Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/449

 they are not fitted. It is but meet that a lawyer should resent the attempt of a physician to discourse upon law. Nor has a man who has no experience of educational matters any right to offer criticism thereon. It is, therefore, necessary for me to briefly mention my qualifications.

I began to think about the modern system of edu- cation 25 years ago. The training of my children and those of my brothers and sisters came into my hands. Realising the defects of the system obtaining in our schools, I began experiments on my own children. I even moved them myself. My discontent remained the same even when I went to South Africa. Circumstances com- pelled me to think still more deeply. For a long time I had the management of the Indian Educational Associa- tion of Natal in my hands. My boys have not received a public school training. My eldest son witnessed the vicissitudes that I have passed through. Having despaired of me, he joined the educational institutions in Ahmedabad. It has not appeared to me that he has gained much thereby. It is my belief that those whom I have kept away from public schools have lost nothing but have received good training. I have noticed defect^ in that training. They were inevitable. The boys began to be brought up in the initial stages of my experiments, and whilst the different links belong to the same chain that was hammered into shape from time to time, the boys had to pass through these different stages. At the time of the Passive Resistance struggle, over fifty boys were being educated under me. The constitution of the school was largely shaped by ms. It was unconnected with any other institution or with the Government standard. I am conducting a

�� �