Education for tomorrow: The vision of Rabindranath Tagore

This article investigates Rabindranath Tagore’s educational vision, which underpinned the three institutions he set up in India – Santiniketan (1901), Visva-Bharati (1921) and Sriniketan (1922). It argues that this vision is still relevant for the world of today and tomorrow, and that it should be t...

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Main Author: Quayum, Mohammad Abdul
Format: Article
Language:English
English
English
English
Published: Routledge 2016
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spelling my.iium.irep.497902016-10-28T03:55:01Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/49790/ Education for tomorrow: The vision of Rabindranath Tagore Quayum, Mohammad Abdul L Education (General) LB Theory and practice of education PE English PN0080 Criticism This article investigates Rabindranath Tagore’s educational vision, which underpinned the three institutions he set up in India – Santiniketan (1901), Visva-Bharati (1921) and Sriniketan (1922). It argues that this vision is still relevant for the world of today and tomorrow, and that it should be taken into account in designing any educational model for the future. Tagore rejected the modern mechanical learning that focuses merely on cultivation of the individual’s mind, in favour of learning that encourages the creativity, imagination and moral awareness of students. He believed that education should be not for mere “success” or “progress” but for “illumination of heart” and for inculcation of a spirit of sympathy, service and self-sacrifice in the individual, so that s/he could rise above egocentrism and ethnocentrism to a state of global consciousness or worldcentrism. In pursuing this argument, I refer to Tagore’s letters, lectures, interviews and essays, both in Bengali and in English, a body of his short stories, his novel The Home and the World and his allegorical poem “Two Birds”. I also explain his awareness of the educational movements of his time in the West, and draw brief parallels with selected Western luminaries in the field, such as Plato, Montaigne, Rousseau and John Dewey. My contention is that although some may dismiss Tagore’s educational principles as “rickety sentimentalism” in a world that is palpable and real, his ideas of human fellowship, unity and creativity, and kinship for nature seem irrefutable with the rise of multiculturalism and the looming ecological crisis threatening world peace. Routledge 2016-03 Article REM application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/49790/1/QUAYUM._ASR._TAGORE.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/49790/8/49790-new.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/49790/9/49790-Education_for_tomorrow_The_vision_of_Rabindranath_Tagore_SCOPUS.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/49790/10/49790-Education_for_tomorrow_The_vision_of_Rabindranath_Tagore_WOS.pdf Quayum, Mohammad Abdul (2016) Education for tomorrow: The vision of Rabindranath Tagore. Asian Studies Review, 40 (1). pp. 1-16. ISSN 1035-7823 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10357823.2015.1125441 10.1080/10357823.2015.1125441
institution Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia
building IIUM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider International Islamic University Malaysia
content_source IIUM Repository (IREP)
url_provider http://irep.iium.edu.my/
language English
English
English
English
topic L Education (General)
LB Theory and practice of education
PE English
PN0080 Criticism
spellingShingle L Education (General)
LB Theory and practice of education
PE English
PN0080 Criticism
Quayum, Mohammad Abdul
Education for tomorrow: The vision of Rabindranath Tagore
description This article investigates Rabindranath Tagore’s educational vision, which underpinned the three institutions he set up in India – Santiniketan (1901), Visva-Bharati (1921) and Sriniketan (1922). It argues that this vision is still relevant for the world of today and tomorrow, and that it should be taken into account in designing any educational model for the future. Tagore rejected the modern mechanical learning that focuses merely on cultivation of the individual’s mind, in favour of learning that encourages the creativity, imagination and moral awareness of students. He believed that education should be not for mere “success” or “progress” but for “illumination of heart” and for inculcation of a spirit of sympathy, service and self-sacrifice in the individual, so that s/he could rise above egocentrism and ethnocentrism to a state of global consciousness or worldcentrism. In pursuing this argument, I refer to Tagore’s letters, lectures, interviews and essays, both in Bengali and in English, a body of his short stories, his novel The Home and the World and his allegorical poem “Two Birds”. I also explain his awareness of the educational movements of his time in the West, and draw brief parallels with selected Western luminaries in the field, such as Plato, Montaigne, Rousseau and John Dewey. My contention is that although some may dismiss Tagore’s educational principles as “rickety sentimentalism” in a world that is palpable and real, his ideas of human fellowship, unity and creativity, and kinship for nature seem irrefutable with the rise of multiculturalism and the looming ecological crisis threatening world peace.
format Article
author Quayum, Mohammad Abdul
author_facet Quayum, Mohammad Abdul
author_sort Quayum, Mohammad Abdul
title Education for tomorrow: The vision of Rabindranath Tagore
title_short Education for tomorrow: The vision of Rabindranath Tagore
title_full Education for tomorrow: The vision of Rabindranath Tagore
title_fullStr Education for tomorrow: The vision of Rabindranath Tagore
title_full_unstemmed Education for tomorrow: The vision of Rabindranath Tagore
title_sort education for tomorrow: the vision of rabindranath tagore
publisher Routledge
publishDate 2016
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/49790/1/QUAYUM._ASR._TAGORE.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/49790/8/49790-new.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/49790/9/49790-Education_for_tomorrow_The_vision_of_Rabindranath_Tagore_SCOPUS.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/49790/10/49790-Education_for_tomorrow_The_vision_of_Rabindranath_Tagore_WOS.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/49790/
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10357823.2015.1125441
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