Educational Thoughts: Class Notes 2

Educational philosophy of Rabindranath Thakur

Rabindranath Thakur (Tagore) had born in May 7, 1861 in Kolkata, West Bengal and died on
August 7, 1941.
Concept of education:
According to Thakur, “God reveals himself through nature more effectively than through man
made institutions. Hence, the education of the child should be under natural surroundings so
that he develops love for all things around him.” "That education is highest which not only
imparts information and knowledge to us, but also promotes love and follow feeling between
us and the living beings of the world.”
Thakur's ideas for creating a system of education aimed at promoting international co-
operation and creating global citizens. Tagore envisioned an education that was deeply rooted
in one’s immediate surroundings but connected to the cultures of the wider world, predicated
upon pleasurable learning and individualized to the personality of the child. He felt that the
curriculum should revolve organically around nature, with flexible schedules to allow for
shifts in weather, and with special attention to natural phenomena and seasonal festivities.

Aims of Education According to Thakur:

The aims of education as reflected in educational institution founded by Rabindranath Tagore
in are as follows:
1. Self-realization: Spiritual is the essence of humanism. Manifestation of personality
depends upon the self-realization and spiritual knowledge of individual.
2. Intellectual Development: It means development of imagination, creative free thinking,
constant curiosity, alertness of the mind. Freedom of child to adopt his own way of
learning, which would lead to all-round development.
3. Physical development: Sound and healthy physique through yoga, games, sports as integral
part of education.
4. Love for Humanity: Education for international understanding and universal brotherhood.
Education should teach people to realize oneness.
5. Freedom: Education is a man-making process, it explores the innate power that exists
within man, it is not an imposition, but a liberal process that provides utmost freedom for
development.
6. Freedom: Freedom is considered as an integral aspect of human development. Education is
a man-making process, it explores the innate power exists within the man. It is not an
imposition rather a liberal process that provides utmost freedom to the individual for his all
round development.
7. Co-relation of objects: A peaceful world is only possible when correlation between man
and nature will be established.
8. Mother-tongue as medium of instruction: Language is the true vehicle of expression.
9. Moral and spiritual development: It is more important than bookish knowledge for an
integral development of human personality, by encouraging selfless acts, co-operation,
sharing and fellow-feeling among students.

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 Educational Thoughts: Class Notes 2
10. Social Development: ‘Brahma’ the supreme soul manifests through men and all creatures.
He is the source of all life. Brotherhood should be cultivated from the beginning of life.

Role of Education
 Education should promote love and fellow feeling between us and living world.
 Education must be given in natural surroundings as God revealed information and
knowledge through nature.
 Education should develop moral and spiritual qualities like self-discipline, tolerance,
courtesy and inner freedom

Curriculum:
All curriculum must be Actual living and Community Service Broad-based Curriculum
Areas in Curriculum
 Literature and Language: Mother tongue and foreign language
 Mathematics
 Natural science: like botany, zoology, physics, chemistry
 General science
 Health education
 Social science: Like geography, history civics economics etc.
 Agriculture
 Occupational subjects: Like dance, arts, drama, music, sports
 Technical Subjects; Arts, Music, Dance etc.;
 Philosophy
 Psychology
 Religion Broad-based Curriculum

Activities and Occupations:

 Dancing, Dramatics, Music, Games and Sports, Drawing and Painting, Excursions,
Agriculture and Gardening, Regional Study, Laboratory work Social Service.

Teaching Methodology:
1. Teaching by Walking; The mind in the class room does not remain active Hence by walking
the mind remains active & awake, hence the child easily grasp things. Teaching by walking is
the best method of education.
2. Discussion & Question Answer; Real education is based on real problems of life hence
question - answer method is effective wherein the teacher put the questions & ask the students
to participate in discussions. Thus they gain essential knowledge.
3. Activity Method; This method is of great importance because it activates all the faculties of
the body & mind. In Vishwa Bharti, he made compulsory the learning of handicraft. He
allowed any physical exercise or activity even during the class teaching.

Qualities of Teacher:
Thakur gave an important place to teachers and asked them to carry out the following
activities.

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 Educational Thoughts: Class Notes 2
 Believing in purity and in his own experiences, innocence of child, the teacher should
behave with him with great love and affection, sympathy, affection.
 Instead of emphasizing on book learning, the teacher should provide conducive
environment to the child so that he engages himself in useful and constructive activities
and learn by his own experiences.
 The teacher should always be busy with motivating the creative capacities of the children
so that they remain busy with constructive activities and experience.
 Education can be successfully imparted by understanding childhood and giving oneself
totally in love and union with it.

Mahatma Gandhi on Education

Gandhiji gave the concept of 3 H’s and 3 r’s

Hand-psychomotor domain/skills → Read
Heart-spiritual domain/skills→ Write
Head-Cognitive domain/skills→Arithmatic
Aims of Education
 To help the child to become self supporting
 For the preservation of culture
 For the character building
 To ensure all round development of the child.
 To cultivate moral, spiritual, social ethical and aesthetic value in the child
 To inculcate democratic ideas, leadership qualities and sense of citizenship in the learner.
 To instill social virtues such as equality, tolerance, brotherhood, service, sympathy and
liberty in learner
 The ultimate aim of is self-realization

General Curriculum
 Life centered and activity centered
 Craft centered curriculum to train man by development of his soul
 Craft was to be the starting points of all subjects
 Craft should be in accordance with local condition
 He suggested domestic science for girls
 Also includes mother tongue, arithmetic, social studies, general science, art, and music

Text Books
 Do not load children with books
 The teacher is the real text book
 Text books shoul be suibatle for indian context
 For Prinary/beginners oral education is enough as child learns more by observation

Characteristics of Gandhi’s Educational curriculum

 Stress on co-operative activity, accuracy of planning and individual responsibility.
 Providing useful activities, experiences and stressing on correlation of subjects.
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 Educational Thoughts: Class Notes 2
 Craft centered education leads of fullness of culture, it saves people for exploitation
 Instills dignity of labor in the learners
 Makes school self sustaining to certain extent
 Craft selected according to locality so that education becomes life centered

Methods of Teaching
 Children should be educated through a basic craft.
 Mother tough should be medium of instructions
 The basic scheme emphasizes on learning by doing method
 Co-relation should be established among different academics subjects
 The child is kept active through creative and productive activities.

Discipline
 Self discipline (please do not imposed from outside sources
 Social discipline will come from craft activities
 Moral discipline
 Voluntary (charitable) discipline
 Allow some freedom for children. \

Role of a Teacher
 Should be energetic
 Should be example by his/her attitudes and values
 Should possess the quality he/she wishes to inculcates in students
 Should help students to distinguish between true and false, good and bad
 Should provide free and fearless environment

Socrates’ view of education

 Wisdom begins in admitting your own ignorance.

 Self-knowledge is the ultimate virtue.
 People can arrive at truth through questioning.
Socrates
 Believes that Guardians of the city must take initiative for education
 Only education can bring order in society (it will remove injustice and disorder)
 Men and women should receive the same education.
 He splits up education into music and gymnastics and explains the subjects that relate
with music develop the soul and the subjects that relate with gymnastics develop the
body.
 Socrates explains that young children should be thought through play rather than formal
education.
 They must be told stories that teach that the gods only did good and never performed
evil.
 Socrates also believes that we must filter what is taught to the young philosophers.
 Making students develop good virtues at a young age may be more beneficial than
helping them develop a hatred for learning.
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 Educational Thoughts: Class Notes 2

Plato’s view of education

Education is initial acquisition of virtue by the child, that provide feelings of pleasure and
affection, pain and hatred, it is a matter of correctly disciplined feelings. Only education can
remove the darkness of the society.
Education is a matter of conversion between father-and- son and teacher- and- pupil; mother-
and- child, Officer- and –soldier, court, priest- and –layman, speaker-and- audience, Lawyer-
and- Law.
Plato Aims of Education
 To develop leader among the future rulers.
 To develop hard and competent workers.
 To produce leaders with military skill among the warriors.
 To produce future Civil Servants of the state.
 “A purpose of education is to create a balance, a harmonious state; where the workers are
to be trained to obey their masters and offer important economic services to the state”.

Areas of Education
 Moral before age 7
 Calculation and geometry,
 Military and physical education
Education for
Man and woman (sex separation) Girls learn by playing with other girls

System of education
 Not force but play and training system

The Level of Education

1. Elementary School
Co-education at elementary level and teach them mathematics, poetry, music and literature till
the age of eighteen years

2. Military Training
After elementary education two years of Physical education should be given to them and select
best of them for higher education; to prepare for the future guardians of the state.

3. Higher Education
Higher education should be given from twenty to thirty-five years of age, he well study the
subjects at this stage mathematics, literature and philosophy. Later on he would be opponent at
a minor administrative position to get experience for the future more important governing
positions.

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 Educational Thoughts: Class Notes 2

Aristotle’s view of education

Aristotle says that nature is given and is beyond our control; but habit and reason are largely
matters of education. Education consists of two parts, habituation and direct instruction. The
education of the habits must precede that of the reason, and the education of the body that of
the intellect.

One of earliest profounder of formal education

 Aristotle believes that God is the maker the cause of all things
 Aristotle believes that highest good found in human happiness
 Aristotle believes that education is central.
 Aristotle believes human nature, habit and reason to be equally important forces to be
cultivated in education

The aim of education

 is to develop good habits and self- actualization
 is to develop virtues. There are two kind of virtue, moral virtue and intellectual virtue
 formation of balanced development -both education through reason and education through
habit
 produce good and virtuous citizens for the States
 Education should create appetite for intellectual hunger.

Curriculum based on
 area of ethics and politics
 reading, writing and mathematics;
 music; physical education
 literature and history;
 wide range of sciences

Teacher
 must to lead the student systematically
 allow student learning by doing
 categorize of disciplines into the theoretical, practical and technical
 must remember that repetition to be a key tool to develop good habits
 consider every substance is unique
 practice practical aspects of subjects taught
 should provide training to form habit

St. Augustine’s view of education

Born November 13, 354 AD

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 Educational Thoughts: Class Notes 2
Area of Contribution
Anthropology
Astrology
Ecclesiology
Eschatology
Mariology
Natural knowledge and biblical interpretation
Statements on Jews
Views on sexuality

Teaching philosophy
 Augustine's understanding of the search for understanding/meaning/truth as a restless
journey leaves room for doubt, development and change.
 Education: us Transforming Experiences; as a Journey in Search of
Understanding/Meaning/Truth;
 Learning with Others in Community;
 Building the Habits (Love) of Learning. His emphasis on the importance of community
as a means of learning distinguishes his pedagogy from some others.
 Augustine believed that dialogue/dialectic/discussion is the best means for learning, and
this method should serve as a model for learning encounters between teachers and
students. Saint Augustine’s dialogue writings model the need for lively interactive
dialogue among learners.
 Three different categories of students, and instructed teachers to adapt their teaching
styles to each student's individual learning style. The three different kinds of students
are: the student who has been well-educated by knowledgeable teachers; the student
who has had no education; and the student who has had a poor education, but believes
himself to be well-educated.
 Teachers responding positively to the questions they may receive from their students,
no matter if the student interrupted his teacher.
 balanced his teaching philosophy with the traditional Bible-based
 Practice of strict discipline.

John Dewy (1859-1950)

 John Dewey was an American philosopher

 Born 20 October 1859 in Burlington the third of four sons.
 Who developed a systematic pragmatism addressing the central issues of metaphysics,
epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics.
 John Dewy ended his work and life in 1952, at the age of 92.

Educational Thoughts
 Nothing is more important than education in remolding a society
 Dewey recognized the scientific method as the most potent force to shape the modern
world
 He said that the function of education must be to prepare the individual to be a creative
member of society, a society undergoing creative social change.
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View of Students
 Students are intellectual giants
 They have the ability to think critically and exposure to powerful minds inquiring
intellects.

View of teachers
 Teachers are an artist-- to foster the attitude
 Teachers are an intellectual leader
 They must have abundant knowledge—technical, professional knowledge
 Teacher’s role is to guide students to arouse curiosity in them, to favor critical thinking

View of curriculum
 Curriculum should have clear objectives in promoting the art of critical thinking
 In curriculum development and teaching methods should emphasize problem-solving
skills.
 Subjects are humanities, languages, history, philosophy, and English

John Calvin

Born in July 10, 1509 and Died on May 27 1564

He believed that all knowledge comes from God. He divided knowledge into two parts:
knowledge of God and knowledge of self. Truth in self-knowledge and knowledge of God
comes only through the belief in God. Faith in Christ allows for self-knowledge and an
understanding and appreciation for the world.
The knowledge of God is gained form the New and Old Testament.

Calvin had an elaborate theory of government. He separated the church into four offices:
pastor; doctor or teacher; elder; and deacon. Teachers were mainly to be in charge of schools
and ministers in charge of Sunday schools. He viewed the main function of the church as
being educational.

The responsibility of education is placed on the church.

The goal of education is to instruct people to live a life in keeping with Christian virtue and
value.

Age of Education
He placed great importance on learning, beginning at a young age.

Areas of Education
In fact, the humanities were more important to Calvin than the study of law or medicine.
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Liberal arts as a means for man to develop his humanity. He reorganized the existing primary
schools in Geneva, stressing disciplined behavior, cleanliness and promptness.

1. Theory of Value
The burden of education is placed on the church. The goal of this Christian education is to
instruct people to live a life in keeping with Christian virtue and value.
2. Theory of Knowledge
The foundation of knowledge comes from God. In fact, Calvin believed knowledge about self
could only be realized by “contemplating the face of God”. Because God is foundational to
knowledge, and the ability to know God is innate.
3. Theory of Human Nature
Man is a sinful, fallen creature created by God. The forgiveness of sin comes through the
martyrdom and resurrection of Christ, God’s son.
4. Theory of Learning
He emphasizes great importance on learning, beginning at a young age, so as not to “leave the
Church a desert for our children.”(13) He reorganized the existing primary schools in Geneva,
stressing disciplined behavior, cleanliness and promptness. The curriculum was typical of the
Renaissance thinking. It included drilling Latin grammar and vocabulary, as well as planned
times for physical exercise.
5. Theory of Transmission
Calvin had an elaborate theory of government. He separated the church into four offices:
pastor; doctor or teacher; presbyter or elder; and deacon. Teachers were mainly to be in charge
of schools and ministers. He viewed the main function of the church as being educational. An
intimate knowledge of the subject was gained by frequent repetition, such as the daily singing
of the psalms. Calvin also considered expositional teaching and preaching integral to the
learning process.
6. Theory of Society
Calvin put society squarely under the sovereignty of God. For Calvin, God should be the
president and judge of all our elections. (17) Yet Calvin did not interpret the state as the
kingdom of God, rather as an opportunity for good government and to help people. He
believed the state should order all functions of life, including the church. In the government he
set up in Geneva, magistrates interpreted the law. Calvin accepted Roman law in the secular
arena. He encouraged these magistrates to have weekly prayer times to keep themselves
humble and truthful. Calvin’s espoused a state run by lay people who upheld the teachings of
the church (theocracy), not a state run by ministers (hierocracy).

7. Theory of Opportunity
Calvin believes that everyone should have opportunities to have education –all citizens
pledged to maintain a school to which all would be obliged to send their children including the
children of the poor, who would attend free of charge.
8. Theory of Consensus
Within Christianity, the only framework Calvin knew, he believed in consensus building. He
frequently exchanged ideas with other reformers, carefully supporting his view through
scripture. He negotiated and compromised. Toward the end of his life, Calvin proposed a “free
and universal council to reunite all Christianity”.(21) He was even willing to have the pope
preside over the council, provided he would submit to the decisions of the council.(22)
However, Calvin was unable to build consensus with thinkers outside his faith.

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Confucius
Confucius, born August 27, 551 BCE in Tuo, China,
 He was a thinker, political figure, educator, and founder of the Ru School of Chinese
thought.
 He founded Confucianism.

Educational Philosophy
 Confucius’s educational philosophy was his highest priority and it included reading,
writing, literature, mathematics, music, and physical ability.
 He designed a curriculum that emphasized these areas as well as the study of rites and
ceremonies, and the practice of civility.
 He taught his students morality, proper speech, government, and the refined arts.
 He also emphasized the “Six Arts”, ritual, music, archery, chariot-riding, calligraphy, and
computation; he regarded morality the most important subject.

Purpose of Education
 His first purpose of school had the mission of preparing young men for government
service.
 The second purpose of education is to engage with various services and teachings.
 His goals for education were to produce men who were capable to serve in government in
decisive roles.
 His main goal of education was the cultivation of character, through observation, study
and reflective thought.
Knowledge
 I have no inborn knowledge. I love antiquity and I search for it [knowledge]
assiduously
 Knowledge based on insufficient observation and/or insufficient processing.
 A mistake is acting on early knowledge based on insufficient observation and/or
insufficient processing.
 Confucius would say that a lie is having full knowledge, and deliberately
misrepresenting that knowledge.

Learning:
 Confucius sees learning as a process of observation of some type of subject matter
whether it be books, objects, or people, followed by reflection, that somehow changed
one.
 He saw learning as a highly personal and therefore, highly individual activity.
 He seemed to feel once awakened by any kind of real learning, this process would be
repeated by the student.

1. Theory of Transmission: Who is to teach? By what methods? What will the

curriculum be?
 Teacher be one who has developed their own character.

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 He did not use structured classes or exam-orientations. Instead he suggested to each
student what they should study, and then discussed it with them and sometimes just
listened.
 To one student, that Confucius thought was fitful of zeal, he recommended that the
student first consult his father and older brothers. To the other student, whom he
thought was lacking in enthusiasm, he said yes, put it into practice right away.
 The curriculum at Confucius' school included C.T.M.A.T.M. 96 music, Li (the code
and manner of proper conduct).
 The Book of Poetry, literature and history. Books did not hold a highly prominent role
in Confucius teaching.
 This changed dramatically in China by 1058 A.D., when students ceased reading the
classics in favor of books about the classic.
 Competition on exams for government service was fierce, and the more material a
student could cover, the higher their chances were of getting in to government service.

2. Theory of Society: What is society? What institutions are involved in the educational
process?
Confucius, states that society starts with the individual, and that one must first develop
oneself, to develop one's family. The family serves as a model for the community, the
community as a model for the state, the state as a model for the country, and the country as a
model for other countries. The educational process is first and most importantly the
responsibility of the individual, then the family, then the community, then the state, and then
the country.
3. Theory of Opportunity: Who is to be educated? Who is to be schooled?
Confucius says, "Developing in accordance with one's own nature is called "the way of self-
realization." Proper pursuit of the way of self-realization is called "maturation"." In this quote,
I believe Confucius proposes education for a but subject matter and form for that education
would vary according to one's own nature. At Confucius' own school, he would not teach
"duflards", and would "only teach those who were bursting with eagerness for enlightenment."
However he would not turn someone away because they had no money.
4. Theory of Consensus: Why do people disagree? How is consensus achieved? Whose
opinion takes precedence?
People disagree because they are focusing on themselves, and not Nature and the way of
Nature. Confucius did not believe any one person was the possessor of the truth. He believed
that through rational discussion the truth could be worked out between two people, and that the
truth often was found somewhere between the two positions. As far as consensus on a large
scale he believed that people would naturally gravitate to their station in life. Once there they
would be governed by what he states are the five social relationships. Those: between
sovereign and subject, between father and son, between husband and wife, between elder
brother and younger brother, and between friend and friend associating as equals. The three
traits required in these relationships are: concern, good will, and conscientiousness. The
person whose opinion takes precedence is the person whose station is assigned that type of
decision.

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Jean Jacques Rousseau

Jean Jacques Rousseau was an 18th century philosopher who later became known as a
revolutionary philosopher on education and a forerunner of Romanticism. Born at Geneva on
June 28th, 1712, Rousseau’s ultimate belief was that people are born basically good, but are
corrupted by society. He also thought that individuals only learn these “bad habits” by living
in the city, which is why he preferred a rural setting for children to learn. He believed that
natural education promotes and encourages qualities such as happiness, spontaneity, and the
inquisitiveness associated with childhood. He wanted children to be shielded from societal
pressures and influences so that the natural tendencies of each child could emerge and grow
without any unwarranted corruption.

Rousseau’s philosophical ideas on the education of children were very risqué and created quite
the uproar. His philosophy was also not gender neutral. Rousseau believed females were to be
educated to be governed by their husbands. They were to be weak and passive, brought up in
ignorance and meant to do housework. Males were to be educated to be self-governed, and the
philosophies in Emile essentially only pertained to males in society. He believed that the
private sphere depended on the naturalized subordination of women for both it and the public
political sphere to function. Ironically, one of his main beliefs in Emile that would not have
been scandalous in Rousseau’s day would clearly be seen as sexist in today’s society.

Theory of Value

-The sciences and the arts, while brilliant, are not a genuine expression of fundamental human
needs but the result of pride and vanity
-Man's fundamental first duty is to learn the art of living; man's first duty is to be human
-Keep harmful influences away from the young child; a child should grow in accordance with
his own nature; no early childhood education
-Goals of education recognizes a progressive education that respects that the child has his own
special needs as a being who exists in his own right
-Children should be children before being men"
-Well regulated freedom provides the only valid basis and aim of sound education
-Necessity is compatible with controlled freedom since it lets the human being exercise his
powers within the limits prescribed for him by nature.
-Object of education is to make a man, not a soldier, priest etc; improvement of inner self as
worth as an end to itself.

Theory of Knowledge

 Knowledge constitutes the ability to reason and use our senses to learn; if we use books in
place of nature and our senses it teaches us to believe much and know little.
 The instruments of knowledge are our own body.

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 Education should be rooted in man's moral nature.
 Educate to be a man, not one profession; he will be able to do whatever is needed in any
situation.

Theory of Human Nature

 Human Nature is in constant conflict with expectations of society

 Virtue confers stability and unity upon the human existence.

 The original nature of man is good but corrupted by society

 To be good is to exist according to ones intrinsic potentiality of one's nature.

 Man's egotistic nature prevents him from regaining the simplicity of original human nature

 Self love is always good in its purest state and spontaneous; it expresses the real essence of
human existence

 Natural order effects all aspects of human existence; brings individual into contact with his
own inner-self, physical environment and his fellow man.

 All passions are good if they are under our control; all are bad if they control us.

 Man's nature is not fully mature until it becomes social

Theory of Learning

 He stresses importance of a progressive education adapted to the individuals developing

needs so to follow "the natural progress of the human heart.'
 Early education is based primarily on the senses; promotes direct contact with the physical
world; no book learning for early education

 Learning is done through trial and error, experimentation through concrete medium

 Rousseau recognizes the need for the child to be prepared for the future.

 After lessons of necessity, lessons of utility are to be learned to develop reason to be

applied to what interests and helps him

 Through the source of our passions we are impelled *beyond ourselves" and extend our
being

 Primitive stage complete, move onto involving ourselves in relations with the physical
realm of nature and the world of human beings

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