I joined Centre for Learning (CFL) at the age of six and for the next 12 years I was a learner there. When I joined, CFL was a day school and just before I entered my teens, CFL entered its own campus at Vardenahalli village. From then onwards, it has been a residential campus, which served to enhance the effect of the school environment on all the residents. As a teenager, it was a ripe time for me to take in and question the various aspects of the multi-faceted education and interactions within our small and close-knit community.
Just a little background about myself, to put things in perspective: In my high school I decided to be a teacher of science and mathematics. I went on to study an Integrated MS in chemistry at IISER and then taught IIT aspirants for a year. Later I worked at Azim Premji University, helping them set up their science undergraduate programme. I am now doing my doctorate at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam.
For my generation, teaching is not in the set of most attractive career options, and neither does it have a promise of quick money. Nevertheless, I strive towards my dream of being a science educator. I don’t worry about what is a smarter way to live, or who is better off than I am. This is not an attitude I cultivated, but an attitude that I grew into at CFL. It was not taught it in a classroom in so many words, but by an environment that does not believe in competition, taught me that motivation from within was far more important.
CFL has a non-hierarchical structure that functions on collective discussion and decision making where the student-teacher divide only exists for functional purposes. Such a system sounds like it would waste a lot of time and get people nowhere in the end. It is to be seen to be believed, how much it nurtures and develops an individual’s growth. Today I have the courage to question and express my own feelings, and equally respect the concerns of others (sometimes even in critical circumstances) because there was no power equation in my school, and hence in my head.
There were activities like “culture class” and “quiet time” that I found trying and wanted to avoid as a student. At that time I felt it was a complete waste of time. Now I have partially realised that they might have been meaningful sessions. There is, of course, a set of ideas that some students cannot comprehend and might even dislike. As the environment provides the forum to express one’s opinion freely, there is a danger of the occasional student turning out to be a rebel. This was something that was an occasional worry to me, though on the other hand there is no control experiment where it can be understood what the same student might have turned out to be if they were in the so called “mainstream.”
There is no guarantee that a student from CFL would do something that makes an enormous difference, but for myself I can say that whatever I do, I do it and look at it with an attitude and spirit that makes all the difference. This is the biggest and lasting contribution that my school has given to me!