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last activity : 08 03 2012 15:12:45 +0000
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PREPARATION FOR SCIENCE
Richard Bartlett Gregg (1885-1974) was an American social philosopher said to be "the first American to develop a substantial theory of nonviolent resistance" and an influence on the thinking of Martin Luther King, Jr., Aldous Huxley, civil-rights theorist Bayard Rustin, and pacifist and socialist reformer Jessie Wallace Hughan.
Gregg travelled to India in the 1920s to learn about the culture and to seek out Gandhi ji. His publications include Gandhiji's Satyagraha or non-violent resistance, published in 1930, and The Power of Non-Violence, from 1934. For two years after arrival in India, Gregg taught activity based science to children in Stoke's School at Kotgarh, Himachal Pradesh. Based on his real life experiences with Indian children, he wrote a book titled "PREPARATION FOR SCIENCE" in 1928. This book was first printed by Navjivan Prakashan from Ahmedabad. This remains the most pioneering treatise on how science should be taught to children in Indian Schools. Gregg wrote:
"The apparatus required is exceedingly simple and inexpensive, and almost all of it is familiar to village children. Most of it can be made by village carpenters, potters or blacksmiths. The children must not get an idea that science is machinery or strange technology. The great pioneers of science did their work with very simple apparatus. It is possible, therefore, to follow their footsteps and learn to do scientific thinking without much expensive or elaborate apparatus. After all, the student's mind is the most expensive piece of apparatus involved." He further commented:
"I do not want Indian children in villages to get the idea that science is only a school affair or only relates to shiny brass and glass devices and paraphernalia. I believe they can learn to think more clearly and to acquire a scientific attitude without all the expensive and complicated apparatus used in western laboratories, or at least with extremely little of it."

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Murthy sir, of late, I apologize for not contributing much to toostep. Let me share my experience when I used to travel across the rural belt of Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh. 1) Rajasthan - If you travel interiors of... |
Robert Brault said "If man were relieved of all superstition, and all prejudice, and had replaced these with a keen sensitivity to his real environment, and moreover had achieved a level of communication so simplified that one syllable could express... |
Thanks Mr. Murthy for sharing this very useful, but frightening, information. Indeed, "India is shining"! We still imagine. at this pace, we are dreaming to become super-power in 2020. Those who prepared Vision-2020 document should re-think on the... |