Education and the Aim of human life

V

A Valuation of the New System

We have already compared the traditional and the new systems on many points. Let us summarize our results to derive further conclusions.

1. At every moment the student is to some extent free to select the work he will do, i.e., he himself has to organize his work. At times he will be engaged almost exclusively in one subject; at other times he will be less exclusive - that does not matter much. There is in the child a self-regulating. principle - his soul that tends towards a harmonious development, provided the child has been given the freedom and responsibility and has had time to shed the bad habits of the past. This self-regulating process acts even with regard to the body, as we have seen from the story quoted from Washburne.

2. It may happen that a student takes keen interest in one or a few subjects and neglects the others. If this want of balance goes too far, it must be brought to his notice. If it persists, he may be asked the reason for his partiality and a gentle admoniton given to him, pointing out the advantages of a balanced development. But this should be done with understanding and tact. Usually when a student is enthusiastic about one subject to the point of neglecting the others, he is coldly told that this won't do and that he has to cut down the time and attention he gives to his favourite topic. This acts like a damper and the student loses his enthusiasm without making any headway in the neglected subjects. The facts must be placed before the student, but nothing more should be done; there is no question of imposing anything. The decision rests with him. Apart from the self-regulating action of which I just spoke, there is also in each, man the seed of an individual nature, with its own capacities, its own propensities, its own dharma. And this seed will shoot out roots and branches all through childhood,

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till it bears blossoms and ripe fruits. Our task is to assist the child, the youngster in the process, not to counteract it by an arbitrary nipping and pruning, for we recognize man's soul as the master of his destiny. We have therefore to give up the idea that our education should bring the students to a standard-level in all subjects. Each student should be helped to manifest what he himself stands for.

If a student swallows work-sheet after work-sheet, and if the work is neat and thorough, his enthusiasm is welcome and useful. He may by himself reduce his pace after some time. But if he does not, it is also all right: there may be in him talent or genius. Avoid being forced to tell him: "You are going too fast. There is no work-sheet ready for you." You would clip his wings.

In any case, the only normal and legitimate way to promote the interest of a child in a subject that he neglects is to pay attention to the work-sheets. And whenever a class exhibits a general indifference to one subject, the cause lies in the teacher or in the equipment (especially the worksheets), not in the students.

3. The student is allowed to proceed at his own pace. Whether he goes fast or slow does not affect the work of others. It is now possible to keep equally alive the interest of both the quick-minded and the slow-minded. The bright student receives the particular attention he deserves, and so does the dull student. Each one receives what he needs. This is an outstanding advantage.

4. It will usually be found that the students of a class will very soon spread themselves over the work-sheets of the year. No attempt should be made to prevent such a spacing: it is quite normal. As a consequence the students will give up the idea of competing with one another, although they will note and acknowledge the capacity of the other children. But they take to the work for work's sake and for the joy they find in it. They become also more sincere and honest in their work and they no longer hide their weaknesses, but try to mend them.

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5. Each student is confronted only with a work suited to his present knowledge and capacity. He is not given at the beginning of the year a huge book full of things he does not understand and which frightens him. Each work-sheet brings a feeling of freshness and novelty, unlike the pages of his text-book which have turned stale by the time he takes them up. It is a good sign that our children often ask: "What will come next, when I finish this chapter?"

6. After a little practice in a new class, a child is able to understand the work-sheets with relatively few explanations from the teacher. And after 6 or 7 years of such training, he will be capable not only of working alone but of making a proper use of books and other documentation, as a source of information to be consulted when needed. This will obviate the usual complaint that when students leave the school, they have almost everything to learn in this respect.

7. If the teacher is not lax and negligent, the system allows a constant control of the work of each student. Besides the self-testing which is done at every step, the student receives at the end of each section or chapter a testing-sheet, the purpose of which is to confirm that he has assimilated and mastered the subject. Normally the student accepts readily this form of testing, because it corresponds to his own need of checking his knowledge; very often he himself makes a request for such tests. As he is not pressed by the necessity of catching up with others, he likes to make his progress secure. Not seldom, a student asks to step back to a previous chapter to fill up a gap in his knowledge.

The student's note-books are a permanent testimony of the work he has done. No other test or examination is required.

8. In our Centre of Education it has always been difficult to obtain home-work from the student, the principal reason being that the late afternoon is given to physical education and the night to a multiplicity of cultural activities (cinema and slides, dance, music and theatricals or rehearsals). In the new classes, the common pool of written work gives the students time enough to do all that was previously defined as

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home-work - and to do much more and do it well, with taste and neatness. In one year several students have each filled in 11-13 note-books with problems of mathematics - about 700-750 problems covering a 21/2 year course. What they have achieved in mathematics they can also do in other subjects, provided the work-sheets appeal to them.

9. The question of promotion will no longer be embarrassing as we can now envisage a workable solution. Though a student may remain for two years in the same class, there is no 'redoubling', for he will start the second year exactly at the place where he stopped at the end of the last. His work will always be fresh. If a student is given a 'double promotion', there will however be no gap in his knowledge, for here also he will start exactly where he stopped.

The class in which a student is placed is determined by a kind of compromise. He will probably lead in some subjects and lag behind in others; the class will be so chosen as to minimize the discrepancies.

10. The subject-wise classification of students according to their capacity, which is an interesting and valuable feature of our present system, will apparently disappear, but the new system will nevertheless allow each student to do exactly the work suited to his grade and to progress independently at his own pace in each subject.

It is only in the oral language classes that the disparity among students may be a little embarrassing. Happily the oral work admits some such inequality in grading, especially if the mental level is fairly even.

In the written work, if the whole syllabus could be at once distributed among the totality of the classes and the work-sheets prepared accordingly, and if the work-sheets could be easily duplicated, then the problem of sparsely graded students would raise no difficulty. The teacher could always secure the work-sheets adapted to the grade of any of his students and each would thus progress normally. The problem is therefore practical rather than theoretical. We shall have to solve it.

The principal advantage of our present system is thus

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preserved and still at the same time the class acquires a unity hitherto unattained, as it is composed always of the same students, working together in the same room. If the classroom is made pleasant, well-furnished and well-equipped, the students take a liking to it. It satisfies their need for security and freedom, and they feel it is their class. But it is necessary that it should preserve always an atmosphere of quietness and work.

11. All the difficulties that we have met with in our attempt to find an ideal marking system vanish, because the need of giving marks does not arise. The supervision of the student's work is achieved through the regular self-checking and testing system. As for promotion, we have seen that it loses much of its troublesomeness.

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