Education forms a central core of Krishnamurti’s worldview. In fact, Krishnamurti spent his entire life talking about education as being the agent not only of inner renewal but also of social change. What Krishnamurti proposes is a different approach to learning altogether, one that distinguishes itself radically from what we normally understand by that term: the accumulation of knowledge, with its application and testing. For, by thus narrowing down our understanding to the pragmatic and measurable – we forfeit the opportunity to probe deeply and to awaken intelligence in our students and in ourselves.
What is meant by intelligence in this context is not the capacity to memorise and measure, but that subtle ability to see the whole which comes alive in a human being when he/she sees the limits of the measurable. To awaken this intelligence is the goal of education.
‘Intelligence is the capacity to perceive the essential, the what is, and to awaken this capacity, in oneself and in others, is education.’
Of course, the intelligence of which Krishnamurti speaks, which is really a shift in the dimension of learning, cannot happen solely by discussion. It requires the kind of orientation towards learning that sites it equally in the inner and the outer: as I learn about the world I am learning about myself.