Reclaiming Humanity Through Education
CN Subramaniam
CLASSROOM WITH A VIEW: NOTES FROM THE KRISHNAMURTI SCHOOLS by Ashwin Prabhu Tara Books, 2022, 224 pp., 800.00
December 2022, volume 46, No 12

If the poor have to be schooled in struggles to reclaim their humanity, how can schooling help the privileged to reclaim theirs? The book under review, Classroom with a View: Notes from the Krishnamurti Schools seeks to provide a possible answer. The history of these schools spans nearly a century and we have a large corpus of literature on them. Nevertheless, this extremely readable and beautifully designed book makes an important addition to this collection.

It is no secret that in a highly differentiated society, good and memorable schooling is the lot of the very privileged. Such schools need autonomy and dedication to an idea and these come with a large price tag, especially if they are also boarding schools. And privilege has a class, caste and gendered face. How can a set of teachers inspired by a visionary negotiate with these dehumanizing structures to nurture humane students, who can simultaneously be themselves, inheritors of world culture, sensitive to the less privileged and the nature around them and yet be prepared to face the challenges of routine life?

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