a dialogue on Go organic: school without walls, remineralization of soils and how to combine physical labour with mental work

dear Prakash

i am sorry that i got carried away by my own thoughts in the morning rather than responding to your such an interesting reflection on organic farming

let me respond to each of your thoughts, wonderful as they are:

a) school without walls, i agree that such an education will be very useful, but rigour has no substitute, i have seen some attempts at unstructured learning but these kids coming from high class family have no ability to concentrate on any thing, not even on their own thoughts, forget about nature, they have lot of words, rich vocabulary but when pinned down to explain a specific moment, they fumble, because they did not pause to observe a rock, or  a cloud or a squirrel, long enough to understand its moods, meanings and meandering destiny/ies

so, we need such schools with dose of observation, analysis, and reflection, and then reading too to see how others have coped with such reflections,

b) about Fukuoka, of ocurse i am aware of his work intimately. There is a huge literature on  soil remineralization http://remineralize.org/ , http://www.highbrixgardens.com/garden-restoration/soil-remineralization.html and more.

Actually all the rocks lying around the farm are lying there for millions of years when rocks were pulverised by rain, storms, winds and weathered by micro-organisms to become soil, but some how these rocks did not weather enough, Powder of these rocks has all the minerals of parent rocks form which sol in a given region was made. This is a viable  idea if one can afford pulverizers of rocks, it will surely work. It has been in literature much before fukuoka came on the scene

c) hard labour: my grandfater used to have anonymous stint of two months every year when he would not disclose his address and ask us to send his monthly stipend of 100 rs at a third party address from where he would collect it. Our feeling is that he would be doing some such service during this period which he might have felt that his family might not approve of. Though he was already an inmate in ashram at Jwalapur, haridwar, and did not care too much about what his family thought about many things. he was extremely  frugal but did yoga and also physical labour. our brain is wired differently or put it another way, different networks become activated when we work with hands and also reflect like kabir, rahim or

see http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/10237

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/anthem/critical-essays.html why mind matters over sword but i dont like/approve of ayn randian rant about only intellect ruing over the world,

and read this:

“I Believe in the Divinity of Labor”: George Ripley Tries to Convince Ralph Waldo Emerson to Join Brook Farm, Boston, 1840

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6592/

remember emerson wrote the beautiful poems, ( leave sof grass, u must read it, i will gift you this book, i had a few copies, people took away, but order it in my account) send me order page, and i will pay for it

read about ruskin, who influenced Gandhi a great deal and also   J C kumarappa to understand why labour and mind when connected produce a different kind of authentic personality than just one of these vocations pursued alone

Fors Clavigera, the series of letters begun in 1871 and addressed “to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain,” was also the vehicle for the foundation of John Ruskin’s ideal community, The Guild of Saint George. The Guild was intended as an active manifestation of Ruskin’s philosophy of social reform: its members would live cooperatively, producing their own food and goods and living “contented lives, in pure air, out of the way of unsightly objects, and emancipated from unnecessary mechanical occupation” (27:159). The Guild would try, he wrote, “to take [sic] some small piece of English ground beautiful, peaceful, and fruitful” (27:96). Their children would be educated according to Ruskinian educational precepts in the Schools of St. George, for which Ruskin had planned a library of great books, the Bibliotheca Pastorum. Although the Guild did not ultimately succeed in all its aims it was nonetheless one of the most important embodiments of John Ruskin’s educational philosophy. Although he is perhaps best known today as an art critic and reformer, John Ruskin considered himself primarily a teacher. He may well have been describing himself when he wrote in 1865:

The moment we can use our possessions to any good purpose ourselves, the instinct of communicating that use to others rises side by side with our power. If you can read a book rightly, you will want others to hear it; if you can enjoy a picture rightly, you will want others to see it: learn how to manage a horse, a plough, or a ship, and you will desire to make your subordinates good horsemen, ploughmen, or sailors: you will never be able to see the fine instruments you are master of, abused (18:218).

i will not burden you with more work, but i just wanted to tell you that you are on a right track, yes, a platform for people like you to learn, immerse in real history and discussion on slaves who produced poetry, prose and inventions, will help, read about stuart mcdonald\’s essay also

http://www.stuartmacdonald.org.uk/journal_art.htm see his paper on neglected labourer, can send you this paper ( see this, thankfully riya sinha brought it to my attention many years ago,

Agricultural Improvement and the Neglected Labourer*

www.bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLES/31n2a1.pdf

i think we need to indulge in a serious discussion on  why our mind is not allowed to develop properly and whose interest are served by such maldevelopment by delinking physical labour and mental work

but who are the victims

we

who is perpetrator of injustice

we of course

anil

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RV Prakash <pracas@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello Prof,

Hope you are doing well.(or so i make it from your posts 😉 ) Was just reading your write up on FB on Organic Farming.

Last week i attended a 5 day workshop on natural farming with Dr. Namalvar (i had mentioned him to you during SY and he mentioned that he shared the stage with you at some agricultural conference). Surprisingly the turnout at the program was quiet high(mostly farmers) with a huge growing in interest in non-chemical farming practices.

A couple of things during the program reminded you a lot. First, during the course i heard a phrase “Schools without walls” an idea of schooling children to learn from nature with a strong focus on ecology, botany and geology and then expose to required levels of other subjects. I was completely bowled over by this thought. Such a system would keep people more closer to nature and perhaps will improve overall social ethics… the basis for any society to thrive.. and from a comparative perspective our current system trains us more to be individuals than a society.. On hearing this I thought of you immediately and wanted to ask you for you thoughts on this.

Then i got introduced to Masanobu Fukoka and on reading him I ran into a lot of his thoughts being similar to yours. One thing i noticed was the idea of old rocks having original nutrient and microbes.. have you read his books?

Finally it ended up being a week of hard satisfying labor with no technology interference… I remembered how you had mentioned that you want to do hard labor for sometime where you are just a labor… i enjoyed the feeling and It was a great eye opener and has reset my entire course. I\’ve started seriously considering moving into agriculture.

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Regards,

Prakash