India Council for Integral Education (ICIE) conducted a seven-day workshop on Integral Education from April 11 to 17, 2018, at the premises of Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU), Nashik, Maharashtra, for a group of 30 teachers of Progressive English Medium School, Nashik. The workshop was organized by the Bejon Desai Foundation, Nashik, as part of their educational work to bring about a transformation in the society.

The Foundation is engaged in various developmental projects like setting up educational institutes and running social and health programmes to improve the conditions of the community around. Sri Aurobindo Society has been collaborating with the Bejon Desai Foundation in bringing about a change in the quality of education in the community.

During the workshop, the participants undertook a transformational journey through the principles and practice of Integral Education, as envisioned by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

The workshop was conducted by the following resource persons, assisted by a team of facilitators associated with the Bejon Desai Foundation: Shivakumar from Puducherry, Jasmine Sampat and Riddhi Shah from Mumbai.

Some of following topics were covered:

The Concept of Deep Listening, Discovering the Inner Genius, Understanding Ourselves & the Child, Exploring the Senses, Re-looking at Our Educational System, Art Activities, Practicing Integral Education, Teaching Children through Stories, Body Awareness, Communing with Nature, How Does a Child Learn, Three Principles of True Education, etc.

Besides the aforementioned, there were many activity and experiential sessions meant to create awareness of various parts of ourselves.

Overall, the participation and involvement of the entire group of teachers were very profound and heartening. It was a beautiful beginning of the journey towards becoming better educators and even better human beings.