Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

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Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to:

 describe briefly who is Rabindranath Tagore
 discuss Tagore‟s objectives of establishing his school
 explain Tagore‟s views on education
i  briefly describe who is Froebel
 evaluate Froebel‟s views on early childhood education

Bab 1:
Pengenalan
Chapter Outline
Bab 2:
 Who is Rabindranath Tagore? Perspektif Awal Tentang Kurikulum
 His Works Bab 3:
 Tagore‟s View on Education Confucius dan Mencius
 The experimental school
 Who is Frobel? Bab 4:
 Frobel‟s view on early childhood Al-Farabi dan Ibnu Sina
education
Bab 5:
Socrates, Plato & Aristotle
References
Bab 6:
Jean Rousseau & John Locke

Bab 7:
Paulo Freire dan Swami Vivekananda

Bab 8:
Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

Bab 9:
Kemahiran Abad ke21

Tagore was most concerned about the poor conditions of rural people in India and
proposed that education should be used to change their lives. He tried out his ideas on
education in an experimental school. The ideas of Froebel emphasise how kindergartens
should be designed and focus was on the role of play. He introduced the concept of
„gifts‟ and „occupations‟ to enhance understanding of concepts and thinking of children.

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Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

Who is Rabindranath Tagore?

Rabindranath Tagore was born on 7 May 1861

in Calcutta, India. His family was involved in business
and benefited from the growing power of the British
East India Company. He was born at the time the British
were consolidating their power over India. Rabindranath
was the fourteenth child and grew up in family in which
his siblings were poets, musicians, playwrights and
novelists.
Rabindranath attended Bengali-medium school
which developed his love for the language and
literature. He was also sent to a number of English-
speaking schools. He gradually withdrew from formal
schooling when he was around 14 years old. The
remainder of his education was carried out at home
through his own personal efforts and with the help of
tutors in various subjects. He also had lessons from
Rabindranath Tagore professionals in wrestling, music and drawing. When
(1861 – 1914) Rabindranath was 12, his father took him to
Santiniketan, the meditation centre and during their brief
stay there, his father taught him Sanskrit, astronomy, English literature and the Hindu
scriptures. After these lessons were over, Rabindranath was free to roam among the
fields and forests. This closeness with nature had an impact on his life and his views on
education.
In 1878, when he was 17, he was sent to London by his father to qualify for the
Indian Civil Service or as a lawyer. He took his matriculation examination and then
joined University College, London. He came to like his lessons in English literature, and
became exposed to British social life and Western music, both of which he enjoyed. But
he returned home suddenly after some eighteen months without completing his
education. However, he did gain the impression that human nature was perhaps the same
everywhere. Back in India he continued with his personal education and his creative
writing and music.
Tagore married at the age of 23. He became aware of his talent as a poet between
1884 and 1890 wrote many poems, plays, article and novels. When Tagore took over the
management of the farms and estates of his family, he realised something must be done
to alleviate the poverty of the farmers and rural folks. He was convinced that poverty
stricken people do not understand their plight and thus are mistreated by those in power,
such as the landlord, policeman, money-lender and so forth. People should first discover
the bonds that holds them together and the only way to bring about this realisation is
through education. He emphasised the need for self-reliance, local initiatives, local
leadership and the cooperative way of life as forming the basis of reorganizing India‟s
fragmented rural society. According to him “poverty springs from disunity and wealth
from cooperation” (Namashima Rao, 1992)

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Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

His Works

Tagore was a prolific writer and among his works are the following:

Fiction:
 The Home and the World
 The Hungry Stones and other Stories

Non-Fiction:
 Sadhana: The Realisation of Life
 Creative Unity

Poetry:
 Gitanjali
 Fruit Gathering
 The Crescent Moon

Plays:
 Chitra
 The King of the Dark Chamber

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Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

LEARNING ACTIVITY
a) Briefly describe the life of Tagore.
b) What was his main concern about the state of Indian
society who were under British rule?
c) Check from the internet the poems and stories by Tagore

Tagore’s Views on Education

Tagore did not write a treatise on education, but his ideas on education may be
gleaned from his writings and educational experiments in the schools he established.
The way he was educated in which he was brought close to nature, had an impact on his
views on education. With this realisation, Tagore turned his attention and thoughts
towards the problems of education.

On the Curriculum in Schools:

 Tagore considered lack of education to be the main obstacle in the way of India‟s
progress and at the root of all its problems. The prevailing, colonial education
system he found unsatisfactory since the only objective it appeared to serve was
to produce clerks to work in government offices and British businesses in India

 He stressed the importance of science, technology and agricultural sciences, as

well as training in village crafts. Without these, it was not possible to revive the
poor condition of life in rural India.

 He felt that both spiritual and scientific knowledge are equally important.
Science without constraint will lead to endless desire for material goods and
well-being, and the meaningless pursuit of the instruments of war and power
leading to suppression of the weaker by the stronger.

 He suggested teaching of history and geography to promote objectivity in

thinking and to facilitate desirable social change.

 It was necessary, Tagore felt, to make the younger generation aware of their
national cultural heritage and to grasp its significance for them. At the same
time, education should bring children face to face with the cultures of other
countries and persuade them to learn from them.

On Medium of Instruction:
 He was not in favour of using English as the medium of instruction because it
hindered assimilation of what was taught, and kept education confined to urban
centres and the upper classes. Thus, if the vast rural masses were to benefit, it

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Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

was absolutely essential to switch over to the use of mother-tongue at all levels
of education, including higher education [since he was from Bengal, a state in
India, he suggested using the Bengali language].

 He felt that Indian education should focus in promoting creativity, freedom, joy
and an awareness of a country‟s cultural heritage which was completely ignored.

On Teacher and Teaching Methods:

 Tagore considered teachers to be very important in any scheme of education. He
wanted teachers to help young children to grow on their own as a gardener helps
the young plants to grow.

 He wanted to use education as an instrument of change to make Indian young

men and women more rational and less subject to meaningless social and
individual rituals.

 Tagore wanted his students to acquire a scientific temper; in other words, he

wanted teachers to stimulate constructive doubt, the love of mental adventure,
the courage and longing to conquer the world by enterprise and boldness in
thought and in action. These were the virtues cultivation of which had made the
West forge ahead.

 He was against bookish learning. Dependence on books has deprived us of our

natural faculty of getting knowledge directly from nature and life and have
generated within us the habit of knowing everything through books. Books
dehumanize and make us unsociable. Let students gather knowledge and
materials from different regions of the country, from direct sources and from iew

 Tagore was against any form of corporal punishment to impose discipline. He

wanted discipline to come from within, from the pursuit of noble and high
ambitions in life. Discipline would follow naturally when minor impulses and
desires were willingly forgone to pursue grand creative desires.

 He wanted his students to think in terms of the whole of mankind. He wanted

them to become universal men and women like himself and to overcome feelings
of narrow nationalism in order that the world could live and grow in peace and
fellowship.

LEARNING ACTIVITY
a) Why did Tagore consider Indian education unsatisfactory?
b) Why Tagore emphasise a balance between “scientific and
spiritual knowledge?
c) Explain why Tagore was against English as the medium of
instruction in Indian schools.
d) Do you agree with his views on corporal punishment?
e) Why was he against „bookish learning‟? Do you agree?

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Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

On University Education:
 He wanted Indian universities to integrate themselves with society and make an
effort to educate people living in the countryside. He did not want education to
remain confined to the cities and to particular classes of society. As stated by
Tagore;

In every nation, education is intimately associated with the life of

the people. For us, modern education is relevant only to turning out
clerks, lawyers, doctors, magistrates and policemen…. This
education has not reached the farmer, the oil grinder, nor the potter.
No other educated society has been struck with such disaster…. If
ever a truly Indian university is established it must from the very
beginning implement India‟s own knowledge of economics,
agriculture, health, medicine and of all other everyday science from
the surrounding villages. Then alone can the school or university
become the centre of the country‟s way of living. This school must
practice agriculture, dairying and weaving using the best modern
methods.
(Rabindranath Tagore, Addresses by Tagore, p. 9–10, Santiniketan, Visva
Bharati, M. Das Gupta, Santiniketan and Sri Niketan, Calcutta, Visva
Bharati, 1983)

 The main task of universities is to produce knowledge, its dissemination is its

secondary function. We must invite those intellectuals and scholars to our
universities who are engaged in research, invention or creative activity.

 Science and its applications in the form of technology have led to the power and
prosperity of Western countries. Unless India acquired knowledge of science and
technology through its universities and schools, poverty and powerlessness
would continue. To transform life and make it richer, healthier and more
educated, it was imperative to resort to technology and science. But Tagore
wanted science to be taught along with India‟s own philosophical and spiritual
knowledge at Indian universities.

On Education of Women:
 He was very much concerned with women‟s education. His educational
institutions have almost always been co-educational and he wanted women and
men to be offered similar theoretical courses with separate practical courses for
women, since their roles in life differed from those of men.

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Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

LEARNING ACTIVITY
a) Briefly discuss Tagore‟s views on university education.
b) Why was science important in Indian universities?
c) Why was Tagore against „bookish learning‟? Do you
agree? Why?
d) What were his views on education of women? Do you
agree?

Tagore’s Experimental Schools

Tagore is credited with the many experiments on teaching which he conducted

by the establishment of schools on his own estate to which he sent his own children. The
students were taught various subjects including English. He also established
cooperatives, schools and hospitals in the villages of his estates and tried to introduce
improved farming methods.

Figure 8.1 The Santiniketan Experimental School

In 1901 Tagore established a school at Santiniketan in which he envisioned an education

that was deeply rooted in one‟s immediate surrounding but connected to the culture of
the wider world (see Figure 6.1).

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Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

 He felt the curriculum should revolve organically around nature with classes held
in the open air under trees to provide for an appreciation of the plant and animal
kingdom and changing of the seasons.

 The “forest school” which was established which integrated education (subjects
such as science, arts, humanities, social sciences) with Sadhana (disciplining
one‟s senses and one‟s own life).

 According to Tagore, “the highest education is that which does not merely give
us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence” (Tagore, 1917).
He emphasised music, literature, arts, dance and drama in his school. He invited
artists and scholars from all over India and the world to live together at
Santiniketan to share their cultures. He helped revive folk dances from different
parts of the country.

 In terms of teaching method, he felt that in studying history and culture, focus
should not be on dates and events but rather what progress had made in breaking
down social and religious barriers.

 Children sat on hand-woven mats beneath the trees and they were allowed to
climb the trees and run around the trees between classes.

 Nature walks and excursions were a part of the curriculum and students were
encouraged to study the life cycles of insects, birds and plants.

 Class schedules were made flexible to allow for shifts in the weather or special
attention to natural phenomena (O‟Connell, 2003).

Tagore as Teacher
Tagore himself was a teacher at the School. He taught English language, and in the
evenings related stories from Indian history

LEARNING ACTIVITY
a) Briefly discuss Tagore‟s views on university education.
b) Why was science important in Indian universities?
c) What were his views on education of women? Do you
agree?

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Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

Where the mind is without fear

and the head is held high,
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken
up into fragments by narrow domestic
walls;
Where words come out from the
depth of truth;
Where tireless striving
stretches its arms towards
perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the
dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward
by thee into ever-widening
thought and action–
into that heaven of freedom,
my Father,
Let my country awake.

[excerpt from Gitanjali by Tagore. 1912]

LEARNING ACTIVITY

Based on the excerpt of a poem above by Tagore; discuss his

t thoughts on education focusing on the following phases:
- “mind is without fear” - “knowledge is free”
- “depth of truth” - “dead habit”
- “thought and action” - “heaven of freedom”

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Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

WHO IS FRIEDRICH FROEBEL?

Friedrich Froebel was born on 21, April, 1782 in

Oberweissbach, Germany. His was the youngest of five
sons of Johann Jacob Froebel, a pastor. His mother died
when he was nine months old and when he was four years
old, his father remarried. Feeling neglected by his
stepmother and father, Froebel experienced a profoundly
unhappy childhood. At his father's insistence, he attended
the girls' primary school at Oberweissbach and later lived
with his uncle, where he attended the local town school.
From the years 1798 to 1800 he was as an apprentice to a
forester and surveyor. From 1800 to 1802 Froebel
attended the University of Jena. Later in 1805 Froebel
briefly studied architecture in Frankfurt which provided
him with a sense of artistic perspective and symmetry he
Friedrich Froebel later transferred to his design of the kindergarten.
(1782 – 1852)
In 1805 Gruener, headmaster of the Pestalozzian
Model School, hired Froebel as a teacher. To prepare him as a teacher, Gruener arranged
for Froebel, now twenty-four years old, to take a short course with Johann Pestalozzi.
Froebel was influenced by Pestalozzi's respect
for the dignity of children and creation of a JOHANN PESTALOZZI
learning environment of emotional security. A German philosopher who
After his training with Pestalozzi, Froebel taught believed that education should
at Gruner's Model School until he returned to seek to unfold the natural
study with Pestalozzi for two more years.
powers of the child. The teaching
From 1810 to 1812 Froebel studied
methods and the curriculum
languages and science at the University of
Göttingen. He hoped to identify linguistic should be child-centred and the
structures that could be applied to language child should have direct or
instruction. He became particularly interested in hands-on experience with what is
geology and mineralogy. Later he studied taught. The child is expected to
mineralogy at the University of Berlin. In 1816 be continually active, seeing for
Froebel established the Universal German himself or herself, making and
Educational Institute at Griesheim and moved correcting mistakes, analysing
the institute to Keilhau a year later. objects and satisfying his or her
In 1837, Froebel established a new type natural curiosity.
of early childhood school, a child's garden, or
kindergarten, for three-and four-year-old
children. Using play, songs, stories, and activities, the kindergarten was designed as an
educational environment in which children, through their own self-activity, could
develop. Froebel's reputation as an early childhood educator increased and kindergartens
were established throughout the German states. By the end of the nineteenth century,
kindergartens had been established throughout Europe and North America. He died in
1852 and is known as the father of the kindergarten system.

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Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

HIS WORKS

The Education of Man (1826) had a profound

effect on the approach to early childhood
education. Froebel believed in the development
of intelligence and character through activities
that engaged the interest of children. To many of
his critics these activities seemed more like play
than school work. Wood building blocks were
one of these activities, which Froebel called
„gifts‟ as they were given to the child

LEARNING ACTIVITY
a) Trace the life of Froebel.
b) What were the main ideas in his book “The Education of
Man”?
c) What ideas of Pestalozzi do you think influenced Froebel?

FROEBEL’S KINDERGARTEN PHILOSOPHY

 Friedrich Froebel believed that humans are essentially productive and creative.
He was extremely devout Christian and believed that the aim of education is to
develop the child to be in harmony with God and the surrounding environment.
 Originally, he suggested that the teaching of young children through educational
games should take place in the family. However. later he felt that it was
necessary to have special centres for the care and development of children
outside the home which led to the birth of the kindergarten.
 He advocated a child-centred curriculum through the creation of educational
environments that involved practical work and the direct use of materials; i.e.
learning by doing. By engaging the child in doing something, understanding will
unfold itself.

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Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

 One of the best known aspects of Froebel‟s work was the importance of learning
through activity. He theorised it was through their activity that children made
sense of their world – activity was essential to children‟s intellectual, creative
and emotional development.

 Froebel is responsible for axioms such as:

o Children learn by doing
o Children should be encouraged to think for themselves
o Developing the whole child
o Child-centred teaching
These axioms challenged the prevailing beliefs of the time that children are
passive learners waiting for knowledge to be presented to them and relayed back
via testing.

 The name Kindergarten signifies both a garden for children, a location where
they can observe and interact with nature, and also a garden of children, where
they themselves can grow and develop (see Figure 8.2).

Figure 8.2
An early
kindergarten in
Europe

 He identified five main stages of development: infancy, childhood, boyhood,

youth and maturity. He explained his theory through the analogy of the plant and
likened the teacher to a good gardener – someone who tends the seed and
provides a nurturing environment through all of the different stages. The new
born baby is a seed who is nurtured to be an adult which is a tree.

Role of Play:

 Froebel was convinced that the kindergarten's primary focus should be on play–
the process by which he believed children expressed their innermost thoughts,
needs, and desires.

 Froebel's emphasis on play contrasted with the traditional view prevalent during
the nineteenth century that play was a form of idleness and disorder, and was an
unworthy element of human life.

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Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood

for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul.
Froebel, 1907.

Instructional Materials:

 Hence the significance of play - it is both a

creative activity and through it children
become aware of their place in the world.
He went on to develop special materials
(such as shaped wooden bricks and balls -
gifts), a series of recommended activities
(occupations) and movement activities.

 Froebel designed a series of instructional

materials that he called “gifts” (see Figure
8.3)

 A “gift” was an object provided for a child Figure 8.3

to play with; such as a sphere, cube, or A child playing with the
cylinder; which helped the child to ‘gifts’
understand and internalise the concepts of
shape, dimension, size, and their relationships.

 The “occupations” were a series of recommended activities which the children

could use understand their environment. For example, a child could use a ball (a
„gift‟) and employ various kinds of activities (or occupations) and create
something new or different. Through these activities or occupations (which could
be movement activities), children express themselves when interacting with the
„gifts‟ (objects such as a ball, cube, sticks).

Froebel felt it was of paramount importance to allow children to

draw their own conclusions rather than to be provided with
answers. He disliked elaborate toys that discouraged creativity and
discovery. For Froebel, less was more. Froebel's method allows
children more freedom to experience and the chance to learn at
their own pace at the time of their most rapid intellectual
development. He favoured learning through the handling of
materials, in what he called objective play or play "with the thing
in itself." Froebel saw that important learning was done through
play and play is the engine for his whole educational system.

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Chapter 8: Rabindranath Tagore and Froebel

 Therefore, through the child‟s own self-activity and creative imaginative play, the
child would begin to understand both the inner and outer properties of things as
he moves through the developmental stages of the educational process.

LEARNING ACTIVITY
a) Why did Froebel put so much importance on the role of
play in kindergarten?
b) How did he use the analogy of the plant to describe how a
child develops?
c) What is the role of parents in children‟s learning?
d) Explain the role of „gifts‟ in the development of a child.

Using the sticks and rings to trace designs on paper, children exercised the hand's small
muscles, coordinated hand and eye movements, and took the first steps toward drawing
and later writing.

REFERENCES

Gerhardt, Heinz-Peter (1996). Prospects: the quarterly review of comparative education

(Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. XXIII, no. 3/4, 1993, p.439–58.

Helmut Heiland (1999). Friedrich Froebel. PROSPECTS: the quarterly review of

comparative education (Paris, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol.
XXIII, no. 3 / 4, 1993, p. 473–91.

Patty Smith Hill. The Value and Limitations of Froebel's Gifts as Educative Materials
Parts I, II The Elementary School Teacher, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Nov., 1908), pp. 129-137

O'Connell, K. M. (2003) Rabindranath Tagore on education, The encyclopaedia

of informal education. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/tagore.htm

Tagore, R. (1912) Personality, 116-117. London: Macmillan

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