A day of teaching Sanskrit at St. James School, London

by Jeremiah Mburuburu Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:15 pm

what else do you know about this? is it a program in only st. james school? what prompted the school to teach its students sanskrit? what are the students reciting? do they learn to analyze the grammar and structure of sanskrit?

by Guest Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:21 pm

Jeremiah Mburuburu wrote:what else do you know about this? is it a program in only st. james school? what prompted the school to teach its students sanskrit? what are the students reciting? do they learn to analyze the grammar and structure of sanskrit?

----

someone e-mailed me the youtube link together with the words i give below:

...But would you believe if I told you that there are schools in UK that have Sanskrit in their curriculum and the students there are as young as 4 years old? Before you hear and watch this very interesting 5-milnute video, let me tell you briefly about this school and its founder.

I am sure a few of you in England are aware of the fact that St James Independent Schools of London have been teaching Sanskrit (the language of the Upanishads and other Indian philosophical treatises) to their pupils for almost 40 years now! No, it is not an Asian or Indian school and neither are the students predominantly of Indian/Asian heritage. In fact, majority of the students are Anglos but the school also has students from a few other ethnicities. And, yes, it is also not just for “older” scholars, university students or intellectuals either. In fact, these school start teaching Sanskrit language to students of all ages (from 4 to 15 years old). And would you believe that vast majority of the students LOVE it? As for the schools, there are four schools – two junior and two senior, based in central London. They have no affiliation whatsoever with Hindu or, or for that matter, any other religion or religious organization.

So, then why is an ancient Indic language like Sanskrit an integral part of school curriculum in the UK? Because the founder of the St. James Independent Schools, late Leon Malaren, forty some years ago came into contact with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Swami Shantanand Saraswati and was inspired by the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta. He was told that the word “Sanskrit” literally means ‘well-formed’ or ‘refined.’ Add to that the fact that it is a “classical” language, so to speak, predating even Latin and Greek and it reveals the fundamental principles of language, in that it gives insight into the origins and current structure of most other languages and its grammar is so precise that it serves as a model, so to speak, for other languages. They say that Sanskrit is the “mother” of all Indo-European languages and it is full of profound concepts.

Yes, Sanskrit has many advantages but for the parents who send their kids to these private schools all this is NOT so important – what is important to them is the fact that their children seem both to enjoy and to benefit from the exposure to a language famous for its grammatical perfection and wealth of literature. To make it easier for the young students a whole new set of textbooks had to be created. The school now prints and provides an entire collection for the junior course, where children begin with tales of Krishna and then graduate, so to speak, to Ram and then finally learn the interesting “stories” of Mahabharata. The textbooks use very simple Sanskrit to retell the stories for their young audience. Incidentally, the students also perform plays based on stories from Mahabharata and Ramayana.

Before I end this introduction, let me also tell you a little bit about what is happening in the United States as far as Sanskrit is concerned. I don’t know how many of you have heard of Clay Sanskrit Library which is a joint venture, so to speak, of New York University and JJC Foundation. The Clay Sanskrit Library has a series of books published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation. JJC Foundation, incidentally, is the creation of John Clay, an American. In the mid 1990's, John Clay started the concept of Clay Sanskrit Library to introduce the “original language,” Sanskrit so, in all the 50+ books in the library, have on the left-hand page, stories in Sanskrit with its English translation on the right and the volumes are all bound in teal cloth. In the last decade, because of the increasing interest, many new books of translations from Sanskrit have begun to appear. John Clay, who took a degree in Sanskrit from Oxford University in England many years ago, thought it would be good to introduce Sanskrit to Americans. More volumes are appearing in this extraordinary project every year. For the most part, they are well translated and accessible to a wide public.

Now, turn on your speakers, open the link below and watch how these little kids are enjoying learning Sanskrit! Some of you might have to copy the link and paste it on your Internet browser.

by Jeremiah Mburuburu Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:36 pm

thanks for the interesting info. i've always believed that the benefits of a non-native language - not necessarily sanskrit, it could as well be swahili - to children are enormous. i suspect that it transforms neural connections in a way that's not possible with only the child's native language.

by charvaka Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:40 pm

So to speak, that is. lol!

by Guest Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:47 pm

Jeremiah Mburuburu wrote:thanks for the interesting info. i've always believed that the benefits of a non-native language - not necessarily sanskrit, it could as well be swahili - to children are enormous. i suspect that it transforms neural connections in a way that's not possible with only the child's native language.

in my opinion, the benefit of learning sanskrit outweighs the benefit of learning swahili. the reason is the availability of a huge corpus of sanskrit texts in subjects as diverse as literature, philosophy, law, medicine, grammar, etc.

by Guest Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:58 pm

Rashmun wrote:
Jeremiah Mburuburu wrote:thanks for the interesting info. i've always believed that the benefits of a non-native language - not necessarily sanskrit, it could as well be swahili - to children are enormous. i suspect that it transforms neural connections in a way that's not possible with only the child's native language.

in my opinion, the benefit of learning sanskrit outweighs the benefit of learning swahili. the reason is the availability of a huge corpus of sanskrit texts in subjects as diverse as literature, philosophy, law, medicine, grammar, etc.

also, the structure of the sanskrit language is such that it inculcates logical thinking.

-----

A quote from the Constituent Assembly debate that took place on 12.9.1949 in our Constituent Assembly :-

“The Hon’ble Shri Ghanshyam Singh Gupta - We want to hear your views on Sanskrit.

Mr. Naziruddin Ahmed – I am extremely thankful to the Hon’ble Member Mr. Gupta. If you have to adopt any language, why should you not have the world’s greatest language? It is today a matter of great regret that we do not know with what reverence Sanskrit is held in the outside world. I shall only quote a few brief remarks made about Sanskrit to show how this language is held in the civilized world. Mr. W.C. Taylor says “Sanskrit is the language of unrivalled richness and purity”.

Mr. President – I would suggest you may leave that question alone, because I propose to call representatives who have given notice of amendments of a fundamental character and I will call upon a gentleman who has given notice about Sanskrit to speak about it.

Mr. Naziruddin Ahmed – Yes, Sir, I shall not stand in between. I will only give a few quotations. Prof. Max Muller says that “Sanskrit is the greatest language in the world, the most wonderful and the most perfect”. Sir William Jones said “whenever we direct our attention to the Sanskrit Literature the notion of infinity presents itself. Surely the longest life would not suffice for a perusal of works that rise and swell protuberant like the Himalayas above the bulkiest composition of every land beyond the confines of India”. Then Sir W. Hunter says that “the Grammar of Panini stands supreme among the grammars of the world. It stands forth as one of the most splendid achievements of human invention and industry”. Prof. Whitney says “Its unequalled transparency of structure gives it (Sanskrit) undisputable right to the first place amongst the tongues of the Indo-European family”. M. Dukois says “Sanskrit is the origin of the modern languages of Europe”. Prof. Weber says “Panini’s grammar is universally admitted to be the shortest and fullest grammar in the world”. Prof. Wilson says “No nation but the Hindu has yet been able to discover such a perfect system of phonetics”. Prof. Thompson says “The arrangement of consonants in Sanskrit is a unique example of human genius”. Dr. Shahidullah, Professor of Dacca University, who has a world wide reputation as a Sanskrit Scholar, says “Sanskrit is the language of every man to whatever race he may belong”.

----
To the above one may add another quote:
Sir William Jones writes that Sanskrit has "a wonderful structure; more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either".

by Hellsangel Wed Apr 11, 2012 1:45 pm

Why can't they as well learn Hebrew or Arabic then?

by Sponsored content

A day of teaching Sanskrit at St. James School, London

A day of teaching Sanskrit at St. James School, London

Re: A day of teaching Sanskrit at St. James School, London

Re: A day of teaching Sanskrit at St. James School, London

Re: A day of teaching Sanskrit at St. James School, London

Re: A day of teaching Sanskrit at St. James School, London

Re: A day of teaching Sanskrit at St. James School, London

Re: A day of teaching Sanskrit at St. James School, London

Re: A day of teaching Sanskrit at St. James School, London

Re: A day of teaching Sanskrit at St. James School, London