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, moved here after teaching at The School, Chennai, for many years. Consonant with the teachings of Krishnamurti, this was not a simple exercise of replicating what already existed in other KFI schools. The new school had to find viable approaches in its own prevailing context, and hold the teachings at the centre.
The challenges were pedagogic, environmental, and social. It was necessary to survey educational practices and make some choices regarding pedagogy and grouping of children. The architecture, room areas and shapes and the furniture too had to reflect the pedagogic as well as lifestyle choices. In this process, we also learnt from other KFI schools who had had a combined experience of almost 400 years of functioning.
On this new campus the eyes could roam far and wide and on clear days and nights one could see the hill temple in Thirukazhukundram, at a distance of about 10 km. The sky was a huge canopy, with wonderful colours gracing each dawn and dusk. The flat land lies on the flood plains of the Palar River, with clayey soil, and water below the ground at 20 feet. We had to connect to this land and listen to the terrain, the shrubs, the grasses. We had to understand the weather patterns and the way the neighbouring villages used the land and how water flowed in the monsoon months. With just one rain, the clayey soil could turn treacherous for vehicles and for walking. These challenges taken together defined a unique environmental opportunity.
It became clear early on, that we would need to bow to the monsoons in November and December. This period of torrential rain, with the possibility of cyclones and flooding, would have to be vacation. This gave us the unusually symmetric yearly pattern of 4-2-4-2 months, with summer vacations in May and June.
Buildings and spaces communicate non-verbally. What kind of buildings would one build in a landscape 13° north of the equator, where the electricity was unreliable? It was decided early that the buildings would be single-storey structures as is the practice in most KFI campuses and they would be modest and inviting. We searched for designs that would be comfortable for residents, even if the fans were not running. Thanks to our architect, M. Sudhakar, who found the design developed by Shri Sameer Kurve of the Centre for Science in Villages, Wardha, we have Wardha tumbler roofing. This hollow roofing ensures very comfortable interiors even in the hot summer. Along with domes, these roofs create a unique visual signature. In these choices we made we were careful not be visually forbidding or appear city-like to the residents of the villages around us.
The only reliable solution to the frequent power cuts, extending at times up to sixteen hours, were DC solar electric lights. A remarkable outcome of this choice is that even during very heavy rains and flooding (as in 2015 and 2016), lights were always available in the living spaces and the roads. Subsequently, Pathashaala has moved to solar power with AC power thanks to the generosity of SELCO. As I write this, the 600-kw solar thermal demonstration project, initiated by IIT Madras, is getting ready to supply steam to the kitchen and also provide a cooling system for kitchen storage. The move towards solar energy has emerged as a good response to rapidly growing global concerns such as the need for renewable energy. This has also sparked many student projects.
It was decided to shift the classroom shape from the rectangular to a 'fat L' as per the design suggested by Herman Hertzberger in 1960. This approach creates contextual pressure for the educator to move away from a lecture and blackboard approach and find other modes of engagement. Active learning and constructivist approaches are thus promoted, and these have the potential for being consonant with the pedagogy suggested by Krishnamurti.
Given the positive experiences of the Rishi Valley rural schools, The School, The Valley school, Vikasana and Montessori schools, it was decided to have multi-age learning environments. Our experience at The School served us well and made a multi-age structure for the middle school the natural choice. Pathashaala could begin small and evolve slowly, promoting an inclusive sensibility in the school and in the classrooms. This approach has been extended into the living spaces and the dining hall too, where all of us including the non-teaching staff sit together and eat the same food.
Every private school needs to be financially viable, and one needed clarity about the numbers that would make this possible. One stumbled upon Dunbar's number (150) in Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point. Research suggests that this is the maximum number in a social group, that allows every person to get to know every other person. A rationale thus emerged for designing Pathashaala around an eventual strength of 150 members—120 students and about 30 adults. The small size has allowed for a slow growth without anxiety. With financial discipline, and a frugal style of functioning, this has made for financial viability, despite small numbers.
This approach has other consequences too. As we grow from childhood we typically learn to be with a small group of people, three or four or ten, and this becomes our universe. We become conditioned to adjust to this world of demands, with its approvals and rejections. At Pathashaala, possibly we learn that the world is larger than the few whom we like or vice versa. On any given day, each person interacts with a large number of people of the same age and given the multi-age approach, also with some who are older and some younger. Along with the open conversations that are a part of culture classes, this makes individuals encounter multiple, different perceptions.
The choice of Cambridge International as the Exam Board was enjoined upon us for a variety of reasons. We have found that their approach to assessment, and the offering of subjects like Global Perspectives, are in consonance with the directions of academic excellence, questioning, enquiry, and right thinking indicated by Krishnamurti.
Another opportunity presented itself with the phrase 'lifelong learners'. To embed this perception in the daily functioning of the school, as a reminder to the 'teacher' and the 'student', it was decided to shift the nomenclature to 'educator-learner' (EL) and 'learner-educator' (LE). This new nomenclature has however retained its meaning, particularly for senior students who co-hold the school culture. In such an approach, the other can be engaged with respectfully and can be seen as a meaningful contributor in one's learning and growing.
For the educator, it legitimizes being a learner. In fact, one is expected to be a learner. On the one hand, this emphasis on being a learner and not just a teacher of subjects or holder of a responsibility has been greatly liberating for the adult. On the other hand, to demonstrate competence is far easier than to demonstrate being a learner. Not only does this tension keep the adult 'off the pedestal' but also makes it easier to be authentic, humble and to accept one's errors.
One of the most major, and necessary, departures at Pathashaala was with regard to designing the campus with Urine Diverting Dry-composting Toilets (UDDT). Thanks to research by Dagmar Albrecht, a former staff member of Brockwood Park, we could consider dry composting toilets at Pathashaala. All living spaces and common areas have only such toilets. This has ensured that we do not pollute groundwater and do not suffer during the monsoon months. Moreover, compost harvesting is very much a part of the annual calendar—on 2nd April and 2nd October, the latter coinciding with Mahatma Gandhi's birthday. Compost harvesting is also symbolic of Gandhi's refusal to accept untouchability and social segregation.
Four years after Pathashaala commenced, the first batch of two LEs wrote their class 10 exam, and the next year, 2015, had a group of eight. Having managed to grow the school from grades 5, 6, 7 to class 10—a milestone—we were heaving a sigh of relief. But then all the parents, along with these students, met the senior team and said, "Our children are very happy here and we would like them to continue here for classes 11 and 12." The senior team at Pathashaala had all worked at The School and in the beginning there had been a proposal to start with classes 11 and 12. Sumitra conceived of the 'Programme of Autonomous Learning' for AS and A level students, with the support of all colleagues. Miraculously, funds and support from parents and well-wishers came forth and, against all odds, a counterintuitive step was taken. A second block of learning spaces and additional dorms were built, and suddenly Pathashaala was a class 5 to 12 school.
Today it is impossible to think of Pathashaala without the senior LEs, the 'culture bearers' of the school. In the words of an alumnus, 'work that others scoff at are things our LEs ask to do.' They are integral to the culture and values at Pathashaala and provide valuable anchoring.
Twelve years on, what does all this add up to, one may ask? In Pathashaala we have learnt that the idea of being a 'work-in-progress' is an intelligent response in many situations, and new solutions take time, observation, human hands, and many iterations to stabilize!
Starting small, and remaining small, has had great advantages. Not only has this been manageable, but in this community all people matter. It has been possible for all on campus—LEs, ELs and non-teaching staff—to eat the same meal, at the same time, around the same round tables. An equitable context has value in many ways for the children and adults. It is also a daily reminder that what happens within a small community is related to the larger world outside.
The world can, and does, see each of us from different perspectives. In our human lives, the tension between the 'being' and 'becoming' is often weighed on the side of the 'becoming'. At Pathashaala, one may experience being a real person in the eyes of many, recognized, related to, some words exchanged, sharing of a question, a thought, a joke or a feather. This nourishes something in a child, other than becoming.
It may be that creating convivial contexts of affection and care, reinforcing the being, non-verbally, and shaping the grounds for living together, collaborating, creating, and re-creating, enquiring with words, and in silence…is what adults can offer the young…with their own simple joyful enjoyment of the sky, the bird in flight and a snake crawling away….
Note: The author works at Pathashaala and has anchored its development at all levels from 2001, identifying the land, construction and evolving the pedagogic and sanitation approaches.