We are the ones to make the change

The root that all our problems spring from is the present state of human consciousness. What humanity needs is an education that develops consciousness, so that children can grow up into responsible, caring world citizens. Individuals with the capacity of living together. Who can build an inclusive, democratic and pluri-cultural society, in an ever-changing social environment. An education that reconnects with one’s origins and identity as a human being and global citizen.

When present circumstances have no solutions in past practices, we see that education needs to be studied and redesigned in a completely new way. Simply merging new ideas into the existing system will not change its foundational values. These values exist in how curriculum, school organization, assessment and roles of teachers and students are defined today. What we are interested in is how to redesign education for a new purpose. Its what brought us to this work.

Crossroads

Now people all over the world stand at a crossroad. Schools have closed around the globe. Parents have become the main teachers of their children. We can question if we want to go back to the educational system that was, and simply continue as if nothing happened during this time? Or has the moment come to be courageous and guide our children down a new, untrodden path, towards a better future? Here in Auroville this topic is as relevant as everywhere else.

We have been given a chance to reconsider and re-evaluate what is important. What kind of schools we actually want for our children. We can develop sustainable answers to the problems of the world through our practices as parents and teachers. The time has come for education to be reinvented from the bottom up. Leaving the present system behind in its totality, an education serving past needs to be left in the past.

We have a key role in solving the crisis that the world is facing. We have a choice. Now is our opportunity to create a new education that will take effect in a radical change in the way humans live on Earth. Away from today’s dominantly intellectual way of life, lived out of an egoistic consciousness, toward a new way of life arising from a unitive consciousness. The direction is not as complex as it may seem, and is already in practice in alternative schools around the world.

Changes in education

· From judging to respecting the child.

· From teaching to observing and guiding.

· From adult authority to democratic education.

· From focusing of knowledge content to focusing on development.

· From focusing on product outcomes to the learning process.

· From starting in textbooks to starting from the child’s experiences.

· From textbooks to a wide range of learning materials and real life explorations.

Aurogames

What interests us in our development of Aurogames is how to offer the child learning opportunities through which the child will be free to develop their own mind. Consciousness will grow when the child gets the opportunity to refine her/his mental capacities of thinking/reflecting, hearing/understanding, seeing/observing, and communicating.

Aurogames are especially designed for such an education. Our present series of activities develop the faculty of sight. Teaching the eye to see, by looking beyond our usual perception. The exploration of our learning activities brings focused attention and curiosity, furthering the growth of the child.

“Our consciousness is like a young bird; it must learn to use its wings” Mirra Alfassa