Mahatma Gandhi believed that education ought to develop a person’s mind and soul. He felt that children needed to work with their hands, learn a useful handicraft and know how different things operated. This would develop their mind and their capacity to understand.
In India, Rabindranath Tagore created a form of authentic education which he believed was more true to the needs children growing up in rural India than conventional, didactic schooling:
Children’s minds are sensitive to the influences of the world. Their subconscious minds are active, always imbibing some lesson, and realizing the joy of knowing. This sensitive receptivity allows them, without any strain, to master language, which is the most complex and difficult instrument of expression, full of indefinable ideas and abstract symbols … Because of this, their introduction to the world of reality is easy and joyful.
