Chapter 109 of Gandhi’s My
Experiments With Truth
AS SCHOOLMASTER
As
the [Tolstoy] Farm grew, it was found necessary to make some provision for the
education of its boys and girls. There were, among these, Hindu, Musalman,
Parsi and Christian boys and some Hindu girls. It was not possible, and I did
not think it necessary, to engage special teachers for them. It was not
possible, for qualified Indian teachers were scarce, and even when available,
none would be ready to go to a place 21 miles distant from Johannesburg on a
small salary. Also we were certainly not overflowing with money. And I did not
think it necessary to import teachers from outside the Farm. I did not believe
in the existing system of education, and I had a mind to find out by experience
and experiment the true system. Only this much I knew-that, under ideal
conditions, true education could be imparted only by the parents, and that then
there should be the minimum of outside help, that Tolstoy Farm was a family, in
which I occupied the place of the father, and that I should so far as possible
shoulder the responsibility for the training of the young.
The
conception no doubt was not without its flaws. All the young people had not
been with me since their childhood, they had been brought up in different
conditions and environments, and they did not belong to the same religion. How
could I do full justice to the young people, thus circumstanced, even if I
assumed the place of paterfamilias?
But
I had always given the first place to the culture of the heart or the building
of character, and as I felt confident that moral training could be given to all
alike, no matter how different their ages and their upbringing, I decided to
live amongst them all the twenty-four hours of the day as their father. I
regarded character building as the proper foundation for their education and,
if the foundation was firmly laid, I was sure that the children could learn all
the other things themselves or with the assistance of friends.
But
as I fully appreciated the necessity of a literary training in addition, I
started some classes with the help of Mr. Kallenbach and Sjt. Pragji Desai. Nor
did I underrate the building up of the body. This they got in the course of
their daily routine. For there were no servants on the Farm, and all the work,
from cooking down to scavenging, was done by the inmates. There were many fruit
trees to be looked after, and enough gardening to be done as well. Mr.
Kallenbach was fond of gardening and had gained some experience of this work in
one of the Governmental model gardens. It was obligatory on all, young and old,
who were not engaged in the kitchen, to give some time to gardening. The
children had the lion's share of this work, which included digging pits,
felling timber and lifting loads. This gave them ample exercise. They took
delight in the work, and so they did not generally need any other exercise or
games. Of course some of them, and sometimes all them, malingered and shirked.
Sometimes I connived at their pranks, but often I was strict with them, I dare
say they did not like the strictness, but I do not recollect their having
resisted it. Whenever I was strict, I would, by argument, convince them that it
was not right to play with one's work. The conviction would, however, be
short-lived, the next moment they would again leave their work and go to play.
All the same we got along, and at any rate they built up fine physiques. There
was scarcely any illness on the Farm, though it must be said that good air and
water and regular hours of food were not a little responsible for this.
A
word about vocational training. It was my intention to teach every one of the
youngsters some useful manual vocation. For this purpose Mr. Kallenbach went to
a Trappist monastery and returned having learnt shoemaking. I learnt it from
him and taught the art to such as were ready to take it up. Mr. Kallenbach had
some experience of carpentry, and there was another inmate who knew it; so we
had a small class in carpentry. Cooking almost all the youngsters knew.
All this was new to
them. They had never even dreamt that they would have to learn these things
some day. For generally the only training that Indian children received in
South Africa was in the three R's.
On
Tolstoy Farm we made it a rule that the youngsters should not be asked to do
what the teachers did not do, and therefore, when they were asked to do any
work, there was always a teacher co-operating and actually working with them.
Hence whatever the youngsters learnt, they learnt cheerfully.
1. In Gandhi’s opinion, who
are the “true educators” of children? Do you agree? Why or why not?
2. How did Gandhi envision
his duties towards the children in the Tolstoy Farm commune? What problem did
Gandhi have offering instruction to these children?
3. What does Gandhi regard
as the most important aspect of education?
4. How did the children in
the commune receive physical training?
5. Write a paragraph on what
our own education system would look like if it modelled Gandhi’s observations
in the final paragraph of this excerpt from his autobiography.