When we began the Integral Education Program (IEP) at our centre, five years ago, my motivations for joining the program were purely scholarly. I was very interested in the works of Mother and Sri Aurobindo, especially their works on Education. I was aware of the lack in the current education system and wished to see how we could apply the works of Mother and Sri Aurobindo to bridge this gap. More recently, the evolution of the IEP program as well as being a mother has somewhat changed my goals of Integral Education. I have begun to regard it, not as a system of education, but as a transformation, not something that takes place in children, but something that should take place in everyone, six or sixty years old.
The Mother has said that Education must begin at birth and continue throughout life. And now, as a mother, as a facilitator to my children, I am going through what one may call, a second phase of education, and in a sense, it is a more important education than what I went through in the first phase.
There is a constant feeling of being watched. Children are very sensitive and perceptual, so much so that it is necessary to watch one’s every step and ensure that it is the most beautiful of all that can be imparted at that instant. Just yesterday, there was an argument in the house - one of those ordinary, everyday arguments. My daughter, however, perceived the feelings that ran under the argument. Immediately she voiced out” I am very angry.” “I am very angry too”, I countered. Later, after she had returned to her play, and me to mine, I reflected. In an ideal world, I would not have my child exposed to arguments. However, when the day’s tiredness strikes up, irritability comes forward. If this is the case, a child is sure to perceive the under currents of tension in a conversation. Should I just go on and pretend that the argument never happened? Obviously, that is not a choice. The Mother has said somewhere that children are very keen observers. When they sense a weakness, they will pounce on it.
(www.bebereviews.com)
I remembered a jingle that came with one of my child’s toys. “Happy is a feeling and feelings come and go. Let your feelings show”. It was necessary for me to show her that vital feelings are a part of life, that they come and go, and they are not to control us. Then, of course, would begin the step of how we can change our lifestyles together in such a way that these feelings do not crop up. This meant a reflection, on my part on why the irritability was there, and try to pull it out of its roots.
This was just one experience but a learning point, even a small milestone in the evolution of integral education. This is where integral education is a journey, it is even more of an arduous journey for me than writing a PhD thesis. Every moment is a decision, every action requires a reflection, every activity demands perfection in the best possible sense. A half baked piece of work is simply not enough, it leaves all of us unsatisfied. There is, not just an aspiration, but an aspiration driven by need, for perfection, and that makes the integral education of a child, and that of a parent, a form of yoga in its own right.
Kiruthika
No comments:
Post a Comment