Question- Why is Rabindra Nath Tagore accepted as a naturalist thinker throw light on his educational ideas.

Answer -

Naturalist Thinker : Reality according to Tagore, in one in which God, nature and man reside in a spirit of intimate relationship. The three are, infact, three dimensions of the same reality. Man is intimately related to God and nature. Man and nature are but are two expressions of the same. Divine, Divinity is panentheistic, it runs in and through the fabric of all creation; it permeates the cosmos. In his philosophy of education, Rabindra Nath considers the intimate relationship of man and nature as basis of self-realisation. His system accepts both in a spirit of mutual dependence and harmony. Nature is propitious, is conducive towards man’s attainment of its spiritual and material excellence. Nature and man are mutually amenable. Tagore says, "In the west the prevalent feeling is that nature consists exclusive of inanimate thing and beasts, that there is sudden inaccountable break where human nature beings. According to it everything that is low in the scale of being is merely nature, and whatever has the stamp of perfection in it, intellectual and moral, is human nature........the Indian mind never had only hesitation is acknowledging its kinship with nature, Its unbroken relation with all".

The intimate relationship between man and nature is the Hallmark of Indian philosophy this relation is conceived as companionship, a permanent source of inspiration a state of communication. A life divorced from nature cannot be a complete life, according to Tagore, even in the liberated state our relationship with nature continues "The soul’s birth in the spiritual word does not coincided with severance fo relationship with what we call nature, but freedom of relationship".

It was this firm conviction of the intimate relationship between man and nature that made Tagore emphasises much on the natural environment in school. He wanted that, young mind should be saturated with the idea that it has been born in a human world which is in harmony with the world around it, even the superiority of man lives is not fuite possessed by other living beings.

The Ideal Educational System : The ideal educational system should aim at man’s perfection with means the development of all aspects of human personality. This is the sole aim of education which against should be realised on a universal scale because an individual can realise it self by acquiring an realisation of universal man. It should enfranchise human beings. An enfranchised human being has the following virtues.

Wisdom stead fastness, emancipation courage of conviction, sense of discrimination, attitude of friendship and cooperation. He fully exploited the principal of active responding and learning by doing. Learning and exercise went together. He was against the orthodox or formal discipline and punishment, as he had ardent faith that, "only through freedom can man attain his fulness of growth." In this ideal system of education discipline was intrinsic and self imposed. The educands were allowed to commit mistakes and learn through them as mistake provide depth to the process of learning as later advocated by Norman Crowder while constructing his branching programme as a strategy of teaching learning process.

Tagore was against the prevalent system of education. He tried to build up an ideal education system and experimental in all its facets such as aims, medium, means, curriculum management and co-curricular activities. One may not agree with the details of this educational system and may not call it ideal, but nevertheless the system bears the stamp of his genius and was a bold super structure based on a comprehensive philosophy, with the best of intentions of developing perfect men and women as citizens of the world community.

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