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In pursuit of education & happiness
Caught in the rat race,urban kids often lose out on the best
years of their lives as they fight toscore the highest marks,only
to forget all that they have studied.In a bid to gift children
achildhood that they can remember with fondness,a few
schools,scattered across the
country,attempt to offer a different kind of education,one that
breaks free from the shackles ofthe competitive environment in
which we live and helps children learn in an atmosphere ofwarmth
and love.This is the first article in a series that looks at
schools which provide parentswith an alternative to mainstream
education
Anahita Mukherji | TNN
Before they are contaminated by socalled education,many children
are in touch with theunknown: They show this in so many ways.But
environment soon begins to close aroundthem,and after a certain age
they lose that light,that beauty which is not found in any book
orschool.Why Do not say that life is too much for them,that they
have to face hard realities,that itis their karma: this is all
nonsense.Creative happiness is for all and not for a few alone.
Jiddu Krishnamurti
It was in pursuit of this very happiness that Sahyadri School
was set up in 1995,Krishnamurtis birth centenary year,on Tiwai
Hill,almost 800m above sea level,some distance away from
thePune-Nashik highway.It is one among the five schools founded by
the Krishnamurti Foundationof India (the first being Rishi Valley
).Krishnamurti,widely acknowledged as one of the greatest
philosophers of the 20th century,believed the way we school our
children impacts the future ofour society.When schools across the
country uniformly aim at grooming kids for success,heres one
thatgrooms them for happiness.The school has a detailed assessment
process for each child and doesnot hold examinations till Class
VIII.There are no ranks for academics.In fact,even on sports day,we
have no medals and no victorystands.We dont want children to excel
in a particular field because of the reward that they willget,but
because they love what they are doing.After all,memorising a
subject before the exam isitself a kind of cheating.It means you
are getting marks through means that do not justify the end,says
the school principal,Amresh Kumar.The method of education followed
at Sahyadri is as unconventional as its locationthe
beautiful,sprawling campus is close to the Bhima river,overlooks
the Chas-Kaman Lake,and hasa view of the Sahyadri range of
mountains.Vijayalaxmi Pandit,a senior teacher here,got her classto
study the river in detail.The project involved interviewing the
villagers who lived by theriver.We had a brainstorming session in
class on how the kids would go about researching thetopic and what
questions they would ask during their interviews, she said.When it
comes to writing poetry,Anjali Krishna,who teaches English,ensures
that her classes arenot merely an exercise in language and
style.Instead,she gets children to explore their ownexperiences and
emotions.Children are given three weeks to write a poem.The poem
goesthrough two drafts before it emerges in its final shape.Its
little wonder,then,that children love the school.My friends in the
city cannot believe that Im
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enjoying life without a TV or an iPhone, says Ananya,a spunky
eighth-grader,one among the 50-odd students with whom this reporter
interacted.The children were unanimous in their conclusionthat they
led a better life in Sahyadri than when attending a regular city
school.Many pointed tothe fact that city schools focus almost
entirely on academics.At Sahyadri,they discovered thatthere was so
much more to life.From sports to pottery,and from woodwork to
bird-watching,they
have a rainbow choice of activities.Many students said they
discovered a whole new depth to the friendships they formed
whileliving together on campus.Their interactions with
teachers,too,were free of fear.As one girl putit,In my former
school,all of us would immediately stop talking and fall silent
when we spottedthe principal.But here,we are just so comfortable
around the teachers and the principal.Theres no such species here
as problem kids.Certainly they are not punished
orhumiliated.Recently,teachers had to deal with a boy who would
regularly disrupt class andrefused to sit still.We discussed his
behaviour with him as well as with the rest of the class,andasked
all the children to put their heads together and figure out how to
solve the problem, saidKumar.He clarified,But while we believe in
freedom,we feel the word is often misinterpreted to mean a
breakdown of all systems and a defiance of all exter nal
order.We do not want kids to come hereand feel that they can do
absolutely anything they want to.While dealing with relationships
with the opposite sex,the school treads with care.We feel
thatchildren in school are too young to deal with the emotional
impact of an exclusive friendshipwith one person.When we find two
people spending too much time together,we talk to themabout it.We
would like to slow down their childhood.We dont want them to
experience thingstoo quickly in life, says P Ramesh,a trustee of
KFI.The fact that a large number of Sahyadrites return to the
school every year (for special occasionssuch as the annual art
mela),long after they have graduated,is testimony to the enduring
affectionthey have for the school.Last week,after the school bid
farewell to the class 10 batch,their physics and maths
teacher,Prabhat Sir,a passionate photographer,took them through
a slide show of hundreds of pictures of the boys and girls over the
yearsmany of them taken while they werent watching.Itwas partly the
gesture and partly the nostalgiaof watching their years at the
school pass beforetheir eyesthat had many of the students in
tears.While the school shows students video footage of
Krishnamurtis discourses with students acrossthe world,and
discusses his philosophy with them,teachers are careful not to
deify Krishnamurtior turn him into a cult figure.Ramesh points to
the fact that Krishnamurti himself said,Forgetme.Look at my
teachings in the light of your own understanding.
