Alternative Schools/Alternative Education - Notes in connection with Tolstoy Farm - Gandhiji

"Education is not a preparation for life but life itself" - John Dewey.

Alternative schools prepare students for life when traditional schools prepare them for exams. These schools are different with respect to the curriculum and teaching methods they follow. Some methods include learning by doing, play way method, convenience in learning, burden-free education, choices of teachers, building up of life skills, callisthenics (Light exercises designed to promote general fitness), sports activities etc.

In mainstream schools, i.e, in the common academe, children are caged inside the four walls of a room where various subjects are taught one after another. The drawbacks of such a system forced certain people to begin alternative schools. The main component of an alternative school is ‘freedom’. Children are not afraid of anything unnecessarily. They maintain self-discipline and they grow up in the lap of nature. Studies show that such students become responsible members of society. Caning or corporal (bodily) punishment is avoided in such schools. While suppression of children’s talents occur in a traditional school, nurturing of talents happen at an alternative school. One of the main criticisms against traditional or mainstream schools is that those schools are not concerned of the life of a student after he gets graduated from his/her school. However, alternative schools focus on the holistic development of students’ even after their formal school days are over. Curiosity, eagerness to ask questions and self-discovery etc are promoted in such schools. Gandhiji’s Tolstoy Farm was an early attempt in this regard.

Some alternative schools

1.     Pallikkoodam School, Kottayam – Started by Arundhati Roy’s mother Mary Roy.

2.     Kanavu School, Nadavayal, Wayanad – K.J Baby

3.     Rishi Valley School, Jiddu Krishnamurthy

4.     Shanti Niketan – Tagore

5.     Aurobindo School – Aurobindo.

           -Anjoe-