Rabindranath Tagore was born in Calcutta in 1861 into a prominent Bengali family. Renowned for his poetry and songs (one of his songs became the national anthem of India), he also wrote stories, plays, musicals, and novels and was a painter.
Tagore vocally opposed British rule in India and participated in political activism. He also strongly criticized the education system, which focuses on narrowing and controlling the student's perspective, rather than broadening and opening a student to the world and to connection with other humans. He believed in the vital importance of the arts and Nature in the development of a balanced human being. In his own youth, after a short trial, he did not...