Recently a noted psychologist, Dr Arati Rajaratnam, visited our school to address the parents of the junior school children. The topic was ‘A Moving Child is a Learning Child’, in which she discussed how physical movement is important for the cogniti…
Moving and Learning Read Post »
There are certain questions where the answers cannot be a rehash of memory and experience. Is an ‘answer’ even required? The key word here, ‘care’, touches the confines of my brain like bubbles in those ancient screen savers! They touch the edges, di…
What is it to care? Read Post »
To write on this elusive word ‘care’, where do I begin? ‘Care’ sometimes sounds like a reproach, at other times an admonition. Better show care next time, take care, don’t you see that I care, and so on. Mostly we are put on the defensive. We are als…
Can I be the Fire and not the Frying Pan? Read Post »
For as long as I can remember, I have wanted my students to care about things. Care about your classmates, about your teachers, about the spaces at school, about the spiders and the snakes, the trees. As they grew older, I would want them to care abo…
Care-raising Times! Read Post »
How did the chicken cross the road? While driving down a highway, I saw a mother hen expertly clucking her way across the road with her brood of chicken under her wings. It takes me a while to cross a road. She did it with such care and such confiden…
In asking the question, ‘what is it to care?’, I also wonder what it means ‘to be cared for?’ We readily recognize, for instance, that children need to be cared for, as do our aging parents. Children need adults who are engaged and responsive, looking out for their physical, emotional, and mental well-being, perhaps on occasion worrying about them, even at times scolding them for something or the other.
What is it to care? Read Post »
The waking day seems full of emotional reactivity. We react to others’ opinions on a multitude of issues—political, religious, ecological, aesthetic, occupational. This reactivity can keep us happily (or unhappily) occupied for much of the day. Then …
Editors’ Note: This is the second part of a longer essay; the first part of the essay was reprinted in the Journal of Krishnamurti Schools Vol 26, 2023. This essay was originally published in ‘Other Education: The Journal of Educational Alternatives’…
A Living and Learning Space: Approaches to Education in a Krishnamurti School Read Post »
This article is based on the work of Carl Rogers. I first encountered him when I trained to be a counsellor and he was truly inspirational. I found a lot of resonance between what he was saying and what Krishnamurti was pointing to regarding relation…
Empathetic Listening Read Post »
What do we mean by a healthy mind? It may help if we use the analogy of a healthy body. Presumably, it is one that has strength and stamina to the right degree; a body that can deal with physical challenges; a body that can deal with infections. Perh…
What is a Healthy Mind? Read Post »
Knowing is the key to caring, and with caring there is hope that people will be motivated to take positive actions. They might not care even if they know, but they can’t care if they are unaware.1…
Environmental Management: Tending a Deep Gash with a Too-tiny Band Aid? Read Post »
In October 2023, I was invited to speak at the KFI Teachers’ Conference being held in Chennai, at The School KFI, my alma mater. I was excited to both attend the conference and share my experience of working in the field of climate change. The School…
Climate Action: The Personal and Political Read Post »
The twenty seventh issue of the Journal of Krishnamurti Schools is in your hands. Handle it with care, read and glean what you will, and do share it with others!
Why do we say this?
If you look through the titles of the articles in the contents page— whether you are a teacher, a parent, a student, or a concerned citizen with questions about education—there is something for each one here.
As we were putting together this Journal, someone asked: Is there any theme running across these articles?
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.
LIFE IS LIKE A RIVER Read Post »
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…
Book Review: How Mistakes Can Work for You! Read Post »
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…
On Being A Young Teacher Read Post »
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…
Connecting to Self and the World in the Time of COVID Read Post »
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…
An Immersive Experience in Rural Rajasthan: Unforeseen Learnings Read Post »
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…
Performance in School: A Critical Examination Read Post »
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…
Honesty, Trust and Cooperation Read Post »
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…
Breathing Life into the Classroom Read Post »
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…
A Living and Learning Space: Approaches to Education in a Krishnamurti School Read Post »
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…
The Role of Imagination in Perception Read Post »
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 …
W(hole)istic Education: Thinking the Psychic Revolution in Question Read Post »
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…
Child-centred Education: Uncovering Assumptions Read Post »
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 …
The Hungry Tide and the Country Within Read Post »
I cannot be a teacher without exposing who I am
—Paulo Freire
Studying and Teaching History with my Students: Reflections on my experiences Read Post »
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…
A Kaleidoscope of Reflections Read Post »
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…
Challenges and Opportunities at a Young KFI School: Pathashaala Read Post »
