Page:Shantiniketan; the Bolpur School of Rabindranath Tagore.djvu/56

36 majority of cases trust begets trust, and there is no question that the relationship between teacher and pupil is a happier one in consequence.

The old boys of the ashram keep in touch with the School in different ways. The boys who are in the ashram know these “old boys” by the title of “Dada,” which means elder brother, and at the annual festival, which takes place in December on the anniversary of the date on which the ashram was founded, numbers of the old boys come to see the performance of one of the poet’s plays. The keenest interest is taken by all in the football match between Past and Present Boys. The School is not behindhand in athletics, as can be seen by its record in the inter-school Sports of the district, in which boys from our ashram have carried off the chief prizes for several years in succession. Their football record also is one to be proud of, so the education of the boys includes physical culture as well as culture of the mind.

As I have said, the classes are held in the open air as much as possible, and there is no need for elaborate furniture and class-rooms. Each boy brings with him to the various classes his own square piece of carpet for sitting on, and the teacher sits either under a tree or in the