A 3-day Integral Education workshop was held for the teachers of Neevam–The School, from the 24th to 26th of March 2025. It took place at the beautiful consciously designed premises of Neevam The School, Amravati, Maharashtra. 23 teachers, and the school board members participated in the workshop which was facilitated by Shivakumar, Director of Sri Aurobindo Foundation for Integral Education and Research (SAFIER) and Priti (SAFIER). SAFIER is the Integral Education vertical of the Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry. This workshop is a part of the series of annual training held by the school for the teachers to help them have a more solid grounding of Integral Education practices.

On 23rd of March, the school management hosted a two-hour interactive workshop led by the SAFIER facilitators for the Parents titled "Integral Insights: Empowering Parents, Enriching Children". This event was designed to educate and motivate parents on the significance of their influence on their children's development.

In the past years, a general introduction was given with reference to principles, practices and approaches of Integral Education to all the teachers at the ‘Neevam—the School’ through annual workshops by the SAFIER team. The participants have been introduced to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as the founders of Integral Education and also the basic vocabulary of Integral Education (IE). Psychic education has also been introduced with several experiential activities. In a workshop held in 2022 a brief preview was given to the practices of Physical Education, through interactions and discussions and the approach was introduced through awareness games and activities. A Project assignment was given which was designed to help the teachers assimilate the learnings of the workshop and build some practices in their every-day life.

In February 2024, an introduction was given to Vital Education beginning with Sense Development games as sense development is the doorway to building a robust Vital Education. Activities such as awareness games, painting in nature and writing poetry, and an introduction to Value Education through the first four values of the Mother’s Symbol were taken up. This helped the participants to start becoming aware of and refine their Vital nature. They also learnt many activities which they could start introducing in the classrooms.

The current workshop held from 24th-26th March 2025 revolved around deepening and strengthening the understanding of the basic aspects of IE and deepening the importance and implementation of Vital Education in one’s life and in the classroom through experiential activities, body-awareness games and interactive discussions.

The Integral Education workshop commenced with the most beautiful aspiration that the Mother, the Founder of IE, has put before us:

"We are not here to do (only a little better) what the others do.

We are here to do what the others cannot do because they do not have the idea that it can be done. We are here to open the way of the Future to children who belong to the Future."

- The Mother

This aspiration was followed with experiential sessions that helped the participants to explore deeper into Vital Education:

Day 1

1. Knowing oneself through a poem and knowing each other too in a deeper way.

2. A recap of the Approach to IE which was shared in the previous workshops:

• The need to know the different Parts of the Being and discover the Genius Within - the ‘Andar ka Dost’ through ‘The Science of Living’ for a teacher. This was done through a skit.
• The need to understand the Growth of a child as we want to help the children follow their natural growth cycle.
• Laying the Approach of IE in order to help the children develop their Physical, Vital and the Mental and to discover their Soul, the teacher has to shift the focus on herself first, the Mother says:
  "The first thing to do, in order to be able to educate a child, is to educate oneself, to become conscious and master of oneself …."

3. The importance of Physical Education in a teacher’s life was again stressed upon with the help of an Awareness game and a revision of the 4-point programme and the necessity of making it a part of one’s life.

4. Vital Education was re-introduced with its two principal aspects:

• The development of the sense organs

• Progressing awareness and control of the character leading to its transformation

5. A sense development activity which would help in transitioning into the world of emotions was taken up with the help of clay. This concluded with a powerful quote which helped in understanding the need of a rich Sense-development programme in the school:

"A methodical and enlightened cultivation of the senses can, little by little, eliminate from the child whatever is by contagion vulgar, commonplace and crude. This education will have very happy effects even on his character. For one who has developed a truly refined taste will, because of this very refinement, feel incapable of acting in a crude, brutal or vulgar manner."
- The Mother

6. The day concluded with an understanding of the 5 characteristics of the Vital nature with the help of a game. A home assignment was given to the teachers to read on the ‘Vital’ from the chapter ‘The Science of Living’ from the book ‘On Education’.

Day 2

1. The day commenced with a chanting of OM, along with the participants understanding the significance of the universal mantra. Chanting mantras is a psychic practice which helped in setting the tone for the day towards peace, harmony and for a day of introspection.
2. An introduction to Value Based Education was given stressing on the importance of the teacher possessing the values she wants the students to acquire. Also, when values deepen, they give a great joy as soul-values - they are a means to reach our Soul! An interactive discussion was taken up to understand that Negative values are nothing but a reverse side of a Positive quality. This point was further explained through a very interesting story of how ‘Love’ turns into ‘Hate’.

3. The Value ‘Courage’ which is a value so essential to develop in each one’s life was taken up as a further exploration. The teachers were inspired to reflect on their own experiences and share stories of courage, demonstrating how this essential value can be seamlessly integrated into teaching practices. Methods to overcome ‘Fear’ were also taken up and a home assignment was given to the teachers to work on their fears.

4. For further refinement of the Vital, A beautiful quote by Mother centering around ‘Beauty as the constant ideal’ was taken up with the help of a song and then a beautiful quote by Sri Aurobindo was taken up where he stresses upon Poetry, Art and Music to be the True Education of the Soul. Following this a poem by Sri Aurobindo was taken up for an in-depth exploration.  This helped the teachers experience the delight when the emotions are raised and uplifted to a higher consciousness. 

Day 3

1. The Day began with a collective chant of ‘OM’ and doing an experiential activity connected with it, so that one can experience the atmosphere of peace created within and without when being with the mantra for more than 45 minutes. Peace is a necessary requirement to get connected with one’s ‘Inner Friend’.
2. The home assignments were discussed and this was followed by a reading on the ‘Vital’ from the chapter ‘the Science of Living.
3. There was an open session where teachers clarified a lot of doubts with reference to IE practices.
4. The workshop ended with a brief meditation which activated the Flame of Aspiration within each teacher. A quote from the Mother was read out Where the Mother says, “There are people who love adventure. It is these I call, and I tell them this: “I invite you to the great adventure.” A prayer — ‘Hero Warrior’ was also read out to leave the teachers with a renewed enthusiasm of a hero warrior and a renewed sense of purpose and a deeper understanding of Integral Education.

The teachers were happy to experience a new awareness enveloping them and their outlook towards education got completely reawakened with the shaking out of old ideas about education and the emergence of a new understanding with the help of Integral Education. Many small practices such as playing cooperative games, sense awareness games and creating a psychic atmosphere in the classrooms have already been started in the school.