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Eminent Indian Educationists : Their Life and Thoughts Marjorie Sykes - A Profile Anil Sethi*

Some of you would have heard of Marjorie Sykes (1905-1995), one of the outstanding school teachers and educationalists in India. Not only are Sykes’s life and work a great inspiration, she also offered innumerable insights into education, schools and teaching as a calling. This short essay introduces you to the educational world of Marjorie Sykes. Sykes was one of those foreigners who chose to become Indian because India held out an extraordinary charm for her. She first savoured this Madras (now Chennai). She stayed through the ideas and examples of on until the 1990s, absorbed in a some of the stalwarts of our national wide variety of ideas, activities and movement. British by birth, Sykes projects inspired by Gandhi, Tagore, came to India in the autumn of 1928 C.F. Andrews and various Christian to teach at Bentick Girls’ High School, traditions, notably Quakerism1. Marjorie Sykes painted life on * Professor, Department of Education in Social Sciences and Humanities, NCERT New Delhi 1 Quakerism: a Christian movement devoted to peaceful principles, eschewing formal doctrine, sacraments, and ordained ministers and believing in the inward authority of experience. The Quakers’ emphasis on spiritual equality, made them sensitive to social justice. They were empathetic to the cause of Indian nationalism and many of them were ’s trusted friends. Sykes was so influenced by the movement and its work in India that she authored the book, Quakers in India: A Forgotten Century (London, 1980). a vast canvas. She had a multi- the kids' booklets of poems chosen faceted personality and many for their humour, beauty or mystery. different interests: spirituality, an He would retell history in a manner involvement with nature, walking that would awaken the reader’s and climbing, crafts, languages, human sympathies. And in doing all dramatics, philosophy, writing, rural this, he would involve Marjorie who transformation, the peace movement, eagerly joined in the stitching of the diplomacy, political negotiations, home made books never viewed it as Quaker work and education of course. drudgery.2 Her educational ideas drew upon these Sykes finished the English Tripos diverse streams of thought and action. (Honours degree) with first division In the ultimate analysis, however, she at Cambridge University with a short strove to educate for simplicity, beauty thesis on William Blake. She could and equity. have easily carried on with higher Early Life and Models for Children studies in English but her fascination Born in a Yorkshire family of rather for father’s work led her towards school modest means – her father served as teaching. She spent another year at a headmaster in poor 'coal mining Cambridge, trained to be a teacher and village school' – Marjorie and her two after successful training she looked siblings were raised in comparative for teaching opportunities in Africa poverty but also in thrift, cleanliness and Asia. When she was offered a and piety. She was educated in the position at the Bentick High School at local schools before she was able to Chennai, an institution ran by the Lond join Newnham College, Cambridge, on Missionary Society, she gladly with a college scholarship for the study accepted it. of English Language. Bentick High School, Chennai While in college, she would often Sykes’s upbringing and prior training work with her father on his projects. stood her in good stead at the Bentick Her father would try to design practical School. Through her parents she had working models, simple enough for imbibed how children are zestfully school children to make and operate moved by discovery and achievement, themselves, through which they might by fun and adventure, by imagination learn about machines encountered and compassion. Her father never in daily life. He would produce for stereotyped people, social groups

2 The details of Sykes’s life and work have been taken either from her own writings or from Martha Dart, Marjorie Sykes: Quaker-Gandhian (London, n.d.). Dart’s book is perhaps the only biography of Marjorie Sykes. I have used the electronic version of the book. It is available through the link to ‘books on education’ at www.arvindguptatoys.com. Arvind Gupta is an outstanding educationalist, science- educator and toy maker.

Marjorie Sykes - A Profile 13 or nations. He also taught her ‘to barefoot and slept on grass mats on carry out one’s duty uninfluenced by the floor. In the halls of residence, personal desire.… There’s only one each child’s clothing and personal thing that matters – learning to be articles fitted into just a small box. unselfish’.3 Marjorie was to learn more Children of various religions and about this later in India in the form of castes were admitted on equal terms ‘nishkama karma’. Furthermore, her and resident children ate the same Cambridge teachers had inspired her food from the same kitchen, regardless to contribute in some way towards of caste. It was not unusual for international peace and social justice. Brahmin students to clear away leaf Many of them had seen this as the plates or clean utensils used by ‘low message of Jesus to be communicated caste’ people. to young minds and through an As Principal, Marjorie Sykes education that made them ‘think abolished competitions and prizes globally but act locally’. In any case, and ‘the self centred rivalry they even as a child of nine, Marjorie had provoked’5. She emphasised values abhorred war. She always remembered of cooperation and instituted a system the ‘heavy sense of disaster that that encouraged the quicker children hung in the air’ when the World to help the slower ones in their studies War I broke out and how the – ‘they did it much more effectively hostilities had suddenly transformed than adults could do!’6 Physical a beloved German teacher into an education programmes were not ‘enemy alien’.4 planned to train a few star performers In 1928 Bentick was a relatively to win laurels, ‘but to improve every small school (less than 350 children child’s health and skill’7. from kindergarten to the final class) Bentick and Sykes did not draw and a closely knit community. It the distinction between ‘curricular had a hostel, although all students subjects’ and ‘extra curricular activities’ were not residents. The teachers and that so many Indian schools have students knew one another and ‘cared always maintained – a distinction that for one another like a big family’. Given the National Curriculum Framework Chennai’s climate, the school kept of 2005 seeks to abolish. English minimal furniture and its members and music, for instance, were taught rarely wore sandals. They moved together. The sweeping of floors,

3 Martha Dart, Marjorie Sykes: Quaker-Gandhian, p 8. 4 Ibid., p. 9. 5 Jehangir P. Patel and Marjorie Sykes, Gandhi: His Gift of the Fight (Goa, 1987), p. 43. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid., p. 44.

14 The Primary Teacher : April 2009 cleaning the building and tending gives true freedom’9 but this can to plants were all as significant as happen only when it succeeds in the learning the three Rs. The former were ‘the all-round drawing out of the best treated as core educational concerns, in child and man – body, mind and something that Sykes learnt as much spirit’10. The short paragraph that from Gandhi and Tagore as from her Gandhiji published on this matter in own education. the Harijan of 31 July 1937 stirred Gandhi, Tagore and Sykes Sykes to the very depth of her being: ‘Those few sentences drove everything It was this thinking, followed not only at else out of my mind. I was excited, Bentick but wherever she taught, that I read them again and again, and I made her so excited about Gandhi’s still remember clearly the words that first public pronouncement of his educational agenda in 1937. Gandhi’s came into my head: “Here is someone ideas, advocated and practised as Nai talking real sense about education Talim have received extensive analyses at last!” I looked eagerly for the next elsewhere.8 Suffice it to say here, Harijan, and the next, and followed Gandhi urged that the resources of the controversies which Gandhiji’s 11 everyday living and work be exploited proposals had aroused.’ for educative purposes. Education was In 1939 meant for understanding and facing invited Marjorie Sykes as a life, whichever way it may unfold. ‘representative of English culture’12 to But educational practices were also teach at Shantiniketan. This was the to be constructed through life itself. chance of a lifetime. Not only did Sykes The Gandhian paradigm implied the obtain access to Tagore’s experiments learner’s active involvement with in education and community living but his or her existential condition and she could study how these related to with her society, so that she could Gandhian methods. There were many work out her emancipation from links between Tagore and Gandhi drudgery and exploitation. As Gandhi and much coming and going between stressed, ‘education is that which 18 See, for instance, Marjorie Sykes, The Story of : Fifty Years of Education at ; 1937- 1987 (Sevagram. 1987); Krishna Kumar, ‘Listening to Gandhi’ in Rajni Kumar, Anil Sethi and Shalini Sikka (Eds.), School, Society, Nation: Popular Essays in Education (Delhi, 2005); G Ramanthan, Education from Dewey to Gandhi: The Theory of Basic Education (Bombay, 1962); Sitaramayya, Basic Education: The Need of the Day (Wardha, 1952); and Anil Sethi, ‘Education for life, Through Life: A Gandhian Paradigm’ in Christopher Winch, First Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Lecture (New Delhi, 2007). 19 Quoted by J.D. Sethi in ‘A Gandhian Critique of Modern Indian Education in Relation to Economic Development’, Gandhi Today (Delhi, 1978), p.126. 10 Harijan, 31 July 1937. 11 Martha Dart, Marjorie Sykes: Quaker-Gandhian, p. 22. 12 Martha Dart, ‘Marjorie Sykes 1905-1995’ in Jehangir P. Patel and Marjorie Sykes, Gandhi: His Gift of the Fight (Goa, 1987), p.211.

Marjorie Sykes - A Profile 15 Segaon and Shantiniketan. Already ideas of ‘two of the greatest men well versed in Tamil and Hindi, Sykes living in the time’13 but she also quickly learnt Bangla and slipped into saw many similarities, something the cultural and intellectual life of biographers and historians generally Shantiniketan: flowers and frescoes, tend to miss out. For Sykes, the weaving and wood-carving, poetry two stalwarts displayed a divergence and music, dance and drama and the of background, temperament and freedom of religious dialogue. Her emphasis but a convergence of spirit home proved to be a special attraction and purpose. Tagore was Krishna for Christian and women students. the artist, immersed in beauty, while The former would drop by to discuss Gandhi was Rama the knight errant, religious perplexities or read the passionately devoted to the needy. Quaker journal, the Friend while the Yet, each possessed an element of the latter sought personal guidance and other. inspiration from a more informed and Both worked, Sykes argued, in experienced, yet extremely friendly their own distinctive ways for the same lady. In the course of time, Sykes s ’ goals: the dignity of self reliance and Bangla became so impressive that the the exercise of responsible freedom. poet requested her to translate some Both had a similar vision, that of a free, of his writings into English. fearless and rejuvenated humanity. Synthesising Tagore and Gandhi In the tradition of the Upanishadas, Apart from Bentick and Shantiniketan, they regarded outward achievement Marjorie Sykes taught at Women’s to be meaningless unless it helped Christian College, Chennai, Sevagram realise inner freedom and joy – for and several other places. From her the individual, for local communities work, the books she wrote, and from and for society at large. They often scattered writings about her, one gets turned to a particular verse of the the clear impression that she wished to Ishopanisada that Sykes too found understand and synthesise the world appealing: views of Tagore and Gandhi, especially The whole world is the garment of their perspectives on education. She the Lord viewed this as a journey of inward Renounce it then, and enjoy it, excitement and discovery. Since it is also a journey that illumines Sykes’s Receiving it back as the gift of 14 educational thought, it is well worth God revisiting. For Gandhi and Tagore, enjoyment Sykes detected differences in the

13 Martha Dart, Marjorie Sykes: Quaker-Gandhian, p. 23. 14 Jehangir P. Patel and Marjorie Sykes, Gandhi: His Gift of the Fight (Goa, 1987), p. 62.

16 The Primary Teacher : April 2009 and renunciation were dialectical. education should create many avenues Like light and darkness, they were to the wider world, it must be rooted in complementary opposites that lent local needs and culture and must be meaning of each other. For the two acquired, at least up to high school, in men, the motto of life was ‘renounce the mother tongue. For Sykes, then, and enjoy!'15 This renounciation was Segaon and Shantiniketan were not as not that of the Himalayan cave. It far apart with regard to the essentials meant instead, ‘a detached and as they are often made out to be. clear sighted involvement in human The Passionate Philosopher- 16 affairs’ and led them to engage Practitioner with society through work and art, run institutions and movements As a practising teacher at school and establish dialogue, debate and and college, Sykes lived out these discussion. ideas. She honed them through their implementation in all the different The educational goals of Tagore corners of India: at Santiniketan, and Gandhi, and their methods, Sevagram and elsewhere. Like her were deeply interfused with this mentors, she sharply distinguished world view. Lovers of children and between ‘education’ and ‘schooling’. eternal children themselves, they ‘ ’ To her, the flavour of the two words visualised a holistic, integrated, multi- was so different that education may dimensional education where every in fact mean de-schooling. Education, child’s individuality and talents are Sykes explains, literally means a recognised and given full expression in ‘leading out’: a free and joyous learning environment. They believed that education should I picture someone taking a child help relieve tyranny and unfreedom. It gently by the hand, walking should enable us to resist exploitation alongside at the child’s natural and the centralisation of authority. It speed, encouraging new growth should look upon work as play and and new adventure, cooperating focus on constructive work. It should with the impulses of the child’s use the elements of daily life and work own nature. But in contrast to as educational resources. Thus cotton this we use the word ‘schooled’ to growing or Baul music can become suggest that the person has been the fulcrum of a range of teaching- conditioned to do something one learning activities – in the sciences, would not naturally do – some of in geography, history and economics, the poses and movements of ballet, in arts craft and literature. While for example. I am not claiming

15 Ibid., p. 63. 16 Ibid., p. 64.

Marjorie Sykes - A Profile 17 that education and schooling are something so natural in humans. incompatible; I am not saying that They must themselves inculcate you cannot have them both. But the spirit of enquiry. Children I am saying that they are different love to pose problems and solve and that we ought to recognise them and teachers must learn this the difference.17 from them. Sykes firmly believed that teachers As educators, do we welcome ought to be first concerned with children’s spontaneous questions? education, not schooling. She Through her life and work, Marjorie likened a teacher to a gardener (for Sykes reiterated that education was kindergarten is a garden of children) all about questions and problems and or a nurse (schools are nurseries!) who doubts, ‘about things that don’t fit must provide the right environment into the normal accepted pattern’19. for the growth of the children. Like Education is not an accumulation of an able gardener does with plants or dead facts; rather, we should think a sensible nurse with her patients, of it ‘as a response to a series of the wise teacher should know when challenging questions’20. Her love to leave the children alone so that of enquiry, of children, of people, of they get on with their own growing, detached social involvement, of beauty ‘do their own thing’ while the teacher and above all her gifts of empathy and steps back to watch, ‘concerned to friendship made her into one of the understand but not to interfere’18. country’s finest educators. That is But in stepping back to facilitate, why her name always walks briskly teachers must help their pupils into any reflections on education. to refine the habit of questioning,

17 Marjorie Sykes, ‘Keynote Address’ in Krishna Kumar (Ed.), Democracy and Education in India (New Delhi, 1993), p. xxiv. 18 Ibid., p. xxv. 19 Ibid., p. xxvii. 20 Ibid., p. xxvii.

18 The Primary Teacher : April 2009