Education
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Unending education
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Philosophy
Life Divine
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Mother On Education
Personality Traits of a Successful Teacher
1. Complete self control not only to the extent of not showing any anger, but remaining absolutely quiet and undisturbed under all circumstances.
2. In the matter of self-confidence, must also have a sense of the relativity of his importance.
Above all must have the knowledge that the teacher himself must always progress if he wants the students to progress, must not remain satisfied with what he is or what he knows.
3. Must not have any sense of essential superiority over his students nor preference or attachment whatsoever for one or another.
4. Must know that all are equal spiritually and instead of mere tolerance must have a global comprehension or understanding.
5. “ The business of both parents and teacher is to enable and help the child to educate himself, to develop 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.” (Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle.)
(Published June 1954)
[From the book ‘The Mother, Education Part Two, Advice to Students and Teachers’, pg 52 – published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry, 2003]
Elementary and Practical things which ought to be Practised in all Schools Without Exception
Example is the most powerful instructor. Never demand from a child an effort of discipline that you do not make yourself. Calm, equanimity, order, method, absence of useless words ought to be constantly practised by the teacher if he wants to instill them to his pupils.
The teacher should always be punctual and come to the class a few minutes before it begins, always properly dressed. And above all, so that his students should never lie, he must never lie himself; so that his students should never lose his temper with them; and to have the right to say to them, “Rough play often ends in tears”, he should never raise his hands against any of them.
These are elementary and practical things which ought to be practised in all schools without exception.
[From the book ‘The Mother, Education Part Two, Advice to Students and Teachers’, pg 5 – published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry, 2003]
Basic Issues of Indian Education
1. In view of the present and the future of national and international living, what is it that India should aim at in education?
Prepare her children for the rejection of falsehood and the manifestation of Truth.
2. By what steps could the country proceed to realise this high aim? How can a beginning in that direction be made?
Make matter ready to manifest the Spirit.
3. What is India’s true genius and what is her destiny?
To teach to the world that matter is false and impotent unless it becomes the manifestation of the Spirit.
4. How does the Mother view the progress of Science and Technology in India? What contribution can they make to the growth of the Spirit in man?
Its only use is to make the material basis stronger, completer and more effective for the manifestation of the Spirit.
5. The country feels much concerned about national unity. What is the Mother’s vision of things? How will India do her duty by herself and by the world?
The unity of all the nations is the compelling future of the world. But for the unity of all nations to be possible, each nation must first realise its own unity.
6. The language problem harasses India a good deal. What would be our correct attitude in this matter?
Unity must be a living fact and not the imposition of an arbitrary rule. When India will be one, she will have spontaneously a language understood by all.
7. Education has normally become literacy and a social status. Is it not an unhealthy trend? But how to give education its inner worth and intrinsic enjoyability?
Get out of conventions and insist on the growth of the soul.
8. What illusions and delusions is our education today beset with? How could we possibly keep clear of them?
a) The almost exclusive importance given to success, career and money.
b) Insist on the paramount importance of the contact with the Spirit and manifestation of the Truth of the being.
5 August 1965
This series of questions was submitted to the Mother by a group of teachers of Centre of Education in August, 1965, when an Education Committee of Govt. of India came to Pondicherry to evaluate the ideals and educational methods of the Centre.
[From the book ‘The Mother, Education Part Two, Advice to Students and Teachers’, pg 131 to 133 – published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry, 2003]
About Cheating in Tests
What should I do? Must we do what is done outside – put three teachers in a room to invigilate? The teachers do not like doing these things in this way here in the Ashram.
Or should we abolish tests? I find this proposal doubtful, since the same thing happens with homework and essays.
In any case the problem exists, and in order to find the real solution we should understand why the children behave like this.
Please tell me the cause of this misbehaviour and the solution to this problem.
It is very simple. It is because most of the children study because they are compelled to do so by their families, by custom and prevalent ideas, and not because they want to learn and know. As long as their motive for studying is not rectified, as long as they do not work because they want to know, they will find all kinds of tricks to make their work easier and to obtain results with a minimum of effort.
June 1967
(The Mother said that repetition of the following statement a hundred or a thousand times a day, until it became a living vibration, would help the student to insist in himself the right will and motive for studying.)
To be repeated each day by all students:
It is not for our family, it is not to secure a good position, it is not to earn money, it is not to obtain a diploma, that we study.
We study to learn, to know, to understand the world, and for the sake of the joy that it gives us.
June 1967
[From the book ‘The Mother, Education Part Two, Advice to Students and Teachers’, pg 98 – published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry, 2003]
Tai Chi Chuan in the Tai Chi Hall, Sharnga, AUROVILLE,TAMIL NADU, INDIA.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
“The <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Inner Way</st1:address></st1:street> Tai Chi Chuan is the work of Chan (Zen in Japanese<o:p></o:p>language) masters who basically rejected all the writings, all<o:p></o:p>ideologies. Their message wasn’t a verbal one. They encoded their knowledge in a different language, the body language. The postures, the positions, the movements they left us contain the genetic code of their knowledge.”<o:p></o:p>
V.Stevanovitch
Inner listening
We are teaching energetic techniques such as Nei Chia (<st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Inner Way</st1:address></st1:street>).<o:p></o:p> We are teaching the Inner Listening.
In order to trust our feelings, we are trying to get rid of our ‘certitudes’, our ‘knowledge’, our rules and our theories and, eventually, be free of all these external models that are misleading and dimming our perceptions.
This is a very practical work. The body, the muscles are involved. This work doesn’t make, however, any division between the physical and mental planes of our being. They are interwoven!
Outer, inner oneness
Similarly, the research of Chi manipulation techniques as practiced in the School of the Inner way is interwoven with the search for the right movement, free from imposed and habitual patterns. It is as groundless to practice the ‘outer’ form of Tai Chi Chuan without the supporting awareness of the flow of Chi, as to practice these ‘inner’ Chi techniques without realizing and implementing them through the ‘outer’ Tai Chi Chuan movements.
The work is pleasant and should become easy.
Body logic
We are listening to our bodies, we never go beyond our limits. And it has nothing to do with martial competitiveness: we are looking for the body logic to come back. The Inner Way Tai Chi Chuan is a remarkable tool to achieve this. Its<o:p></o:p> martial arts originated postures enhance the body’s logic, resulting in easy natural movement. While their martial arts effectiveness may have lost its interest for us, their energetic efficiency remains a genuine treasure which allows us to free the body from its restraints and re-find its true spontaneity.<o:p></o:p> Such is our quest, going along with life. Resulting health and joy are reflecting that. Do we need to say that this quest into our inner world is endless?<o:p></o:p>
The smile..
“Let’s keep our feet on the ground. Don’t get carried away. And don’t take it too seriously! The <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Inner Way</st1:address></st1:street> Tai Chi Chuan’s secret weapon, its most effective technique is the smile..” V.Stevanovitch
Chi Hall in Sharnga
In the Chi Hall of the 'School of the <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Inner
Way</st1:address></st1:street>' located in Auroville’s Sharnga settlement, we
share this yang style technique, both its short and long forms.
Apart from daily classes, at regular intervals also intensive week’s workshops are given.
Contact: Marco, 'Ph. +91(0)413 2622432.'
Tai Chi Hall, Sharnga
AUROVILLE 605101
TAMIL NADU
INDIA
Languages
The Auroville Language Lab is a full-fledged language laboratory that draws upon the unique linguistic culture of Auroville. Integrated education set to each student's pace and experience, is what makes ALL unique.
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