New thought prompted by the materials about progressive pedagogy for me was criticism of authentic pedagogy. Authentic or progressive pedagogy reinforced the inequality of students and did not give them the opportunity to transform their lives through education. The son of a worker could study and become a worker as well, but he could not develop career for example in law or financing. The authentic pedagogy differed from didactic in that students could already get information from various sources, not only from textbooks, they could work in teams, participate in discussions. The authentic pedagogy was practical in nature. But the main drawback of this paradigm is that it further promoted the inequality in society.

Of course, the ideas of progressivism originated in the West. But in my work I would like to focus on the contribution of the Indian philosopher and teacher Rabindranath Tagore to the authentic or progressive pedagogy. The pedagogical concept of Rabindranath Tagore arose as a response to the results of the interaction between Indian and British cultures during the 18th-19th centuries, which led to significant changes in the worldview of Indian society. His concept of education was focused on the harmonious development of the child and has as its fundamental principles the interaction of the teacher and student as equal subjects of the educational process.

The main goals of R.Tagore’s Santiniketan school were the unity of learning and life, man and nature, and its values ​​are freedom and mutual respect. According to Indian philosophy, earth, water, air, fire and knowledge are the common property and cannot be bought and sold and following the ideals of forest schools, in which education was free, Tagore decided not to take money from his students for education.

However, he faced many problems and gradually began to receive financial help. He used his Nobel Prize to finance his school. Already in his other Sriniketan school, Tagore made practice to be the basis of education. His second school was “a society in miniature”. In other words, in his first experiment, Rabindranath Tagore attached more importance to intellectual knowledge, in the second - to practical knowledge.

In conclusion, I would like to share the well-known Indian scholar Uma Das Gupta’s lecture on Rabindranath Tagore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EIbvpqoYc0.