How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I did not find it at all necessary to load the boys with quantities of books. I have always felt that the true text-book for the pupil is his teacher. I remember very little that my teachers taught me from books, but I have even now a clear recollection of the things they taught me independently of books. (4.33.8)
It's definitely true that there's book learning and then there's experience. This is why conversations with elders can be so educational. They can share their wealth of real-life experiences with you, which might contain detailed, unique information on and insights into what they themselves faced, and they can target what they tell you to your specific needs. With all his emphasis on going out and changing the world, Gandhi prioritizes real-life experience and doesn't so much think that people should be recluses, living in their heads due to reading books, instead of taking on the world.
Quote #8
Children take in much more and with less labour through their ears than through their eyes. I do not remember having read any book from cover to cover with my boys. But I gave them, in my own language, all that I had digested from my reading of various books, and I dare say they are still carrying a recollection of it in their minds. It was laborious for them to remember what they learnt from books, but what I imparted to them by word of mouth, they could repeat with the greatest ease. Reading was a task for them, but listening to me was a pleasure, when I did not bore them by failure to make my subject interesting. And from the questions that my talks prompted them to put, I had a measure of their power of understanding. (4.33.9)
Which do you remember more, enlightening conversations or enlightening books? Gandhi's definitely on the side of conversation. He says students pay attention more to what they hear than what they read. Today, educators emphasize the social aspects of learning more so than they did a century ago, so they make group activities and class discussion part of the educational experience. They believe social and conversational approaches help you learn, so they might actually agree with Gandhi here…even though we all know teachers love books.
Quote #9
Just as physical training was to be imparted through physical exercise, and intellectual through intellectual exercise, even so the training of the spirit was possible only through the exercise of the spirit. And the exercise of the spirit entirely depended on the life and character of the teacher. The teacher had always to be mindful of his p's and q's, whether he was in the midst of his boys or not. (4.34.3)
Today, spiritual training is often left to religious institutions. Gandhi thinks they should all go together: mind, body, and spirit. That again brings up the partisan nature of his educational approach. In public schools in the United States, educators are banned by law from advocating for a specific religion because the First Amendment specifies that church and state should be separate. But, Gandhi definitely thought religion, politics, and education should all be combined together.