First Lady Ingrid Bouterse-Waldring and Ambassador K. J. S. Sodhi in front of the bust of Rabindranath Tagore at AlphaMax Academy
On the 4th of June, 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 and obscure school. To mark Tagore’s 150th Birth Anniversary Year, a great honour has been bestowed upon us as an institution in Suriname. 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, however, 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 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 dead sand of dead habit
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 Ingrid Bouterse Waldring unveils the Tagore monument, she did not only reveal a wonderfully sculpted bronze figure of Tagore, but she also unveiled 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 heart 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’s the aim of our education and our life-purposes.
Bust of Gurudeva Rabindranath Tagore on the lawns of AlphaMax Academy, Paramaribo, Suriname.
Gurudeva Rabindranath Tagore is a sacrosanct and significant Teacher [with a capital ‘T’] within the geography of this little school,” said Principal and Academy Founder, 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 certainly did not attempt to replicate the poet’s experiment at Shantiniketan, for the circumstances here and our context – like those in India and elsewhere – are special and unique. Of paramount importance was the spirit and approach to education and learning.
Thus, at the AlphaMax Academy, an essential ingredient in the learning and teaching experience is the establishment of an inspiring environment where nature and beauty are enshrined, nurtured and sustained. Yet, while beautiful, it was not to be overly ornate or cosmetic; simplicity was to be a key ingredient and the students were to have direct access to respected inspiring teachers whose task is simply to call forth their innate gifts, abilities and skills.
First Lady of Suriname Ingrid Bouterse-Waldring addressing the audience at the unveiling ceremony for Tagore bust
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 various forms of expressive skills.
To help foster and enrich the holistic formation of its young scholars, from its inception, the Academy has devoted four of its five school days to left-brain academic and ratiocinative development and activities, and one full school day to right-brain creative endeavors. An unswerving resilient insistence on the latter is vintage Tagore, who like his Occidental contemporaries, Rudolf Steiner and Maria Montessori deplored lop or one-sided child/human 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.
To illustrate how important contact with nature was to the life of the educator and poet, during one of his many travels to lecture in the West, Tagore wrote:
“I wish I could be released from this mission. For such missions are like a mist that envelops our souls – they seem to shut us off from the direct touch of God’s world… The springtime has come – the sky is over-flowing with sunshine. I long to be one with the birds, and trees and the green earth. The call comes to me from the air to sing, but, wretched creature that I am, I lecture – and by doing it I ostracize myself from this great world of songs to which I was born.”
New York, March 18th, 1921
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, students of the Academy are guided in the practice of the two most ancient oriental systems of exercise - Tai Chi and yoga asanas. Even as Waldorf students 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 express intent is to forge a new middle course in Suriname through tangible activities in our plural harmonious 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.
The natural fruits of this novel approach to the learning and teaching environment have found ample expression not just in the liberation of latent creative forces and skills, but also above-average academic performances by many students – some of whom had been dismally dismissed by an orthodox system which had exhausted other options.
Over the years, the creative impulses of AlphaMax students have found outlets through Academy publications and public performances at various venues, including the Patronaat. Whereas earlier, 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 that mysterious elixir that drives all existence. One highlight of the program was the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore which was the centerpiece of the ‘Eros-Agape’ love-panel.
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, a captive audience at the Patronaat was dumbfounded at the oratorical skills of Surinamese students who presented the story of democracy – tracing its 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, and culminating in the victory proclamation of U.S. Barack Obama. 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 of India’s Mahatma Gandhi, South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, and American activists, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, won international attention and acclaim in 2010 when President Desire D. Bouterse of Suriname presented the Karsters’ portrait to Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, and an MSNBC poll voted the President’s gift as one of the most appropriate presents a head of state could give to another.
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.
Few respected thinkers in the 20th century expressed their views as beautifully and with clarity as did Rabindranath Tagore. Some of his thoughts are:
"contemptuously treated, and men, who made big profits the sole end of their life, were looked down upon.”
“As I look around I see the crumbling ruins of a proud civilization strewn like a vast heap of futility. And yet I shall not commit the grievous sin of losing faith in Man."
The AlphaMax Academy is very happy to welcome this supreme artist, thinker and educator, Gurudeva Rabindranath Tagore on these school lawns. The garden here has been prepared for him – we’re proud the students will run and play amidst these blooming flamboyant trees, the sculpted likeness of him, fajalobis, and orange trees planted by Miss Suriname and our students. In our hearts and minds, as an educator, Tagore stands on no lower a rung than Maria Montessori, Paulo Friere, and Rudolf Steiner – other educators from other rich traditions who are also worthy of celebration and emulation. In a nutshell, their teaching is singular: The creative impulses of our children – indeed all people – are to be nurtured to maturity and are worthy of being treasured – for beneath its expression, subtle forces of transformation are at play.
Were Tagore alive today, he would no doubt find himself sifting through the vast plethora of cultural statements which capture the imaginations of modern youths. For sure, he would be enchanted with the plurality of Suriname. In a letter to a friend he wrote,
“I feel that the true India is an idea, and not a mere geographical fact. I have come in touch with this idea in far-away places… and my loyalty was drawn to it in persons who belonged to countries different from mine. … The idea [is that] of ‘The Infinite Personality, whose Light reveals itself through the obstruction of Darkness.’ [Thus] Our fight is against this Darkness. Our object is the revealment of the Light of this Infinite Personality of Man. This is not to be achieved in single individuals, but in one grand harmony of all human races. The darkness of egoism which will have to be destroyed is the egoism of the Nation. The idea of India is against the intense consciousness of the separateness of one’s own people from others, which inevitable leads to ceaseless conflicts. Therefore my own prayer is, let India stand for the cooperation of all peoples of the world.”
In 1941, at the age of 80, three score and ten years ago, in his final speech entitled “The Crises of Civilization,” Tagore explicitly alludes to the urgent need for the transformation of thought and action in modern societies. He said, “I … look forward to the opening of a new chapter in history… after the atmosphere [has been] rendered clean with the spirit of service and sacrifice. Perhaps that dawn will come from this horizon, from the East where the sun rises… A day will come when unvanquished Man will retrace his path of conquest, despite all barriers, to win back his lost heritage.”
In Suriname, the AlphaMax Academy is one small institution which has already hearkened to the call for such transformation and the ushering in of a new era inspired by ideas from the ‘east.’ The call has not been restricted to some. Kindred institutions, like Waldorf, Montessori, Maharishi, and countless other unnamed schools openly seek to reflect the new light, which though not visible on the horizon, is already rising.
Particularly refreshing at this juncture in time in Suriname is the fact that recently the self-same intent and efforts found creative and vocal expression in a hit single by Tale Spin, released last year by Royant Studios. Curiously, the voice of Krishnamurti, a contemporary from Tagore time, can be heard on the single.
Lyrics “United” by Tale Spin, Naomie Sastra & Krishnamurti Jiddu
