Alternative education seems to nurture latent capabilities

"The aim of education", said Sri Aurobindo, "is to help the child to develop his intellectual, aesthetic, emotional, moral, spiritual being and his communal life and impulses out of his own temperament."

A school like Mirambika helps unfold unknown dimensions within the child. Parents, too, look and learn: from the place, from diyas ( the collective term for teachers: didis or elder sisters and bhaiyas or elder brothers ), from their own children."It's the kind of school I wish I had been to"—more than one parent has felt this sentiment rustle through the mind while walking down the 'Sunlit Path' to collect the kids. Here, squirrels play hide and seek, parrots squawk and chatter. In spring and early summer, the hardened golden-brown pods of the gulmohar trees beat a rhythm as they hit against one another. More than one child has stopped to gaze at these music-makers or pick one fallen on the ground.

Here, you can find tranquility, simplicity and joy. As my daughter hops her way from one year to the next, one group to the next, she gathers in the colors, soaks them deep within her, expresses and lives the spectrum from one mood to the next. The classes are not numbered here. Rather, they have names like Red Group, Blue Group, and later, Progress Group, Sincerity Group, Gratitude Group.

Not that all is perfect here. Alternative schooling has its share of problems too.Like most parents I know, I fret, am confused, sometimes anxious. All around, children write and read by the age of five. But in Mirambika, there seems no end to free play, sports, drama, insect-collection, flower-growing, tree-climbing, face-painting and papier-mâché modeling. Formal reading and writing skills settle in only by the age of seven or eight.

Says Dilip Bhai, mathematics and physics teacher at the Sri Aurobindo International Center for Education (SAICE), Pondicherry, India: "Alternative education scores better because today what counts is not how much you know, but how far you are able to keep learning. The world is moving very fast. To cope, the child has to be able to adjust. Our education encourages an attitude of self-confidence, learning and self-study."

Alternative education seems to nurture latent capabilities and inculcate love for learning. Those with such a background are usually more versatile, and capable of seeing the whole picture. They are better fitted to take decisions, introduce changes. They manage to cope and do surprisingly well in the outer world. By Deepti Priya Mehrotra Life Positive , December 1998