Rabindranath Tagore

My dear Charlie,

Education should be a joyful process of discovery, not a mechanical cramming of facts. We must free our children from the prison of examinations and marks.

I have been watching our children here at Santiniketan, and I am convinced more than ever that the conventional system of education is fundamentally wrong. We treat children as if they were empty vessels to be filled with information, rather than living beings with their own curiosity and creativity.

In our school, I want the children to learn through experience, through contact with nature, through art and music and poetry. I want them to discover the joy of learning, not the fear of failure.

You have seen how our children flourish when they are free to explore, to question, to create. They learn more in a day of joyful discovery than in a month of forced memorization.

The British system of education that has been imposed on India is designed to create clerks and subordinates, not free-thinking human beings. It crushes the spirit and stifles creativity. We must create an alternative.

I dream of an education that develops the whole person - not just the intellect, but the heart, the imagination, the sense of beauty. I want our children to grow up as complete human beings, capable of thinking for themselves and contributing to the world.

This is why Santiniketan is so important. It is not just a school, but a laboratory for a new kind of education. If we can prove that children can learn better through freedom than through force, perhaps we can change the whole system.

Your support and understanding mean everything to me in this work. Together, we can show the world a better way.

With love and gratitude,

Rabindranath Tagore