Education

My home town Shantiniketan is a small town near Bolpur in Birbhum, district of West Bengal, India. I went to a non-traditional school established by Maharishi Debendranath Tagore and later expanded by his son Ravindranath Tagore. Their vision is in the crux of what is now a University town Visva Bharati University.

Ravindranath Tagore was a famous Bengali poet, writer, song composer who played an important role in the Bengali literature. He was the first non-European to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for his book “Gitanjali”. Ravindranath Tagore started an institution, namely Patha -bhavan where its main aim was to educate children to listen to their hearts and be close to nature.

In this school, there are no classrooms, coursebooks, curricula, exams, scores…! Sounds like a paradise, eh? Imagine a class of about 15 bare feet children sitting on the ground under a Banyan tree and listening to mesmerizing stories of a teacher. Children are free to choose the activities they want to be involved in: dancing, singing, arts, crafts, languages, anything that one’s heart wants. We were also taught how to make your own crafts and sell them, for example, cards, bookmarks, pompoms, paper crafts and others. This motivates students to explore their creativity and entrepreneurship skills. This helped me in becoming boutique shops owner in the future in different countries!

The philosophy behind such school is that students should feel the nature; closed classrooms are believed to act as a barrier to study. Moreover, our teachers think that while learning, students' minds should be free. We acquire knowledge from the nature as well as through discussions with our friends and teachers rather than using books. Our schools remain closed in heavy rains.

There are several social and cultural events that take place throughout the year, for example, Spring Festival, Holy Chariot Festival in rainy season, Winter Festival and Color Festival in March.

Last year when I was back home, I visited my school during the Color Festival. I was so delighted to reminisce my school times and express my gratitude to my teachers for letting me become who I am today!