Our Philosophy

To make school education a success, we believe that we have to work very hard at two interrelated things: the technology of education, and the politics of education. In our view, no grander philosophy is needed than to work hard at answering questions like these, not finally and forever, but on a dynamic basis, in interaction with teachers, students, staff, parents, and the larger community.

Within technology come the answers to:

• How do we make children bilingual? Teach English to non-English speakers and teach Hindi in creative ways?

• How do we teach the scientific and mathematical approach, and not just facts, or computation, in the name of science and maths? How do we teach the mode of thinking instead of teaching the facts that it produces?

• How do we make children environmentally conscious? Able to control their spaces to their own satisfaction?

• How do we make them comfortable in asking questions, challenging authority, feeling confident of achieving?

• How do we make them feel that learning is a pleasure and that that pleasure can stay forever?

Within politics come the answers to:

• How do we develop a workable philosophy of integration of classes, so that privileged and underprivileged children feel equal as learners?

• How do we get to know about others sufficiently to feel that they are familiar to us and are our friends?

• How can we respect boys and girls, men and women respectively, not just as individuals, but as groups?

• How can we integrate the knowledge children gain from home, family, and neighbourhood, with that which they acquire through books and teachers?

• How can we teach children to be disciplined citizens while also making them concerned citizens of the world who respect other countries?

• How can we make children like technology, change, and experimentation, while remaining aware of the values of the “old,” the traditional, and the pre-modern?