenous origin in the modern renaissance in India and which was nourished by the nationalist movement, has, in due course, deeply absorbed western ideas of New Education. But, at the same time, it has taken great

care to integrate them with the profounder concepts of our own educational psychology. For this reason too, the Indian experiment has been rather slow in showing results. For its data are larger and the elements which had to be harmonized more difficult and more numerous. The results of this experiment are valuable, not only for us in India, but for the entire movement of New Education in the world.

The Indian experiment confirms the normal experience that freedom can easily be abused, and turned into a licence for self-indulgence. Directing of freedom towards growth is not a sufficient antidote to its possible misuse. At the same time, it confirms that freedom is essentially of the nature of the noblest psychological being. It points out, however, that freedom is only one of the vibrations of our inner being, and that there are two others of the same order; it is only when freedom is united with these that an inner law of discipline can emerge. These two are: the quest for truth and the austerity of harmony.

It proposes, therefore, not liberty alone, but a trinity of truth, harmony and liberty as the fundamental principles of New Education. These three constitute the serenity of the inner being, and if these three vibrate united also in the atmosphere, then, in this serene atmosphere, by the power of inner and outer environment, true knowledge can be stimulated to grow in the inner hearts of the child and the youth.

Similar discoveries and proposals obtain also in regard to the development of personality. For we have, in India, perhaps the most profound science of personality. Indian psychology concerns itself not merely with the development of the total potentialities of personality, but its chief concern has been with the question of how to lead these potentialities to their highest and noblest values.

The mature fruit of the Indian experiment is to be found in the concept of the fourfold personality as a new basis for integral education. It has been pointed out that there are four central values and powers of personality; if these are rightly balanced throughout the process of development, and if a healthy equilibrium of these powers is upheld progressively, then we can ensure a healthy and integral development of personality. These four values belong to our deepest and highest being, but their

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expressions are to be found, in varying degrees, in all our instruments: body, life and mind. These four values are: knowledge, power, harmony and skill in works. A progressive and rich blossoming of these four values and capacities would result in the fourfold personality, a personality of integral equilibrium.

The full richness of personality is manifested when the heart of love is tranquilized by knowledge into calm ecstasy and vibrates with strength, and when the strong hands of power labour skilfully for the world in a radiant fullness of joy and light.

It is, indeed, recognized that this implies a life-long process of development, but it must begin right from the beginning. Life-long education is the natural corollary of this concept of the integral personality.

The practical implications are tremendous. Not only do they give a new direction and new focal point to education, but they also demand new attitudes, new perceptive and psychological knowledge, and new roles for teachers. They demand, again, an altogether new restructuring of educational methodology, and the creation of a highly imaginative and educational environment.

The task is extremely difficult, but if our analysis of the educational situation is correct, this task must be accomplished. Defeatism or cynicism should not be allowed to interfere in our planning of the future. For the realization of this future, our call must be to Young India.

We should declare to our youth that India is not merely a piece of land, nor is it only a hoary past. India is neither religionism, nor dogmatism, nor obscurantism. India is, we should affirm, science, spirituality, and universality. India has been the harbinger of successive dawns; she can become, if she wills, the cradle of the new future. We should, in brief, declare that we do not belong to the dawns of the past, but to the noons of the future.

This new future, as we envisage it, will be marked by an ideal unity of mankind. There will be a meeting of the East and the West, the ancient and the modern, the knowledge of man and the knowledge of nature, of the aesthetic and the ethical, of the technology of matter and the technology of spirit.

Against the forces that resist the birth of the new world, there is, let us affirm, a great quest, a deep yearning to discover or to invent the key to transform the divided world into a happy family of man. This is the universal thrust towards the future, and it is this drive that India has to take up to play her right role, the leading role.

The children and youth of India are to be prepared for this great work, so that they are able to contribute mightily and creatively to the new creation. For this work, the whole of India is to be recreated as a new school, with a new environment and a new force of inspiration.

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