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?
Most of the deliberate activities in a school are concerned with building up: accumulating knowledge, honing skills, developing the complex processes that constitute what we call thinking; developing too an aesthetic and moral sensibility, a stance towards the world and towards ourselves.
Breaking Walls and Amending Fences: Some Thoughts on Unconditioning at School Read Post »
Underneath the obvious critical situation of the economy and the environment, isn’t the world today actually suffering from a crisis in knowing and thinking?
‘To Know Is Not Enough’: Critical Thinking in a Krishnamurti School Read Post »
School is an institution for drilling children [and teachers] in cultural orientations.
From Visibility to Accountability and Assessment: A Sleight of Hand Read Post »
You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view …
Learning from Feedback Read Post »
I did not know J Krishnamurti personally and had only one occasion to see and hear him, but this talk is very vivid in my memory.
My Introduction to J Krishnamurti’s Teachings Read Post »
No one remembers why they called it the ‘Concert’.
Dynamics of a Grand Finale: The End-of-Term Event at Brockwood Park Read Post »
If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.
Inner Work: A Way to Create Emotional Well-being Read Post »
This article is a rumination on what happens in us teachers when we ‘teach’ another.
Not Different in Kind: Exploration into the Teacher-Student Relationship Read Post »
In late 2011 Oak Grove School facilitated a series of one-hour dialogues focused on an exploration of punishment and reward in educational practice.
Vision and Practice: Exploring Reward and Punishment in Education Read Post »
I am the mother all right, but I worry when my child assumes that I am the parent!’ As parents and teachers we had come together at the annual theme meeting at The School (KFI) to discuss our role in a child’s life and a child’s role in ours.
A Time to Reckon: Theme Meetings at School Read Post »
We are academicians-cum-practitioners, one from the environmentalsciences and the other from the socialsciences, coming together as teachers withthe aim of re-envisioning an approach toenvironmental studies.
Educating to be a Part of not Apart from the Environment Read Post »
The right kind of education begins with the educator, who must understand himself and be free from established patterns of thought; for what he is, that he imparts.
Theme Meetings: A Conversation Space for Educators and Parents Read Post »
Recently, on a blackboard in a very public corridor used by students for good-natured but generally anonymous graffiti, something like the following had been neatly printed: SMILE WHEN YOU USE COMPUTERS IN THE COMPS LAB – YOU’RE UNDER CCTV.
Big Brother isn’t Watching You – and is not too sure what he is seeing Read Post »
This article is the result of a study, by teachers and parents at Shibumi, of a letter from the book The Whole Movement of Life is Learning.
Communication: Studying a Krishnamurti Text Read Post »
Ethic – a set of moral principles, esp. ones relating to or affirming a specified group, field or form of conduct: the puritan ethic was being replaced by the hedonist ethic.
Prashanti’s Dilemma: Wisdom and Struggle in Students’ Voices Read Post »
Young children experience conflict every day, generated by differences in age, size, physical abilities, language, race, ethnicity and culture, religion, family structure, socioeconomic class and gender: ‘No girls allowed!’Children wish to be treated fairly and they have problems with perceivedunfairness.
Awakening Empathy in Early Childhood Read Post »
‘Academics’ is a top priority in all educational institutions, for obvious reasons.
What is Academic Rigour? Read Post »
We are probably all familiar with Krishnamurti’s statement, ‘The first step is the last step’, but what preoccupies teachers on a daily basisis how they will approach a particular student; how they will make theirteaching ‘not boring’; and whether they have the tools for the job, both interms of knowledge and psychological readiness.
Krishnamurti questioned the schools constantly about why they were producing mice instead of lions and gazelles.
