Have you not noticed that if you sit quietly on the banks of the river you hear its song—the lapping of the water, the sound of the current going by? There is always a sense of movement, an extraordinary movement towards the wider and the deeper. But in the little pool there is no movement at all, its water is stagnant. And if you observe you will see that this is what most of us want: little stagnant pools of existence away from life.

All of us remember in excruciating detail how humiliating it was to make mistakes as students. Mistakes, usually in English and mathematics, were often received with laughter (loud or stifled) or condescension from our peers. We were given the 'correct answers' with the unspoken conviction…

Schools perhaps play the most significant role in the process of socializing a young person in their formative years. The other key players are obviously the family and society itself. As a teacher I am wondering about the role of socialization in schools. Within school too there are different playe…

The day I turned 25, I found myself in a classroom full of ninth graders waiting to meet their new English teacher. As soon as the principal introduced me to them and stepped out, one enthusiastic voice shouted, "Akka we thought you would be at least 60. But you're not!" That very mom…

Preamble
"How do we understand our connection with our neighbourhood?" This was the question that prompted the Longitudinal Survey (LS) process that was initiated and conducted by Classes 9 and 11 of Pathashaala in 2014, 2015 and 2019. The effort was not linked directly to any specific su…

A school counsellor asks children of two different classes at Rajghat Besant School to describe in one word their emotions upon returning from a field trip. At the end of the monsoon, Class 9 had gone to Uttarakhand, enjoying the natural beauty, hiking, and physical challenges. They respond with wor…

The single major tool in today's world that has come to determine how we (adolescents and adults) understand others as well as ourselves is social media. In this space, like and follow seem to matter at least as much as, if not more than, confide and support; such is the power of these online p…

Here is a bold claim that is ripe for a healthy discourse: "Everybody lies, essentially about everything. Either verbally or through their actions. Either directly or by omission." Lies, deceit, dishonesty and deception come in an assortment of different skins. Honesty as a virtue is a rar…

The morning light creeps in gently into the classroom, warming and awakening the space for another new day. The grade one children slowly trickle in one after the other. Very soon, there is a fully charged room brimming with excitement, energy and laughter. While this may be an invigorating start to…

In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks
—John Muir

I have been a teacher for the past eighteen years, fifteen of which have been at a Krishnamurti School in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India at The School (Krishnamurti Foundation of India). When I chose to become a teacher, it was driven neither by an ambition to teach nor by the yearning to 'make a d…

Children today appear very different from what we were at their age. I once happened to see a video of J Krishnamurti addressing a group of young children. The children were neatly dressed, polite, paid keen attention to Krishnaji's talk and were respectful towards him. A section of them active…

The land on which Oak Grove school is situated is a numinous place to learn, work and educate future generations. A place we are invited to inhabit for the day and participate in creating and accessing the common ground of real-time awareness with students. In all honesty, asking young students to d…

Two years ago, I contributed to a series of emails over several weeks amongst 150 Krishnamurti 'educators' around the world. This online 'dialogue' had been ignited by the question of what K would call his schools today. After reading it all I felt compelled to offer a different …

Several theories about education are available for the seeker. The teachers at Centre for Learning, Bangalore, felt the need to share their ruminations on, and experiments with, some educational discourses through webinars online. The article below began with a two-hour conversation among all the CF…

Who, indeed, are we? Where do we belong? And as I listened to the sounds of those syllables, it was as if I was hearing the deepest uncertainties of my heart being spoken to the rivers and the tides. Who was I? Where did I belong? In Kolkata or in the tide country? In India or across the border? In …

I cannot be a teacher without exposing who I am
—Paulo Freire

Quite serendipitously, just after I returned from a wonderful fellowship at Teachers College, Columbia University, I fleetingly met an editor of this journal at the Valley School. I vividly remembered an insightful session with him that inspired me to cultivate a teaching portfolio and keep a journa…

Under very special circumstances a small school emerged on a large campus, about 85 km away from Chennai, in Kancheepuram district (now Chengalpattu district). On 19 August 2010, Pathashaala started with three teachers and fourteen children in classes 5 to 7. Two of the teachers, Ramesh and Uma, mov…