INTRODUCTION
Aurobindo Ghosh was
born in 1872 in Calcutta. At the age of 6 he went to England and studied the
Mesteripice creations of ancient philosophers, social thinkers and poet. Versed
in many languages. He returned to India in 1993.
He served for 13 years in
Baroda state under the Gaikvad ruler. Then he resigned and jumped into
political struggle.
He arose the
feeling of nationalism in the people of India through his papers namely
‘Bandematram’ karmayogin’ and ‘Dharm’.
PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
Sri Aurobindo Gosh
was not only a great philosopher but an eminent educationalist also. He
stresses that the main aid of a teacher is his conscience. This conscience has
4 stages namely (i) Consciousness (ii) mind (iii) Intelligence and (iv)
Knowledge. Education should develop all these 4 stages as much as possible.
As an idealist,
Aurobindo’s philosophy of education is based on spiritual penance, practice of
yoga and brahmacharya.
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATIONAL
PHILOSOPHY
The basic
principles of Sri Aurobindo’s educational philosophy are given below.
1. Education should be
importuned through the medium of mother-tongue.
2. Education should be
child centered.
3. Education should be according to the mental
aptitude and psychological needs of the child.
4. Education should
develop conciousness.
5. Education should train
the senses of child.
AIMS OF EDUCATION
According to Sri
Aurobindo Ghosh the aims of education are given below.
1. Physical development
2. Development of senses
3. Mental Development
4. Development of morality
5. Development of
conscience
6. Spiritual development
CURRICULUM
The following
criteria for planning curriculum are formed in has writings.
1. Human nature
2. Individual difference
3. From near to far
4. Modern and upto date
5. Universal knowledge
6. Successive teaching
7. Co-curricular
activities
8. Five-fold curriculum
9. Multisideness
10. Provision for the genius
11. Moral and religious
education
INTEGRAL EDUCATION
This integral education
has been explained by his closest collaborator the mother as education to be
complete must have five principle aspect relating the human beings.
His scheme of
education is integral in two senses. Firstly, it is integral in the sense of
including all the aspects of the psychic and spiritual. Secondly, it is integral
the sense of being an education not only for the evaluation of the individual
alone but also of the nation and finally of the humanity.
METHODS OF TEACHING
Aurobindo Ghosh has
laid stress upon principles of methods of teaching.
1. Freedom of child
Children should be
provided with a free environment so that they are able to gain more and more
knowledge by their own efforts.
2. Love and sympathy for the child
Children should be
treated with love, sympathy and consideration. This promotes their normal and
natural development.
3. Educational through mother-tongue
He emphasized that
education should be imported to the child through his mother tongue. Then able
to grasp and understand even most difficult subjects easily.
4. Education according to interests of the child
The teacher should
first study the child and then provide education accordingly so that he feels
really motivated to learn and develop.
5. Education through self-experience
A child should be
free to learn by his own efforts and experiences. This leads to permanent
learning and will prove useful for his future life.
6. Emphasis of Learning by doing
He gave much
importance to the activities of a child. According to him, the best method of
learning is learning by doing. So he emphasized Montessori method for infant
classes and the practice of art and drawing in primary and secondary classes.
7. Educational through co-operation
Teaching and
learning is a co-operative process. So he laid great stress on the co-operative
activities of teacher and children in the educational process.
8. Education according to the nature of child
Each child has an
element of divinity in itself as well as his own Latent gifts of mind and
spirit. Education should develop the child spiritually to the fullest extent by
developing these of divinity and inherent mental capacity.
THE SCHOOL
The ultimate ideal
of the school is man-making. It prepares the educated to work first as a human
being and then as a member of a nation and finally as an individual. The
circles of moral responsibility and loyalties proceed from wider to narrower
and not vice-versa. The man has to develop first as a human being then as a
citizen and finally an individual.
Sri Aurobindo
believes in three ultimate principles. Individually commonality, essentiality.
In the integral school four types of rooms are required to carry on various
activities.
1. Rooms of silence, 2. Rooms of collaboration, 3. Rooms
of consultation, 4. Lecture rooms. Thus the school will develop different types
of activities such as silence, collaboration consultation and lectures. It will
provide play activity discovery, innovation and finally development of the
powers of the body, mind and spirit of the educand. In brief, the integral
school will provide opportunities for integral development.
THE TEACHER
About the teacher
Sri Aurobindo Ghosh has himself written-“the teacher is not an instructor or
task master, he is a helper and guide. His business is to suggest and not to
impose. He does not actually train the pupil’s mind, he only shows him how to
perfect has instruments of knowledge and helps him and encourages him in the
process.
PERSONALITY TRAITS OF THE TEACHER
1. Complete self-control not only to the extent
of not showing any anger, but remaining absolutely quite and undisturbed under
all circumstances.
2. In the matter of self-confidence, he must
also have the sense of the relatively of his importance.
3. Must not have any sense of essential
superiority over his students nor preference of attainment whatsoever for one
or another.
4. Must know what all are equal spiritually
and instead of more tolerance must have a global comprehension or
understanding.
5. The business of both parent and teacher is
not enable and to help the child to educate himself to help his own
intellectual, moral, aesthetic and practical capacities and to grow freely as
an organic being, not to be kneaded and pressured into form like an inert
plastic material.
IDEAL CHILD
Sri Aurobindo’s
system of education is paidocentric. It aims at the creation of ideal children.
The ideal children are absolutely sincere and constantly progressive. They are
forbidden fighting any where. They are always truthful. The mother has given
the following description of an ideal child.
1. Good-Tempered. 8.
Cheerful
2. Game 9.
Methods
3. Truthful 10.
Generous
4. Patient 11.
Courteous
5. Enduring 12.
Obedient
6. Poised 13.
Fair
7. Courageous
CONCLUSION
Social anthropology
has shown that man is more a cultural than a biological being. Thus,
innumerable factors influence the modern child. It is the most important single
message of Sri Aurobindo. The key to understand his thought in education is the
integral approach. As has been already pointed out, his explanation of
development is integral including physical, via, mental, moral and spiritual
education. As he said, man becomes perfect “when he combines in himself the
idealist and B pragmatist, the originative and the executive power”.
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