Holistic approach to education

Sarath Lewke Bandara P C

It is encouraging to see that there is evidence of at least an incipient dialogue and concerning the prevailing system of education in this country and various suggestions and proposals for its reforms arising from many quarters.

It is traditional in our society for those who excelled in the Advanced Level Examination out of the number who passed it to be brought out into the limelight and accolades showered upon them and unwittingly an equal number of children who ended up in total failure to be swept under the carpet and left to fend for themselves.

The stark reality of this phenomenon which portends a danger to our body politic has of recent times awakened the interest of not only the powers that be but of these very failures who have decided to group themselves together to drive home the poignant reality arising from this great divide among the youth of this country.

Great spiritual teacher

There is little question, therefore, that the field of education is currently in need of in-depth revision. Its importance and relevance for the individual and society as a whole has been evident to both educators and lately has been articulated by politicians’ even as cosmetic proclamations. The urgency of the situation is beginning to generate a great deal of reflection and discontent as well as a frantic search for an alternative to the current system whose virtues and failings can be readily recognised.

Despite the fact that in this country there is no dearth of renowned educationalists and experts in the field and institutes for the study and research in the field of education, only ad hoc fragmented and ill advised solutions are suggested and experimented bringing in their wake more chaos, confusion and travail. A holistic approach to the entire question of the aims, objectives and end-result of education has been totally ignored.

It is indeed a pity that the teachings of J Krishamurthi, the great spiritual teacher of the last century, whose insights reflect a clear contemporary statement of the fundamental human problem and in whose life and work the concern with education occupied a very important place, have eluded the attention of those concerned with education in the country. From the very beginning Krishnamurthi’s general teaching was directly linked with education.

Krishnamurthi’s teachings were aimed at creating a mind-set to bring about a regeneration of humanity away from the decadent and destructive pattern that evidenced the ending of a historical cycle. He therefore gave the educator and the school a pride of place in society as being responsible fundamentally in bringing about a new human being and a new society.

The purpose of such a holistic education constituted three basic aspects of educational activity, namely firstly to provide the knowledge and skills necessary to function in society; secondly to discover and cultivate specific hidden talents in the individual and thirdly to awaken a deeper interest in and for the concern of the wholeness of life.

Educational process

In the current state of education, most of the private and State energies are poured in to the first two aspects namely those areas having to do with knowledge, capacity and specialization. The third aspect is generally ignored and left to the individuals, whereas it is the most universal and should be at the heart of the educational process as wholeness is the fundamental and unalienable intent of man.

For wholeness to flourish it is essential to create an educational atmosphere that is free from the destructive pattern of arbitrary authority with its conditioning structures of reward and punishment. The resulting effect of fear and hurt produces in the child harmful reflex patterns of self-protective reaction.

The other pernicious aspect in modern education is comparison and competition which have harmful effect on the young mind. As Krishnamurthi so aptly put it, “Comparison really kills. It is degrading. It prevents one’s outlook. All our education is based on it and so is our culture. Comparison breeds competitiveness, ruthlessness and ambition. To bring up children without comparison is true education”.

Educational structures

This wholeness so expressed as the inward harmony between body, heart and mind involves the qualities of sensitivity, affection and intelligence. Be it relationship with nature and other human beings the essence of right action is the underlying interconnectedness between us and others. Love, affection and compassion are alien to modern educational structures. This is inevitable and consistent with the general concept of prevailing education as a means of imparting knowledge and skills with a view to integration with the labour market or the social structure. Intelligence is confined to levels of skills in academic performance and emphasis laid on technical performance and conformity to establish patterns resulting in the obliteration of the human essence in education.

To those critical of this approach to education as impractical and Utopian, it is important to appreciate that for human beings and more particularly for children of tender age relationship is the most important thing in life. To bring about individual fulfilment and common good at the expense of relationship is a contradiction in terms. Further one has to look around in our neighbourhood and in our own homes to see how children of tender age have been dehumanised by the insane drive towards the obsessive rat race towards ‘excellence’ at the expense of the young mind being warped with hate, fear, envy, jealousy and insecurity culminating in violence and blood shed in our campuses and society at large.

Key insights

As Krishamurthi observed the problem of education is not with the child but with the adult, namely educators and parents. If the parents truly loved their children they will always find the right school for their child. Krishamurthi because of the love and concern he had for the young of this world created during his lifetime schools based on his key insights on education bearing ample testimony to the fact that such schools are possible and a practical reality and not an Utopian fiction.

These schools have been informed by J Krishamurthi’s teachings as their essential purpose the cultivation of a whole human being, which is really the cultivation of the four basic arts, namely the art of seeing, the art of listening, the art of questioning and the art of learning, all of which make up the great art of living. This education is centered on observation and inquiry in a sense of pliable attention to ever changing inward and outward aspects of existence.