The Trustees, Administrators, Faculty, Staff, Students and Friends of the AlphaMax Academy have welcomed the arrival, installation and unveiling of the bust of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore on the lawns of our relatively small school. To mark Tagore’s 150th Birth Anniversary Year, a great honour has been bestowed upon us as an institution inSuriname. We are deeply appreciative to the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), the Embassy of India, and our First Lady, Mrs. Ingrid Bouterse-Waldring.
In point of fact, it is no coincidence that the AlphaMax Academy has become home in Suriname to the bust of India’s internationally-recognized poet laureate and educator: Rabindranath Tagore has been a largely-unseen towering figure of inspiration at our fledgling institution of learning which ranges from kindergarten to primary to secondary and post-secondary education. From its inception in September 1998, teachers and students of the Academy have recited, often daily, those memorable words which first appeared in Tagore’s world-famous and respected collection of poetry, “Gitanjali”:
Where the mind is without fear and head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
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
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of free, my dear beloved God, let us all awake.
Thus, when Suriname’s First Lady unveils the Tagore monument on June 4th, she will not only reveal Gautam Pal’s wonderfully sculpted figure of Tagore, but she will also unveil a plaque that bears this inspiring prayer.
According to Deputy Principal of the Academy, Ir. Emiel A. Krak, “These powerful words, which have guided our hearts and minds for 13 years, are part of the nourishment of students, staff, and teachers at the Academy. This text is one of our school anthems. It reminds us of the key ingredients and values we are striving to inculcate within ourselves. A proper life-inspiring education should equip students, teachers, parents and members of society with a positive spirit of courage, deep self-respect and dignity, a thirst for truth, and a deep willingness to go beyond one’s prescribed boundaries in relation to narrow, inimical perspectives and actions. S/he who possesses these qualities is awake in the real heaven of freedom. Tagore’s words constantly call to our remembrance what is the aim of our education and our life-purposes.”
“Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore is a sacrosanct and significant Teacher [with a capital ‘T’] within the geography of this little school,” said Principal Sean F. Taylor. “As a creative person and educator, his approach and ideas serve as a beacon and lighthouse. He’s a trailblazer for the 21st century. We’ve sought without fanfare and fuss to emulate several of his educational ideals.”
When this school was established here in Zorg-en-hoop, Tagorean ideals hovered silently in the background. We did not attempt to replicate the poet’s experiment at Shantiniketan, for the circumstances here and context – like India and elsewhere – are unique. Of importance was the spirit and approach to education and learning.
While dispensing knowledge through a wide range of traditional disciplines across various levels, the AlphaMax has sought to cultivate a values-based learning environment and experience where teachers and students meet each other in an atmosphere of scholarship, mutual respect, creativity, and the development of expressive skills.
To help foster and enrich the holistic formation of its young scholars, the Academy devotes four of its five school days to left-brain ratiocinative development and activities, and one day to right-brain creativity. A resilient insistence on the latter is vintage Tagore, who like his Occidental contemporaries, Rudolf Steiner and Maria Montessori deplored one-sided child development at the expense of a willful fostering and guidance of creative gifts and skills. Indeed it is through the latter that the inner ‘child’ is nurtured and brought to a ripe maturity. Tagore virtually enjoined it upon his students and teachers to study and work outdoors in the midst of nature. Not only was literature, or art, but even mathematics was conducted under the jasmine bower.
On the day when the school turns from left to right-brain activities, in addition to fine art, technical drawing, and classes on Living Values, Academy students are guided in the practice of the two most ancient oriental systems of exercise - Tai Chi and yoga asanas. Even as students at some schools do eurhythmy, AlphaMax students learn and practice tai chi and yoga. These ancient exercises reflect the inclusive international character of the school: it should be said that our intent is to forge a new middle course in Suriname through tangible activities in our multi-cultural society. While we are walking the talk about mutual respect in our activities, at the same time, our students benefit by consciously engaging in constructively guiding and directing their wills, energies, and forces.
Over the years, the creative impulses of AlphaMax students have found outlets through Academy publications and public performances at various venues. Whereas early school productions were classical – often dramatic presentations from Shakespeare, in 2010, students presented “The Many Faces of Love” – a gala celebration of literature, song, dance, and video-presentations of the many facets of the mysterious elixir that drives existence. One highlight of the program was the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, the centerpiece of the ‘Eros-Agape’ love-panel. Again, in 2011, we have presented for public audiences selections from Tagore, including his “Earth Song,” a poem that is amazingly mimetic of the spirit of life in Suriname.
In 2009, AlphaMax Academy students presented the story of democracy – tracing its 18th century roots in American society from the time of the founding fathers through the modern era, including the struggle for freedom on the Subcontinent and Africa. The Academy’s oratorical presentation of “The Portrait of Hope & Peace” had earlier been captured in a different, yet condensed format, on canvas, by its respected Art Professor, Ruben Karsters. The latter’s “4Ms: A Portrait of Hope & Peace” was a celebration of leadership models for youths and future generations in the 21st century. Professor Karsters’ unique portrayal captured India’s Mahatma Gandhi, South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, and American activists, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.
In the AlphaMax Academy, East meets West; and North and South dwell together in a relationship of mutual respect – not one based on hegemony or obeisance or subservience. Mindful and respectful of all cultures and faiths, we stress a common underlying unity, for all human aspirations ultimately move towards the quest for love, peace, happiness, harmony, freedom, and prosperity.
The AlphaMax Academy is very happy to welcome this supreme artist, thinker and educator, Gurudeva Rabindranath Tagore on our school lawns. The garden here has been prepared for him, and we’re proud students will run and play amidst the blooming flamboyant trees, a sculpted likeness of the poet, fajalobis, and even orange trees planted by Miss Young Suriname and our students. In our hearts and minds, as an educator, Tagore stands on no lower a rung than Maria Montessori, Paulo Freire, and Rudolf Steiner.
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