The cornerstone of Sathya Sai Education is the concept of ‘Educare’ introduced by Sathya Sai Baba. He says, “Educare has two aspects, the worldly and the spiritual. Worldly education brings out the latent knowledge pertaining to the physical world. Spiritual education brings out the inherent divinity in man. So, both worldly and spiritual education is essential, without which the human life has no value”.
EDUCARE VS EDUCATION
The word ‘Educare’ has its origin from the Latin word ‘educāre’ (pronounced edukare) meaning to bring out or develop from latent or potential existence. It actually means bringing out the ‘divinity’ latent in man. Educare is a practical approach to education. It is important to understand the relationship between external and internal aspects of human life.
HEART VALUE, HEAD VALUE, HAND VALUE
The basic principle of 3HV is that “The hand must perform, tasks of the ideas emerging from the head only in consultation with the heart”. The emphasis in educare is to follow the heart (conscience), which fundamentally begins from sowing good thoughts. The illustrated value pyramid explains how good thoughts shape a man’s destiny.
In the olden days, the forces related to Educare were working silently, and implicitly. There was morality in home, morality in school, morality in work-place, and finally, morality in the community also. Today, the global situation has changed volte-face. Great values of honesty, co-operation, integrity, mutual love and respect have declined. Present day education has become a tool to compete unfairly for a living in order to survive. The moral values embedded in the olden days’ system of education have been ignored.
Sathya Sai Baba in his Educare says, “Education is not for mere living but for life. First there must be love for God; next there must be fear of sin. Given these two, morality would automatically prevail in the society”.
The appended table lists a few major differences between Educare and Education:
THE PEDAGOGY OF SATHYA SAI SCHOOL
- A combination of spiritual and secular education in curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular activities through the integration of human values in the school curriculum (all subjects)
- Use of the following five teaching techniques for teaching EHV : Prayer / Quotation, Silent sitting, Group singing, Storytelling and Group activities in combination with experiences leading to transformation
- Great emphasis on the teachers as exemplars of the five core universal human values
- Fostering the 4S – Self confidence, Self control, Self sacrifice, Self realization
- Fostering self-less service to the community
- Arousing consciousness by creating awareness that conscience is the ultimate criterion to distinguish right from wrong and good from bad in human life
- Providing a basis for wisdom in daily life, by emphasizing simultaneous development of “Head, Heart, and Hand”(3H) which means the hands must perform tasks of the ideas that are emerging from the head, only in consultation with the heart.
