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Aligning Education With the Future · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Some years ago, some parents in the USA had an interesting
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  conversation with their local elementary school administrator.
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  They were concerned about the type of education their children
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  would receive, so they set up a meeting to interview the
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  administrator with the idea that they were prepared to undertake
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  home schooling but did not feel competent themselves to teach
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  some of. The more.
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  Technical Subjects such as mathematics or science, nor the
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  character forming subjects such as art or music.
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  They were also concerned about the question of socialization of
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  the children. If they were too isolated, the
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  Seminole question they. Asked was.
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  Whether the administrator could realistically affirm?
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  That the. School was teaching the future
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  rather than the past in terms of preparing the children for life
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  in the modern world. The administrator admitted that
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  their entire curriculum was based in the past and.
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  Realistically, they. Were not actually preparing
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  children for the world that everyone could see was taking
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  shape for the future. As a result of that
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  conversation, the parents and the school developed a new model
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  where the students would be homeschooled but would be
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  scheduled into. Specific classes that the.
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  School could provide. Without formal.
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  Enrollment and without graduating from the school, the
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  children received the benefit of both aspects, while the school
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  had the opportunity to observe students who were clearly.
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  Awake. Motivated.
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  To learn and forward-looking in the way they.
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  Dealt. With issues, everyone felt that
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  the program thus devised was a step forward.
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  Our educational systems and even parental expectations are set to
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  make children fit in. To society and thus.
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  We inculcate. The habits and world view
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  prevalent at the. Time which?
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  Automatically act. As an.
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  Impediment to the process of development and evolutionary
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  change. We expect children to be what
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  their parents have been, and anything new or different meets
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  with resistance, both from the society and from the parents who
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  are afraid of the child potentially failing in the
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  society. Or being.
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  Different and thus not accepted. Children carry.
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  These expectations into their youth and later into their adult
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  life. In many cases, dreams and ideas
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  they had get pushed aside and they take on duties and
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  relationships as expected and suffer from depression.
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  Boredom. And a sense of purposelessness.
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  Instead of moving the entire society forward, we are fixated
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  on maintaining the status quo, regardless of its limitations,
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  drawbacks, and obvious failures. Today we see a new generation of
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  children being born who clearly have a different vision and
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  purpose. Even at a very early age.
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  One is reminded of Sri Ro Bindo's vision in Savitri, a
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  legend and a symbol quote. I saw the omnipotence flaming
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  pioneers over the heavenly verge which turns towards life, come
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  crowding down the amber stairs of birth, forerunners of a
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  divine multitude out of the path.
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  So the morning star, they came into the little room of mortal
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  life. I saw them cross the twilight of
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  an age, the sun eyed children of a marvellous dawn, the great
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  creators with wide brows of. Calm the.
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  Massive barrier Breakers of the world and wrestlers with destiny
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  in her lists of will, the labourers in the quarries of the
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  gods, the messengers of the incommunicable, the architects
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  of immortality. And he goes on their tread.
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  One day shall change the suffering earth, and justify the
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  light on nature's face. End Quote.
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  Savitri, a legend and assemble book 3 can't of four pages 343
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  to 344. The mother writes quote.
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  This is what it should be instead of making children
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  ordinary with that dull, vulgar common sense which becomes an
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  inveterate habit and. When something.
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  Is going well. Immediately brings up in the
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  being the idea. Oh, that.
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  Won't last when somebody is kind the impression oh, he will
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  change when one is capable of. Doing something?
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  Oh, tomorrow I won't be able to do it so well.
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  This is like an acid A. Destructive acid.
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  In the being which takes away. Hope.
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  Certitude, confidence in future possibilities when a child is
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  full. Of enthusiasm?
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  Never. Throw cold water on it.
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  Never tell him. You know, life is not like that.
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  You should always encourage him, tell him yes, at present things
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  are not always like that, they seem ugly.
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  But behind this there is a beauty that is trying to realize
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  itself. This is what you should love and
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  draw towards you. This is what you should make the
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  object of your dreams, of your ambitions.
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  And if you do this when you are very.
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  Small you. Have much less difficulty than
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  if later on you have to undo. Undo all the bad effects of a
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  bad education. Undo that kind of dull and
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  vulgar common sense. Which means that you expect
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  nothing. Good from life.
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  Which makes it. Insipid.
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  Boring. And contradicts all the hopes,
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  all the so-called illusions of beauty.
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  On the contrary, you must tell a child, or yourself if you are no
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  longer quite a baby, everything in me that seems unreal,
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  impossible, illusory, that is what is true.
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  That is what I must cultivate. When you have these aspirations,
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  oh not to be always limited by some incapacity, all the time
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  held back by some bad will, you must cultivate within you this
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  certified certitude that that is what is essentially true and
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  that is what must be realized. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Powers within, Chapter
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  16, Body, pages 125 to 126.