Sarang
അട്ടപ്പാടിയിലേക്കു മടങ്ങുന്നു.
ഒളപ്പമണ്ണ മനയിൽ നിന്നും ഇന്ന് അട്ടപ്പാടിയിലെ ഞങ്ങളുടെ മണ്ണിലേക്ക് മടങ്ങുകയാണ്. നമ്മുടെ സ്കൂൾ -അല്ല- ഗ്രാമീണ സർവ്വകലാശാല എന്ന സ്വപ്നവുമായി മലയിലേക്കു മടങ്ങുന്നു.ഞങ്ങൾ പരിശീലിപ്പിച്ചെടുത്ത ഞങ്ങളുടെ മക്കളും കൂട്ടിനുണ്ട്. ചാലക്കുടി, ആറന്മുള, പത്തിരിപ്പാല, കോങ്ങാട് എന്നിവിടങ്ങളിലായി പത്തുകൊല്ലം ചെലവിട്ടു. നമ്മുടെ സ്വപ്ന വിദ്യാലയത്തിനുള്ള അദ്ധ്യാപകരെ പരിശീലിപ്പിച്ചെടുക്കുകയായിരുന്നു ലക്ഷ്യം.അത് ഏതാണ്ടു കഴിഞ്ഞു. ബാക്കി സാരംഗിൽ ചെന്നിട്ട്. അവിടെ ഫോൺ, ഇന്റർനെറ്റ് സൗകര്യങ്ങൾ പരിമിതമായിരിക്കും. സുഹൃത്തുക്കളിൽ നിന്നും ഇന്നു വരെ കിട്ടിയിട്ടുള്ള സഹകരണങ്ങൾ ഞങ്ങളുടെ മുതൽക്കൂട്ടാണ്. തുടർന്നും ഞങ്ങൾ അതു പ്രതീക്ഷിക്കുന്നു.
04912 847 428 എന്ന ലാൻഡ് ഫോൺ ഇന്നു മുതൽ റദ്ദാക്കുകയാണ്. 9446 239 429 എന്ന നമ്പർ ഉണ്ടാവും മലമുകളിൽ റേഞ്ച് കുറവായിരിക്കും.
സാരംഗിനെ ഉറ്റു നോക്കുന്നവരെ,
ഒരു ചുവടുകൂടി മുന്നോട്ടു വച്ചു നോക്കട്ടെ.ഒപ്പമുണ്ടാവണേ,
സ്നേഹപൂർവ്വം,
ഗോപാലകൃഷ്ണനും വിജയലക്ഷ്മിയും.
Can we send our child to Sarang?
Well, it depends on so many factors. We encourage parents and teachers to start their own school since we have no wish to make Sarang into another centralised solution. We believe in de-centralisation. We support such groups in forming curriculum, activities etc.
If you are not in a situation where you can start your own school, or you are alone, please visit us. Education is a collaborative effort including the parent, children and teacher. Let us talk and find out how our chemistry works for us.
New Kathakali Teacher
Kalamandalam Neeraj has been taken charge of the Kathakali teacher as the previous teacher Kalamandalam Pradeep Kumar got a job in Thiruvananthapuram. The classes will continue from July onwards.
A step closer to Sarang
The main Sarang team is staying at Nagarippuram, near Pathiripala, Palakkad. They are moving to another rented place near Kongad in August 2013. The house at Nagarippuram become insufficient since the number of children increased last year. There are also more parents interested in sending their children to Sarang, but that required more space.
The new place is an old house with ponds and a lot of compound. Photos will be coming up soon.
A step closer to Sarang
The main Sarang team is staying at Nagarippuram, near Pathiripala, Palakkad. They are moving to another rented place near Kongad in August 2013. The house at Nagarippuram become insufficient since the number of children increased last year. There are also more parents interested in sending their children to Sarang, but that required more space.
The new place is an old house with ponds and a lot of compound. Photos will be coming up soon.
What is WLMs?
🙂 Wonderful Learning Machines! Every child is a wonderful learning machine. How fast they pick up new knowledge every moment? They learn things even inside their mother’s wombs! Then how come there are so many children fail in all sorts of exams? Why there is only a very small number of success stories? Are we producing dumbheads? Or is it the education system that is dumb?
Sarang is because of these wonderful learning machines aka children. We realise that education is all about our young ones. Read this to get an idea about what is education according to our experience.
But without a certificate…
Do you really believe that certificates are everything? We can get certificates by appearing for examinations (see the full details here) . But will we get the courage to face the everyday challenges?
Education should give you the courage to face challenges, not fear of exams.
What do you say?
Won’t my child be an illiterate?
This is the most popular question we hear! A child’s ability to learn and observe is way above our estimates. We suspect that today’s newborns inherit some awareness about technology. If a child has the environment to see people reading and writing, the child will pick up the skill on its own. By giving unnecessary emphasis on literacy, most of the time we delay the natural progress of a chid’s path to reading and writing.
Not convinced? Let us talk about it!
My Son Wants to be a Driver! Help!
Well, if it is not your son (or daughter) someone else’s son (or daughter) has to become a driver. There are many roles in the society. Our world will be stuck without people filling in these roles, willingly or unwillingly. Maybe we should understand this big picture and try to make necessary changes to the system.
What do you say?
Education
Bishnois consider all lives precious (Photo Courtesy : http://nitawriter.wordpress.com)
Majority of the world population has lived self-reliantly in villages for centuries. Communities like the Native Americans, the Bishnois of India and numerous others were always able to live and let live, balancing production and consumption in a sustainable lifestyle. Rather than taking lessons from them, our modern systems including our education system are designed for an urban environment which is mostly consumerist in nature and hence not sustainable. Hence, arises the need for an alternative education system.
Sarang’s activities can be summed up in one word, education, as the practice of life of a modern species that can live and let live. Education happens everywhere, 24 hours X 365 days. Anything that we hear, see, touch, taste, or smell, making a change within us, is part of our education. Movies, ads, news, speeches, performances, people; all that interacts with us is part of our education. In today’s fast-changing world a static system is not the way to real education.
Currently we have two campuses. While the first generation is training a batch of students at the satellite campus to become teachers , the second generation is trying to prepare the main campus on the hills for their return.
Sarang’s curriculum expands according to each child’s need. The curriculum includes ethics & culture, watershed management, natural farming, forest fire prevention, soil conservation & land development, biodiversity conservation, rural engineering & architecture, technology, art, martial arts, languages & dialects, clean energy, human physiology, sexuality & teenage, primary medicine, cooking & housekeeping, sustainable use of resources, politics, basic economics, & currencies, teaching. Sarang’s campus at Attappady has been developed into a ‘textbook’ keeping this curriculum in mind.
The list is quiet long. But in short, Sarang looks at life as the basis for its curriculum. Kalarippayattu (traditional martial art of Kerala), dance, yoga, and music are essential elements in Sarang’s curriculum for boosting self confidence, creativity and a positive vision. A student at Sarang may learn how to extinguish a forest fire, the dynamics of wind energy, potential of natural farming, development of open source programmes or how to become a leader in a democracy. But great importance is given to ethics, for knowledge without ethics is always dangerous. They may reach out to the ends of the universe, but only with strong roots in the earth of ethics.
Sarang believes that to build a world where truthfulness, humanity beyond all prejudices and optimal use of resources are upheld, these values must be inspired in children at a very early age. Emphasis is given to age since the character of an individual is formed within the age of 7. Any guidance in character formation has to be done at a younger age when the child is not yet biased by various man made differences of race, religion, country, gender, language etc.
This training is possible only at a young age within the family. Ideally, parents are the first teachers. Unfortunately, men and women are not trained, for being good partners or for bringing up children. This is typical in the present education system, where many essential lessons are left out, and many that are included are never used in real life. Sarang is modeled as a democratic family, with the Sarang couple as parents and the students as their children.
Sarang children met Baba Amte, the great humanitarian when they visited Anandwan.
At Sarang, children travel far and wide to explore simple solutions which have been kept alive by good men and women. They live and learn with ‘Sarang’ families wherever they go. Since, Sarang’s curriculum aims at preparing a child for adapting to any kind of environment without loosing his/her individuality, the children absorb the good from all the different ideas they are exposed to.
Sarang is a rural university in its early infancy which dreams of a society of self reliant individuals. Sarang’s goal is to prepare the next generation to live fulfilling lives using minimal resources. We dream of a rural university, proposing no degrees or certificates, but offering a space to learn to cope with life and all its myriad hues and tones.
Our students are free to decide their path in life. As they grow at Sarang they are prepared for self-study. So, they can also choose to acquire academic qualifications and go into any profession. A few of them may also choose to stay back at Sarang to share their experience with younger children or they may journey on to spread the Sarang way elsewhere in world.
Let all of us who feel our children ought to grow up sensitive and empathetic to their surroundings and not lulled into a sense of false security in their childhood leaving them incapable of facing the realities of life join together. Let us work together to provide our children platforms to flourish in their boundless creativity and energy.
“The school’s not a factory
Nor the teacher a labourer!
The student’s not a commodity
Nor the parent a manufacturer!”