Teachers are valuable as they teach, guide and inspire students in order to excel not only in studies but also in their lives. On the other hand, students provide teachers an opportunity to read, study, prepare for classes, and teach. In a way, it is a symbiotic bond. A student’s life without teachers is a desert and a teacher’s life without students is indeed a disaster. If you are in search of some insights on an ideal kind of relationship between a student and a teacher, believe it or not, your search ends here. These insights will open many avenues for you to think and act as teachers and students as you explore J. Krishnamurti’s views on the student-teacher relationship.
Who was J. Krishnamurti? What did he do? Why is he still relevant? Krishnamurti is considered an insightful philosopher, an astute academician, a contemplative thinker and a remarkable educationist. He has founded several schools around the world, including Brockwood Park School, an international educational centre and so on. He wrote many books among which ‘The First and Last Freedom’, ‘The Only Revolution’, and ‘Krishnamurti's Notebook’ are highly readable and enriching. These schools and books indeed reflect his philosophy of education. Do we have a scarcity of educational thinkers and philosophers? This question must have popped up in your mind. The obvious answer is ‘no, not really’. Educationists and thinkers such as Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr.Ambedkar, Gijubhai Badheka, Dr.Radhakrishnan, Maharshi Karve, Frobel, John Dui, Montessori and many others have already, to the best of their capacity, enlightened us. However, here is a remarkable thinker and philosopher who is quite different than others, as his philosophy is based on the real in-depth understanding of students’ psychology and the pragmatic ways to deal with them.
In teaching, as per J. Krishnamurti, what is pivotal is not the subject alone, but the relationship between a student and a teacher. If the relationship between a student and a teacher is right, then what he teaches has a much deeper meaning. A right relationship means the teacher cares for the student as if the student is his or her child. He must take him home, talk and walk and play with him as he does with his own child in order to create a great bond with a loving and caring attitude towards him. He must make his students feel secure and at home when they are with him. He must be compassionate, kind and empathetic towards students. Also, this relationship should not be condescending. It should solely be based on mutual enquiry. It shouldn’t be the ‘I know and you don’t know’ kind of a relationship. It shouldn’t also be the ‘servant-owner’ kind of a relationship. It should be a friendly and parent-child type of a relationship.
Krishnamurti goes on to add that in order to understand a child we, teachers, have to watch him at play and study him in his different moods. We cannot project upon him our own prejudices, hopes and fears, or mould him to fit the pattern of our desires. If we constantly keep judging the child according to our personal likes and dislikes, we are bound to create barriers and hindrances in our relationship with him and in his relationships with the world. Unfortunately, most of us desire to shape the child in a way that is gratifying to our own vanities and idiosyncrasies. We find varying degrees of comfort and satisfaction in exclusive ownership and domination.
He firmly states that the right kind of educator is truly religious because he is devoted solely to the freedom and integration of the individual. The right kind of educator is deeply and truly religious: he does not belong to any sect or any organized religion. He is free of beliefs and rituals, for he knows that they are only illusions, fancies, superstitions projected by the desires of those who create them. He knows that reality or God comes into being only when there is self-knowledge and therefore, freedom.
According to Krishnamurti what kills a student before he starts blossoming is the comparison that takes place between him and other students. It completely destroys him and other students too. It merely restricts the student to just imitating others and doesn’t enable him to identify his own aptitude and interests. He then cannot be himself or transform and transcend himself. It then leads him to become what others want him to and not what he himself genuinely wishes to. An elephant cannot fly and an eagle cannot lift heavy weights; a monkey cannot sing and a peacock cannot climb tall trees and hills. Everyone is unique. Thus, comparing one student to another is hell, in Krishnamurti’s view.
Krishnamurti believes that a teacher is far more important than students. Oh my God! Is he being conventional and a little orthodox here? Sounds like that. However, what he means by this has to be understood properly. In fact, he awakens all teachers. The right kind of education, in his view, begins with the educator, who must understand himself and be free from established patterns of thought; for what he is, that he imparts. If he has not been rightly educated, what can he teach his students? The problem, therefore, is not the child, but the teacher and the solution is to educate the educator.
Also, Krishnamurti is fully convinced that a teacher has an enormous responsibility on his shoulders. He must devote himself solely to his students. In order to teach his students, the teacher has to prepare himself thoroughly. Hence, the first thing a teacher must ask himself, when he decides that he wants to teach, is what exactly he means by ‘teaching’. Is he going to teach the usual subjects in the habitual way? Does he want to condition the child to become a cog in the social machine, or help him to be an integrated, creative human being who could be a threat to false values? And if the educator is to help the student examine and understand the values and influences that surround him and of which he is a part, must he not be aware of them himself? He must contemplate all this and then he will himself realize how great a responsibility he has on his shoulders as a teacher, in order to shape the generations to come.
While Krishnamurti emphasizes a lot on the ideal relationship between a teacher and a student, he does not forget to urge all students that they should be their own teacher and their own disciple. And that there is no teacher outside, no savior, no master. They have to change themselves, and therefore they have to learn to observe and know themselves as the Bible suggest us all to do. This learning about ourselves is a fascinating and joyous business.
He says that we, as teachers and parents, must let students study what they really enjoy. Let them do something just for the sake of love of that thing. Whatever they are interested in, they must study it. Their real interest in doing their favourite things will certainly lead them to excel.
While I was contemplating all this, I was reminded of three movies - Hichaki, Taare Zameen Par and Super 30. Almost all the attributes and traits of a great teacher mentioned above have been showcased through the teacher portrayed in each of these movies. All students and teachers must watch these movies. The recently announced National Educational Policy of India resembles several aspects of J. Krishnamurti’s views on education and student-teacher relationship.
Shall we incorporate as many things mentioned above as we can and help students excel in the process of learning and enhance our skills as teachers?
-Vedant Kulkarni
Full-time faculty, ELTIS