The Alice Project, a place nearby
beautiful the Buddhist ruin in Sarnath, laden with green trees and plants,
provides not only a home for many animals and birds, also a place for young
children to discover their inner true self. The following paragraphs are the
brief reflection of a weeklong visit to it.
Chiao
Aunty! children in a corridor call out to Luigina- It is an Italian language to
say, good morning/evening. Chiao!, she replies immediately. She is like a
mother, holding the hands of students in gentle, tugging their uniforms,
hugging and kissing. She spends couple of minutes talking with each student
despite her busy schedule. She has an inspiring quality as a teacher, that I
have discovered while she was interacting with the children. Personally I feel,
that the teachers should have these values as a part and parcel. Her love and
kindness to all the children with no discrimination has gained the children's love
equally in turn and they have in fact strong family relationship rather than a teacher
and students. I know during my schooling teacher is teacher and student is
student. There was a big gap between teachers and students, which created fear,
confusion, unfriendly and lot more. Teachers are viewed as fearsome, that I
once vividly remember jumping off the wall to escape their sight. I am sure I learned very important
skill from her about how to establish good relationship with children. Yet, I
admit there is always a room to grow and learn more.
Alice project is a non-governmental
organization that is formally authorized by the Indian government in 1994. Its
purpose is to develop an integrated education through experiences and
researches. So two schools were founded: one in Sarnath and another one in
Bodhgaya. Today these schools offer education to more the one thousand
students. Recently another school had been opened for Chakma children in
Arunachal Pradesh. Alice project methodology is based on the concept of unity.
There are no division due to different nationality, tradition, religion in a
multicultural and pluralistic society. It is not only a social concern but it
is also a personal concern of the relation with ourselves. It's here that a research for psychological unity starts, a
unity that goes beyond division created by confusing mind.
They are following the state government
syllabus for the traditional disciplines, which are taught according to western
methodologies, plus the curriculum of their special educational programme-
Yoga, concentration, art, mythology, comparative religion, moral science and
ecology.
"Like
Alice who embarked on a great adventure and did not lose herself in Wonderland -
a place inside-but found an inner guide (in the form of the White Rabbit). In a
same way we should guide our students to discover their true self," says
Luigina De Biasi, co-founder of Alice Project. "Our students need to be
able to find their way in the world around them through understanding their
internal world" she added. "Understanding the internal world needs
experiences and we are providing those to our children," she added.
When asked about the inner world
Luigina said, 'What is going on in yourself? What can we see? what are our
thoughts? our feelings? our emotions? what is our reality? we call all this our
internal world, which cannot be separated from external reality.'
Today's education system is built on
separation and on classification. In school we tell the children to look at a
tree. The tree is divided into three parts - roots, trunks, leaves. Is it
really that the trees are divided into three parts or they were long ago, some
botanist took a pen and wrote down that the trees are divided into three
parts-and the idea came to an existence. Now we tell students, this is a truth,
go memorise it, if you don't, you will fail in your exam.
According to Luigina, this kind of
knowledge is poison. It is not truth that the trees are divided into three parts. What is true is that
we project what is in our mind. Everything we perceive outside comes from our
filter- our thoughts, believes, cultures, religion, principles and an
environment we are raised.
The
first bang of a bell calls their attention to take their seats on the plastic
carpet. They take out their shoes and slippers around the rim of plastic carpet
and sit in their respective lines. At once, hundreds of heads dressed in sky
blue shirts, dark purple pants and skirts, dangling purple ties from the middle
of their chests for junior grades. long blue knee length skirt with its two
sides tore apart appearing upside down 'V' shape which looks like a night outfit
and a white long flat strip of cloth decorated in 'V' shape over the breast and
shoulder. The morning breeze from the green tall trees, plants and flowers fill
the gathering. A pigeon, on the 'Y' shaped branch listens to the melodies
prayer and often in between sparrow chorus their chirps but it was dominated by
a tune of hundred below. After the prayer they sit on the plastic carpets cross
legged. A teacher stands on the floor in front of the gathering with a small
bell on his right hand. He shakes it
vigorously so that the sound of a bell is audible at the rear. He speaks in
Hindi language through a microphone held on his left hand ''Students, sit straight, close your eyes, think about an enemy to whom
you hurt. Ask yourself why did you hurt him or her. Dissolve their harsh words
and pay attention to your breath. Know that you are inhaling when you inhale
and exhaling when you exhale. Visualise 'OM' in your mind.'' Then in an
ascending tone they chant OM...OM...OM... three times. Thus, a day begins with looking
into the Internal world of self.
Being
a Buddhist myself, and born and brought up in a society where Gross National
Happiness concept gave birth to. To me exploring the nature of a mind and
discovering its inner most quality has become basic reliable foundation to
qualify my background, while it can be universal path of internalizing into one's
own unexplored working of a mind. I realized that simple daily contemplative practices
in school are very important from an early age of human race. Because the
education we give to our children must benefit throughout the individual's life
and even in next life which I think is possible through training our mind-meditation
or whatever we call it. If taken into consideration it would provide a unique platform
for our young and unspoiled mind to discover the mind system at earliest
possible. At times it becomes investigational lab to experiment the mind
chemistry of our children to become mind scientists. Production of hundreds and
hundreds of mind scientist should begin from schools and one example could be
Alice project.
There
is always sometime reserved from an assembly hour to sing together in union.
Most of the songs are praise to god, value embedded and peace related. One of
the songs which was sung in different languages (Hindi, English, Italian, African,
Bhutanese etc) goes like this ''We will be in peace...'' followed by rhythmic
claps. ''Bless the lord my Soul...'' is another inspiring song amongst many. I
learned that singing songs together give opportunities for students to union as
one, respect each other, learn and visualize the value images, work out with tunes and compose their own songs.
I learned, that to cultivate the seed of a
pure and good mind one should have an inspiring environment as a fertile land and that must be
constantly encouraged in our children's daily practices. Such a setting was a Tara
temple which was dedicated to an universal peace; the long life of H.H. the
Dalai Lama; Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshey- holy Gurus who inspired the
Alice Project. There the students from the Alice project recite the prayer
taking turns. The cosmic female energy is generated constantly by 24 hours
uninterrupted recitation of her prayer. Many lamas have blessed the temple.
Yoga is a science of a body and a mind. I
learned that there is an important relationship between yoga and meditation.
Both the practices basically help in the development of children's concentration,
calming the mind, and right growth of the body. To provide with an opportunities
for students to practice and learn yoga the school has separate yoga room and made
schedule for all the classes.
I observed several yoga classes and every
time they begin with motivational prayer and meditation for few minutes. They
dedicate their learning and again mediate for few minutes to end the session.
