3.4 . Krishnamurti's Philosophy of Education
3.4.1 The Aim of Education
J. Krishnamurti regards education as of prime significance in the
communication of that which is central to the transformation of the human
mind and the creation of a new culture. 'Self-knowledge' is considered to be
the most important aim of education. For He says:
...education should not encourage the individual to conform to
society or to be negatively harmonious with it, but help him to
discover the true values which come with unbiased investigation and
self-awareness. When there is no self-knowledge, self-expression
becomes self-assertion, with all its aggressive and ambitious
Conflicts. Education should awaken the capacity to be self-aware and 137not merely indulge in gratifying self-expression.”
Elsewhere he brings out this idea in a more persuasive manner. As he states:
Self-knowledge alone can bring tranquility and happiness to man,
for self-knowledge the beginning of intelligence and integration.
Intelligence is not mere superficial adjustment; it is not the
cultivation of the mind, the acquisition of knowledge. Intelligence is
the capacity to understand the ways of life, it I the perception of
right values.138
The purpose of education according to Krishnamurti is “not to
produce mere scholars, technicians, and job hunters, but integrated men and
women who are free of fear: for only between such human beings can there
be enduring peace.”139 He was convinced of the fact that conventional
education makes independent thinking extremely difficult. Conformity leads
to mediocrity. To be different from the group or to resist environment is not
easy and is often risky as long as we worship success. The urge to be
successful, which is the pursuit of reward whether in the material or in die
so-called spiritual sphere, the search for inward or outward security, die
desire for comfort-this whole process smothers discontent, puts an end to
spontaneity and breeds fear; and fear blocks the intelligent understanding of life. With increasing age, dullness of mind and heart sets in
3.4.2 The Function of Education
As regards the function of education, Krishnamurti is clear in his vision. He
states:
The function of education is to create human beings who are
integrated and therefore intelligent. We may take degrees and be
mechanically efficient without being intelligent. Intelligence is not mere
information; it is not derived from books, nor does it consist of clever self
defensive responses and aggressive assertion. On who has not studied may
be more intelligent than the learned. We have made examination and degrees
the criterion of intelligence and have developed cunning minds that avoid
vital human issues. Intelligence is die capacity to perceive the essential, the
what is; and to awaken this capacity, in oneself and in others, is
education.”142
In die vision of J. Krishnamurti, education is not merely a matter of
training the mind. For as he says, “training makes for efficiency, but it does
not bring about completeness. A mind that has merely been trained is die
continuation of the past, and such a mind can never discover the new.”
Further he says “What we now call education is a matter of accumulating
information and acknowledge from books, which anyone can do who can
read. Such education offers a subtle form of escape from ourselves and, like
all escapes, it inevitably creates increasing misery. Conflict and confusion
result from our own wrong relationship with people, things and ideas, and
until we understand that relationship and alter it, mere learning, the
gathering of facts and the acquiring of various skills, can only lead us to
engulfing chaos and destruction.”143
j-krishnamurti expresses his dissatisfaction over the deplorable
condition of the present day education. As he states:
Present-day education is a complete failure because it has over
emphasized technique. In over-emphasizing technique we destroy man. To
cultivate capacity and efficiency with understanding life, without having a comprehensive perception of the ways of through and desire, will only make
in increasingly ruthless, which is to engender war and jeopardize our
physical security. The exclusive cultivation of technique has produced
scientists, mathematicians, bridge builders, space conquerors; but do they
understand the total process of life? Can any specialist experience life as a
whole? Only when he ceases to be a specialist.”144
Thus Krislmamurti envisions an education that makes one more
integrated in the society at the same time one has a perception of the reality
as a whole.
3.4.3 Education and Life
Education is not merely acquiring acknowledge, gathering and
correlating facts; it is to see the significance of life as whole.”145 To find out
what is right education, he inquires into the whole significance of living. “To
most of us, the meaning of life as a whole is not of primary importance, and
our education emphasizes secondary values, merely making us proficient in
some branch of knowledge. Though knowledge and efficiency are necessary,
to lay chief emphasis on them only leads to conflict and confusion.”146
To bring about right education, we must obviously understand the
meaning of life as a whole, and for that we have to be able to think, not
consistently, but directly and truly. A consistent thinker is a thoughtless
person, because he conforms to a pattern; he repeats phrases and thinks in a
groove. We cannot understand existence abstractly or theoretically. To
understand life is to understand ourselves and that is both the beginning and
the end of education.147
Now, what is die significance of life? What are we living and
struggling for? If we are being educated merely to achieve distinction, to get
a better job, to be more efficient, to have wider domination over others, then
our lives will be shallow and empty. ‘If we are being educated only to be
scientist, to be scholars wedded to books, or specialists addicted to
knowledge, then we hall be contributing to die destruction and misery of the
world.
We may be highly educated, but if we are without deep integration of
through and feeling, our lives are incomplete, contradictory and tom with
many fears; and as long as education does not cultivate an integrated outlook
on life, it has very little significance.
Education is not merely a matter of training die mind. Training makes
for efficiency, but it does not bring about completeness. A mind that has
merely been trained is die continuation of die past, and such a mind can
never discover the new. That is why, to find out what is right education, we
will have to inquire into the whole significance of living.
“To bring about right education, we must obviously understand die
meaning of life as a whole, and for that we have to be able to think, not
consistently, but directly and truly. A Consistent thinker is a thoughtless
person, because he conforms to a pattern; he repeats phrases and thinks in a
groove. We cannot understand existence abstractly or theoretically. To
understand life is to understand ourselves and that is both die beginning and
the end of education.149
3.4.4 Education and Relationship
In J. Krishnamurti's philosophy of education, great emphasis is laid on
the question of relationship. As he says: “Existence is relationship; and
whether we belong to an organized religion or not, whether we are worldly
or caught up in ideals, our suffering can be resolved only through the
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understanding of ourselves in relationship.”
According to him, the learner must be educated to establish a right
relationship with things, persons and ideas, because thus alone can one be
happy.
3.4.5 The Function and Role of the Teacher
According to Krishnamurti, “a teacher’s function is to explore the
meaning of life with students and for himself. Although be conveys
knowledge, his function is to join with students in learning. When teachers
are really concerned about students as precious beings, when they act with
passion and feeling about their work of transforming minds, they will
influence students differently. When they are consistent, when they actually
do what they say is the thing to do, when their attempt to pursue a holistic
approach to learning is sincere, honest and informed, there will be a new
way of thinking, behaving, acting, dressing and walking among students.
Thus, a teacher’s function is to explore the total realm of education,
not simply to convey subject matter to the student, but to help him explore
life itself. In essence, this constitutes what teaching is - a mutual
exploration, not a mutual reinforcement151 of the activities that they
youngsters would like to be perpetually occupied with, i.e., various forms of
entertainment and indulgence. Learning takes place at the same time for
both teacher and student; it is mutual. Especially during the formative
phases, learning takes place when an example is followed. A teacher is what
a student becomes.
Krishnamurti regarded the art of education as very special. The
teacher, in a sense, has the future of humanity in his hands. It is up to him to
develop the “individual uniqueness” of each child, of which Krishnamurti
had already spoken very early in his life. To live up to this task, die teacher
must know about his own qualities and is then able to fulfill his task with
inner security. “Only when the educator himself feels the dignity and die
respect implicit in his work, will he be aware that teaching is die highest
calling, greater than that of the politicians, greater than the princes of the
world.”153
Krishnamurti regards such self-respect by the teacher so highly because it
grants the teacher an inner independence.15
Education should always be creative, always new, taking into account
die individual child. Krishnamurti disapproved of any form of copying of a
certain method or a formative influence of any kind of ideology. “When one
follows a method, even if it has been worked out by a thoughtful and
intelligent person, the method becomes important, and die children are
important only as they fit into it.”155 This advice is also a reminder for
parents who can make crucial mistakes in the educational sphere if they
make particular demands on their children. Similar to following certain
educational methods, setting goals can imply the erection of insurmountable
barriers to a true education. Comparing the children in a family, reducing
them to die same level and often with the most successful child as the model,
is a dramatic mistake in Krishnamurti’s view. “This comparison is a form of
violence...Imitation is violence.”156 Because the family is only a reflection
of society on a small scale it cannot be changed without realizing and
correcting this elementary mistake. Education must be transformed totally it
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must be revolutionized.
By die later half of the fifties Krishnamurti had expressed this idea in
a programmatic way: “Education today helps only to cultivate memory. We
are turning human beings into memory machines. We are turning out
Mediocre who can retain facts and opinions and draw on them when need
arises. We are turning out men whose minds are conditioned by traditions,
beliefs, religions, etc.”
“It seems to me that real education begins when you get beyond all
such conditioning factors; when you understand die process of blinking.”
“Society is not going to help you in your efforts to get beyond
conditioning factors. Society wants to breed mediocre in order to maintain
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its traditions. You will have to revolt against such society.”
3.4.6 Holistic Approach to Education
Long before the times of ‘holistic thinking,’ Krishnamurti demanded
die holistic approach in his form of education. Only if the individual child is
educated according to the dignity of his or her unique wholeness can the
process encompass his or her true inner being, only then can the inner
wholeness communicate with the outer in complete harmony. In a letter,
dated March 15, 1979, Krishnamurti states this idea in his inimitable
precision.159 “This sensitivity to die fallen leaf and to die tall tree on a hill is
far more important than all the passing of examinations and having a bright
career.”160 The child becoming an integral whole, developing in a holistic
way, would be accompanied by becoming whole and by a healing process
that cannot be accomplished by outer acts. According to Krishnamurti, a
change of society can only evolve from die inner to die outer and for him
education was the key to this change.
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