My Dear Principals and Teachers

Shri Dastur, Bhavan's Executive Secretary, delivered the Inaugural Address at the Conference of the Principals of all the Bhavan's Schools on December 10, 2015 at Kochi.

Here the class-teacher has to play a vital role. I suggest that if possible, keep a note-book each for every student in your class for writing down your observations. I am aware that it will cost your time but then you have a mission and you have to spare time. If you have the commitment to your mission, you will find time.
If you do not pay individual attention how can you make efforts to inculcate values in the children ? Teaching a subject like history or geography can be directed to the whole class, but character has to be built at a individual level as no two children are the same.
Do you, my dear colleagues, have time for this? I have heard some Principals complaining about their administrative responsibilities eating away their time. The solution is to reduce them to the minimum. Entrust routine matters to your Vice-Principal or appoint an administrator. Cut through the red tape. Simplify. But never ever forget that your primary responsibility is not merely to get excellent results at the Board exami-nations but, if I may use a much used or abused term, to build up character of our children.
The Kanchi Paramacharya had said that intelligence and learning without character are highly dangerous. The Upanishads say that good is one thing, pleasant is another; the wise realise the difference and hold on to the good while fools run after the mere pleasant, and ultimately perish.
The question is, are we educating our students to acquire the wisdom and the knowledge to go after the good realising the futility and destructive potentiality of the mere material pleasures of the senses acquiring of which is called worldly success?
You, my dear Principals, have the power. Are you not the most powerful person in your school ? My God, that has put upon you a tremendous burden. But you will carry this burden lightly if you realise that the coin called Power has only two sides: Responsibilities on one side and Love and Humility on the other. Power should never allow ego, arrogance and feeling of self-righteousness and superiority to come anywhere near it. Otherwise you will never be able to use your power creatively and for the good of all. You will then only misuse and abuse it with disastrous consequences for you and others.
Why do I say sense of superiority would be harmful to you? Because it will make you consider yourself Mr. Know-All, which means you have stopped learning – a most catastrophic state of mind to slip into for a human being, more so for a teacher. Gandhiji, said: "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live for ever." What he meant is that the process of learning ends only when you die.
In teaching, the teacher too learns and that process should never end. Vinobaji had said that the very feeling that I am teaching, itself is wrong. Tejasvina Vadhitamastu: may the study of both of us remain Tejasvi. In Vinobaji's words:
'Mai Shisya ko sikha raha hu yah bhaav hi galat hai. Tejaswina Vadhitamastu: Hum dono ka adhyayan tejaswi ho. Shikshak bhi shisya ke saath adhyayan karta hai.'
School teachers have the wonderful opportunity and scope to release the latent talent, creativity, imagination and freedom to think, which is there in every child's heart and mind. This release will gradually make the child understand and appreciate the difference between the mere transitory Pleasant and the real everlasting Good. The child will learn to think originally and creatively.
At the college-level this opportunity shrinks to almost zero. Because after the 15th or 16th year, a young one's mind sets into a pre-determined pattern, a hard mould. It requires a really enlightened professor to make a dent into it. Whereas the school teacher can water the tender plants of varied hues and shapes. The flowers will bloom; some small, some big; but always beautiful. Because teachers and parents have nurtured them. Poor Professor will have to be – barring exceptions – train his students in their specialised subjects so that they can become engineers, administrators, doctors, lawyers and so on. But they cannot contribute substantially towards making them good human beings. That is why Bhavan lays emphasis on having more schools than colleges. Every teacher, every principal should have her or his innovative approach.
Technology has made teaching easy. But every useful thing can be misused. Here, you have to be very cautious. You must see that children use technology and not the other way round. Overuse can be dangerous. The health hazards of mobiles and laptops are now well-known and documented. But the mental and emotional hazards are much more dangerous.