The subtlest form of violence - Teaching

Is not "teaching" unless their is clear will and freedom, an act of violence ? What is the meaning of teaching or the process of it ? (I am referring specifically to "teaching" as understood in limited sense of our schools)

It is to adapt or mold the young - innocent, vulnerable minds to the rotten and failed philosophies and beliefs of the civilization. We can call it culturing them or nurturing them but if a mind is not allowed the freedom to think freely, to be what one is - it is a violent act.

[caption id="attachment_349" align="alignright" width="300"] Teaching is a form of Violence[/caption]

What happens in a school or home? A young innocent child is born with immense possibilities and the parents and more strongly the teachers start converting him, indoctrinating him into the vision, philosophy, way of life of others. He is not even allowed a chance to be himself/herself, to differ, to be what s/he really is.

Imagine a child with no interest in Mathematics whatsoever. We force him to sit through mathematics classes, almost everyday for twelve years. If he is not learning it well, we label him as "dumb" or "student with learning disability." Henceforth, even more focus with all new and modern strategies is given to make him learn Mathematics.  The argument that we all need some maths in life, doesn't fit here because what mathematics we need in life can be taught in less than a year. How many of us use anything beyond basic arithmetic operations and few other mathematical operations in our daily life ? How can we justify 12 years of learning mathematics forcefully ? Is it not a violent act ?

Another argument that is use to disguise violence as necessary and beneficial is that - it develops brain.  By teaching mathematics, we are actually increasing his intellectual and logical capacity. But at cost of what ? Destroying his freedom. Perhaps, the student was an artist and forcing him to do maths will also make him feel bad about himself and might even not do well in arts.  I am not against mathematics but anything taught inspite of the wish and will of the children.

This perhaps still doesn't look that serious but teaching is far more violent than it may appear. When we teach someone something we also transfer all our baggage, problems, biases and issues. For e.g. in schools we are converting kids to accept consumerism, unsustainable life style.

Teaching is violence because it does severe damage to the will, intellect, talent and individuality of the child. Just observe what goes on in a classroom, kids are held hostages for a long time in a small room constantly bombarded with all sort of unessential information.

A truly alternative school will not focus on teaching at all but on learning. It'll not harm the spirit of children but nourish them. It'll not impose any dogmas and processes on students - so that their mind and thinking is free.  For this, teachers must disappear from schools otherwise it's just a war field where we are killing millions of kids everyday and the murderer are the teachers - which they themselves might not realize. A school can just be a place with opportunity for learning -with resources and people which the kids can approach if they need to learn anything.

Non-Spiritual Education is bound be Incomplete

Keeping the superstitions aside, still,  it is common knowledge today that Human beings are a lot more than body. We are body, mind, feelings, perhaps soul too. Brain scientists and psychologists are trying hard to limit Human beings to only body and brain, by finding all sorts of explanations. Love has been defined, explained and analysed, enlightenment has been  labelled as a state of brain activity. No wonder our education is also majorly based on the belief that - we are body and at most - mind.

[caption id="attachment_340" align="alignright" width="300"] Education must be Spiritual, otherwise its incomplete[/caption]

Hence the amount of focus in our schools for body and livelihood is maximum, with little focus (in few cases) on mind, personality and moral character. There is no space for a variety of subjects which are so integral to our lives, because they seem to be falling out of the "rational" tag - into the spiritual space. For e.g. Love, Peace, Compassion, Relationships, Meditation, Imagination, Creativity have almost no place in current schooling system. Often dismissed on arguments such as - these are subjective, can't be taught, not our responsibility - blah blah.The subjects that come closest are perhaps - dance, music and art. Even these are given only little weightage in most schools.

Our current education system is almost non-spiritual, it denies a part of our reality and hence it is bound to be destructive and incomplete.

Spirituality (please note, I don't mean rituals, religion, mysticism or occultism by this or the hypocrisy that goes on in the name of "Spiritual Education") in its true sense is to accept our total being and work towards holistic development of self. It is a way of life where we accept ourselves as more than just body, our world as more than just a place to live, our role as more than just to earn money, eat and die. It is the challenge to expand horizons, to look beyond what seems obvious. It is the courage to be individual not just a face in the crowd.

Ofcourse being a subjective, unknown, mysterious topic and over exploited by religion and Intelligentsia , it has its own challenges -if we are to include it in our education system. We cannot teach spirituality like we do with other subjects. But that doesn't mean we should exclude it. I am sure once we all start seeing the importance of spirituality in our lives and education, we will come up with ways of sharing it, learning it, experiencing it. Once we can see for ourselves the destructive nature of "non-spiritual" education, we will be able to find creative ways of imparting spiritual qualities to our kids -not by blind faith or beliefs but by experience, not by force but by choice, not by fear but by joy.

Perhaps, the our ancient system of Gurukuls in India, Monasteries in Japan, China , Mystic schools in the west were influential, effective and constructive because they had "authentic" spirituality at the root of education.