Guiding Light of The Month

O Lord, how ardently do I call and implore Thy love! Grant that my aspiration may be intense enough to awaken the same aspiration everywhere: oh, may good- ness, justice and peace reign as supreme masters, may ignorant egoism be overcome, darkness be suddenly illu- minated by Thy pure Light; may the blind see, the deaf hear, may Thy law be proclaimed in every place and, in a constantly progressive union, in an ever more perfect harmony, may all, like one single being, stretch out their arms towards Thee to identify themselves with Thee and manifest Thee upon earth. - The Mother

Spotlight on Integral enrichment program

Sri Aurobindo stated that “Each human being is a self developing soul and that the business of both parent and teacher is to enable and to help the child to educate himself, to develop his own intellectual, moral, aesthetic and practical capacities and to grow freely as an organic being, not to be kneaded and pressured into form like an inert plastic material.”

Sri Aurobindo saw the flowering of the divine in the child. Integral child education aims at self knowledge and thereby to realise the Divine Reality which is within him and manifest it in his thoughts, feelings and actions.

The Intergral Enrichment Program (IEP) conducted by Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore, began as a small experiment at putting into practice what The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have said about true education, that is, the education centred around the soul of a being. From our humble beginnings in 2004, IEP runs into its 6th year currently. A group of committed, sincere facilitators put their time and effort every fortnight running activities for children from toddlers to 12 year olds, each time trying to realize the integral goals of education during the period spent with the children and during time spent preparing for activities and perhaps, during moments of quiet introspection as well. A 100-odd happy young children have passed through the portals of IEP. We are constantly discovering and rediscovering our own selves in this process and therein lies the intrinsic worth of this programme for all facilitators as well as children.

We aim, through this column on IEP, to capture some of the magical moments of interaction with children in words and pictures and to keep our readers abreast with some of the activities conducted in the fortnightly IEP sessions that take place every 2nd and 4th Sunday afternoon at the centre. The special outdoor programmes at different venues are meticulously planned and executed by the facilitators, the highlight of it being the yearly overnight camps held at scenic campsites around our green and clean Singapore.

Here are some of the views and visions for IEP from our facilitators.

“A venue for collaborating the thoughts, actions and aspirations of young minds towards achieving the greater good of bringing out beauty in them” – Shree Valli

“To tickle the creative minds and help them think out-of-the-box through hands-on activities and stories, giving expression to their inner beauty” - Jaishree

“To nurture a confident, cheerful, wholesome individual and being in harmony with their peers” - Kala

“An environment where positive feedback and creative exploration provide nurture” - Kiruthika

“An opportunity at perfection, an opportunity to get into ourselves and know our intent, an opportunity to avail ourselves to a higher force at work, an opportunity to aspire together for all our transformations in all ways possible and loads of sweet moments with beautiful children. That is what IEP means for me. There is great scope for this programme to evolve from an enrichment activity conducted on odd/even Sundays to a full-fledged educational activity, in its truest sense.” – Jayanthy

“There is much in IEP….there is much that can unfold for all children through this programme….” - Jayanthi

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