Education

"Free Progress" is the name that has been given to the ideal approach to education as described by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Free Progress, in contrast to the regimented schooling system ubiquitous today, is that which unfolds, emergent, through a person's engagement with the world in real time. It is active learning led by curiosity and by the preferences, experiments and lessons of the psychic being.

Given our current tools of expression, a real Free Progress class can only begin when a child is able to read and write fairly well. Before that level, a teacher has to use his own discretion; but the right attitude towards the child must be adopted from the very beginning.

Education in Auroville is not limited to children, however. The Auroville Charter states that "Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages". This is more of an ideal mindset than a current reality, and is often interpreted in an exclusively mental way, but the statement has guided some efforts positively.

Sri Aurobindo on Education

Freedom to stumble

All experience shows that man must be given a certain freedom to stumble in action as well as to err in knowledge so long as he does not get from within himself his freedom from wrong movement and error; otherwise he cannot grow.

See Also

• "A System of National Education"

The Mother on Education

To love to learn

To love to learn is the most precious gift that one can give to a child: to love to learn always and everywhere, so that all circumstances, all happenings in life may be constantly renewed opportunities for learning more and always more.

The life of every day

The life of every day, of every moment, is the best school of all, varied, complex, full of unexpected experiences, problems to be solved, clear and striking examples and obvious consequences.

See Also

• "Education, Part Two: Advice to Students and Teachers"

Explorating Integral Education in Auroville

• Awareness Through the Body (ATB)
• Play of Painting

Schools in Auroville

See Schools & Educational Centres

Where can I learn...

Dance

• New Creation Dance Studio

Languages

• Auroville Language Lab

Communications media

• Auroville Radio

Farming, gardening, Permaculture

• Auroville Urban Agriculture Project
• Solitude Farm
• Buddha Garden

See Also

• Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Educational Research