Why did Mahatma Gandhi wants to teach handicrafts to Indian childrens.
Answers
According to Gandhiji literacy in itself was not education. He felt that it was important to begin the child's education by teaching it a useful handicraft and enabling it to produce from the moment it begins its training. He thought that every handicraft had to be taught not merely mechanically but scientifically, the child should know the why and the wherefore of every process
According to Mahatma Gandhi, education should be all-round, drawing out of the best in child and man, encompassing body, mind and spirit. His beliefs were that literacy is not the end of education and not even the beginning. He thought that literacy is only one of the means, whereby man and woman can be educated. Therefore, he thought that the child’s education should begin by teaching him/her useful handicrafts and enabling them to create something from the moment they begin training. “I hold that the highest development of the mind and the soul is possible under such a system of education. Only every handicraft has to be taught not merely mechanically as is done today but scientifically, i.e. the child should know the why and the wherefore of every process,” quotes Gandhi