Centre For Learning

Guidelines for visitors

We are happy to host visitors who are seriously interested in self-enquiry and education, the foundational bases of CFL.

We receive many requests from both individuals and groups who wish to visit for varying lengths of time and with different areas of interest in education. However, given that we are a small school with limited facilities, we are able to host only a few visitors at any given time.

We will need time to discuss all requests as a teacher group. It can take at least two weeks before you hear from us. So please do be patient!

Here are some points for you to ease the process of applying.

To understand our approach to education, please visit the Philosophy and FAQ sections of our website.
All visitors are requested to write to CFL (info@cfl.in ) stating what they hope to gain from the visit. Please use a suitable subject (see the categories of visitor below).
Often students of architecture and engineering apply to conduct studies at our campus. Unfortunately, we do not take up such requests anymore.
The months of June, November and March are visitor-free months given our tight schedules here.
The school remains closed for term breaks two weeks in September, the month of December and the months of April and May every year. We regret that we cannot host visitors during these months.
We will not be able to accept requests to interview either parents or students.
Please do ask us before taking photographs on campus. For reasons of safety and privacy, no photographs of students please!
We will only be able to consider a visitor’s request to sit in on classes after careful consideration of the mutual educational value. Our class sizes vary between 7 and 10 students, and frequent visitor presence in the class can interfere with the students’ learning.

Kinds of visitors we usually have:

Day visitor:

We have dedicated the last Friday of most months for day visitors, who typically spend two hours with a teacher made free for the occasion. We request all day visitors to make themselves free on a mutually convenient Friday, which can be fixed via email.

Short-term visitor:

If you wish to visit for more than one day, please do mention this in your letter of contact and explain what you are looking for from the interaction. Such visits are discussed by the teacher body and if possible, we will arrange dates mutually convenient by email. The process of decision making from our side will need a minimum of two weeks time, so please write to us keeping this in mind.

Are you planning to start an educational venture? If yes, to help us better understand the purpose of your visit, please include responses to the following questions:

Our philosophical questions stem from our interest in J Krishnamurti’s teachings about life and education.

What are the questions that are of particular interest to you that you would like to engage with during your visit?
Given that CFL is a small school, could you let us know what insights you hope to gain from visiting CFL and interacting with the teachers?

Short-term student:

If you are interested in staying in CFL for a relatively long time, a term of 12 weeks or more, as a ‘short-term student’, please send us a statement of purpose which clearly explains what you hope to gain from the interaction, along with the contact details of two referees.

If we are able to support your stay at CFL, we will try to set up a visit or an online interview. Based on this interaction, we will then fix a mutually convenient period for your stay. The financial costs can be discussed on a case-by-case basis.

CFL has three terms starting roughly in the first week of June, September and January. Short-term students are requested to write to us at least three months before they wish to visit CFL.

Research project in CFL:

We have a small number of students and are a small sample size for academic research of significance. There is limited scope for serious research projects at CFL.

As mentioned above, we cannot have visitors interview parents or students, so the main interactions will be with the teachers. Accommodation is limited, so research scholars must be willing to ‘rough it out’!

Considering these constraints, if research scholars want to do any kind of ethnographic study involving a deep engagement with CFL for a minimum period of 2 weeks, then we request that you do the following: