I found this noisy Black headed Oriole in the groves of where they conduct open classrooms (Sriniketan) inside Shantiniketan. There is also a small stage where all important programs are conducted like functions in honour of visiting dignitaries like Presidents, PMs and so on.
Black headed Orioles are a common birds of open wooded region, they are arboreal but do descend to feed inse
cts, their main diet though is fruit and figs. Must add ‘noisy’ is not really how you describe Oriole calls they are melodious (but the above one was really quite incessant), orioles are delight to the eyes bright yellow among green leaves and ever so active. Quite an experience, they exude so much joy in life. It must really be something to have classrooms under these trees...
These also brings into mind ideas on Education by great soul Tagore (Tagore is someone i am always in love with!!). This from his essay A Poet’s School
“I tried my best to develop in the children of my school the freshness of their feeling for Nature, a sensitiveness of soul in their relationship with their human surrounding with the help of literature, festive ceremonials and also the religious teaching which enjoins us to come to the nearer presence of the world through the soul, thus to gain it more than can be measured—like gaining an instruments not merely by having it but by producing music upon it. I prepared for my children a real homecoming into this world. Among other subjects learnt in the open air under the shade of trees they had their music and picture making; they had their dramatic performances, activities that were the expressions of life”
In some other essay in context to ideal education Tagore says “The one abiding ideal in the religious life of India has been Mukti,Freedom, the deliverance of man's soul from the grip of self in communion with the I
nfinite Soul through in union in Ananda, Joy, with the universe. This religion of spiritual harmony is nor a theological doctrine to be taught, as a subject in the class, for half-an-hour each day. It is the spiritual truth and beauty of our attitude towards our surroundings. It is our conscious relationship with the Infinite, and the lasting power of the Eternal in the passing moments of our life. Such a religious ideal can only be made possible by making provision for students to live in intimate touch with- Nature, daily to grow in an atmosphere of service offered to all creatures, tending trees, feeding birds and animals, learning to feel the immense mystery of the soil and water and air”.
On another occasion Tagore says “In children the whole body is expressive It is in going to school that we take our first false step. There we are bidden to think sitting. We mustn't move our arm. To our teacher we present so many masks. All the time we are forced to control those lines of movement that would parallel and accompany our thoughts. Whenever, as children, we are stirred emotionally or feel receptive to thought, we need an appropriate accompaniment of physical movement. Children can quite quickly acquire the habit of receiving thoughts sitting still. Their minds have then to think unaided by the collaboration of the body. The body, in its turn, feels neglected because it is not aiding its great partner, the mind, in its internal work. Our minds suffer ever after as a result. This does not mean that for certain kinds of thinking you need never sit still. Sometimes, as in the world of mathematics, you have, if you are to apply all your physical and mental energy to a problem, to eliminate all distracting movement, especially when you wish to explore to the depths a complex subject. For particular kinds of thinking, sitting still can be useful. But for creative work the mind acts as a coordinator of ideas, and we discover best by thinking and by expressing. When we try to express ourselves merely in words, we feel incomplete, and for the fullest expression there should certainly be arm and leg movement as well. The poet, or the musician, gesticulates as he works. He must move his arms, his hands, and wrinkle his face. Why, then, doesn't he start up from his chair and dance his ideas out in the sunshine? Because he's been to school. It is at school that he has learnt the habit of stifling so thoroughly the natural companionship of body with mind. His widowed body feels neglected, because he has lost the art of composing or of thinking whist he is dancing or moving. The result is that the whole body, which is designed for expression through movement, loses one of its most important missions in life, the urge to express. The body becomes feeble, and only
the face retains some power and freedom to express through movement. As you think, you wrinkle your forehead. As you smile, or as you weep, each emotion is expressed in some movement of your face. But as a small child, you smiled with the whole of your body, you wept with every muscle you had and in anger you beat with your feet upon the ground. The whole body tried to express whatever deep emotion you felt. This power and this freedom we have deliberately mutilated and of both we have deprived a children”..... “By repressing all activity of the body, so many school lessons remain absolutely dead and ineffective. To compel the mind to use only one portion of the body in the learning process is not natural. In the process of taking in and of digesting our food, a whole symphony of life is being performed in which heart; eyes, tongue and ears are playing their part. The same process should occur when you are taking in your lessons or trying to swallow useful information. You can, with the help of the classroom dull all the faculties. But Life should be entire, a coordination of all the different faculties and functions. There should be nothing dead or inert about life in school. I would allow all our boys and girls during class to jump up, even to climb into a tree, to run off and chase after a cat or dog, or to pick some fruit off a branch. This is really why my classes were preferred, not because I was any special good as a teacher. I tried to keep in mind the need of the child to use the whole of its body in acquiring a vocabulary and in mastering a sentence”..... “So with children in school. Let them recite while out walking; let them do their thinking aloud. If possible, I would recommend children to carry their notebooks and to go on writing while they are on trek. First these notes would be about the things they see around them, facts and observations of natural history, aspects of the countryside, experiences on the road, of market day, of topics of conversation, of their special interests. All the picturesque details of the life around them they should sketch or record”.
