Inside out and outside in. Thinking a Tagorean Future of Education.

Rabindranath Tagore���s ideas can still inspire education in the East as well as in the West today. In this paper, I survey Tagore���s philosophical anthropology and argue that there is more coherence to his philosophy and pedagogy than is usually seen. For Tagore, the highest goal is to make the world one���s own, as well as to enlarge one���s self to encompass the world. The educational practices through which this ideal can be reached can be classified as ���creative action,��� ���love,��� and ���freedom.��� On the basis of such an ideal, realms such as the arts, nature, and movement no longer remain expendable additions to the kind of knowledge-driven education that aims primarily at making everyone economically productive.One of the problems with such a pedagogical strategy is that it treats human beings as means and not as ends. Tagore���s educational approach (his ���method of nature���) refrains from turning children into adults as soon as possible and accepts the deceleration of learning and the simplification of living asmost forward-leading approach to a successful and comprehensive education.