Harmony Centre for Learning

Announcing the Harmony centre for Little Learners - a space and process based on the philosophy of Nai Taleem (New or Basic Education), the educational framework and policy initiated and promoted by Mahatma Gandhi


priya nagesh

Facilitating Learning

Original Post: http://www.samanvaya.com/main/learning.html

This article was first written as an explorative, introductary write-up for further discussion in a seminar on Education in October 2002 and has been edited further in March 2009. It briefly looks at what is Education, the aims of education and means of achieving the same. - Priya, April 09

Man is a learning species. Education, or the process of learning is life long and does not fit into a stipulated period or station in life. That education is acquired only through "teaching" or school is a myth. The Latin root for the word education is educere, which means to "bring out what is latent". In modern dictionaries like the Webster's some of the given synonyms of education are culture, knowledge, guidance, learning and enlightenment. Obviously all these are life long processes.

Aims of Education
Understanding education as being of such practical nature, it's aim would be that children learn to live in harmony with their surroundings, to create, to view reality and make decisions and initiatives through their understanding, to work as part of the social order and to learn from and strengthen nature. The child will learn to deal with situations and respond in keeping with his culture and the traditions and knowledge-systems of his people, fearless of the consequences. She will learn, not for the purpose of collecting facts & figures (information) and getting preference in the job market, but for strengthening herself and being socially responsible (knowledge). It follows that she will learn to value kindness, compassion, patience etc and being of use to the society and community. In this process she and nature alone will be her 'teachers'. It follows automatically that the motto of such an educational process can only be Freedom and Strength, from within.

What are the means of achieving such education?
A child of 1 or 2, adventurously, boldly ventures out on his own to experiment with what he sees around him, unafraid of any opposition that he may find along the way. The explorer falls again and again, but is back with the same curiosity and enthusiasm with which he started. Learning is intrinsic to him, and he has not yet learned to fear failure. He has not yet learned to value the reward that he will be sure to get if he does something that adults commend; he is satisfied with his learning excursions. When after many trials, he places his wooden train just the way he wants on the grass, between the rocks, he knows he has "succeeded". He understands the "learning" too on his own, until school, parents interrupt this process and hasten it to a premature death (today). The children in whom it is not so easily stifled are the ones who may not get the high ranks, who are called "day dreaming" in the classroom, who make mischief and are forever being summoned to / punished in the principal's office.

Understanding
The process of learning is organic / complete in itself; it cannot be splintered into many subjects isolated from each other, for reproduction in exams. 'Specialising' in a subject equips one with certain skills that may fetch remuneration. But knowledge is beyond accounting and laboratory skills. And knowledge cannot be 'taught' by 'teachers' in schools. The first step towards achieving the aims of education is understanding that we don't teach (as the word is understood today) the children (or anybody for that matter); teachers and schools are not the be-all and end-all of education. They are, and ought to see themselves, as only facilitators of learning.

Working within and without the present mainstream system
The present system of schooling (in India) is born out of, and immersed in the culture of education as it was established in early nineteenth century by the British government to serve their political needs. We seem to have forgotten that the history of our education system can be traced to much earlier times. Neither have we as a nation looked deeply and tried to understand what we have had and how it can be used today, nor have we radically initiated, experimented with original content, ideas and methods in a consistent manner. There are of course several efforts and initiatives across the country doing pioneering work with alternative education and schooling processes. There are also many individuals and groups working to bring in reforms and clean the system from within. We need these multi strategies in these complicated times. However, all these strategies have not yet been able to make a collective and vast enough impact to bring about fundamental and true changes at a national level. The alternative education movement and fraternity in India needs to think and work towards integrating their efforts, and forging a common bare minimum national education policy that will incorporate within itself a decentralised structure and flexible formulations for regional and institutional contexts, balancing out the dangers of standardization while still pursuing a togetherness.

Self schooling
Families may also choose to opt out of the current formal system of education. We already know that learning is a constant process, and we learn from what is within and around us. So our children could be "deschooled" or "homeschooled" (to borrow John Holt's term). I use the term 'self schooling' here, rather than 'self learning' since 'schooling' is associated with a certain organisation and structure; and similarly we may follow our own routine of doing things. It should be noted that routine does not mean mechanical or without thought. There are no set rules to this. Children and parents could together chart their own learning courses and activities, or organise learning sessions with other homeschooling families and so on. It is being innovative that matters here and importantly, building on the natural learning processes that would make the learning a self motivated, intense and interesting experience, taking it away from the humdrum and horror of schools. There is already an increasing community of homeschoolers in India, particularly from Bangalore and a few other cities including Chennai, and they can be contacted for assistance with mainstream integration options if so thought necessary. There are many possibilities for mainstream integration if desired, including taking up the National Open School exams. Currently there are no particular laws governing homeschooling, and it is a valid option today for families with the resources and time.

Learning Communities
Given the nature of learning, everyone is a learner. The teacher facilitates, and learns right along with the children. All in the family together explore and learn from each other.Here is the concept of a "learning society", a much discussed concept in modern communities in search of alternative lifestyles and perspectives today. A concept not very far from the traditional communities of India, which were 'learning communities' wherein knowledge was not simply bookish and all community members were stakeholders of knowledge and shared their knowledge with others and with the next generation. Here is the concept of a vibrant learning society functioning on the foundations of its strengths and facilitating learning.

Facilitate means to assist and smoothen the progress of something or somebody. Exams, textbooks and competition have only proved to be impeding the process of learning in most of the cases and do not contribute to a learning community.

Team-building IN Co-operation IN Confidence IN
Competition, as it is understood today, is an obstacle to learning, undermines the self-confidence and worth of the child, promotes individualism as against team or community spirit, cooperation and friendship. It fuels rivalry and discord. While this might well bolster the spirits of the few teachers' favourites in class, who are able to get the good ranks, and would get the ranks anyway, it damages the majority. While it does nothing towards the learning of any child in class, it aids in creating clear-cut distinctions and helps one set (small 'successful'-group) look down upon the other (large 'failure'-group), and the latter becoming resigned to it as part of life thereafter. More dangerous is that it further fosters false notions of success and achievement as those practiced by the small ‘successful’ group and incites all to aspire for the same no matter what their individual inclinations and talents are. Such a life-destructing view of competition continues into adult and work life, negating true understanding, promoting itself, teaching not to question the status quo and feeding the same competition values to the next generation through education. It is a self fulfilling prophecy that needs to be challenged. It is ironic that the Latin root of the word competition, competere, means "to seek with" or "strive together".

Satisfaction and Achievement
Exams are again related to the concept of competition, and contribute to it's boom. If you got good ranks, you are a success story, otherwise you are a failure; and being a failure is sin. This is not education and no learning happens in such a situation. A child does not need exams and tests to evaluate himself in the process of education; indeed may not need any kind of an evaluation mechanism when all that is necessary is learning. All that matters is that he learns; he will also recognise the learning himself. When a child completes a jigsaw puzzle, he knows that has "succeeded". Relevant and meaningful evaluation and performance assessments do come in an educational process but need to be evolved in participation with the learners and on the basis of empathy and context. Only then would it be a true evaluation of the learner and his or her learning and capacities.

It also needs to be understood that examinations and certificates are nothing but one way of entering the career and job world, and an obsolete way at that. Career options, occupational needs and skill sets are constantly changing in a fast changing, global and turbulent world, and requirements in job candidates also changing likewise. Just the exam grades without a more balanced personality and achievements or pursuits in lateral domains are no longer enough to do well in the job market today, if they ever were. There are as many ways as there are people, of entering the job market and charting one’s own path to occupational and material success.

Being NatureWorms and PeopleWorms instead of BookWorms
Textbooks are the greatest hindrance to learning, participation, dialogue, discussion and sharing in class. It narrows the options that the child has for learning, and consequently his imagination and innovation. He needs practical education more than theoretical knowledge, at least at the early stages. He needs to learn from nature, his fellow-beings and appreciate them. Following this, there ought to be no textbooks for children until the age of 10 or 12. He may of course pick up the reading habit on his own. But this is not to be made compulsory. Guides and textbooks may be published for the teachers, if necessary.

As we also very well know, textbooks may also be convenient tools used by 'privileged intellectuals' to present history and society as they please. We can do away with such presentations. It is also the dominant intellectual society’s imbalanced preoccupation with academics that tries to impose the notion that academic excellence is the only excellence, or superior to all other. This is not to decry 'intellectuals' and those who have achieved academic excellence. Society needs them just as it needs all other kinds of excellences. God be with them but fixation on academic achievement as the only means to societal approval, and the only type of higher education has lived to its full and needs to be expended from our psyche.

Nature's Tools
Gandhiji said that "they (ancestors) saw that our real happiness and health consisted in a proper use of our hands and feet." (Hind Swaraj) and advocated working with our hands and feet. He promoted the learning of a craft by all children in schools, and this would also be a means of supporting the school. In his educational experiments and the educational policy that he initiated and promoted, Nai Taleem (New Education), he advocated not only active work with crafts from very young age, but also that after the age of 12 or so, the child should take up a livelihood / vocational skill, which would definitely lead him / her towards many more learning paths. In learning a craft, she is also able to cultivate observation, patience, precision, experimentation etc besides also the satisfaction of creating with her hands and design. In the process of acquiring a vocational skill like carpentry or pottery, she not only channelises her energy towards productive activity, but also learns to respect and value labour. This is so very necessary to challenge the obsession with academics, and to fulfill the creative urge inherent in every human being. In the current scenario, learning and / or teaching methodologies should be able to incorporate learning a craft / working with hands / taking up a vocational skill or interest etc in curriculums and utilise the same as a medium for subject teaching, if they so require.

Public Work
It needs to be acknowledged and accepted that education is for a happy and meaningful life, in its entirety, which includes individual and social transformation. An individual does contribute to social well or ill being by his or her decisions and actions (or non-actions), whether he / she accepts it or not. An educational process should facilitate this awareness and help the individual take charge of her life and understand his / her role in society. The child from an early age should learn to value social responsibility and take active interest in what is happening around him, which would culminate in him participating responsibly in community initiatives and issues as he grows older. Community activities and programmes should be organised wherein children can be involved, like cleaning the neighbourhood, zero waste management and tank restoration projects and cultural programmes. He learns to interact with co-workers, elders and others in the community, and work harmoniously towards a common goal.

Small is Beautiful
In his book "Small is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered", Schumacher asked for human-scale and appropriate solutions. He talked of an economics "from the heart rather than the bottom line" and of "smaller working units, co-operative ownership, and regional workplaces using local labor and resources". We need to talk decentralisation, and work at solutions that would involve the community in the learning process. The village (neighbourhood) schools have to come back, minus the expensive, unnecessary paraphernalia that is now so much a part of the education system, and which our people can ill afford. Such neighbourhood schools nourished and sustained by the neighbourhood community and resources, and catering to the neighbourhood would be able to create vibrant networks of people and institutions around themselves that would support the learners and lend them wings once they finish their formal education in the school.

Looking Back, or Looking Forward?
India had "the legend of 1,00,000 schools" and a school flourishing in every village. How we managed this, Dharampalji has explained "the vast system of education was made feasible by the sophisticated operative fiscal arrangements of the pre-British Indian polity...substantial proportions of revenue had long been assigned for the performance of a multiplicity of public purposes." ("The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century") It is time to look beyond the factory school, which is after all not more than 200 years old, and find out how the world brought into being some of the most brilliant musicians, thinkers, writers, scientists, architects, composers, mathematicians etc in the many 200 years before.

In the words of J.C. Kumarappa, "University education can go overboard for a time without damaging the nation. As it is we are top-heavy, we have many more graduates than we need. These have also created a problem of unemployment as they are not the products of the type of education that we need." ("Economy of Permanence") We need new, original ways of looking at education, it's purpose, aims and methods of it, and based on this evolve our educational processes and build educational institutions, school and higher learning.

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"By challenging the well established notion that there are certain time-honoured, proven rules capable of guiding us when we want to prepare a curriculum for the education of children, I wish to emphasise that there is no escape from reflecting on the conditions prevalent in society and culture, if we want to design defensible curriculum… By taking shelter in the ‘received’ perspective… we merely shun our responsibility and allow ourselves to be governed by choices made long ago or elsewhere under very different circumstances. ... Education deals with knowledge in a rather limited context, which is defined by the social reality of a particular period of history and locale" - Prof. Krishnakumar, Director, NCERT, in his book "What is Worth Teaching"

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priya nagesh, April 2009