What is Neo-humanism? What makes your school different from others?

What is Neo-humanism? What makes your school different from the others? Do you teach religion to the children? These are frequent questions that I often hear from many inquiring parents.

First of all, we do not teach religion to the children. We do not impose sentiments that could narrow their sweet and pure minds. Rather we teach them to love and embrace everyone regardless of their religion and beliefs, color, language and culture. We teach children to love nature and that does not only include humans but also the plants, animals and the non-living world –the mountains, rock, stones, ocean , sky, etc., through the medium of our holistic curriculum.

In our kindergarten, the children do meditation and yoga. Everyday, in our Morning Circle , we meditate and sing kiirtan. This helps the children develop the feeling of universalism. Meditation expands the mind whereas the practice of yoga asanas keeps them physically fit and active. We serve them vegetarian food to help keep their body healthy. The children do not hurt the insects or steps on little animals. They do not pluck flowers and break branches. They know that it could hurt them. Bigger children take care of the smaller ones by being considerate and gentle with them.

P.R. Sarkar , propounder of Neo-humanism, also known as Anandamurti, the spiritual master of Ananda Marga defines it as - when the underlying spirit of humanism is extended to everything, animate and inanimate, in this universe – I have designated this as Neo-humanism.

The goal of Neo-Humanistic education is to develop the highest potential in every child. It educates the whole child. It develops all the layers of the human mind.

The human mind is composed of different layers –from the crudest to the subtlest.

conscious mind –senses
subconscious mind – intellect
superconscious mind – creativity
superconscious mind – intuition
superconscious mind – spirituality

“What makes Neo-humanist education unique is that, unlike other systems and methods of education, which seeks to develop only one or more of these levels, it systematically develops all the layers of human existence and leads the individual gradually and joyfully towards the goal of infinity. This is the truest sense of holistic education.”
-Didi Ananda Mitra, author of Neo-Humanistic Education: Education for A New World

Yesterday was the 2nd day of the opening of the school year. It was so nice to see the children again…we did nature walk and meditation in the forest where our playschool is located. It was quite a warm day. We enjoy it very much though we felt so much pity for the trees and bushes that got dried for the past 2 months without rain.

One of the children asked me, “Didi, the trees are all brown and dried, shall we water them?” I said, “yes, but we can only water those that are near the playschool. We cannot water the whole forest.” So we watered first the flower plants that the kids planted in spring which were still alive and still green.

The staff together with the children cleaned the surroundings of the playschool and some of the children picked pine cones for their artwork.