8. Role of Education

Krishnamurti dedicated to the cause of bringing about a psychological revolution through individual voluntary comprehension of the cause of the fragmentation of consciousness. He is educating the people the art of awakening the intelligence through choiceless awareness of what is. In order to bring about a new social order base on love and the action of intelligence, he stresses the need for imparting right education to children. The following section therefore, presented some of the views of Krishnamurti on education, which have direct or indirect bearings on the issue of psychological revolution.

To Krishnamurti, the present set up of education is a total failure and therefore, suggest a right kind of education. Right kind of education is not concerned with a particular ideology. It is neither not based on any system nor is a means of conditioning the individual in certain manner. It is rather to foster the understanding of what is. In Krishnamurti’s view on education, ideals have no place for they prevent the comprehension of the present. True education to him is helping the individual to flower in love and goodness.

To bring about right education, one must understand the meaning of life as a whole and for that one should be able to think directly and truly. To understand life is to understand oneself and to Krishnamurti that is both the beginning and the end of education. So, education should not be treated as a process of achieving mere knowledge and degrees. It is to see the significance of life as a whole. The whole could not be approach through the part which the present forms of government or religious organizations are but attempting to do.

To Krishnamurti, the real problem in education is the educator. He holds that, the educator who sees the causes of this universal crisis should help in awakening intelligence in the student, thus helping the coming generation not to bring about further conflict and disaster. It is the function of the educator to examine deeply one’s thoughts and feelings and to put aside those values which gives security and comfort. It is only through that way educator can help students to be self-aware and to understand their own urges and fears. Educator must give all thought, care and affection to the creation of right environment. In that environment the child grows into maturity and would be capable of dealing intelligently with the human problems. In order to do this the educator must understand himself instead of relying on ideologies, system and beliefs.

So, what is essential in education is to have people who are understanding and affectionate and whose hearts are not filled with empty phrases, with the things of the mind.

He asserts that,

‘If life is meant to be lived happily, with thought, with care, with affection, then it is very important to understand ourselves; and if we wish to build a truly enlightened society, we must have educators who understand the ways of integration and who are therefore capable of imparting that understanding to the child.’^[1]

What is important is therefore, to educate the educators. The educator would see the inward nature of freedom and help each individual student to observe and understand their own self-projected values. Desire for learning comes when one likes to do what one is doing. In other words, the educator has to help the student to find what he/she likes to do. The duty lies with the teacher that such an environment is made available where student feels free to question and feels free to enquire into the very matter of what one truly is. The educator has to encourage the child to question with freedom, that is, the students is to be encouraged to enquire about anything irrespective of its status as authority or accepted principles. If the educators are not free from the evils of the acquisitive society and of identification with idea as the self-center, they could not create right atmosphere and would inevitably teach nothing else but what they themselves are–the creatures of desire, envy, ambition.

In order to bring about a new social order based on love and the action of intelligence rather than identification with idea, acquisitiveness, competition, ambition etc., Krishnamurti stresses the need for imparting right education to children. He thinks that if children are brought up in right atmosphere, they may grow up as different human beings. He means that children should be educated and brought up, so that they do not inherit the consciousness of the older generation which is infected with the disease of fragmentation in terms of religion, nationalism, racialism and so on.

The purpose of education is not to produce mere educated people who are engineer, scientists, doctors, able workmen etc., but integrated men and women who are free of fear. It is only in that state and only between such human beings there could be enduring peace. If the individual is to grapple with life and face its intricacies, its misery and sudden demands, he/she must be infinitely pliable and therefore free of theories and particular patterns of thought. Education should not encourage the individuals to conform to society or to be negatively harmonious with it. It should rather help an individual to discover the true values which comes with unbiased investigation and self-awareness. Education should awaken the capacity to be self-aware and not merely indulge in gratifying self-expression.

In explaining the present education, he further asserts that education is treated as a matter of accumulating information and knowledge from books, which anyone can do who are capable of reading. Such education offers a subtle form of escapes from oneself and like all escapes, it inevitably creates increasing misery. Besides, the present education system has only over emphasized technique and in the process destroyed man. To cultivate capacity and efficiency without understanding life and without having comprehensive perception of the ways of thought and desire, would only make one increasingly ruthless. This in turn engenders wars and jeopardizes physical security.

Krishnmaurti opines that technological progress does solve certain kinds of problems for some people at one level, but also introduces wider and deeper issues. To live at one level by disregarding the total process of life is to invite misery and destruction. The greatest need and most pressing problem for every individual is to have an integrated comprehension of life which would enable an individual to meet it’s ever increasing complexities. Thus, he says that technical knowledge, however necessary, would in no way resolve one’s inner, psychological pressures and conflicts. Since one has acquired technical knowledge without understanding the total process of life, it becomes a means of destroying oneself.

He therefore said,

‘The right kind of education, while encouraging the learning of a technique, should accomplish something which is of far greater importance; it should help man to experience the integrated process of life. It is this experiencing that will put capacity and technique in their right place. If one really has something to say, the very saying of it creates its own style; but learning a style without inward experiencing can only lead to superficiality.’^[2]

Education should not be concerned with any ideology and should not be based on any system nor should be a means of conditioning the individual in some special manner. ‘Education in the true sense is helping the individual to be mature and free, to flower greatly in love and goodness’^[3] and should not shape the child according to some idealistic pattern. Any method which classified children in to some pattern merely emphasizes their differences and breeds antagonism, encourages division in society and does not help to develop integrated human beings. No method or system could provide right kind of education and strict adherence to a particular method indicates sluggishness on the part of educator.

Krishnamurti further discusses that when children are trained according to a system of thought or a particular discipline and when they are taught to think within departmental division, they are prevented from growing into integrated men and women.

Thus, they are incapable of thinking intelligently, which is to meet life as a whole.

‘The function of education is to bring about an integrated individual who is capable of dealing with life as whole.’^[4]

But there can be no integration as long as one is pursuing an ideal pattern of action. To teach a child, one has to be alert and this demands greater intelligence and affection rather than encouraging him/her to follow an ideal. Merely to implant existing values in the mind of the child and to make him conform to ideals is to condition him/her without awakening their intelligence.

Thus, education consists in understanding the child as he is without imposing an ideal of what one think he should be. To enclose the child in the framework of an ideal is to encourage him/her to conform to some pattern, which only breeds fear and produces a constant conflict between what he/she is and should be. All inward conflicts have their outward manifestation in society. Ideals are an actual hindrance to understanding of the child and to the child’s self understanding. Parents who really desire to understand their children do not look through the screen of an ideal. It is only when one feels no love for the child that one imposes upon him/her an ideal, trying to fulfill one’s ambition in them and wanting them to become this or that.

By giving example, Krishnamurti says that,

‘When a child tells lies one has to find out why he is telling lies. To help the child, one has to take time to study and observe him, which demands patience, love and care; but when one has no love, no understanding, then one forces the child into a pattern of action which we call an ideal.’^[5] The pursuit of an ideal excludes love, and without love no human problem could be solved.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Krishnamurti, J. (2007). ‘Social Responsibility.’ Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India, p. 103

[2]:

Krishnamurti, J. (2012). ‘Education and the Significance of Life’, Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India, p 21

[3]:

Krishnamurti, J. (2012). ‘Education and the Significance of Life’, Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India, p 23

[4]:

Krishnamurti, J. (2012). ‘Education and the Significance of Life.’ Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India, p 25

[5]:

Krishnamurti, J. (2012). ‘Education and the Significance of Life.’ Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India, p 27