What is worth knowing?
Gandhi put immense emphasis on moral and ethical knowledge. According to him, an educational system that lacked these two could not be termed as good. The reason behind such a thought was that without morality and ethics, no student, in a real sense, can be considered healthy in mental and physical terms. Spiritual growth, described by Gandhi as an essential part of education, can only be attained through learning morality and ethics. On the one hand where students should gain education under the strict regimen of high morals, self-control, and right thinking, on the other, they should also be expected to provide service to the society in general.
What is knowledge?
"It is unwise to be too sure of ones one wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err." -- M.K. Gandhi
Gandhi was explicit in his writings and actions about what he believed to be "knowledge," and was even credited with having identified "knowledge without character" as one of the seven human blunders that cause violence in the world. More specifically, Gandhi stated, "...knowledge includes all training that is useful for the service of mankind." Moral and ethical knowledge is the first point on which Gandhi's concept of value education is based. Gandhi believed that any education that lacked these two elements could not be considered adequate. Gandhi reasoned that without morality and without ethics, no student in a real sense could be considered healthy in mental or physical terms. A person who is not a moralist and who does not differentiate between right or wrong cannot rise to the essential level of a true student.
What is the Human Being?
"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." - Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi saw humanity as an indivisible, organic whole, tied together by the expectation that every man is responsible to and for others and to be deeply concerned about how others lived
What is learning?
"Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first for acquiring learning of any kind." - Gandhi
Gandhi felt that learning included the acquisition of information and training that is useful for the service of mankind; specifically, the core of Gandhi's educational proposals was the introduction of productive handicrafts in the school curriculum. The idea was not simply to introduce handicrafts as a compulsory school subject but to make the learning of a craft the centerpiece of the entire teaching program. Gandhi's proposal intended to stand the education system on its head. The social philosophy and the curriculum of what he called "basic education" thus favored the child belonging to the lowest stratum of society, thus implying a transformation of social perception.
How is knowledge to be transmitted?
The right to autonomy that Gandhi's educational plan assigns to the teacher in the context of schools daily curriculum is consistent with the libertarian principles he shared with Leo Tolstoy. Gandhi wanted to free the Indian teacher from the slavery of the bureaucracy. The schoolteachers job had come to be defined under colonial rule as one transmitting and elucidating the forms and content of knowledge selected by bureaucratic authorities for inclusion in the prescribed textbooks. Gandhi wrote..."if textbooks are treated as a vehicle for education, the living word of the teacher has very little value. A teacher who teaches from textbooks does not impart originality to his pupils."
Who is to have the opportunity?
There will have to be rigid and iron discipline before we achieve anything great and enduring, and that discipline will not come by mere academic argument and appeal to reason and logic. Discipline is learnt in the school of adversity - M. K. Gandhi
It is important to note the distinction between åeducation and åschooling. While Gandhi wanted his Tolstoy Farm ashram experiments to be models of åeducation, he ventured into curriculum models in more formal åschooling arrangements. For example, Gandhi said that education at Tolstoy Farm should concern itself with the "culture of the heart or the building of the character." However, he was more specific about schooling, stating that the Tolstoy programs taught "manual and mental training," such as gardening, farming, and the like.
Gandhi's social philosophy and ideas on a basic education favored the child belonging to the lowest stratum of society. In so doing, Gandhi was able to promote a social transformation by altering the symbolic meaning of education and thereby changing the established structure of opportunities for education.
