Guidance on Education

(To a child learning French)

My dear little smile,

You are absolutely right, and I don't see why, instead of reading interesting things, you should start doing boring exercises.

To learn a language one must read, read, read and talk as much as one can.

With all my love.

10 July 1935

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I want to resume my study of French, particularly for speaking. Can I have some hints?

The best is to speak... courageously at every opportunity.

Mother, will You tell me the names of some good writers I could read?

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22 September 1936

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How should we teach French to the young children?

The best thing would be to tell them a story, using very simple words and phrases so that they can understand (a little story, short and interesting or amusing), and then afterwards ask them to write down in class what they have heard.

1960

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Mother, I have started reading French hooks  X has given me a list.

It is good for you to read a lot of French; it will teach you how to write.

7 April 1965

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French gains by being written with simplicity and clarity; an accumulation of complicated images always renders the style pretentious.

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Should French he considered as a special language, to bring the children into contact first with you and then with a certain vibration of beauty?

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Something like that.

All I can say is that we are considered to be one of the best perhaps the very best school in India for teaching French and I think it would be a good thing to deserve this appreciation.

In my relations with the children here, I always  speak to them in French.

Why should science be taught in French?

There are many reasons of which the deeper ones you ought to know in your heart without needing to be told.

Among the exterior ones I can say that French, being a very precise language, is better for Science than English which is far superior for poetry.

There are also a few practical reasons among which is the fact, for all those who will have to earn their living when they are grown up, that all those who know French thoroughly well have most easily found employment.

9 February 1969

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Sri Aurobindo loved French very much. He used to say that it was a clear and precise language, whose use encouraged clarity of mind. From the point of view of he development of the consciousness, that is precious. In French, one can say exactly what one wants to say.

19 October 1971

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Today I took class E5 and we continued the reading and the explanation of Words of the Mother. Although I am constantly pointing to the beauty of the language with which Words is written, I am also conscious that I am putting more emphasis on the explanation than on the teaching of English.

It is quite all alright because it obliges them to think in English which is the best way to learn a language.

2 May 1946

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French is indeed the most precise and clearest language. But from the spiritual point of View it is not true that French is the best language to use; for English has a suppleness, a fluidity which French does not have, and this suppleness is indispensable for not deforming what is vaster and more comprehensive in the experience than what mental expression can formulate.

January 1950

(A disciple wrote that he wanted to give up teaching because his Hindi students were so apathetic. His letter ends:)

It is said that you give no importance to the Indian languages. Do you want me to continue in spite of my students' apathy or can I give it up?

Continue without hesitation.

I have the deepest respect for Indian languages and continue to study Sanskrit when I have time.

Amrita says that the situation of his Tamil class is much worse than that of the Hindi one. He says that

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he will continue even if the students come no more... he will teach himself!

With love and blessings.

30 September 1959

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(Two or three teachers were having a discussion about the language of instruction in the school. Their discussion was submitted to the Mother with the remark.) Sri Aurobindo says in his book on education that the child should be taught in his mother-tongue.

23 August 1965

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X has asked Your guidance in a difficulty concerning the education of his two young sons. He has put one of them in an Italian missionary school in Bombay where the medium of instruction is English and he also intends to put the other one in the same school shortly. But now, because of the current controversy about the language problem in India, he is feeling puzzled because he finds it difficult to decide whether it is good to give education to his children through the medium of English or whether it should be done through the mother

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tongue, i.e. Marathi. In the latter case it will be necessary to change the school. He wants to have your guidance in this matter.

The mother tongue is all right. But for those who want to do higher studies, the English is indispensable.

Blessings.

3 November 1967

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At present many of our Higher Course students do not know sufficiently well any one language in which they could express their thoughts and feelings adequately and sensitively. Is this required or not, Mother? And if so, which language should they learn? Should it he a common or international language' or their vernacular?

If only one language is known this is better.

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(Languages to he studied in Auroville)

(1) Tamil
(2) French
(3) Simplified Sanskrit to replace Hindi as the language of India
(4) English as the international language.

15 December 1970

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1. The Mother underlined "a common or international language" and from her reply drew an arrow to the phrase, thus indicating her preference.

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The Sanskrit ought to be the national language of India.

19 April 1971

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On certain issues where You and Sri Aurobindo have given direct answers, we (Sri Aurobindo's Action) are also specific, as for instance... on the language issue where You have said for the country that (1) the regional language should he the medium of instruction, (2) Sanskrit should he the national language, and (3) English should he the international language.

Are we correct in giving these replies to such questions?

Yes.

4 October 1971

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