Rabindranath Tagore
RABINDRANATH TAGORE
PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal which attempted a revival of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads. He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there, In addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, which brought him into close touch with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan,West Bengal where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education.
The tremendous excitement and cultural richness of his extended family permitted young Rabindranath to learn subconsciously at his own pace, giving him a dynamic open model of education, which he later tried to recreate in his school. He found his outside formal schooling to be inferior and boring and, after a brief exposure to several schools, he refused to attend school. The only degrees he ever received were honorary ones bestowed late in life. As one of the earliest educators to think in terms of the global village, Tagore’s educational model has a unique sensitivity within multi-racial, multi-lingual and multi-cultural situations, amidst conditions of economic discrepancy and political imbalance.
Tagore's education marked a novel blending of the ideas of the East and West. The spiritualism of Indian philosophy and progressive outlook of the western people were blended together to give rise to an educational philosophy which marked its distinction.
Some of the highlights of his philosophy were - * Nature - the Best Teacher:
Tagore believed that nature is the best teacher to the pupil. Nature will provide the student with necessary situations to earn knowledge. No pressure should be exerted upon the student to learn any thing. It is nature which will
PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal which attempted a revival of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads. He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there, In addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, which brought him into close touch with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan,West Bengal where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education.
The tremendous excitement and cultural richness of his extended family permitted young Rabindranath to learn subconsciously at his own pace, giving him a dynamic open model of education, which he later tried to recreate in his school. He found his outside formal schooling to be inferior and boring and, after a brief exposure to several schools, he refused to attend school. The only degrees he ever received were honorary ones bestowed late in life. As one of the earliest educators to think in terms of the global village, Tagore’s educational model has a unique sensitivity within multi-racial, multi-lingual and multi-cultural situations, amidst conditions of economic discrepancy and political imbalance.
Tagore's education marked a novel blending of the ideas of the East and West. The spiritualism of Indian philosophy and progressive outlook of the western people were blended together to give rise to an educational philosophy which marked its distinction.
Some of the highlights of his philosophy were - * Nature - the Best Teacher:
Tagore believed that nature is the best teacher to the pupil. Nature will provide the student with necessary situations to earn knowledge. No pressure should be exerted upon the student to learn any thing. It is nature which will