For the past two years, the theme of sensitivity and its nurturing in education has been revolving in my mind — through interactions with various people and books. Particularly, I want to share thoughts sparked in conversations with Tanuj Sir and Mahendra Sir.
There was a discussion organized with Tanuj Sir and other teachers. One idea from the conversation stuck with me:
“We should not act from our beliefs or make decisions from our conditioning.”
Then how are we to make decisions? If we have no knowledge, how can we function?
Sir says — knowledge is memory, and memory is past.
That evening, I spoke to Mahendra Sir about the same question:
Beliefs and memory are the past, but every situation that arises is always new. So then — how do we respond?
Should we think? No — thinking has its limits.
In such moments, we must respond from understanding.
But where does understanding come from?
Krishnamurti (J. Krishnamurti) says —
Understanding arises from sensitivity.
The more sensitivity we have, the more understanding we can embody.
Sensitivity means — how deeply we are attuned to a situation, to the workings of the world.
Just as we believe no harm should come to a human being, the same must be felt for a dog, a cat, a blade of grass...
Krishnamurti and Buddha both call this depth of care and clarity Dharma.
The key idea is:
When a situation arises, sensitivity must be present in our being — only then do we act with intelligence.
This is what education is truly about.
We must offer children experiences that compel them to engage this inner process again and again. We may train them in decision-making techniques — but their actual decisions will reflect their inner state — what they feel in the moment, what intentions arise in them, and how sensitive they are.
For example:
When you walk on grass and realize you are crushing it — and you feel, this grass must be getting hurt — that moment of realization is sensitivity.
How will such sensitivity be nurtured?
By letting children roam, play, and stay close to living beings, to nature.
Krishnamurti says — take children to places where birds sing, rivers flow, mountains stand silently.
We don't need to teach anything there. We just need to open their long-shut windows.
Once these windows open, children begin to make decisions on their own, naturally, with awareness.
As Krishnamurti says:
I believe not in religion, but in religiosity — a way of being.
We must resonate with the child's sensitive nervous system — This is the loving cultivation of sensitivity.
If not — then how do we bring this into the classroom?
It's easier to work on feelings with younger children (under 10). With older children, it gets slightly tougher, as logic begins to dominate.
Ironically, just when we need to work on feelings —
we start teaching logic and formal argument!
In reality — farmers and laborers are often more sensitive than the educated elite — Because they live closer to nature, and make decisions not based on logic, but on felt understanding — an intuitive wisdom (pragya).
As per my understanding, Tanuj Sir emphasized two core themes:
To create an environment that nurtures:
Using the CAA-NRC protests as a real-life example, Sir demonstrated how to encourage children to think critically.