At Jnana Prabodhini Prashala education of arts is as important as academics. To be truly well educated one must not only learn to appreciate the arts but must have rich opportunities to actively participate in creative work. The arts can bring every subject to life and turn abstractions into concrete reality. Arts permit us not only to preserve and pass along our accumulated wisdom but also to give voice to the invention of new visions.
We need all these ways of viewing the world because no one way can say it all. The arts are essential parts of the human experience. We recommend that all students study the arts to discover how human beings communicate not only with words, but through music, dance, and the visual arts. The Arts serve as ways we react to, record, and share our impressions of the world. We need every possible way to represent, interpret, and convey our world for a very simple but strong reason: No one offers a full picture. Individually academic subjects convey only part of the reality of the world. Nor do the arts alone suffice. The arts complement sciences because they nurture different modes of reasoning. The arts engage the minds of students to sort out their own reactions and articulate them through the medium at hand. The arts are our humanity. They are the languages of civilization through which we express our fears, our anxieties, our hunger, our struggles, our hopes. The arts are languages that most people speak, cutting through individual differences in culture, educational background, and ability. They can bring every subject to life and turn abstractions into concrete reality. Learning through the arts often results in greater academic achievement and higher test scores.
Each and every student can not become a proficient artist, but every student should be able to appreciate & enjoy various arts. One should have a rich taste. One should be able to recognize what is classical and eternal in arts. If we can inculcate such a taste in the students, they will be able to express themselves through some of the other mediums. For the same, the school timetable includes expression skills development periods. In these periods, the students try to acquire the vision and skills of arts.
Teaching history is considered to be an important tool for motivating children. The teachers in JPP have written history books depicting inspirational stories from Indian history. In 5th std. children learn the biography of Shivaji Maharaj, in 6th standard they learn the history of the Marathas and the Rajputs and in 7th they learn the history of the Sikhs through story-telling.
Jnana Prabodhini has pinned its faith on spirituality. This is the basis of all work at Jnana Prabodhini. It places a great emphasis on Upasana. Upasana literally means – 'sitting near God.' Upasana is held at least once a week. It creates a spiritual climate in the school. The students and the staff of Jnana Prabodhini, offer Upasana in a group once a week. At Jnana Prabodhini, the school year begins with what is called the 'Beginning of the Year Ceremony. ' This, in ancient days was called Upakarma or Shravani, Similarly, the academic year ends with the 'End of the Year Ceremony,' which in ancient days was called the Utsarga or Utsarjana Ceremony. The school children, who are studying in the 8th standard, are encouraged to take the vow of Brahmacharya, which is an initiation into the life of a novitiate or studentship.
The text of the Upasana for 5th, 6th, and 7th-grade students is different from the text or those who have taken the vow of Brahmacharya in the 8th standard or later. On all such occasions, there are readings from the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagawad Geeta, and also songs by the saints of the past and the present.
In the overall development of a child, reading plays an important role. This is the exact idea behind the Jnana Prabodhini Library which has been an important part of our institution for the last 45 years. The aim of our library is to promote free access to books so that students are encouraged to read as much as they can and even more. Students are given books to take home as well. There are around 40 thousand books, a number of periodicals ranging from magazines for children to international journals. The children are given open access and are encouraged to do a lot of reference work.
Arts as an integral part of education at Jnana Prabodhini
