The base of an exceptional educational endeavor is clearly and obviously a deep and engaging relationship between the students and staff. This seems to come about in a KFI school, and some other schools, naturally. However, even other schools desirous of excellence could explore and examine how to improve the quality of relationship.

A school needs a framework for functions to be distributed, coordinated and carried out. However, the management style in which these functions are conducted seems to be important. An autocratic and authoritarian approach may even be detrimental to education because it hinders innovation and creativity and seeks adherence instead. Although it is generally agreed that the management style best suited to schools is the deliberative, consultative and democratic, one has not explored the implications and finer details of it enough.

If we read and receive the challenge presented by J. Krishnamurti below quietly without the assumption that is not possible, we can perhaps make a beginning.

The Headless School: “The center cannot be made up of the headmaster alone… If the headmaster is dominating, then the spirit of freedom and co–operation obviously cannot exist.

A strong character may build a first–rate school, but fear and subservience creep in, and then it generally happens that the rest of the staff is composed of nonentities. Such a group is not conducive to individual freedom and understanding. The staff should not be under the domination of the headmaster, and the headmaster should not assume all responsibility; on the contrary, each teacher should feel responsible for the whole. If there are only a few who are interested, then the indifference or opposition of the rest will impede or stultify the general effort. One may doubt that a school can be run without a central authority; but one really does not know, because “it has never been tried”.

Discipline without Authority: “Can you bring about discipline without authority? Children must come to meals regularly, not talk incessantly at mealtime, everything must be in proportion, in freedom and affection, and there must be certain non–authoritarian awakening of self–respect. To give knowledge, which does not become an end in itself and to educate the mind to have a long vision, a wide comprehension of life, is not possible if education is based on authority.”

Over the last decade and more, one has explored the above possibilities in a couple of different settings and it appears that the earnest efforts in this direction are bound to yield encouraging results.