Santiniketan Sishutirtha School is a journey which started in April 2019. Every school has a ‘vision’. So has our school. Yet, it is not the one liner which seems in fashion in corporate schools. First let us state that we are not a corporate school. I have been there. I have been in the core team and then headed teams, establishing quite a few corporate schools. I learnt a lot and I am grateful to all those who gave me the opportunity to learn as I was being paid.
Urge to share
I also had the urge to share. Share what I experienced in Santiniketan, how a space for school education could be conceived differently. How we could look at community building in schools. About empowering children – and a lot more. These were a collection of thoughts gleaned during my student life and short stint as a teacher in Santiniketan. Yet, the world of the corporate schools is different. I received a lot but could not share.
The Legacy of Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore did leave behind writings on Education, yet they were more of ideas rather than the practices through which these ideas could be realised. As a student in the 70s and 80s, I was fortunate enough to experience the remnants of educational practices probably initiated by Rabindranath Tagore himself. At that time, they were mere rituals I went through. Yet, knowing the stature of Rabindranath Tagore, I don’t believe he introduced any of these practises arbitrarily. As I greyed, those rituals started taking on the meanings that I could relate to the bigger picture of his thoughts on education.
Making Tagore’s Educational Thoughts Relevant
We all talk about relevance of Rabindranath Tagore’s educational thoughts in today’s world. Time is up for lip service. If we believe so, let’s give it a chance to be relevant in the education for the ‘Generation Next’. We hope this blog will serve as a resource for educators worldwide, promoting the healing and sharing Tagore’s visionary ideas.
Preserving and looking forward
Santiniketan Sishutirtha School and this Blog is an attempt to try and preserve these practices, tweak them to modernity (which will give them the eternal flavour), try to capture an educator’s experience from these practices and much more.
I believe there are a lot of people who still remember such practices that definitively shaped their character. Help us in preserving these for posterity. Share these with us on sishutirthaschool@gmail.com. We would be glad to include them in the life of our children and share their experiences.
This Blog is also a repository of practices that can be picked up by educationists around the world. Please share your experiences too. Rabindranath Tagore is an idea to be shared, not something that needs to suffocate within the confines of a space – Santiniketan.
This long winded rambling is broadly our ‘vision’. Hope it makes some sense.
