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The best of both worlds
MEENAKSHI SHIVRAM
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An American, who wanted Indian children to imbibe the best of all cultures, started the East West School in Basavanagudi.
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Sophia Tenbroecke: a committed educationist
IN ONE corner of Aarmugam Circle, Basavanagudi, the traditional bastion of Bangalore, is an ancient bungalow that houses a school. The numerous small rooms of the house are its classrooms, and the open courtyard is where the school assembly is held. This school, called East West School, was built in 1961 by an American called Sophia Tenbroecke. American she might have been, but all those who knew her say: "She was more Indian than any of us!"
The East West School derives its name from the vision the young founder had for future citizens. She wanted to combine the best that the cultures of the East and the West had to offer, and wanted to create truly global citizens. All this might sound rather blasé these days, considering that all educational institutions promise to create open-minded, tolerant individuals with a global outlook. But Ms. Tenbroecke thought of it more than 40 years ago, and that is what makes her a path-breaking educationist.
The birth of the institution is linked to something that happened in the early Twenties, when B.P. Wadia of Bombay wanted to set up a branch of the United Lodge of Theosophists (ULT) in Bangalore. Old Bangaloreans will remember this gentleman as the one who set up the Indian Institute of World Culture (IIWC). He wished to entrust ULT to someone who would really care for it, and so, he invited his Theosophist American friends — the Tenbroecke couple — to India. The couple stayed on in India, their children were born and educated here, and they adopted the Indian way of living.
Sophia, born to this couple in 1928 in Bombay, was educated in Elphinstone College, and spoke English, Marathi, and Gujarati with equal felicity. Her brother, Dallas, shuttled between India and the U.S.. But young Sophia decided that India was her home. She came to Bangalore in 1951 to help in the running of the ULT, and that was when she decided to start a school here.
"She was a versatile person. There was nothing she was not good at. She was a good swimmer, a good tennis player, and an ardent Theosophist. She never missed the lectures held at the IIWC and often delivered lectures there. Few may know this, but she was also an excellent carpenter and herbalist," recalls her close friend, danseuse Leela Ramanathan.
"She has been a great influence on my life. Especially as she taught me about the dignity of labour," says one of her first students, B.M.K. Sarathy. In the newly set up school, the students had to be peons, secretaries, and learners. He recalls how each child was treated as an individual entity. Never did Ms. Tenbroecke take into account the financial or family background of the students. To her, there were never any problem children, only children with problems. And she believed strongly in the Indian joint family system where compromise did not mean subordination.
To date, there are never more than 25 students in one class and there are not more than two sections for each class. "There is a closeness between teachers and students, and this is a home away from home for students," says Veni Sukumar, who has been teaching in the school for over five years now. The current principal of the school, Anusuya Ramachandran, says: "Forty years ago, Ms. Tenbroecke had insisted that boys learn to cook and sew, a rare thing indeed in those days."
The team of teachers today also bears the burden of combining the founder's vision and the aspiration of present-day parents. There is pressure to produce great academic results based on the SSLC syllabus. Fifty years ago, it may have been a great experiment to run a school out of a house, but today, classrooms need greater privacy, students require more space, and there is need for better infrastructure. So, even while retaining its old world charm, the school's biggest challenge today is to focus on the future. And that is exactly what Ms. Tenbroecke would have done.
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