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"

Schools in Auroville

See Schools & Educational Centres

Exploring Integral Education in Auroville

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

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

Old dreams

An exhibition on evolution (1985)

"Organisation and development of a laboratory of evolution, and at the minimum level, to being with an exhibition on human evolution which might illustrate the theme of the synthesis of Physics, Biology and Psychology and which will indicate the contemporary frontiers between these three domains of human knowledge. Once this exhibition is ready, the following activities can be initiated:

1. Development of a garden of evolution in which children and youths can move about freely to study the theme of evolution.
2. The museum of evolution in which specimens of evolution can be arranged in their evolutionary order, and which can provide to the students the stimulation to inquire into the unanswered questions of evolution such as those of mutation, the role of cells in further evolution of the human species and secrets of life and death as also of a possible conquest of death.
3. Models of evolution specimens for closer and detailed study of the processes of evolution which would also provide, incidentally, comparative studies of different lines of evolution.
4. Documentation and research library relating to the theme of evolution, with facilities for young students to consult experts on questions relating to various disciplines connecting with evolution.
5. Arrangements of audio-visual equipment and facilities for students and scholars to study, both theoretically and experimentally, the theme of evolution mainly by methods of self-education.
6. Preparation of learning-teaching materials which can be used in schools and colleges where students wish to study the subject of evolution.

See Also

• Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Educational Research (SAIIER)