XXXII. AS
SCHOOLMASTER
The reader will, I hope, bear in mind the fact that I
am, in these chapters, describing things not mentioned,
or only cursorily mentioned, in the history of Satyagraha
in South Africa. If he does so, he will easily see the
connection between the recent chapters.
As the Farm grew, it was found necessary to make some
provision for the education of its boys and girls. There
were, among these, Hindu, Musalman, Parsi and Christian
boys and some Hindu girls. It was not possible, and I did
not think it necessary, to engage special teachers for
them. It was not possible, for qualified Indian teachers
were scarce, and even when available, none would be ready
to go to a place 21 miles distant from Johannesburg on a
small salary. Also we were certainly not overflowing with
money. And I did not think it necessary to import
teachers from outside the Farm. I did not believe in the
existing system of education, and I had a mind to find
out by experience and experiment the true system. Only
this much I knew-that, under ideal conditions, true
education could be imparted only by the parents, and that
then there should be the minimum of outside help, that
Tolstoy Farm was a family, in which I occupied the place
of the father, and that I should so far as possible
shoulder the responsibility for the training of the
young.
The conception no doubt was not without its flaws. All
the young people had not been with me since their
childhood, they had been brought up in different
conditions and environments, and they did not belong to
the same religion. How could I do full justice to the
young people, thus circumstanced, even if I assumed the
place of paterfamilias?
But I had always given the first place to the culture
of the heart or the building of character, and as I felt
confident that moral training could be given to all
alike, no matter how different their ages and their
upbringing, I decided to live amongst them all the
twenty-four hours of the day as their father. I regarded
character building as the proper foundation for their
education and, if the foundation was firmly laid, I was
sure that the children could learn all the other things
themselves or with the assistance of friends.
But as I fully appreciated the necessity of a literary
training in addition, I started some classes with the
help of Mr. Kallenbach and Sjt. Pragji Desai. Nor did I
underrate the building up of the body. This they got in
the course of their daily routine. For there were no
servants on the Farm, and all the work, from cooking down
to scavenging, was done by the immates. There were many
fruit trees to be looked after, and enough gardening to
be done as well. Mr. Kallenbach was fond of gardening and
had gained some experience of this work in one of the
Governmental model gardens. It was obligatory on all,
young and old, who were not engaged in the kitchen, to
give some time to gardening. The children had the lion's
share of this work, which included digging pits, felling
timber and lifting loads. This gave them ample exercise.
They took delight in the work, and so they did not
generally need any other exercise or games. Of course
some of them, and sometimes all them, malingered and
shirked. Sometimes I connived at their pranks, but often
I was strict with them, I dare say they did not like the
strictness, but I do not recollect their having resisted
it. Whenever I was strict, I would, by argument, convince
them that it was not right to play with one's work. The
conviction would, however, be short-lived, the next
moment they would again leave their work and go to play.
All the same we got along, and at any rate they built up
fine physiques. There was scarcely any illness on the
Farm, though it must be said that good air and water and
regular hours of food were not a little responsible for
this.
A word about vocational training. It was my intention
to teach every one of the youngsters some useful manual
vocation. For this purpose Mr. Kallenbach went to a
Trappist monastery and returned having learnt shoemaking.
I learnt it from him and taught the art to such as were
ready to take it up. Mr. Kallenbach had some experience
of carpentry, and there was another inmate who knew it;
so we had a small class in carpentry. Cooking almost all
the youngsters knew.
All this was new to them. They had never even dreamt
that they would have to learn these things some day. For
generally the only training that Indian children received
in South Africa was in the three R's.
On Tolstoy Farm we made it a rule that the youngsters
should not be asked to do what the teachers did not do,
and therefore, when they were asked to do any work, there
was always a teacher co-operating and actually working
with them. Hence whatever the youngsters learnt, they
learnt cheerfully.
Literary training and character building must be dealt
with in the following chapters.
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