It was the poet Tennyson who penned these memorable lines:
Let knowledge grow from more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell!
Vidya dadati vinayam - so our scriptures teach us. True knowledge, true scholarship is humility. Current education has only succeeded in making our students sharp and shrewd. Education must be rooted in one form of fundamental reverence: reverence for the teacher; and, on the part of the teacher, respect and love for the pupils.
If there is such a thing as transforming power in education, you will not find it in textbooks; you will find it in the teacher. Clever men and women are everywhere; what good education needs is teachers who can be friends and guardians of their young students - teachers who can inspire trust and respect in their students. Only in such an atmosphere of mutual respect can values can be imparted.
In the Gita, we have what is essentially a dialogue between Arjun and Krishn. True education is essentially a dialogue between the teacher and the pupil; it is a communion of their minds and hearts. True education, Sadhu Vaswani believed, is a Science of Life. So, true educators cannot just be teachers; the ideal Mira teacher is encouraged to be a friend and guide on the path of life.
Before each Mira teacher is placed Sadhu Vaswani's ideal, 'The teacher is a friend! A friend of brother teachers, a friend of all pupils, a friend of all races and communities, a friend of all nations, of all men and birds and beasts, a friend of God's creation!'
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