Principal's Desk

School is one of our most important institutes. While acquisition of knowledge outside the four walls of "home" had been an old phenomenon, the concept of school as organized today with prescribed curriculum, is a recent one. In ancient India, the schooling was done in ASHRAMs situated away from the towns. But the children who attended them were the progenies of the kings or the lords, who financed such ashrams. Later on schools were housed in temples. During the Buddhist age, maths was erected. In ancient Greece, only the sons of citizens could attend school and most Greek residents were not citizens. In Rome, the Roman Catholic Church ran cathedrals and monastery school, chiefly to train young men for priest hood. The schools are of recent origin yet the man has advanced from caves to space stations. How? Is it from the schooling as is existing today in India? What is the purpose of running schools?

Everyday each one of us is called upon to render a decision that will have bearing on subsequent events and for which we are sort of required to look into the future to see how things ought to be or will be. For doing this we should be able to choose from among the present alternatives the one which offer the promise of bringing about the ends we prefer. To achieve this, to where and to what do we turn? How do we decide what to omit and what to add? We must know where and how to conduct this search. Education must give us this tool and as john Dewey said, it must shed some light on the path ahead. Possession of items like spanners, screw drivers, nuts, bolts, steel, and rubber does no mean that one possesses a car.

Similarly acquiring knowledge of 3 R's and bookish knowledge does not mean that one has acquired education. True education has been defined from Reda Veda to Upanishads to recent philosophers. But I will limit the definition of education to what the philosopher king Dr. Karan Singh has said. He said that there are five dimensions of educations- intellectual, physical, aesthetic, moral and spiritual. He explained intellectual dimension by adding AANO BHADRA KRITO YANTU VISHVATAHA i.e. let noble force and ideas come to us from every side". He said that children must develop-capacity to learn and must be open to receive knowledge. By physical aspect he meant that to build a nation, students have to build themselves, SHAREERA MADHYAM KALU DHARMA SADHANAM, that is, the body is basis of all achievement.

To him perception of beauty is the aesthetic dimension of education. Team work working together not in competition but in cooperation and imbibing social conscience to him is the fourth dimension of education. Reconciling the inner self with external environment to bring harmony is the spiritual dimension to him. SHEMROCK in this regard is doing what is desired, through academics, sports, extra curricular activities, hobbies, prayers etc. All the best!!!