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Alice Philosophy
Alice Project derives its name from the famous book by Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland and like Alice the school invites children to enter the magic land of our unconscious mind, exploring the inner world of thoughts, feelings and emotions and to cross the borders between our inner and outer realities. In this way they will hopefully be able to understand and cope better with the challenges and contradictions of our everyday world. The philosophy in all our teaching is based on
the understanding that our perception of the external world originates
in the mind, and so it is that our mind constructs our transient reality
depending on many interweaving influences: Our aim is to explore our understanding of self. These universal understandings and values originate in diverse philosophies and spiritualites, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Christianity, etc. and likewise our philosophy is not exclusive to one religion but embraces all of them; we are and we teach without borders. Most of the children in Sarnath and Bodhgaya are Hindu with a few from the Islamic, Christian and Jain traditions. Children are encouraged to know and understand their own traditions, and through these traditions the universal truths are conveyed. Curriculum 'The methods used tap the most powerful potential we possess - the potential to be wise and kind'. The curriculum combines three fundamental disciplines: 1. the traditional Indian Government syllabus subjects as defined by the State Government of Uttar Pradesh: math, science, Hindi, Sanskrit, English, history, biology, chemistry and geography; 2. the ancient Indian disciplines of yoga, meditation and ayurvedic medicine and massage; 3. the integrated universal branches of learning, for example dance, dhama, drama, art, mythology, ecology, farming, social work, ethical teachings and philosophy. For the latter, Valentino Giacomin has written an inspiring series of text books, 'Philosophy for Children', moral tales, and stories. The ideas contained in these books are used throughout the school, as a spring board for discussion and exploration of ideas of self and reality. Body and intellect are combined with yoga and meditation, taught as part of the core curriculum to every child every day. In this same way, spirit and emotions are not separate as they are part of our every day talking and thinking. A story of our day is described in pictures and in Hindi. Our comparative educational results are good. In October 1997 Professor Sharma from Benaras Hindu University (BHU) conducted general IQ testing which showed that 42% of Alice Project children were intellectually above average compared to 15% of children at comparative schools. There were also significant results in short and long term memory, concentration skills, emotional competence and moral awareness. For details see psychological tests 1997-2002
Alice Project teachers From the corner of her eye, Alice glimpses a white rabbit rushing by in a great hurry and disappearing down a deep hole. The rabbit is Alice's guide to her inner world, like the Alice Project Teacher who can take the child into the deep mind, guide them safely through it and bring them back once again to the surface of the conscious mind. One of our challenges is to train our children here to become the teachers of the future. Our dream is to help create a new generation of teachers with unity of mind, body, brain and heart, who understand how and what to impart, because they themselves have experienced the wisdom of universal education. In all our schools we employ about 30 Indian teachers full time and a few part time teachers. Some are specialist subject teachers (for instance a full time yoga teacher in Sarnath) and some generalist. Some are residential and some double up as administrators; there are few boundaries. We train the teachers ourselves and often send them on special training programs within India. Alice Project logo This drawing is often used as a diagram in psychology text books to demonstrate how our perception is subject to illusion, how what we see is not always what is actually there. To the human eye the sides of the square appear to be bending whereas they are, of course, straight. Our senses cheat us into perceiving what is not actually there. This encapsulates a truth that is far wider ranging than mere optical illusion in a drawing. According to some scientists we only ever perceive 5% of the external world, the rest remains a mystery to us. Dogs can hear what we cannot. An eagle can see from miles away what we cannot. We teach the children this basic understanding, that we can never know for certain that which exists outside our minds and that our minds create the world. What we perceive is not the finite, ultimate truth, but how it appears to us. The sides of the bending square are illusion, Maya. How many illusions like this do we meet in our every day lives? Through our teaching we hope to go beyond Maya, beyond appearances and illusions created by our imperfect and limited senses, beyond the mind itself. That is beyond the thinking mind.
Psychological tests June 2002 Psychological tests taken June 2002 by psychologist Professor Sharma from Benaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, UP. Forty two students in Class V aged between 10-13 were tested on four different levels, concentration, memory, moral values and socialisation. Results at Alice Project school were compared to those of a local Government school. Attention an concentration:
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Alice Project Updated Oct 2006 |
