Patha Bhavana, Shantiniketan_ More than 100 years of outdoor learning practice

Patha Bhavana (Bengali: পাঠ ভবন) is an institution of primary and secondary education in Santiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Nobel laureate Poet Rabindranath Tagore in 1901 with only five students which later grew into Visva-Bharati University. The school is established based on the philosophy of learning being in nature with close connection to it without any superficial barriers between teachers and students. It was opposed to the mainstream classroom learning system based on the books only. It’s often referred to as an ashram system where the teacher is guru and teaches his or her disciples sitting in the shade of a tree. It is one of the two primary and secondary school affiliated with the Visva-Bharati University; the other being Shiksha Satra.

Patha Bbhavana is established for children from class I to class XII. Generally in the schools in Indian subcontinent children remain in the classrooms. The teacher moves from one class to another when the bell rings. But in Patha Bhavana, the teachers are allocated a fixed place, a tree. She sits on her Vedi under the tree and the children move from the class of one teacher to the class of another one. So in the morning when the school commences one can see children in their orange uniform sitting around their teachers under different trees in the vast ground of Shantiniketan. This ground is called Amrokunja as the trees are mostly mango trees.

All the classes here are taken in the outdoors. But there are sufficient classrooms to commence the classes there in case of bad weather- scorching sun or heavy rains. Here the nature is mostly a context where the classes are held. Each child brings his or her own Asana from home and sits on that surrounding the teacher.

The curriculum of the Patha Bhavana is not totally similar to the curriculum of the Government Primary Education of India. There is flexibility in the curriculum for the younger children. There is no difference between study and exam. Exam is taken in the middle of the studies.  Teaching of literature and extra-curricular activities are stressed here. There is a literary meeting named Sahityo Sabha on the day before weekend every week where the children do have the scope to present their own literary piece.

The science teaching is termed as ‘nature study’ when the children are taken to a nature walk within the area of Shantiniketan. During the nature walk the children observe different elements of nature, learn about the nature. “This class was very much attractive to me during my childhood,” said Mridula Mishra, an ex-student of Patha Bhavana in her article on Shantiniketan in a book titled ‘Shantiniketan Onuvuty’. Rabindranath Tagore defined this ‘Nature Study’ in the education policy of Shantiniketan Ashrama as “the practice of curiosity and affection towards diverse matters of mother nature, birds, animals, trees and plants”. The principal purpose is to create the interest and empathy for nature in children’s minds.  During the classes of other subjects the study mostly concentrated on what the teacher teaches from the book. Here I find the difference between what I am proposing in my research. The school ground will only not be a context but also a tool for teaching. This is applicable not only in the case of science but also other subjects. And for that the school ground is needed to be designed in such a way so that it can accommodate different ways of teaching and learning.

Rabindranath Tagore emphasized on Sense-training. According to him, the training to nourish different senses is not optional but compulsory which resulted in the training of drawing, making handicrafts, music, and dance along with the curriculum subjects. The training of being self-sufficient starts from early age with these.

I have talked with both experienced old teacher and young less experienced ones. There is an interesting difference between them. While the experienced teacher is looking critically into the learning environment, the younger ones are more enthusiastic and positive about teaching in the outdoors. The first thing that was common in both of them is transparency in outdoor teaching, transparency at all levels. The teacher can have an eye at all the children in the outdoors, she can reach any student she wants. The principal can also supervise what is going on only walking around the Patha Bhavana.

The next thing is the connection with nature. According to Ms Nayana (code name, 33 years of teaching experience in Patha Bhavana), though the children are not always aware about what is happening in the outdoors, they without being conscious learn about the natural phenomenon. This creates in them a sense of empathy towards nature.

Both of the teachers think that the children are more eager to have their classes in the outdoors. They don’t want to have the classes in the classroom without the exceptional case of bad weather. They overcome different distractions of being in the outdoors and therefore concentrate in their studies. Though the experienced teacher says that she finds students more attentive in the classroom. Yet it does not influence the educational outcome targeted by the teacher in both the environments. According to the teachers, the way they teach does not differ in the two environments and so not the outcomes.

According to Ms Nayana, because of the informal outdoor environment children are very frank with the teachers and also the Principal. The children are more verbal, they are social and are not afraid or shy to interact with anybody. There is a fright that the children might lack efficiency in writing but she thinks its overcome through years.  I was completely a stranger to the children. But surprisingly they were not at all shy with me. They became friends with me at once and started sharing about their different experience in school. They made me promise that I should come the next day and they would bring some gifts for me mostly their paintings.

Ms Amrita (younger one having the experience of 4 years) enjoys taking classes in the outdoors. She thinks it’s fun for both the teacher and the students. Teaching in the indoors and outdoors is all the same to Ms Nayana. Ms Amrita had a background of studying in a traditional school in classrooms. She thinks it would have been much more enjoyable for her if she had her classes in the outdoors.

At some point I shared with the teachers what I am going to propose in my research- the idea of different behavior settings, using these settings for teaching different things of the curriculum and a combination of indoor and outdoor teaching. Ms Nayana expressed honestly that she did not think of using of the outdoors as a tool may be because there were not such settings. If there would be different settings rich with different elements in order to accommodate different behavior or activity she might have thought about that. Both of them think that special training is necessary for the teachers to use the outdoors as a tool and context for teaching.

Ms Nayana talked about some design issues related to the outdoors. There is no fixed blackboard in many of the outdoor classes. A proper set up is necessary with adequate facilities to take classes in the outdoors such as a fixed black board, sufficient leg room for children in the class and adequate toilets. Sometimes the children are quite distant from the teacher on their asanas and the teacher cannot reach him or her. She thinks it’s necessary to have a combination of indoor and outdoor teaching. The children need to have a classroom with their own spaces and then some classes can be taken to the outdoors. Maintenance of the ground is required as children sit on the ground.

According to all the teachers and some ex-students of Shantiniketan/ Patha Bhavana, the teaching of Patha Bhavana does not bring immediate outcome but it’s a lifelong teaching for its students, its beyond getting good marks in the exams or doing good in the job market. Its the relationship with the nature and all the living beings, the empathy and sense of responsibility to the nature and the quality of leadership.