ASSIGNMENT 1:

“Education in The Wall and Krishnamurti”

Ana Echeverria Cornejo

Applied Linguistics
Professor Miguel Farias

The perspectives of education shown by krishnamurti in his book “Education and the
significance of life” and by the film “Entre le Murs” are really different. On one hand, we
have this utopian point of view presented by krishnamurti in which educators and students as
well are the centre of educational process, being the former the responsible of helping his/her
students to become integrated individuals. On the other hand, we have a more realistic
representation of what the educational system is like. The film “Entre les Murs” presents real
struggles of daily school life by showing us real student-teacher like relationships inside the
classroom and how respect, communication, motivation, identity and sometimes even
violence take place.

The problem is that, most of the time, this utopian perspective fails to be expressed in
real life situations but not entirely. To illustrate this I will present similarities and differences
between krishnamuti’s book “Education and the significance of life” and the film “Entre les
Murs”.

Respect and communication should be used by teachers as aids for learning and
should also be the basis of a good teaching-learning environment. Not having respect for our
students and demanding it for us as teachers could be harmful to a learning environment.
Furthermore “If the teacher demands respect from his pupils and has very little for them, it
will obviously cause indifference and disrespect on their part” (Krishnamurti).
Communication consists in the exchange of information between people receiving or
transmitting or receiving information, without it, it would be impossible for students to learn
something since they need to receive a piece of information from their teachers;
communication. Besides, it plays a fundamental role at having a comfortable environment
that will help to obtain effective learning. A productive and good communication then comes
from a good teacher-student relationship and mutual respect. As mentioned, Krishnamurti
highlights the importance of these factors. On the contrary, in the film we can realize there
are serious communication and respect issues. A perfect example of this is when the students
that are part of the teachers’ assessment (Esmeralda and !!!!!!!!), start laughing while the
teachers are talking about their classmates’ behavior and performance, and in the same vein,
when the teacher is the one who disrespect his students by referring to them as pétasses
(‘skanks’), due to the attitude they had during the teachers assessment.
Also, relationships inside the classroom affect students’ performance at school and
even outside. Therefore, we can say that these relationships play a fundamental role in
students’ education. The educational process should not be something that fosters
individually and competition on the contrary it should help students and every person
involved in the process to bond. Either directly or indirectly there are lots of people involved
in this educational process, such as teachers, students, parents, friends, and even our family.
Education is more, or should be more, than the mere process acquiring knowledge. There are
things that one must learn and they are not necessarily thought in a formal educational
context inside the classroom, but they must be within the educational environment;
“Education is not merely acquiring knowledge, gathering and correlating facts; it is to see the
significance of life as a whole” (Krishnamurti, ). As mentioned earlier, there are multiple
educational actors, but the most influential is the teacher. It is him/her the one responsible of
the students integrate education. Since it is the teacher’s decision what to teach, how to teach
it, and the pace to be taught it is crucial that the professor knows how to be a good educator
first, knowing how to deal with difficult situation inside and outside the classroom is crucial;
“He [the teacher] must give all his thought, all his care and affection to the creation of right
environment and to the development of understanding, so that when the child grows into
maturity he will be capable of dealing intelligently with the human problems that confront
him”. Not quite the same happens in “Entre les Murs” when, following the same situation,
François (the teacher) in the film when the teacher and students were involved in a
confrontation in a particular situation, is the role of the teacher, as the guide, who has to calm
everyone and put things in order. But that is not what happens: François, the teacher, calls
two female students pétasses (‘skanks’), the incident escalates as Souleymane discovers that
the teacher has called him ‘limited’ during a teacher assessment. After a little argument,
Souleymane leaves the classroom abruptly, hitting a female classmate with his backpack on
the way out. This behavior leads Souleymane to a disciplinary hearing. As much as the
teacher tried to be politically correct, to stay neutral and calm at all times, he could not and
things escalated very fast due to that terrible mistake. This is the reason why teachers have to
be extremely careful in terms of communication and maintaining respect inside the
classroom. As Krishnamurti says “The cultivation of respect for others is an essential part of
right education, but if the educator himself has not this quality, he cannot help his students to
an integrated life”().

Educate students to achieve happiness, that is the right kind of education. The concept and
vision of right education in society has always been evolving, however, it is nowadays that
these so-called changes are more evident and significant. The focus of “right education” used
to be on acquiring and accumulating knowledge over time without paying attention to
students’ opinions, needs or learning styles. Krishnamurti presents a whole different point of
view on education and educators. He presents the importance of teaching not only contents,
but values and ways to get to know ourselves in order to understand life; “Education is not
merely acquiring knowledge, gathering and correlating facts; it is to see the significance of
life as a whole” (pag.6).Something similar to what François tries to do with his class when he
gives a written assignment. He wanted to create a bond with his students. François was not
just giving a French task, he was making something that could be memorable for his students.
Teacher nowadays try to do something similar, basing their methodologies on students’ needs
and contexts and trying to make the best out of what they have. Teachers devote time to
evaluate students’ needs and interests so they can provide contents within a context that is,
both memorable and
Therefore, the role of all educational establishments, is extremely important since it is here
where students spend most of their time during the adolescent stage, stage in which identity is
forged, where lived processes of trying new things, where we have the option of mistakes and
reassembled, stage in which we know people, friends above all that we will probably retain
for the rest of our lives. Teachers are people who, after our parents or legal guardians are
responsible for educating us in the best possible way, however, often inside school imposed
identities to their students who do not want and which do not represent them at all. It can
become a very tense situation since, necessarily, have to fulfill this forced identity and
without a doubt, "the role that waste our lives" for do not disappoint those who have
confidence in us, we got used to be this person who at the end doesn't make us happy, should
not impose things that go against what we want and they violate our chance to be happy. In
the book “Education and the significance of life” mentions the concept of “the right kind of
education” where one of the objectives is that:
The right kind of education should also help the student to discover what he is most
interested in. If he does not find his true vocation, all his life will seem wasted; he will
frustrated doing something which he does not want to do it. If he wants to be an artist and
instead becomes a clerk in some office, he will spend his life grumbling and pining away. So
it is important for each one to find out what he wants to do, and then to see if it is worth
doing. A boy may want to be a soldier; but before he takes up soldering, he should be helped
to discover whether the military vocacion is beneficial to the whole of mankind.
(Krishnamurti, p.70 and 71)

As a conclusion, education is one of the most complicated topics nowadays because involves
many factors that been affected and influenced over the educational system, the teachers, the
students, etc.
is for that reason that we may consider the school culture, with all its characters, can mark us
for better or for worse, the ideal is that all so let us inside a school do not adversely affect
who we are, as well as to participate in debates or always share with the peer group to
develop things such as respect, tolerance and defining our identity increasingly more clearly.
It is here where the role of the teacher is needed in its entirety so that together with the
curriculum, plans and programmes, materials, learning, experiences can shape our future to
get the desired happiness.

Bibliography

❖ Film “Entre les murs” or “The class”, 2008.

❖ Book “Education and the significance of life”, Krishnamurti