HOME
| CONTENT
| SEARCH
GALLERY
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Santiniketan Environment
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
It
was always the objective in Santiniketan that learning would be a
part of life's natural growth. The first step towards this objective was
to establish
in the child a sense of oneness with nature. A child has to be aware of
his
surroundings - the trees, birds and animals around him. The mind is deprived
if
one is indifferent to the world outside. Rabindranath said we concentrate
on
learning from books and neglect the knowledge that is freely available
on all sides.
From the beginning, he wanted his students to be aware of their environment,
be in communication with it, probe it, make experiments and collect data
and
specimens. And to guide them he wanted teachers who could go beyond
book-learning, who were seekers themselves and who would find joy in the
process
of learning. In this context one might mention Tejeschandra Sen, who along
with Jagadananda Roy,
was one of the pioneering teachers of Nature Study in India.
They were able to instill in children a love for and curiosity about the
natural world.
Lord Haldane, visiting Santiniketan in 1954 was much impressed with Tejeschandra'
s
method of teaching.