16 I consider the three years I spent in Santiniketan as the most fruitful of my
life…. Santiniketan opened my eyes for the first time to the splendorous of Indian and Far Eastern art…Santiniketan made me the combined product of
East and West that I am. At this school, where he wrote many of his works, Tagore tried to combine
traditional Indian culture with Western ideas. All the children contributed significantly to Bengali literature and culture. His writings influence the students
and teachers of the school and lead the school to ta ke a major part in India’s
social, political and cultural movement. As one of Indian hero, Tagore fought the freedom of India through his own
way. It was different from his friend, Mahatma Gandhi, who fought the freedom of India through political movement. He struggled for the freedom of India with
his poems, novels, short stories, plays and songs. His works helped the Indian to gain
their independence
by burning
their spirit,
as stated
by http:www.terebess.huenglishtagore4.html accessed on Monday, May 20 2008
As a multifaceted genius and renaissance man par excellence, he not only carried the literature and arts of Bengal, virtually single-handedly, to
dizzying heights of creativity, but, by his inspiring words, his lyrically unequalled songs, his unstinting support for the cause of Indias freedom
during a long and turbulent phase of her history, he lifted Indian culture and the Indian psyche to an unprecedented level of revitalization.
2. Tagore’s View of Education
Tagore, education, culture and religion are four integral things. Many of Tagore’s thought are the combination of those things. The philosophy of Indian
which stressed on religious side is the base of his thought. However, his thoughts PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
17 are presented in many practical aspects, as stated by Sardi 66 quoted from Ki
Hajar Dewantara as follows. Tagore menekankan segi religious sebagaimana biasa dalam system filsafat
India, dan juga segi-segi praktis atau ketrampilan.
Tagore stresess on religious aspects as stated in Indian philosophy and also practical aspects and skills.
As an educator, Tagore often criticized the education in Europe. He stated
that western education as a huge bag which contains many papers and lessons but forget the human soul. Sardi 66 states,
“It creates emptiness in human soul”. He does not reject the thought from western culture but he assimilates it with the
eastern view. His thought is that the Indian needs to be educated in both the best of their own tradition and the best of the western tradition. Tagore quoted in
Palmer, Bresler, Cooper 192 states that “education is a living, not a
mechanical process, and is a truth as freely admitted as it is persistenly ignored ”.
In addition, he states, “education should be more or less the same quality for all
humanity needful for its evolution of perfection ”, as said by Tagore to Leonard K.
Elmhirst. Tagore sees education in two ways. The first, he sees education from the
student’s view. He regards his students as the future of his country because they have their dreams. However, a dream is just a dream when people do not work for
it. So, Tagore expects his students to reach their dream and work for it. Tagore regards that each of his students has hisher own talents that must be developed
18 and guided. In addition, the society in their educational environment has to be able
to support them, as stated by Tagore in Chakravarty 208 as follows. … Today the human soul is lying captive in the dungeon of a Giant
Machine, and I ask you, my young princes, to feel this enthusiasm in your hearts and be willing to rescue the human soul from the chains of greed.
The students are the youth that must be carefully guided and developed. They must be filled with knowledge and skills for their life. Tagore expresses his
guidance through the appreciation of culture. He digs up his own culture and teaches it to the students.
The second, he sees education from the teacher’s view. Tagore warns the teachers that the students are so much precious for the country. He does not want
to torture the students with machined-made lessons. Otherwise, a life lesson is necessary to build the students. Therefore, he dreams about education which
enables the students to obtain their own educational value from the nature. They will be able to gain the value from the nature. In his idealism, classroom is not the
most important thing. The most important thing in this education is creating a good atmosphere for the students.
The two ideas above are represented in Tagore’s school, Visvabharati. It is the citizen school which never chase for wealth, as Chakravarty 220 quotes from
Tagore “wealth is a golden cage in which the children of the rich are bred into artificial deadening of their powers”. In its simplicity, the school leads the
students to personal experience of the world. In addition, the mixtures of the western and eastern ideas on education are
also presented in his school. In this school, the teacher and students are helping PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
19 each other. Through ashram life, the students learn about life, and the teachers are
helping the students as a part of their life and not of their profession.
C. Review on the Indian Education
