प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

Chapter II.
SOME EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES AND
POSTULATES.
Education for all—Education a serious proposition and marriage
incompatible with it—Education to begin in childhood and not to stop
with graduation—Student’s cooperation important—Rod to be used very
sparingly—Importance of habits, routine, association and imitation—
The Gurukula system—The role and importance of the family—Various
theories about Nature vs, Nurture—Influence of the caste system—The
system once flexible, Brahmanas and non-Brahmanas teaching each
others’ subjects—Its influence on the curriculum of Brahmanas,
Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras in later times—Caste system and
Buddhism.
Introduction: It is desirable to discuss now
important educational principles and postulates accepted
and assumed by ancient Indian thinkers. This would
facilitate the proper understanding of the evolution and
history of the different aspects of education that would
be described later on in the book. It has to be observed
at the outset that principles and postulates have not been
systematically and comprehensively discussed in any
ancient work; they have to be gathered from diverse and
scattered sources and inferred from educational practice.
Education should be thorough : We have seen
already how education was regarded as a source of
illumination and was expected to enable its recepients to
meet successfully the difficulties and problems of life.
It was therefore insisted that it should be thorough and
efficient. The educational system did not aim at imparting
a general knowledge of a number of subjects; its ideal
was to train experts in different branches. Printing and
paper being unknown, books were very costly and libraries