Freedom can never be doing what you like or saying what you like regardless of the consequences.
‘Perfect freedom, by Rabindranath’s interpretation, is found in perfect harmony of relationship, not in a mere independence which has no context.’ p.122
This is from ‘The Poet as Educator’, by Kathleen M. O’Connell, published in 2002.
Rabindranath Tagore set up a school with freedom at its foundation in 1901 at Santiniketan, West Bengal in India. He was influential in the thinking behind both Bedales and Dartington Hall Schools here in the UK.
. . .
A few months after we had qualified as teachers, Maggie and I were sitting in the principal’s office at Brockwood Park School in Hampshire six years after it was founded by Jiddu Krishnamurti in 1969. Opposite us sits the Principal, Dorothy Simmons, and lying next to her feet is a golden Labrador named Whisper, who is doing her best to control the urge to jump up and foist her affection on us.
‘Freedom is vital in the process of learning. But responsibility comes with freedom,’ she is saying.
There is silence for a moment or two.
‘In fact, she adds, ‘Freedom is responsibility in action.’
We go on to talk about schools and St. Christopher School in Letchworth in particular, which was founded by the Theosophists in 1915. This is where Dorothy sent her son.
‘It’s a good progressive school, and well worth a visit.’
. . .
The limits to our physical freedom are clearly defined by what our bodies can do. However, psychological freedom, the ability for the mind to flow unfettered, is a very different matter. Fear, anxiety, ambition, greed, competition, and comparison are some of the many aspects of our mental make-up that limit our functioning as whole, healthy balanced individuals. The workings of the mind are subtle, fragile, and deep.
. . .
Soon after returning from our visit to Brockwood, I went to have a look round St Christopher School. I was entranced by the sense of openness, vitality, and lack of formality. The opening paragraph of the school prospectus that I had been sent before the visit firmly put freedom and responsibility at the centre of the school’s approach to education. All children from the age of two and a half in the Montessori Department to the students in the Sixth form were expected to take responsibility for their behaviour in an atmosphere of friendliness and care that enabled them to think and act freely.
It wasn’t until nine years later that Maggie and I moved the School, by this time with four children. We both worked there for seventeen years, and then spent seven years at Bedales School. All that time we kept in close touch with Brockwood Park, finally working there full and part time, until the COVID pandemic took hold.
Working with young people aged from five to nineteen over that time meant a constant inquiry into the meaning and understanding of the coexistence of responsibility and freedom. In all these places punishment and reward were kept to a minimum, with little or no systematic attempts to coerce the students into behaving according to externally applied norms. Instead, discipline was seen as a matter of learning to be explored through conversation, discussion and dialogue.
These schools were founded upon non-hierarchical human relationships and there was plenty of opportunity for genuine dialogue and meaningful conversations. Consequently, both students and staff were able to become increasingly more self-aware, conscious that understanding comes from the observation of oneself in action - which is the essence of learning. Without these relationships, learning becomes superficial and mechanical, so that the individual is constantly responding to external pressure telling them what to think, how to act, and what is important in life.
Given the chaotic and dangerous situation humanity finds itself in, I would suggest that an approach to education that concerns itself with the culture of the mind is paramount. And this approach is grounded in an atmosphere engendered by the coexistence of freedom and responsibility in action.
Learning is finding out, exploring both the world that is out there and the instrument of exploration – the mind. It is the ability to respond intelligently that ensures that the individual mind is whole, healthy, and capable of understanding. It is the mind that can observe and listen without rushing into judgement or forming conclusions. For the individual to understand the mind that is observing and listening requires total freedom and a sense of trust in the process that comes through responsible action.
. . .
I would like to end this piece with some observations from ‘Home in the World’, a memoir by the Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen. He became a student at Santiniketan just a few months after Rabindranath Tagore’s death:
‘Santiniketan was fun in a way I never imagined a school could be. There was so much freedom in deciding what to do, so many intellectually curious classmates to chat with, so many friendly teachers to approach and ask questions unrelated to the curriculum and – most importantly - so little enforced discipline and a complete lack of harsh punishment.’ p.38
‘The role of education in enhancing individual freedom and social progress was among the subjects on which I found his (Tagore’s) ideas especially incisive and persuasive…. The belief in reason and freedom underlaid Tagore’s outlook on life in general and education in particular, leading him to insist that education in depth and for all, is the most important element in the development of a country.’ p.56
. . .
In a time that cries out for the individual to be free from the burden of a life as a mere commercial entity to be bought and sold, and to live with a sense of personal responsibility and integrity that transcends the endless cycle of blame and reproach – what is to be done?
I have some ideas…
