Sense of Progress
Choice & Challenge
Sense of Progress
Choice & Challenge
The Mother: On Vital Education
Of all education, vital education is perhaps the most important, the most indispensable. Yet it is rarely taken up and pursued with discernment and method.
There are several reasons for this: first, the human mind is in a state of great confusion about this particular subject; secondly, the undertaking is very difficult and to be successful in it one must have endless endurance and persistence and a will that no failure can weaken.
Indeed, the vital in man’s nature is a despotic and exacting tyrant. Moreover, since it is the vital which holds power, energy, enthusiasm, and effective dynamism, many have a feeling of timorous respect for it and always try to please it. But it is a master that nothing can satisfy and its demands are without limit.
A youth that never ages
A youth
that never ages
Sri Aurobindo observes:
“Vision is the characteristic power of the poet, as is discriminative thought the essential gift of the philosopher and analytic observation the natural genius of the scientist”
The power of envisioning, the gift of discriminative thought and the capacity for analytical observation are crucial faculties, each an aspect of the mental nature representing a particular but significant side of the being. Each can be awakened best by a specific type of mental activity, and none deserves to be neglected in a growth that aims at a greater wholeness.
“At the beginning you need some push like someone that comes and pinch pinch you every time. You come to be lazy and just go the wrong way. Of course you need a structure at the very beginning, a very strong structure and then by little the structure will then fade out to let you make your own.”
~ Symeon, Student
A conscious accent on the ‘hero-quest’ to power an awakened will-force and a sense of service and self-giving in the life-spirit have also constituted essential elements.
The necessity of training the body in balance, plasticity and endurance whether through participation in team sports or physical culture, dance or martial arts has been greatly encouraged.
Group expeditions, local or farther afield, as for instance, treks to the Himalayas, have been perceived as vital occasions for individual and collective self-finding – ‘schools’ to build will and character.
An education oriented towards “increasing perfectibility” must build upon the foundation of an awakened body and a life spirit capable of the discipline that can lead to self-mastery.
Youth should have a firm grasp of the material field while being capable of lofty flight. A conscious awareness and plasticity in the body, a wide openness in the life-spirit and as few artificial mental constructions in the mind will create the type that is responsive to the future.
“In works, aspiration towards Perfection is true spirituality.”
~The Mother
The core of this experiment and experience is as large as life itself.
The aim is to bring forth a rich, complex and integrated personality rather than one with a set of specialized competences; a personality for whom progress implies always a widening and deepening of activities and of the faculties involved.
Human beings need this enlargement and sense of uplifting to meet the demands of the future. It is also the movement required by life in an aspiring collective.
This élan of discovery, asking for a progressive mastery of many fields, has a natural tendency, once enkindled, to spread out from the school environment into other aspects of the city-in-making. Yet, if true, there would be nothing artificially constructed, it would be the movement of a life growing and perfecting itself, a thing so natural as to be unnoticeable.
Finally, if this progression can be achieved, one may arrive at
“an unending education, a constant progress and a youth that never ages”
which is the call of Auroville’s Charter.
“More than putting those expectations on you, you expect more from yourself and that’s something that has developed in me more and more in Last School.
It’s okay that I don’t know exactly what I am going to do but more I know what a person I want to be or what are the dreams I want to achieve.”
~ Sara, Student
“I don’t have the courage to do that. I tend to only do things I’m good at. If I’m not good at something, I often don’t even attempt to do it. She inspired me to try frisbee this weekend. I’ve been putting it off for two years, solely out of fear of not being the best or relatively good at it. But, I’ve decided to give it a shot, knowing people there are obviously better than me. It’s important for me to break out of this pattern of only doing things I’m good at.”
~ Simran Shah, Student
Poetry and the Life Force
A great importance is given to poetry which can have such a deep effect upon the emotional, imaginative and visionary side of the student’s developing personality.
“The space itself—the openness, the art, the plants, the feeling that learning wasn’t boxed into a classroom—shaped me as much as any subject.
Last School didn’t just teach me; it allowed me to become myself without fear, without pressure, and without losing the joy of learning along the way.“
~ Jasmine, Student
The Triple Challenge Framework
The Triple Challenge Framework is designed to support the growth of the whole person, cultivating qualities that go beyond academic success to include self-mastery and societal contribution. It is based on three core areas:
Physical – Developing resilience, discipline, and connection to the body through challenges such as endurance sports, physical education, or community- building activities.
Vital – Awaken the enthusiasm, the will to conquer the future, and courage, as well as, a capacity for harmonisation, interchange, cooperation, mutuality, and the refinement brought about by art, music, poetry and all the artistic disciplines.
Mental – Fostering clarity of thought and expression, insight, and intellectual growth through academic challenges, philosophical inquiry, and creative problem-solving. At a higher level of intellectual development, special attention will be given not only to critical thinking but to synthetic thinking, of which the works of Sri Aurobindo are an illustration.
Each challenge is to be organised around the student’s highest aspiration. The goal is not only to develop competencies but qualities of being and becoming.
The aim is to prepare individuals for a future where they can contribute meaningfully to the world, guided by inner wisdom and a sense of collective responsibility.
The need for a deeper development to face the multifaceted challenges of the future, the need to combine in a multidisciplinary way knowledge, art and creativity, as well as social and vocational skills for a more holistic education, the importance of highlighting Indian culture to give sense and meaning to it, and a healthy physique are directions we wholeheartedly embrace.
This must be consciously based on a sure psychological knowledge and we need to have a solid basis of knowledge on which we build our practice. That is why we take Sri Aurobindo’s work as the paradigm of our research. We adopt a more psychological and subjective approach than it is usually done, considering that the awakening of consciousness at different levels of our nature is the key element that determines the final outcome of any method of education.
Towards Free Progress
Towards Free Progress