Child Teacher and Teacher Education - Philosophy and Process of Education for Integral Development of Personality

developed by the teachers. And it is when these qualities are developed that they will vibrate in the atmosphere a power that encourages and nourishes the great virtues of the inner soul of the student.

II

These considerations suggest some liens on which a new organisation for New Education suitable for personality development could be evolved. But before we come to further precisions, it may seem necessary to state some overall propositions regarding the spirit in which the new organisation should function, and the general role of the teachers in this New Education.

There will be, it may be said, four features of New Education:

1.  A sincere pursuit of the Truth, a persistent seeking of an organisation of progressive Harmony, and a spontaneous Freedom fulfilling itself through growing order and perfection.
2. Informality in instruction, joy in learning, utter dedication, strictness in training, and the widest comprehension in the student-teacher relationship – these will govern the new methods of education.
3. An ever-fresh youthfulness, a constant prospective thrust towards New Future, and a happy thirst for continuous progress – these will govern the atmosphere of New Education.
4. A search for the highest aim of life, a stress on the integral development of personality, and a living expression of the unity of mankind, -- these will be the universal preoccupations of the teachers and students.

In New Education, students will not go to school

and colleges in order to listen to lectures, but for a quest, for finding out the answers to their questions, for consulting the teachers, when needed.

The very disposition of the classes will be radically changed, so that students have facilities to consult the teachers for a short or long time according to the needs. Instead of their being at the head of the class, the teachers will be found convenient places so that they are readily available to those who need them for help, guidance, consultation.

The teacher's main occupation will be to observe his students, their inclinations and capacities, so as to be able to help them with deep sympathy and understanding. One of his important activities will be to write out something special for each of his students which will be useful for his general and specific growth. This involves a great deal of research work, but that is the privilege of his station in life.

The teacher will not be a mere lecturer; rather he will be an animator. He will inspire much more than instruct; he will guide by example and by the influence of his inner soul and its noble aspirations.

To aid the student in awakening the inner will to grow and to progress – that will be the constant endeavour of the teacher.

To evolve a programme of education for each student in accordance with the felt needs of the student's growth, to watch the students with deep sympathy, understanding and patience, ready to intervene and guide when necessary, to stimulate the students with striking words, ideas, questions, stories, projects and programmes – this will be the main work of the teachers.

which is not active, either because it is only latent or it is absent. Or, finally, it may be needed where there is a mere laxity due to inertia and indifference.

If we examine them carefully, we shall find that most of our educational methods aim at providing some adequate-inadequate aids which are pertinent only to the aspect of training. But since they do not apply t the stage or aspect of culture, there is an artificiality in the atmosphere, and there is an undercurrent of a psychological revolt on the part of the students.

In the New Education, this defect must be eliminated. For this elimination, it seems, two things are needed.

Firstly, there must be on the part of the teacher a recognition that:

1. Education must be a happy process, and happiness is a fruit of the inherent urge to grow, unhampered by external pressures.
   All educational processes must aim at achieving this happiness among the students. And all help, guidance and facilities should be provided towards the end.
2. The right method of education has therefore to be that of 'culture', and all processes of training should gradually or rapidly be transformed into those of culture.
3. However, where this transformation has till not taken place, the right time for the programme of 'training' is when the student feels inwardly the need for clarity, precision or perfection, and when he is willing to impose upon himself an outer discipline for a short or long period (according to the needs of the situation) of vigorous and persistent (or even repetitive) exercises.

4. In the absence of this inner will, there may be a need to impose outer discipline; but this imposition should be only a temporary device, and the aim should be to eliminate it gradually and totally. In any case, the imposition from outside must not be arbitrary and should not be offensive to the sensitiveness and sensibility of the students.

Secondly, for purposes of organisation, it may be convenient to have different organisations for 'culture' and for 'training', with a kind of flexibility so that students can use these organisations easily according to the psychological needs of their growth.

All programmes of 'training' should be conducted in what may be called 'Laboratories'. Normally, we have laboratories only for natural and applied sciences; and the normal work there is called 'practicals'. Recently, with the advent of language laboratories, the conception has gained in connotation, and we can, for our present purposes, enlarge it still further. Thus, we might propose that here should be laboratories for each branch of knowledge, and these laboratories might be organised in the following way:

1. Information will be available here about:
1. what the subject in question means, and why it should be studied;a few alternative syllabi for the subject;
2. an analysis of the various steps involved in the learning of the subject systematically and thoroughly;
3. an idea of the different ways of preparing for these various steps.

2. There will also be available here:
   1. selected standard and reference books related to the subject;
   2. interesting and stimulating booklets or story books and other relevant documentation pertaining to the various topics of the subject;
   3. programmed books pertaining to the subject; these books often need to be supplemented by what may be called 'Work Sheets', i.e. educational material so prepared that it can be studied only the active participation and exercise of the student's intelligent reflection and application. These work sheets should be of various types to permit alternative approaches;
   4. a series of graded exercises which the students can handle on their own with the least help from the teacher; (there should be a facility for self-correction);
   5. various kinds of test papers, including what may be called 'final test papers'; (these final test papers are those which the students under training may be required to answer in order to judge for themselves if they have achieved the necessary mastery).
3. The following activities will be encouraged:
   1. determination to work hard, work regularly, and to develop the habits of punctuality and discipline;
   2. to fix up a short or long programme of work, and to stick to it rigorously (laxity in this may disqualify a student from the joining of the given programme of the laboratory work);

discussion, development of consciousness, growth of spherical thought and action. These elements should also be present in the 'laboratory work', but there the stress will be on rigour, measure and mastery.

An adequate organisation of the 'cultural work' will need the following rooms:

1.  A Room or Rooms of Silence to which students who would like to do uninterrupted work or to reflect or meditate in silence can go when they like;
2.  Rooms of Consultation, where students can meet their teachers and consult with them on various points of their seeking;
3.  Rooms of Collaboration, where students can work with each other on projects, etc.;
4.  Rooms of Exhibition, where students can organise various exhibitions of their work, -- charts, plans, paintings, etc.;
5.  Hobby Rooms, where students can work freely on various hobbies, such as aero-modelling, carpentry, fret-work, etc.;
6.  Rooms for Dancing, Music, Painting, Dramatics, etc.;
7.  Lecture Rooms where teachers can hold discussions with their students and where they can deliver lectures – short or long, according to the need;
8.  Store Rooms where materials for exhibitions, hobbies, etc., can be stored carefully and systematically.

We may call these Rooms 'Halls of Culture' and it may be suggested that all these Halls as well as