Language: English

ISSN: 0040-7887

Abstract/Notes: This article investigates Rabindranath Tagore’s educational vision, which underpinned the three institutions he set up in India – Santiniketan (1901), Visva-Bharati (1921) and Sriniketan (1922). It argues that this vision is still relevant for the world of today and tomorrow, and that it should be taken into account in designing any educational model for the future. Tagore rejected the modern mechanical learning that focuses merely on cultivation of the individual’s mind, in favour of learning that encourages the creativity, imagination and moral awareness of students. He believed that education should be not for mere “success” or “progress” but for “illumination of heart” and for inculcation of a spirit of sympathy, service and self-sacrifice in the individual, so that s/he could rise above egocentrism and ethnocentrism to a state of global consciousness or worldcentrism. In pursuing this argument, I refer to Tagore’s letters, lectures, interviews and essays, both in Bengali and in English, a body of his short stories, his novel The Home and the World and his allegorical poem “Two Birds”. I also explain his awareness of the educational movements of his time in the West, and draw brief parallels with selected Western luminaries in the field, such as Plato, Montaigne, Rousseau and John Dewey. My contention is that although some may dismiss Tagore’s educational principles as “rickety sentimentalism” in a world that is palpable and real, his ideas of human fellowship, unity and creativity, and kinship for nature seem irrefutable with the rise of multiculturalism and the looming ecological crisis threatening world peace.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2015.1125441

ISSN: 1035-7823

Language: English

Published: Amherst, Massachusetts: Comparative and International Education Society, 1979

Pages: 119-126

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: Early results from a Montessori nursery program initiated by Toronto, Canada, in 1971, to help inner-city children prepare for formal education indicate that the mothers of the 15 three- and four-year-old children were pleased with the program. Specifically, they felt that the children had increased their verbal skills, preparedness for junior kindergarten, and social maturity. However, not all mothers were pleased with the increased independence shown by some of the children. A study of the children's characteristics suggested that caution should be exerted in extrapolating the findings from other so-called disadvantaged children to inner-city children in one's own city. Other data are useful but the needs of a particular population must be carefully observed. When isolating deficiencies or identity needs, wholesale generalizations from superficial measures should not be made. Precise and explicit definitions should be made for such terms as deficient in language, intellectual motivation, or conceptual ability. Otherwise inadequate solutions are likely to result. (JS)

Language: English

Published: Toronto, Canada, Nov 1971

Language: French

Published: Neuchâtel, Switzerland: Delachaux-Niestlé, 1912

Edition: [1st edition Swiss]

Series: Collection d'actualités pédagogiques publiée sous les auspices de l'Institut J.J. Rousseau

Language: English

Published: Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company, 2007

ISBN: 978-90-79506-12-5

Series: The Montessori Series , 5

Language: English

ISSN: 1071-6246

Language: English

Published: Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Association Montessori Internationale, 1976

Abstract/Notes: Summary of presentation by Jean Miller

Language: English