Reflections on independence and Rabindranath Tagore, the poet-

Reflections on independence and Rabindranath Tagore, the poet-
educator

Susan J. Natih
Jakarta

One of the first songs that my daughter learned in
kindergarten was Berkebun (Gardening).

Ayo kawan kita bersama/menanam jagung di kebun kita/ ambil
cangkulmu/ ambil pangkurmu/, kita bekerja tak jemu-jemu.

(Let's friends together/ grow corn in our garden/take your
mattock/take your hoe/we work tirelessly).

The song, composed by Indonesia's much-loved Ibu Soed, is
delightful not only because of the words and melody but also
because it inspires action, teaches our children to respect the
role of the farmer and begins to develop the child's
understanding of symbols; planting good seed and tending it
carefully, will lead to a good harvest.

In these last few years Indonesia has gone through rapid
changes and is still in the process of change. For educators,
this again is a golden and critical moment, for the next
generation is in our care. When Mahatma Gandhi was asked what
would be the goal of education in free India, he replied:

"Character-building...I would try to develop courage,
strength, virtue and the ability to forget oneself in working
toward great aims."

Gandhi also added that the strength of society lies in the
moral character of individuals.

The Mahatma's place in history is secure, but his great
contemporary, Rabindranath Tagore, who was born in 1861, is less
well-known, though he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913
and the admiration of the great literary figures of the West,
among them W.B. Yeats and Ezra Pound. Tagore also visited
Indonesia and took a special interest in the work of Ki Hajar
Dewantara and the development of his Taman Siswa schools.
With India celebrating her independence this 15th August and
Indonesia on Aug. 17, let us take a brief look at the life of
Tagore and touch upon his interest in Indonesia, her culture and
developments in education.

Soon after Rabindranath's birth in 1861, the boy's father,
Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, visited the country estate of a
friend, situated some 100 miles west of Calcutta. Getting down at
Bolpur, which was then, as it still is, the nearest railway
station, he proceeded and as the sun was about to set, found
himself in an open plain with nothing to break the view of the
setting sun except a thin row of wild palm trees that lined the
horizon.

The Maharshi was enchanted and sat down for his usual
meditation under a pair of chhatim trees. When he rose from his
meditation, he had already made up his mind that the place would
be his. Quickly negotiating the purchase, he later built a house
at that place which he named Shantiniketan or "the abode of
peace."

It was Shantiniketan which was in 1901 to become the site of
Rabindranath Tagore's school and later the University of Visva-
Bharati with its motto Yatra visvam bharati eka-nidam, "Where the
whole world meets in one nest". It was indeed the nest to which I
flew as a Ph.D student on fieldwork from Exeter University
England, in September 1980.

If we are to understand Tagore's contributions as an educator,
we must first look briefly at his family background. The
fourteenth child of Sarada Devi and Maharshi Devendranath Tagore,
Rabindranath (Rabi), was born on May 7, 1861. The huge mansion at
Jorasanko, Calcutta, was already filled with the children and
grandchildren of a joint household and Rabi's appearance seemed
of no special significance.

Tagore's emergence as an educator was completely a matter of
personal development, a necessary development of the entire
course of his life and experience. He was born into a family
which had somehow contrived to turn its place of residence into a
nucleus of all types of progressive ideas and activities, a
center of numerous cultural and social movements.

Tagore had a strongly developed sense of community. The
embodiment of this realization, was the Shantiniketan Ashram.
Although his mind soared to the highest heights of imagination
and mystic vision, he found it impossible to live and act except
among and for an intimate community.

On Dec. 21. 1901, the school for children at Shantiniketan
opened with five students. Many said that the school was a poet's
whim and yet it was to revolutionize accepted concepts of
education in India. Tagore demonstrated that what the child
learns at home and in school are the most vital components of
lifelong learning, that a child's mother tongue is a key learning
factor, that learning through activity is more real than through
the written word.

Mahatma Gandhi adopted the scheme of teaching through crafts,
many years after Tagore had worked it out at Shantiniketan; in
fact, the Mahatma took the first teachers for his base school
from Shantiniketan. Some of the earliest experiments in what is
known as community development, were conducted by Tagore, firstly
among the workers on his family estates and later in the
institute which he founded and named Sriniketan.

His writings on rural education and on the problems of
community development still comprise a very fine manual for
workers in the field. Tagore's work at Shantiniketan and
Sriniketan rank him as one of India's greatest nation builders.

A a teacher and philosopher who understood the value of play
in children's learning, and the use of simple, natural materials,
Tagore once wrote:

The school at Santiniketan that I knew, during the five years
I spent there from 1980-1985, had swelled from those five
students, to hundreds, besides the university students. However,
the concepts and spirit of Tagore were still very much alive,
blending formal learning with knowledge of arts and crafts,
appreciation of the indigenous culture and traditions and classes
held outside under trees and sky, with no walls and ceiling to
limit the imagination.

Shantiniketan was and still is a "world nest", a meeting place
of traditions and cultures and the place from which Tagore set
out as a student and teacher of the world, inspiring all those
with whom he worked and came in contact. In 1927 he came to
Indonesia and visited Yogyakarta and Bali.

His stay at the palace of the King of Klungkung inspired him
to write a poem on the beauty of Bali and welcomed to Taman Siswa
in Yogya, by Ki Hadjar Dewantara, the founding father of
education in Indonesia (Bapak Pendidikan Nasional), Tagore found
that Taman Siswa and Shantiniketan shared a common principle. Ki
Hadjar Dewantara later commented that pictures of Tagore and
Maria Montessori, another great innovator in the world of
education, had graced the audience hall at Taman Siswa well
before Tagore's visit.

The relationship between Taman Siswa and Shantiniketan became
very close, with students such as Ki Soebaroto and the painter
Rusli, among others, continuing their studies at Shantiniketan
under Tagore's guidance, while guests and students from India
visited Taman Siswa and other parts of Indonesia, on Tagore's
recommendation.

One such guest was my co-supervisor and local guardian, Prof.
Shantidev Ghosh, who had been sent by Tagore in the 1930s to
experience and research the dance and drama traditions of
Indonesia. Prof. Ghosh, sadly no more alive, told us vivid
stories of his sea voyage to Java and his stay at the palace in
Yogya. He also noted the similarities between Tagore's emphasis
on learning craft skills as a part of education and the richness
of craft skills amongst the young people of Indonesia.

Poet, educator and visionary, Tagore belonged not only to
India but to the world. The composer of India's national anthem
and one who personified independence and originality through his
every thought, word and deed, Tagore was a firm upholder of
tradition who recognized that change is a vital part of existence
and that every day, for our children and ourselves, life's
lessons are waiting to be learned.

The writer is a Founder and Executive Principal Of the Central
and Sevilla Schools.