Chapter 61 Chapter V Children's Education

When I landed at Durban in January, 1897, I had three children with me: my sister's ten-year-old son, and my own nine- and five-year-old sons.Where shall I send them for education? I could have sent them to European schools, but only with special privileges and exceptions, no other Indian children.The Christian Church runs some schools for Indian children, but I don't intend to send them to such schools because I don't like the education that is given in those schools.Missionary schools are taught in English only: perhaps inaccurate Tamil or Hindi, and also difficult to arrange.For these many unfavorable things, it is simply unavoidable.In such cases, I had to try to teach them myself, but very infrequently, and no suitable Gujarati teacher could be found.

I couldn't think of a way out, I advertised for an English teacher who had to teach under my direction.Some regular homework is taught by this teacher, and other homework can only be taught by my abnormality.So I hired a governess English at £7 a month.This method continued for some time, but it did not satisfy me.The children learned some Gujarat language by talking to me, but it was pure vernacular.I was reluctant to send them back to India because at the time I thought children should not be separated from their parents.What children naturally receive in a well-ordered home cannot be obtained in a dormitory.I therefore keep the children with me.I also sent my nephew and elder son to boarding school for a few months when I was in India, but I took them back soon after.Later, when my eldest son grew up, he separated from me and went back to India to attend the secondary school in Ahmedabad.I remember my nephew was quite satisfied with the education I was able to give.Unfortunately, he died young after suffering from a sudden illness.My other three sons never went to public school, although they did get regular schoolwork at the makeshift school I ran for the sons and daughters of people who participated in civil resistance in South Africa.

None of these experiments were satisfactory.I can't spend all the time I want to give to my kids.My inability to give them adequate care, and other unavoidable reasons, have prevented me from giving them the literary education which I wished, and my children have all disapproved of me on this subject.Once they need to take a master's or bachelor's degree, or even a university entrance exam, they will feel disadvantaged by the lack of school education. I still think, however, that if I must send them to public schools, they will not be able to get that training which they can only get in experienced schools, or in constant company with their parents.I wouldn't be able to worry about their grades like I do now, and in my experience the pretentious upbringing they could get in England or South Africa would never teach them the way their lives show today The simplicity and service of others, and their artificial way of life, may be a serious hindrance to my public work.So though I cannot give them a literary education that would satisfy either them or myself, yet when I look back on my own past, I do not think that I did not do my best to fulfill my responsibilities.I don't regret sending them to public schools.I have always felt that the bad temper which I now see in my eldest son was a reflection of my own untrained and undisciplined early life.

I see that year as a period of ignorance and debauchery.It was very much like my eldest son's behavior in those most impressive years, which he naturally refused to admit were the same as my wild and inexperienced years.Instead he believed that I was at the brightest moment of my life, and that the changes that followed were due to illusions, mistaking enlightenment.Whatever he thinks is up to him.Why didn't he see my early life as representing a period of awakening, and my later life as an age of radical change, fantasy, and self-importance?Friends often ask me all kinds of questions; what harm is there if I give my children a college education?What right do I have to clip their wings like this?Why should I prevent them from getting a degree and choosing their own career?

I don't think these issues are worth arguing about.I have had contact with countless students.I have always tried, either myself or through others, to apply my educational "cravings" to other children, and have seen results.I think that many young people today are about the same age as my sons. I don't think they are much better than my sons, and there are many things my sons can learn. Yet the ultimate outcome of my experience is still conceived in the future.My purpose in discussing this issue here is that, as a student of the history of civilization, I can have a measure of the difference between disciplined home education and schooling, and the effects of changes in the lives of parents on children. The impact can also be estimated.It is not my purpose in writing this chapter to show how much patience a believer in truth must have in experiencing truth; .If I lack self-respect, and are content that I can give my children an education that other children cannot get, I will deprive them of the subjects of study of liberty and self-respect which I have gained at the expense of a literate education.And when there is a choice between freedom and learning, who wouldn't say that the former is a thousand times better than the latter?

In 1920 I advised the young men I called out of the cities of slavery—high schools and colleges—that it would be better to be illiterate and free than to seek a literate education in the chains of slavery.Now they should be able to find the source of my persuasion.