Theos-Talk Archives (August 1994 Message tl00042)

    Hello, Jerry, and thank you for the valuable insights on
    theosophical education.  We should take note of the points you
    raised.  Despite the many dangers in such a quest, however, we
    should not be deterred from daring to pin down the essence of
    what is theosophical education.

    Surprisingly, after more than a century of theosophical
    scholarship and organizational experience, there does not seem
    to be a commonly accepted set of principles on theosophical
    education.

    Is Happy Valley (in Ojai) a theosophical school? Are the
    Krishnamurti schools theosophical schools? How about the Raja
    Yoga schools of K.  Tingley? Or the schools set up by Olcott,
    Besant, and others in India and Sri Lanka? (I understand that
    there are 50 of them at present in India.) Is Montessori
    education a theosophical one?

    How do we decide which is what? How do we go about this?

    My thoughts are that:

    a.  If there is some degree of consensus among
    theosophist-educators on a set of principles on theosophical
    education, then we should put them down in writing as an
    initial guideline to those who wish to start theosophical
    schools.

    b.  If there is no consensus as yet, then we should initiate a
    worldwide discussion on what is theosophical education, based
    on individual and institutional experiences.  In time, such
    discussion will precipitate into some recurrent themes and
    ideas, and these hopefully would become, for the time being,
    the principles of theosophical education.  If they should
    change in time, then let them change.  (If in the discussion we
    discover that there cannot be any set of principles that can
    properly be called theosophical, then at least we are better
    off knowing that there is none.)

    We plan to write people who have been involved in theosophical
    education and ask them their views on this.  We would
    appreciate names and addresses of people whom you feel can
    contribute to the question of what is theosophical education.

    Best regards.