Slate - The School

Philosophy

The philosophy of a school reflects its purpose, process, nature and ideals of education. It reflects the aims, methods and all the elements of education related to the moral and social conditions. It interprets various areas such as curriculum, context, method, learning, teaching, motivation and others. It helps in the understanding of not only an aspect of learning but of education as a whole. It is a synthesis of the realities of education and the educational values.

It is widely accepted that the aim of philosophy of education has to be the all-round development of personality. All round development consists of all the aspects - physical, mental, moral, social, emotional and the spiritual. It should help the students to deal with all their real-life problems in their family, society and career while not losing focus on the purpose of life.

Holistic Realistic Futuristic

Holistic Education

Holistic Education is a ‘whole-body’ approach to education. Whether we are looking at the student’s whole body or the society as a whole body. From the student’s point of view, learning is promoted by engaging the different senses of the student. From the school’s point of view, the Holistic approach to learning is to continually place the student within the context of society. In fact, the learning needs of the student are derived from needs of the society at large.

Objectives

To develop a student’s intellectual, emotional, social, physical, artistic, creative and spiritual potentials
To help students be the most that they can be
To help a student find identity, meaning, and purpose in life
To inspire an intrinsic reverence for life and a passionate love of learning
To inculcate human values such as compassion and peace
To imbibe life skills among them

Elements

Elements of a Holistic approach to learning are interwoven, expanding and overlapping and tend to be simple, subtle and powerful.

Facilitating deeper relationships between the student and the community around
Sharing a better understanding of the natural world through methods of experiential learning
Encouraging and helping the student set macro, societal goals
Involving students in the learning design process
Encouraging personal and collective responsibility as a part of life skills enhancement
Creating webs of information that link together (rather than learning by rote)
Introducing a innovative techniques and tools of purposeful learning
Developing sports skills and sportive spirit
Developing a temperament for creative skills
Giving the best and the most of the yoga techniques
Emphasis on cultivating personal dreams and working towards them

Outcomes

Students exposed to the Holistic approach of learning start to show changes in behavior and attitude over long period of time. While some students may respond faster to this approach than others, measuring the effectiveness of the Holistic approach in the short-term is likely to give incorrect results.

Demonstrate a sense of psychological freedom to think independently
Develop a good sense of judgment and self-governance
Learn in their ‘own way’
Develop ‘social ability’, which is more than learning just social skills
Imbibe refined values, feeding into development of ‘character’
Move towards ‘self knowledge’ and self awareness

Realistic Education

Realistic Education addresses and builds on the rational relationship between the student and the environment. It emphasizes on truth and realities of life rather than the endeavor and appreciation of beauty. It combines scientific knowledge with common sense, and orients itself to the needs of life and changes therein.

Objectives

To develop the logical and rational faculties of the students
To build an appreciation for constraints as challenges
To open the student’s mind to feedback as an opportunity to accelerate growth
To teach students the importance of prioritizing
To help students learn to deal with change and accept the same

Elements

Elements of a Realistic approach to learning are experiential, interactive and work best in phases spread across the student’s growth cycle.

Usage of simulations of everyday life situations
Usage of role play in adverse scenarios
Contextual learning with problem-solving and decision-making tasks
Exposing students to environmental change (things we cannot control)
Allocating school time for innovation and research to help solve real problems in the immediacy of the student
Exposing the students to adversities of life via socia-economic field trips

Outcomes

Realistic approach to learning at school needs to be supplemented with realistic approach to parenting. It is very important the student to receive consistent realistic inputs at home and school. Students in their earlier years at school respond faster to realistic interventions, while students in later years tend to show more resistance.

Students are acquainted with the real circumstances of life
Students recognize the importance of setting measurable goals in addition to cultivating dreams
Inculcates a culture of persuasion and healthy, logical argument as opposed to making demands
Prepares students to deal with adverse situations in life
Prepares the student to deal with change at personal, familial, societal and organizational levels

Futuristic Education

Futuristic Education refers to the usage of innovative learning delivery mechanisms. The moot point being that ‘how can learning reach students beyond the conventional classroom at campus’. A large part of it relies on e-learning, but more important than technology is the interactive nature of learning delivery. This approach also takes into consideration the up-skilling of the teaching faculty wrt to the new modes of delivery.

Objectives

To reduce the reliance on scheduled classroom learning and bring in a new dimension of spontaneous learning opportunities
To seed a culture of continuous learning for life by getting students hooked to non-traditional forms of learning
To leverage growing student interest in social media for the benefit of learning
To develop a sense of connectedness amongst peers and enhance collective learning capabilities
To make the children 'future Ready'

Elements

Elements of a Realistic approach to learning are experiential, interactive and work best in phases spread across the student’s growth cycle.

Up-skilling of teaching faculty to help them embrace technology-based learning delivery methods
Setting aside specific days for a student to attend a class virtually
Introducing computer game-based learning modules
Building a repository of e-books for both curricular and extra-curricular topics

Outcomes

Students understand the importance of being networked early in their lives
Teaching faculty stays abreast with student mindsets and overall culture
Building of valuable IP in the form of reusable online repositories (recorded classroom sessions of a great music teacher)
Students learn the value of collaborating with peers
Steeper learning curves for all learning areas that can be migrated online
Futuristic learning delivery, by its nature of working, prepares students better to find their feet easily in the global economy