A REPORT FOR RIGPA
Friday, July 2nd, 2010A Report for Rigpa
by
Daniela Dalal
Sarnath & Bodhgaya, January – February 2010
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Contents
- What is «Alice Project»?
- Educational principles in Alice Project schools
- Teaching languages
- Spiritual Life at Alice Project School
- Buddhist masters who have visited the Alice Project
- School in Sarnath
- The Alice Project School in Bodhgaya and in other places
What is «Alice Project»?
«Alice Project» is an Educational method which combines the traditional school curriculum with spirituality. The “brains” behind the «Alice Project» are Valentino Giacomin and Luigina de Biasi, former school teachers from Italy, who bought a piece of land in Sarnath, India in 1994 and built a school where now about 800 children from kindergarten to class XII and Degree College are studying.
Dalai Lama & Valentino
In 1980 His Holiness the Dalai Lama encouraged Valentino (after a divination was done) to leave his job as a journalist and to dedicate his life to Education in India. His Holiness accepted to be the Patron of the Institution in 2008. Valentino has received several awards for his teaching method.
Alice Project Girl
Alice Boy
The Alice Project School in Sarnath has 600 students including around 40 residential students.
The students are very happy with smiling faces, very caring to each other and guests, always ready to help.
They respect their teachers and any guests visiting the school a lot. The residential students, besides their school duties, have rotas for cooking, cleaning, washing …
Many of the ex-students love to come back to the school and work for the Alice Project.
Students
They either work as teachers or assist the director with computer skills, organizational skills.
Boys
The school offers guest rooms for visitors and offers support for them to organize their stay.
Educational principles in A.P. schools
- •Start of the day with guided meditation and prayers
Each morning all students and their teachers gather together in the school compound to start the day with guided meditation, prayers and songs.
Alice Project students practising meditation during the morning assembly
- •Ritual of checking thoughts and feelings
After the meditation children are asked to describe what their thoughts and feelings were like during the meditation. Through this children learn to become aware of their thoughts and feelings and to express them – in front of their fellow students.
One student describing his thoughts he had during the meditation
Ritual of checking feelings in the classroom
When students enter the classroom they have three choices. There are three bowls filled with beads of different colours: white beads for positive feelings, black beads for negative feelings and yellow beads for a neutral state of mind.
Each student chooses a bead and puts it in a fourth bowl.
In this way the teacher can easily see the « temperature of emotions » in his class and act accordingly.
During a class, from time to time the teacher checks in how students are feeling. Especially when a child is not well or is not able to concentrate so well, the teacher addresses this child personally.
Students chosing different beads to express their feelings
- •Meditation and concentration
exercises in the class room
Each class begins and ends with at least 5 minutes of guided meditation.
It is amazing to see that even five year old children sit silently, their eyes closed and then share what they experience during the meditation.
Midway through the class the teachers include guided exercises which train concentration, visualization and memory.
- •Investigation of feelings and thoughts
The investigation of feelings and thoughts happens in dialogue with the children starting from the kindergarden onwards.
The investigation is done in the class room as well as in more informal encounters with the children, e.g. during breaks. This method helps the students to realize that things are not as solid as they presumed.
Yog
“Before having a feeling, there is a thought, and this thought causes the emotional reaction” says Valentino.
To investigate this interrelationship between thoughts and emotions, the following questions are asked to the students:
« How is your anger? »
« What size is it? »
« Which colour does it have? »
« From where did it come? »
This inquiry process aims to the cognitive reframing of student’s perceptions of themselves and the external world.
Moral stories
In conjunction with the regular curriculum moral stories are integrated in the classes to develop values and understanding, e.g. the book « Ranjeet and his stories » which is a text book written by Valentino for Junior High school Students to learn English and moral values.
An atmopshere of love and kindness
Between teachers and students there is a lot of love, friendship and kindness. The students don’t show any fighting or any other aggressive behaviour.
It is amazing to see how kind, loving and caring all the students are.
Teaching languages
Image
This methods includes a lot of visualization practice.
The result of this method is amazing: children learn English very quickly and most of them speak English very well and also courageously!
Image Chart
Example: English course in class 7 (age of students: 15 years old)
Textbook and DVD
The teacher uses the textbook Magic English which has been written according to the DVD « Magic English » by Walt Disney.
Charts
In the class room the new vocabulary, together with drawings, are put on charts. The charts remain always at the same spot which helps children to visualize the chart in their mind; they do not really memorize it.
Many of these charts are made by the children themselves. That is why they love looking at the charts!
Image 2
Exercises used to teach English
•Spelling words in both directions
•Visualization exercises:
for example: Close your eyes, visualize the word « birthday », can you see it? How many letters does it have?
Or: Sit still, close your eyes. How many words do you have in your mind? Remember 2 or 3 or more words, then write them down.
•Academic Achievements
In the past years 98% of the students passed class 10 – 12 class state exams.
Spiritual Life at Alice Project School
- Students and teachers performing a Hindu puja
Alice Project Schools are inter – religious schools.
In each class room pictures and symbols of Christianity, Muslim, Buddhism and Hinduism are displayed.
Board
A Buddhist stupa, a Christian altar and a Hindu shrine encircle the school compound.
The students are mainly Hindu and Buddhist Chakma children.
- The stupa and prayer wheels in the courtyard of the school in Sarnath
The Tara Temple in Alice Project School, Sarnath
The school is very blessed by a huge Tara temple which was inaugurated by His Holiness the Karmapa in January 2008.
The temple is dedicated to World Peace and the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Three Tibetan nuns live next to the temple for a few months each year to do Tara practice. During the months of absence of the nuns, a Tara mantra recitaton rota is held by the students of the school.
Daily spiritual practice for the students
The about 40 resident children (who are both Hindu and Buddhist children) meet each morning from 6 am to 6.45 am in the Tara temple for meditation and Tara practice which is guided by one of their teachers.
The students conclude their morning practice by chanting « Om Mani Padme Hung » while circumambulating the Tara temple. After this they circumambulate the main stupa while reciting the mantra of Manjushri « Om a ra pa tsa na di di di di… ».
Each evening at 6.30 pm the residential students gather in front of the Hindu temple of the school and do a traditional « Hindu Puja » with chanting and drumming ….Here as well, all children – Hindu as well as Buddhist join in together for the practice.
Buddhist masters who have visited the Alice Project School in Sarnath
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has visited the school in Sarnath already two times. In 2006, His Holiness the Dalai Lama remarked: « In this school we are meeting young students who have the light of self – confidence and assurance in their eyes. I am really very happy to see this. »
His Holiness The Dalai Lama meeting students at Sarnath in 2006
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing the Tara statues. Together with Lama Yeshe he inspired the Alice Project.
His Holiness Karmapa visited the school in Sarnath already four times. He inaugurated the Tara temple in 2008.
Left: His Holiness Karmapa planting seeds at Alice Project School, Sarnath, Right: His Holiness Karmapa with Alice project students
“I want to visit this school, whenever I come to Sarnath. I ‘m so happy here, as it reminds me of my childhood.
Below: Valentino, the director of Alice Project School welcomes Mingyur
Mingyur Rinpoche guiding a meditation in the Tara temple
Mingyur Rinpoche’s speech to Alice Project students and teachers
After his teaching, Mingyur Rinpoche gave a speech outside in the school courtyard to all students and teachers.
“I am very happy about the Alice Project school and India needs students who are educated in a way like this.
The more I learn about this project, the more happy I am with Alice project.
I can see that both teachers and students are all very good.
To know yourself and to be free this is very important.
This school and curriculum really explore really your own potential .
Everybody has love and compassion.
To succeed in your spiritual life and your mundane life, for this you need to explore your inner goodness.
And you cannot learn about your inner qualities by only learning about computers…Psychology and ethics are really important and will help you in future . Through this you can become a very powerful person.
You will really benefit and your life will become happy, successful and meaningful.”
Mingyur Rinpoche and Valentino after the speech of Mingyur Rinpoche to Alice Project students
Finally, the students sang the peace song « Hevenu Shalom Alechem » in many different languages including Italian and Chinese…
After that, Mingyur Rinpoche gave the « lung » for the short Tara mantra to all the students.
In June 2003 , Mingyur Rinpoche established a school at Tergar Monastery in Bodhgaya. Alice Project teachers teach his monks at Tergar Monastery and have introduced the Alice Project methods successfully.
Recently, Mingyur Rinpoche has asked for more Alice Project teachers to come to Tergar Monastery and teach his monks.
Mingyur Rinpoche with students at Alice Project school Sarnath
The school building , Alice Project School in Bodhgaya
The Alice Project School in Bodhgaya
The school is situated 5 km from Bodhgaya and is at present a residential hostel for 22 buddhist Chakma students of class 9.
Chakmas Boys
The school is managed by Valentino and Publio, a volunteer from Brazil, and four Christian Indian sisters!
The school will be reopened for a larger number of students (especially for the Indian children from surrounding villages) soon.
Each morning and evening the students gather together to do meditation practice as well as chanting Buddhist mantras, prayers in Pali as well as a few Hindu prayers.
A third branch of Alice Project School
A third branch of Alice Project School has opened in July 2009 in Bodhisatta, a village in Arunachal Pradesh. This branch is dedicated for Chakma children.
The patrons of this branch are Sogyal Rinpoche and Rigpa. For more detailed information of this branch, please refer to recent Newsletter of the school in Arunachal Pradesh.
The Alice Project in Bhutan?
The Prime Minister of Bhutan recently appreciated the Alice Project very much. He even would like to implement the Alice
Project in Bhutan in future.
In an invitation letter to Valentino and Luigina for the Conference on « Educating for Gross National Happiness », the Prime Minister of Bhutan writes:
“I am pleased to invite you to visit Bhutan to advise us how we can create a national education system that truly reflects the principles of our unique philosophy of Gross National Happiness.
HE Honourable Prime Minister of Bhutan Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley with Luigina de Biasi
Indeed, our goal is not merely to teach about Gross National Happiness, but to ensure that Gross National Happiness values and understanding infuse and permeate the curriculum at all levels.
I think this is the most suitable way for young Bhutanese to grow up as responsible citizens, caring for others , and with a deep and genuine commitment to environmental conservation of their ancient culture.”
After the conference, 29 December 2009, the Prime Minister of
Bhutan wrote:
“In particular, I want to thank you Valentino, and the Alice Project for demonstrating in practice the qualities and methods that we now want to implement here on a national scale.”