Guidance on Education

I have always thought that something in the teacher's character was responsible for the indiscipline of his students.

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Never tell a Child something it has to forget in order to truly know. Never do something in front of a child that it must not do when it is grown up.

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Mother, what should he done in a class when a child refuses to conform to a discipline? Should he be left to do as he likes?

Generally speaking, above the age of twelve all children need discipline.

Some teachers believe that you are opposed to discipline.

For them, discipline is an arbitrary rule that they impose on the little ones, without conforming to it themselves. I am opposed to that kind of discipline.

So discipline is a rule which the child should impose on himself. How can he he led to recognise

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the need for it? How can he be helped to follow it?

Example is the most powerful instructor. Never demand from a child an effort of discipline that you do not make yourself. Calm, equanimity, order, method, absence of useless words, ought to be constantly practised by the teacher if he wants to instil them into his pupils.

The teacher should always be punctual and come to the class a few minutes before it begins, always properly dressed. And above all, so that his students should never he, he must never lie himself; so that his students should never lose their tempers, he should never lose his temper with them; and to have the right to say to them, "Rough play often ends in tears", he should never raise his hand against any of them.

These are elementary and preliminary things which ought to be practised in all schools without exception.

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...the children are very noisy.

A minimum of silence is necessary. I know that the most undisciplined children are usually the most intelligent. But to be tamed they must feel the pressure of an intelligence that is more powerful than their own. And for that, one must be able not to come down to their level, and above all know how to remain unaffected by what they do. In fact, it is a yogic problem.

Mid-1960

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(The teacher of a class of seven to nine year olds found the children turbulent, rather lazy and as talkative as parrots. She asked:) Is it like this because their real interest is not turned towards study?

Yes.

What can we do to obtain calm and quietness in the class and get the children to do some work?

The only effective thing is to create or awaken in them a real interest in study, the need to learn and to know, to awaken their mental curiosity.

(The teacher complained of a lack of results.)

It is only after months, and even years of assiduous, regular and obstinate effort that one can rightfully say (and even then!) that it has been useless and fruitless.

What should he done?

Compulsion is neither the best nor the most effective principle of education.

True education must reveal what is already present in the developing beings and make it blossom. Just as flowers blossom in the sun, children blossom in joy. It goes without saying that joy does not mean weakness, disorder and confusion, but a luminous kindliness which encourages the good and does not severely insist on the bad.

Grace is always much closer to Truth than justice.

January 1961

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The work and the discipline are becoming slack. Is it because of a "vital strike" on the teacher's part?

Certainly. It is a weakening of the force due to the non collaboration of the vital which causes the slackening. Children do not live in their minds enough to obey spontaneously a mental will that is not sustained by a vital force which influences them by its mere presence, without requiring any outer expression. When the vital collaborates, my force works through it and automatically maintains order simply by its presence in the vital.

Young children are not very sensitive to a mental power that is not clothed with vital power. And in order to have vital power you yourself must be perfectly calm.

February 1961

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A difficult period is beginning. What would be the true attitude for the teacher?

The psychic inspiration alone is true. All that comes from the vital and the mind is necessarily mixed with egoism and is arbitrary. One should not act in reaction to outer contact, but with an immutable vision of love and goodwill. Everything else is a mixture which can only have confused and mixed results, and perpetuate the disorder.

(Extract from one of the teacher's letters:) It seems that it is merely mental impulses that are making me act, and that they miss the mark. That is why although I intervene very little, I feel that it is still

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too much, because it is not the real thing. And I think I have learnt from You that true calm is much more effective than any external intervention.

It also seems that if I am going through an experience, perhaps the same thing may be true for the children, and in fact we are going through this experience together, we have embarked on the same boat, the Divine alone knows its meaning and its outcome.

The problem is more far-reaching than it appears at first sight. It is in fact a revolt of the vital forces of the children against all discipline and all constraint. The normal ordinary method would have been to expel all the undisciplined children from the school and to keep only those who are "good". But this is a defeat and an impoverishment.

If, by transmitting the inner force, in absolute calm, one can finally control this revolt, it becomes a conversion and a true enrichment. That is what I want to try and I hope that it will be possible for you to go on collaborating With my action. And now that you have understood not only what I want to do, but also the mechanism and the process of this action, I am confident that we shall succeed. We must expect relapses and not be discouraged by them.

Vital forces, especially in children whose reason is not very well developed, fight desperately before accepting the light and allowing themselves to be converted by it. But success is certain in the end, and we must know how to endure and wait.

March 1961

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Does calm in the teacher necessarily bring about calm in the class, that is to say, "a quiet atmosphere where each one can work according to his own rhythm and capacities, without noise or restlessness, without impatience or laziness. ..? "

If your calm is integral, that is, both inner and outer, founded on the perception of the Divine Presence, and unchanging, that is to say, constant and unvarying in all circumstances, it will undoubtedly be all powerful, and the children will necessarily be influenced by it and the class will certainly become, spontaneously and almost automatically, What you want it to be.

April 1961

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One can be in psychological control of the children only when one is in control of one's own nature.

16 July 1963

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First, know thoroughly what you have to teach. Try to get a good understanding of your students and their particular needs.

Be very calm and very patient, never get angry; one must be master of oneself in order to be a master of others.

7 December 1964

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The students talk so much in the class that I have to scold them often.

It is not With severity but with self-mastery that children

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are controlled.

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The most important is to master yourself and never lose your temper. If you don't have control over yourself, how can you expect to control others, above all, children, who feel it immediately when someone is not master of himself?

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I must tell you that if a teacher wants to be respected, he must he respectable. X is not the only one to say that you use violence to make yourself obeyed; nothing is less respectable. You must first control yourself and never use brute force to impose your will.

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You are a good teacher but it is your way of dealing with the children that is objectionable.

The children must be educated in an atmosphere of love and gentleness.

No violence, never.

No scolding, never.

Always a gentle kindness and the teacher must be the living example of the virtues the child must acquire.

The children must be happy to go to school, happy to learn, and the teacher must be their best friend who gives them the example of the qualities they must acquire.

And all that depends exclusively on the teacher.

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What he does and how he behaves.

To the teachers of all the infant classes

One rule which must be rigorously applied:

It is absolutely forbidden to hit the children all blows are forbidden, even the slightest little slap or the so called friendly punch. To give a blow to a child because he does not obey or does not understand or because he is disturbing the others indicates a lack of self-control, and it is harmful for both teacher and student.

Disciplinary measures may be taken if necessary, but in complete calm and not because of a personal reaction.

Mother,

I am rather disappointed with my work in the school this year. This year I am trying to have the initiative come from the students. I put dozens of proposals before them as to what we could do and how we could do it. But I get absolutely no response, no initiative, no proposal  as if I were speaking to a wall. Yet the students are good, friendly and intelligent. Something must be missing in me that in spite of my best effort I get no response. I feel like leaving the class. For the first time I am having this experience. Yesterday I was on the point of saying I am not coming to the class any more. Something stopped me. Even in this class, if I impose my will I get a good response.

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Why should you not impose your will? It is evidently more enlightened than theirs and has the right to lead them.

Of course, it is out of the question for you to leave the class  but use your will and make it advance.

With love and blessings.

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Sweet Mother,

How far do you consider it the duty of a teacher or an instructor to impose discipline on the students?

To prevent the students from being irregular, rude or negligent is obviously indispensable; unkind and harmful mischief cannot be tolerated.

But as a general and absolute rule, the teachers and especially the physical education instructors must be a constant living example of the qualities demanded from the students; discipline, regularity, good manners, courage, endurance, patience in effort, are taught much more by example than by words. And as an absolute rule: never to do in front of a child What you forbid him to do.

For the rest, each case implies its own solution, and one must act with tact and discernment.

That is why to be a teacher or an instructor is the best of all disciplines, if one knows how to comply with it.

Blessings.

20 November 1969

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A child ought to stop being naughty because he learns to be ashamed of being naughty, not because he is afraid of punishment.¹

In the first case, he makes true progress.

In the second, he falls one step down in human consciousness, for fear is a degradation of consciousness.

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Sweet Mother,

Do the responsibilities of a teacher or an instructor cease after his working hours at school or at the playground?

I am asking this because our children usually behave very badly in the streets. They walk where they like, they talk in the middle of the road and the most difficult problem is when they ride their bicycles without lights or brakes, or double. None of us takes any notice of all that because it is outside our working hours.

And as nothing is being done to put a stop to this, indifference to the law has become so widespread that one even sees responsible people disregarding these laws.

The best remedy for this sorry state of affairs would be, when all the children are assembled (probably at the playground), to give them a short lesson on how to behave in the street  what one may do and what one

                               

1. Oral reply (this paragraph only).

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ought not to do. Someone who knows how to speak to them and tell them this in an interesting, and even if possible an amusing way, could no doubt obtain a result.

Blessings.

21 November 1969

Sweet Mother,

Does this mean that once we have explained properly to the children how to behave in the street, we no longer have any responsibility for what they do outside our working hours?

It is difficult to interfere in an incident one has not witnessed. Gossip is always suspect. But if one of the instructors personally witnesses the bad behaviour of one of his students, then it is appropriate for him to intervene, on condition, of course, that his relation with the student is friendly and affectionate.

Blessings.

22 November 1969

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Sweet Mother,

What is the role of parents or guardians in the Ashram? How should they contribute to a better education of their children?

Here, the first duty of the parents or guardians is not to contradict either by word or example the education that is given to their children.

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In a positive way, the best thing they can do is to encourage the children to be docile and disciplined.

Blessings.

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Sweet Mother,

What is the essential difference between the behaviour and responsibility of a teacher with regard to young children and with regard to older students (over fourteen or fifteen, for instance)?

Naturally, as the consciousness and intelligence develop in the children, it is more and more through them that we can deal with the children.

3 February 1972

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Sweet Mother,

Should one punish a child?

Punish? What do you mean by punish? If a child is noisy in class and prevents the others from working, you must tell him to behave himself; and if he continues, you can send him out of the class. That is not a punishment, it is a natural consequence of his actions. But to punish! To punish! You have no right to punish. Are you the Divine? Who has given you the right to punish? The children too can punish you for your actions. Are you perfect yourselves? Do you know what is good or what is bad? Only the Divine knows. Only the Divine has the right to punish.¹

The vibrations that you emit bring you into contact

                               

1. Oral reply (this paragraph only).

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with corresponding vibrations. If you emit harmful and destructive vibrations, quite naturally you draw corresponding vibrations towards yourselves and that is the real punishment, if you want to use that word; but it does not correspond at all to the divine organisation of the world.

Every action has its consequences, good or bad, but the idea of reward and punishment is a purely human idea and does not at all correspond to the way in which the Truth-Consciousness acts. If the Consciousness that rules the world had acted according to human principles of punishment and reward, there would have been no men left on earth for a long time.

When men become pure enough to transmit the divine vibrations without distorting them, then suffering will be abolished from the world. That is the only way.

3 February 1972

Sweet Mother,

Could you write something on discipline for us?

Discipline is indispensable to physical life. The proper functioning of the organs is based on a discipline. It is precisely when an organ or a part of the body does not obey the general discipline of the body that one falls ill.

Discipline is indispensable to progress. It is only when one imposes a rigorous and enlightened discipline on oneself that one can be free from the discipline of others.

The supreme discipline is integral surrender to the

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17 February 1972

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Sweet Mother,

Yesterday You wrote on discipline. But what attitude should we take towards the imposed discipline to which we must conform in communal life?

Communal life must necessarily have a discipline so that the weaker are not bullied by the stronger; and this discipline must be respected by all those who want to live in that community.

But for the community to be happy, this discipline should be set by the most broad-minded person or persons, if possible the person or persons who are conscious of the Divine Presence and are surrendered to it.

For the world to be happy, power should only be in the hands of those who are conscious of the Divine Will. But for the time being that is impossible because the number of those who are truly conscious of the Divine Will is very small, and because they necessarily have no ambition.

In fact, when the time comes for this realisation, it will take place quite naturally.

The duty of each one is to prepare for it as completely as he can.

18 February 1972

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