Editorial

Written By Alok Mathur

As we were putting together this Journal, someone asked: Is there any theme running across these articles?

If you glance across many of the articles, you will find the recurrence, in one way or another, of a central notion—care. As editors, we had decided to write our own brief ruminations around this question: what is care? Unexpectedly, we found that many other articles too echoed the idea of ‘care’, at many levels, and in varied contexts.

Climate Action: The Personal and Political

Written by Vinuta Gopal

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 had shaped so much of my life and the choices I made, that I felt an opportunity to reflect on what my journey had been in a contentious space of climate action. was quite appropriate.

Environmental Management: Tending a Deep Gash with a Too-tiny Band Aid?

Written By Nagini Prasad

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

—Sylvia Earle, Oceanographer

What is a Healthy Mind?

Written by Shailesh Shirali

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. Perhaps more such qualities can be added to the list but one gets the general idea. Can we extrapolate these to the mind?

Empathetic Listening

Written By Suchitra Ramkumar

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 relationships and listening—an acceptance of what is, observing all emotions and realities with interest and without judgement.

A Living and Learning Space: Approaches to Education in a Krishnamurti School

Written by N. Vaishnavi

The school is a place of relationship with nature, with the adults and students around me and most importantly with myself. If I do not recognize the importance of engaging with myself, then I can, at best, be someone who carries out tasks in a functional manner without ever truly understanding the meaning of why I do what I do. To be related, for me, is to be sensitive, aware, and attentive.

What is care?

Written By  Venkatesh Onkar

We react to relationships. I perceive that I am ignored by another and this sets off painful thoughts and emotions. Or, even if I react positively to a relationship (with pleasure), then there is fear of loss and also a fear that the ‘pleasure person’ will begin to contradict themselves and thus hurt us. 

What is it to care?

Written By Alok Mathur

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.

Tapestry of Care

Written by  Anantha Jyothi

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 confidence!

Care-raising Times!

Written By  Kamala Mukunda

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 about the whole wide world—waste, pollution, war, hunger, extinction. 

Can I be the Fire and not the Frying Pan?

Written by  P. Ramesh

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 also asked to handle fragile things with care. We are advised to cross roads, drive vehicles ‘with care’.

What is it to care?

Written By  Viju Jaithirtha

here 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, dissolve, and a seemingly new bubble emerges to shoot aimlessly in a straight line. How expected and typical and…known. I think I can hold out for a while. There is space around this question. There is no pressure to perform.

Moving and Learning

Written by Vaishali Humnabadkar

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 cognitive development and learning of the child. Extending this thought, I started wondering how movement and flexibility, not just physical, but also in the way we think and approach people and situations, leads to learning.

Living with Krishnamurti’s Teachings

Written By Dev Kumar Dega

As a former student of Rishi Valley School who has long been moved by Krishnamurti’s teachings, I was invited by one of the editors of this journal to write something about the impact of these teachings on my life. Without a moment’s hesitation, I poured out a ‘raw and unfiltered’ account of my recollections and feelings on this topic, and the ways in which the teachings continue to shape my life. 

What Art Gives to the Curriculum

Written by  Jaai Deolalkar & Sowmya Ravindranath

n a bustling breakfast meeting for teachers from different schools, a few of them sit down as they greet unfamiliar faces and discuss familiar narratives. “What activities do you have in your school?” comes a question. The writers (of this article) look at each other and chat about a set of pursuits children enjoy on campus— tree-climbing, seedpod collecting, going on long walks and so on—we list. “But what about art— what art activities do you offer?” the teacher insists. 

What do I Teach when I Teach History?

Written By Sanjay Mathur

To go a little deeper, I said that history is not just the study of the past but also the study of change. I then brought in what a Class 11 student had said: “Can we just study history out of a pure interest in the past, can we love history for itself? Have you ever thought that the ancients might have known some things that we don’t, for example might their philosophy and feeling for life have been more profound than ours?”

To Cooperate is a Challenge When There is an Urge to Win

Written by Bharath Balaji Sathiyamoorthy

One can bring cooperation into a game, but it is very difficult to take competition out of it. An important aspect of playing sports has always been the tendency to compare two individuals, two teams, who wins against whom and who loses against whom. Winning and losing touches a very visceral part of our being and if we observe carefully, the games field becomes a tremendous place to learn about ourselves. 

Navigating Uncertainties

Written By Janani Venkat

I ask myself the following question: if change is all-encompassing, omnipresent and imminent, how do I make sense of education, relationships, social media, work and the world around me while navigating uncertainties all the time? How can I attempt to live meaningfully in this world without feeling a sense of inadequacy and hopelessness?

Gatherings: A Teacher’s Reflections

Written by Siddharth Menon

Of course I attended all the sessions: the talks, small group discussions, video screenings, and escorted walks in the campus and its surroundings. I don’t remember, however, that they left a strong impression on me, or at least not as strong as that of being a vacation-time ‘house parent’ to adults. 

Teacher-Student Relatedness

Written By G. Gautama

Krishnamurti’s invitation to teachers, “to be responsible for the whole” opened the doors to a thriving atmosphere of questions, arguments, debates and dialogues. It is easier for a teacher to feel ownership of teaching a subject in a class, than for all that the school stands for. Wishing that school be free of competition and comparison is one thing. Taking charge of this deeply is quite another matter. 

Book Review: Face to Face and Side by Side

Written by Kanthi Phatak

Parenting, an essential human activity, has seen several rapid changes and resulted in varying trends which are influenced by current events, and these trends are becoming widespread due to increasing global connectivity. The Self Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance by Polly Young-Eisendrath is written basically for parents.