This is the First Prize essay in the Senior High School section of the Tagore Art Competition held in May 2011 in Suriname.
My Encounter with Tagore by Claire Patandin
On Thursday evening, I met Mr.
Rabindranath Tagore in the park. He was
surrounded by children. Screened by a
jasmine bush, he was telling the toddlers about the importance of Nature. Seeing him interact like that made me want to
become a child again, on the lap of Nature enjoying everything she has to give.
He finished his tale and sent the
children home.
Aloud I recited my favorite
paragraph from his work ‘To Teachers.’ “I believe that children should be surrounded
by the things of Nature which have their own educational value. Their mind should be allowed to stumble on and
be surprised at everything that happens in the life to-day. The new to-morrow will stimulate their
attention with new facts of life. This
is best method for the child. But what
happens in school is, that everyday, at the same hour, the same book is brought
and poured out in front of him. His
attention is never caught by chance surprises from Nature.”
Tagore heard me and asked me my name. This was my opportunity, the one I thought I
would never get: having an actual conversation with this intelligent thinker. He gestured me to sit on one of the swings
under the mango tree. I sat down as we
began talking and soon enough I got answers to some of the questions that were
on my mind.
I started off by asking him why
he made these remarks in his speech. He
smiled and said: “This has a very simple answer. Nature is your best teacher. Nature is the easiest teacher to understand,
but also the hardest. The key to
mastering Nature’s lessons is to be attentive. You have to look with different eyes, hear
with different ears, smell with a different nose, taste with a different
tongue, and feel with different hands. You have to be open to Nature if you are
planning to learn something from her. Nature does not provide you with a textbook,
but makes you learn from experience.
That is truly the best way to learn anything in life. You will always remember something better if
you went through it. You can read about
it, but you do not know what it feels like. And if you do not know the feeling, you cannot
give any complete feedback on it. This
is why I say that the best method is going out and experiencing.”
As I thought to myself that he was right, another
intriguing question popped into my head. “Mister Tagore,” I said “in your work
‘To Teachers’ you speak about the system in which we are all robots. How or in what way can we change this system
to make it more suitable?”
Again he
smiled. “That is a difficult question
you are raising child. I can tell you
that this will be the most complicated task people must face. But we cannot really change the system. We can only change ourselves expecting that
others will transform themselves too. My
hope is that all these changed people will team-up and do something about this
problem we are experiencing now. Schools
are part of the system in which we are in. It is part of the routine that we take out the
same book at the same hour and do the same things all over and over again – 6
hours, five days a week. It is difficult
to break this cycle because people are already used to it. The nation is part of this system and is
rusted in this appalling cycle. But
changing the system does not mean that we have to throw our textbooks away, it
just means that we should combine the passive learning with active experience
by discovering things for ourselves.”
“Now that you have asked your questions I want to ask you
one too.” Tagore said. “Why of all
paragraphs I wrote, did you choose that particular one?”
“This piece of writing interested me because that is how I
picture it. But in reality the opposite
is true. I totally agree with you. I should say that it would be fun to learn
while surrounded by Nature. From
experience I can tell that it is. In our
school we do not always have to sit inside, but we can choose to follow our
classes outside as well. I am aware that
things learned in Nature stick better in your head than things learned while
surrounded by four walls filled with technological devices.”
This was my last question and the end of our conversation.
I thanked him for being so kind and said
I enjoyed our conversation. I had the
opportunity of a life time: the chance to connect to mind as powerful as his. That is why I say thank you to Mister
Rabindranath Tagore for inspiring me.
