ISOLATION OR CONNECTION? TAGORE’S EDUCATION TOWARDS THE UNIVERSAL AS PEDAGOGICAL PROVINCE. CHRISTINE KUPFER In 1901, Rabindranath Tagore founded a school at Shantiniketan, 1 which was then a “lonely spot”: a single temple in a vast countryside, three kilometres away from a small town (Bolpur) and about 160 kilometres from metropolitan Calcutta. Shantiniketan translates as “abode of peace” and belonged to his father who had “dedicated [it] to the use of those who seek penance and seclusion.” (Tagore 1917a: 131, 159) Isolating children from their families and sending them away from the cities to quiet rural places have been held up as educational ideals across various times and cultures. One of the earliest examples of this in the educational philosophies of Europe was Plato’s Politeia (around 380 BC). It found a particularly strong proponent in Rousseau. His Emile (1762) presented an educational approach that wanted to isolate children so that their innate human goodness may be preserved and that they may develop enough strength to make them survive a later return into corrupt society. In Germany, Fichte (1808) proposed a separate sphere for children in the form of an Erziehungsstaat (educational state), and even Goethe (1892) praised the advantages of a pädagogische Provinz (pedagogical province). The idea of childhood as a sanctuary (Schonraum) that needed a Bewahrpädagogik (protective education) became particularly widespread from about the mid-19th century onwards, when industrialisation and urbanization deepened the decline of traditional communities. (Hoffmann 2008: 42) During this era, boarding schools and Landerziehungsheime started to spread both in Germany and around Europe. Although the tradition came originally from England, it was particularly successful in Germany, where, in 1930, the number of 1 The spelling of Shantiniketan varies; Tagore often writes Santiniketan. 1