The Valley School



We broke our Golden rule. Well actually it is John's rule and we all follow it because it keeps us all balanced. The Golden rule is to only have 1 BIG activity with all of us per weekend day. For example, on a Saturday, we spend the day watching the kids soccer games or on Sunday we go to temple. This past Saturday, we had 3 BIG events that we all attended. We went hiking which John posted about yesterday and then we all visited The Valley School and then we all went to dinner at a neighbours house. Our day started at 5am and ended at 11pm. And we were happy that James' did not have soccer on Sunday morning so we could all sleep in BUT Ashram got up at 6am:-)

My post is not about the Golden rule. It is about this amazing school called the Valley School. Our friend Marina, who also suggested the hike, toured us around the school as a former teacher and Deepu, also our hiking guide, was our tour guide for the school as well. Deepu spent two years at Valley and in just 2 years you could see the deep admiration he had for his teachers and his teachers for him.



Marina is the far left in the middle row.
Deepu and Ashram. Ashram was mad bc he wanted
Deepu to stay with him but did not want to go on
 the tour.




I am not really sure I can put in words what I saw. John and I kept saying to each "why aren't all schools like this?"

Here is the Valley School Intent straight from their website and then I will let the pictures speak for themselves.





















The ethos and culture of the school is based on the teachings of  J. Krishnamurti and the attempt is to:
  • Discover a way of living that is whole, sane and intelligent and not merely concerned with intellect, memory / skills
  • Look beyond academic excellence – teacher and taught explore not only the outer world but also the inner – conditioning, ways of thinking and behaviour
  • Understand the  importance and limitations of knowledge
  • To help one to think for oneself, and out of that feel immense confidence, to be a creative human being and not a slavish machine
  • Nurture sensitivity and compassion
Jiddu Krishnamurti, long acknowledged as one of the world's foremost teachers, dedicated his life to awakening people to their own conditioning and to the possibility of freedom. He maintained,
“A school is a place where one learns both the importance of knowledge and its limitation. It is a place where one learns to observe the world without a particular point of view or conclusion. One learns to look at the whole of man's endeavor, his search for beauty, his search for truth and a way of living that is not a contradiction between conclusion and action.It is a place where both teacher and the taught learn a way of life in which conflict ends. It is the concern of these schools to bring about a new generation of human beings who are free from self-centered action, to bring about a mind that has no conflict within itself and so end the struggle and conflict in the world about us." - J. Krishnamurti
A Krishnamurti School concerns itself with education of the total human being. Knowledge and intellectual capability alone are not sufficient to meet life’s challenges. Learning to enquire, to observe oneself, to relate with other people and the earth, is the core intention of the school.
A Krishnamurti School is a constantly questioning, evolving institution, with the intention of creating an environment, a climate where one can bring about, if at all possible, a new human being. It is imperative therefore that parents and students understand and appreciate the intention of the school and actively participate in this movement.
"The purpose, the aim and drive of these schools is to equip the child with the most excellent technological proficiency so that he may function with clarity and efficiency in the modern world, and far more important to create the right climate so that the child may develop fully as a complete human being.This means giving him the opportunity to flower in goodness so that he is rightly related to people, things and ideas, to the whole of life. To live is to be related. There is no relationship to anything if there is not the right feeling for beauty, a response to nature, to music and art, a highly developed aesthetic sense." – J. Krishnamurti
The school sincerely attempts to translate this intent by adopting the following :
  • Relationship between the student and the teacher- is human to human rather than position to position.
  • Emphasis is on learning and facilitation and not teaching and absorbing.
  • Recognize the fact that each child is unique and one size does not fit all !
  • Methodology and pedagogical techniques  that  ensure that there is no hierarchy of knowledge and suitable for differential learning capacities and learning speed
  • Art, music, dance and sports form an integral part of the learning process
Learning from nature is facilitated by the bounty all around.





















Mayflower
The Study used for retreats with students
Space allows for deep thinking
Chair made by students
Weaving class taken by all
Art Village
Art Village II
Amphitheatre for assemblies 
Thinking Tree



Monkey rule the school. Be sure not to leave anything behind otherwise they will take it.
Lotus Pond/Thinking/Reflecting Pond



Classrooms













Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

John's World...Jeeva Hop Garden

Image
The day has finally come.  I had been thinking about this for almost a year.  Of course it's beer related.  HOPS... Hops grown here in India.  Our friend Arjun had suggested spending his time at his family's foundation Jeevarathni.  Jeevarathni  is an organization working to improve the lives of economically and emotionally deprived children, specially abled children and the aged living in poverty and injustice.  We brainstormed some ideas to help the foundation and came up with a hop garden. For those of you who don't know or have not gone through the Sam Adams Brewery Tour a few hundred times, hops are essentially what gives beer its flavor.  There are close to one hundred hop varieties now in existence.  Combine those hops at different stages in the brewing process and you will have a unique beer unto-itself.   For various reasons, India has never really had a significant amount of hop production.  The weat...
Read more

John’s world...habits

Image
One of the things I’m most interested in dicovering when I travel abroad are the habits I engage in after the trip.  Some are short lived.  Some involve a gadget I bring back.  Some become an integral part of who I am.  Years ago I was in Mexico and I noticed the friends I was staying with would drink their water out of a clay pot.  They told me  that it keeps the water naturally cool and removed toxins (like many things apparently do).  So of course I brought a giant clay pot with me back to the United States.  The habit was short lived.  I drank water out of the pot for two weeks and regifted it to someone as a wedding present.  I called it a wedding pot even (I’m terrible and if I gave you that pot please post that I’m a bad person in the comment section). I had coffee for the first time in Spain.  I prop my foot on the bar at a pub like a proper local in Britain would posture themselves.  Habits that have lasted....
Read more

Farmhouse Retreat

Image
My class on Education Policy and Decentralisation took a field trip to a village. One of the students, Sanjeet, was kind enough to offer his farmhouse for all of us to stay at the night before. Sanjeet has an amazing story which I will save for another post. Briefly though, for 20 years or so he worked in the corporate world and decided to leave his job and enter in the MA program at Azim Premji University. His family runs a school in a village outside Bangalore and he wanted to learn more about education in India and put his talents to good use in the social sector. There was about 15 of us including my Professor, Dr. Paik. This class is more like a community and how they interact with each other, with me, and our Professor is a case study in itself. Right from day 1 of the class, I felt the warmth, kindness, and enthusiasm from each one of them. The farmhouse adventure is a testament to their true generosity and compassion. We left the campus around 5:30pm on this bus th...
Read more