Introduction:
            Drastic changes can be seen in the village of Dhamapur, India that reflects a larger global crisis. Ancestral lands are quickly being bought and sold for mining and other corporate operations. The population has reduced due to mass urban migration. There is less dependence on nature for livelihood and more dependence on market goods. A once consistent water supply is now threatened by unpredictable weather patterns. This same story can be seen playing out again and again all over the world. One does not need to look far to see the impact this is having on our world with climate change, biodiversity loss and the like. So, what can be done? If the global problem can be reflected in an Indian village, perhaps, a model of a solution can begin in the same place.

This study focuses on the role of values and education in the current crisis and the potential solution. Through an analysis of the value system in Syamantak, an alternative education space, and the surrounding village of Dhamapur I seek to understand the link between values fostered and the effects of values fostered on livelihoods. This required exploratory research on the values fostered at Syamantak.

Syamantak, the University of Life, is a residential open learning center registered with the National Institute for Open Schooling. Students learn through engaging with the village communities around them and the natural world. Students innovate in order to live a self sustaining lifestyle in harmony with nature. The solutions students develop include food and technology innovations that are used at Syamantak and shared with surrounding communities. Syamantak also works to sustain indigenous culture of the Konkan region through practicing indigenous cooking, art and agriculture techniques.
            Syamantak, the University of Life, is located in the small village of Dhamapur. Like countless villages throughout India, Dhamapur is in a phase of great transition. I argue that these changes are inseparable from a changing value system in the village. A value system is “an organized pattern of values of a society in which individual values are so interrelated as to reinforce each other and form a coherent whole”.^[1] The village value system once centered around values of community interdependence, self reliance and living harmoniously with nature. Now, this value system is in flux as the village has encountered values associated with consumer culture through a plethora of sources including media, television, government systems and mainstream schools. These values include valuing money over land and natural resources, valuing quick market solutions over village and natural solutions and materialism. Within this context exists Syamantak.
            I argue that Syamantak fosters an alternative value system. Components of this value system that I will emphasize are cooperation, social service, self reliance and harmonious living with nature.
i. Syamantak in Context
            The development of alternative schools is best understood in a historical context alongside the development of mainstream schools. India’s modern mainstream education system was implemented by British colonial rule in the 1820’s.^[2] Prior to this education system there was an extensive village education system. There tended to be one school in each village kept alive through local support. Schools were run in the local language and imparted training in practical life skills interspersed with academic education. Due to deliberate policy measures of British colonial rule in India these schools declined. It should be noted that these schools declined alongside the decline of local village economies. Significant changes in mainstream Indian education have occurred since the origins of this education system; however, the contextually relevant village schools relevant in the village economy remain rare today.

Alternatives to this mainstream of education began in the 19^th century just as the norm of mainstream education was created. Notable social reformers of the 20^th century include Rabindrath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Jiddu Krishnamurthi who all presented and practiced alternatives to mainstream education. Syamantak is specifically influenced by Gandhi Ji’s concept of Nai Talim and the Vigyan Ashram. Gandhi Ji had a vision of small, self sustaining communities. Critical to these communities was the concept of Nai Talim. Nai Talim is a form of education the student that emphasizes a union between work and knowledge. In Nai Talim, students learn through engaging in work, thus, bridging the hand, the heart and the mind. Through Nai Talim, Ghandi also sought to dissolve hierarchies of knowledge that placed literacy on top. Instead, he advocated empowering “literacies of the lower caste” such as “spinning, weaving, leatherwork, pottery, metal-work, basket-making and book-binding”.^[3] This same emphasis of learning through work experience and valuing different forms of knowledge is integral to Syamantak.

Syamantak is modeled after the Vigyan Ashram founded by Dr. Kalbag. The philosophy of this organization is that people learn best through experiential learning. The goal of this organization is to incorporate technology that is compatible with the village context in order to help to develop the village in ways that villagers see fit.  Students learn through providing services to the community at a low cost. These services may include installing sanitary systems or local agriculture projects.

The National Institute of Open Schooling provides the legal framework that allows Syamantak to operate as an informal learning space. Founded in 1989, the Indian government’s National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) is the largest in the world. The mission of NIOS is to create “sustainable inclusive learning with universal and flexible access to quality school education and skill development”.^[4] NIOS also emphasizes the importance of holistic learning that is relevant to the student. Students enrolled with NIOS can take exams and enroll in various enrichment programs. There are three levels of testing A, B and C level. Completing the C level exam is the equivalent of completing the 8th standard exam in formal school. Syamantak students are enrolled in NIOS and Syamantak offers a rural technology certification.
II. Methods
            To conduct this study I immersed myself in the Syamantak community for one month and engaged in qualitative research. I lived in the guest room at Syamantak and participated in daily activities. After all members of the Syamantak community deliberated, I was given projects to work on with students. These projects included creating a food waste compost unit and sharing cooperative games with a nearby school. From this position as a participant I was able to observe the problem based learning process and juxtapose cooperative play in two different settings. I chose Syamantak due to its position as a pioneering alternative learning space. I also chose Syamantak due to its problem based learning pedagogy and emphasis on sustainability and innovation.

I conducted individual interviews with two current students to understand their initial introduction to Syamantak, their perspectives on their own futures and roles at Syamantak as well as sustainability and materialism among other topics. Both students were 24. I also conducted individual interviews with three alumni of Syamantak via phone. The alumni were males in their early 20’s. Due to logistical challenges, I was unable to contact female alumni. I conducted a focus group with all current students at Syamantak to understand their perspectives on their own learning, and a discussion of their values.

I conducted interviews and a focus group outside of the immediate Syamantak community in order to better understand perspectives of the surrounding community on Syamantak and Syamantak’s community outreach. I conducted individual interviews with three organic farmers in Syamantak’s organic farming group in order to better understand the mentorship and social service aspects of Syamantak. I also asked each farmers’ perspectives on formal schooling. The farmers lived in villages nearby to Dhamapur. I conducted a focus group with six women in the Sustainable Development group supported by Syamantak. These women live in a neighboring village to Syamantak. I conducted this focus group to better understand community perspectives on formal schooling and Syamantak.

I conducted individual interviews with both the co-founders of Syamantak, Sachin and Meenal Desai. I conducted two interviews with Sachin Desai and one with Meenal Desai. Through these interviews I sought to understand the founding, intention, pedagogy, context and village history of Syamantak.
III. Findings
a) Mapping Syamantak

There are currently six learners at Syamantak, as well as the two co-founders Sachin and Meenal and their 11 year old doctor Murnalini. They are Mohammut, 24, Shoba, 24, Krishna, 20, Vishwas, 20, Sonali 17 and Murnal 11. Four of the learners currently at Syamantak came from the Child Care and Protection system. This is not always the case and learners come to Syamantak from a variety of backgrounds. The learners currently at Syamantak have a mixed history with the formal education system. Mohammut completed his schooling until 10th standard. Vishwas and Krishna experienced challenges from the formal education system. They were both classified as Slow Learners then later as mentally challenged. They were sent to a school for mentally challenged students where they stayed for a short time before leaving. It is now treated as a joke at Syamantak that they were ever regarded as mentally challenged given the incredible innovations both have created at Syamantak.
            There are many different parts of Syamantak including Food Lab and indigenous kitchen, indigenous cow farm, engineering, agriculture, community engagement and waste management.
Food Lab is led by Krishna. He innovates recipes using local resources that are often neglected. Among his innovations are hibiscus syrup and cashew apple juice. Though Krishna always has a leadership role in the kitchen, each week a different student is responsible for meal preparation.
            There is an indigenous cow farm with two cows. They organically garden vegetables and there is a hydroponic grass project. They are able to rely on the land surrounding Syamantak for sustenance. Rice Paddies, mango trees, cashew trees, coconut trees surround the property. There is typically a plentiful water supply clean enough for drinking and agriculture, though this water supply is increasingly jeopardized. Crafts such as art that is indigenous to the Kokan region, hand loom, jewelry making out of collected natural materials and sewing are also practiced.
Learning occurs based on problems that the Syamantak community encounters.

The only testing that occurs at Syamantak are when a student elects to participate in an open schooling test. Sachin explains why he does not feel the need to conduct formal tests within Syamantak. Because students learn through innovating and operating practical projects, once these projects are implemented successfully that is all the evidence needed for Sachin, Meenal and for the learner himself that understanding has occurred. For example, Krishna, who leads the food lab, is responsible for balancing the kitchen budget – funds get transferred into his account that he then uses to buy groceries. Through this he develops his math as well as financial literacy skills. Sachin says, “once he is able to operate the budget there is no longer any need for a formal test”.^[5]
            Students are also involved in different certificate courses run by the government of India. For example, students have participated in a three month stitching and knitting course and a one week tribal art workshop.

b) Syamantak value system
i. Equality/Pluralism

There is no hierarchy placed on who can be a teacher at Syamantak. For one, the students frequently teach and learn from one another. When discussing preparation for the Open Schooling Exams, the students explained that they learn from one another, “if she is really good at maths, she will help me, and later if he is having trouble in writing, I will help him”.^[6] I often witnessed a younger student helping older students develop reading and writing skills. Additionally, students learn from community members regardless of their status or certification. One farmer in the village serves as the students’ agricultural mentor. In the nearby city of Kudal, they only visit one electrician with technical problems because he is willing to serve as an informal mentor, allowing students to watch as he takes the faulty appliance apart and shows them each step to fix it.

Syamantak formerly supported the Village Polytechnic Program. At local primary schools with this program, one day a week was devoted to the students learning a skill from a local villager. These villagers were farmers or carpenters or women with cooking skills and did not need to have any formal teaching certificates. Participating villagers typically held a lower position in the village because of lower caste or socioeconomic status. A peon at the school who shared his farming skills with students through Village Polytechnic expressed, “Students and other teachers used to call me singularly by my first name. But now they address me respectfully. I got respectability in the school and society because of this project”.^[7] Sachin also highlights that co-teaching with villagers and teachers in the school led to both knowledge systems being valued in the classroom.^[8] After the government adopted Village Polytechnic, a rule was instituted that instructors must have passed 12th standard. Sachin says, “This killed the soul of the program”.^[9]
            There is also diversity amongst students at Syamantak. Students come from a wide variety of geographic and cultural backgrounds. Students have learned many languages through interacting with one another and visiting volunteers. There is also diversity in terms of ability at Syamantak. Students with mental and physical disabilities are welcomed at Syamantak if other students in the community feel that both the student and Syamantak can adapt to the student. During my time at Syamantak, the students decided to welcome a prospective student with mild cerebral palsy for a trial period to see whether appropriate adaptations could be made on both sides for him to succeed at Syamantak. Additionally, there are students at Syamantak who have been classified by formal systems as mentally challenged or disabled. Within the community, weight is not given to formal certifications of mental disability. However, given that the Syamantak experience is unique for each student, the student, with help from the rest of the community, adapts their program to fit their unique developmental need.
ii. Self Reliance/Sustainability
            Before discussing the value of sustainability fostered at Syamantak, I will define sustainability from the perspective of community members. One student at Syamantak, Mohammut, defines sustainability through the lens of work. “For most people in cities, you do a job for 40 years and then retire. But there should be no retirement age, you retire when you die, like farmers. That is sustainable, that kind of work.”^[10] Omkar adds that sustainability means “They can live with nature and make money, like they won’t cut trees because plants also have feelings.”^[11] For this study, I define self reliance as the ability to live using local skills and natural resources as much as possible rather than sole reliance on money and market solutions.

Syamantak community members demonstrated their value for sustainability and self reliance through a discussion of wealth and money. “I don’t want money, life is not only for money. There is lots of work to be done without money” said one student.^[12] Another student’s definition of wealth is intertwined with a consideration of self reliance. “We are very rich here, we have tooth powder (made of dried cow dung) and this shampoo (made of local plants), milk and the rest”.^[13] Here, she is defining wealth not through the accumulation of market goods, but the respectful utilization of resources their natural environment provides them. Mohammut says, “Making money is not for me, now I don’t want any money or all of that. Life is not only for money.” He adds, “There of lots of work without money.You can make relations so you don’t have to live in a hotel. Like if I came to America I would need hotel.”^[14] Here he also shows his appreciation for and desire to rely on communal relations rather than having to rely on external resources.
            To understand how such attitudes have come about I move to relevant findings on the pedagogy and daily life of Syamantak. First, Syamantak practices gift culture. Students are welcomed at Syamantak without paying a fee. Similarly, volunteers and interns do not have to pay a fee. Students and volunteers are instead asked to give some gift to the Syamantak community that does not have to be monetary. When one of the indigenous cows at Syamantak birthed a bull, they gifted it to a farmer in the organic farming group. Syamantak is sustained through the cooperative work of the students, no money is traded for the work. Syamantak does not receive money from any funding agency. Second, students rely on indigenous wisdom or innovation in order to utilize abundant surrounding natural resources. Cow dung from the two indigenous cows is dried for tooth powder and other body products and medicines. If is also used for fertilizer and, along with food waste, as bio gas. Students innovate so that typically neglected parts of the food product are used. Third, when the students face a problem, for example, in the case of the hydroponic grass project, none of the students considered sourcing materials from the market. Even the solar powered fan that can be seen in the accompanying image was made primarily of waste or resources that could be found in or around Syamantak. Fourth, Sachin and Meenal play a role in encouraging environmental responsibility. Stern lectures are given by Sachin if the student on kitchen duty relies on the electric heater rather than the Bio Gas stove. Before eating a sweet made from the first milk of the cow Sachin reminded all students to cherish that this sweet was made in harmony with nature in contrast to the violent practice that occurs to make this sweet in urban areas.

Another finding that highlights the emphasis on self reliance and sustainability at Syamantak are my observations from a cooperative game played both at Syamantak and at a nearby primary school. I was asked to participate in a trip two students were taking to share cooperative games at a nearby government primary school. I will share findings from my observation and participation in the cooperative game Box Theater at both Syamantak and a nearby primary school.

In order to prepare for the trip to share cooperative games, the students and I gathered as a group at a time in the early evening that the students had decided was appropriate. With all the students present, we were a group ranging from 11 to 24. In the game Box Theater, there is one leader who guides the play. The leader asks students to envision they are on a desert island with two peers and to imagine these islands by drawing them and writing a constitution for them.

The students relied heavily on drawing to conceptualize their islands. Of the three islands created by Syamantak students all three had enough housing only for the two or three students. All islands had farms to grow food, fruit trees, wells and rivers for irrigation. One island had solar energy. The rules on the islands included that there was no plastic, no school, no fighting, no pasteurized milk, no harming animals and no spitting. One island had a rule of no clothes, islanders would make clothing out of leaves and other resources available on the island.
            The two Syamantak students and I then shared Box Theater with students at a government primary school in a hill station village three hours from Dhamapur. For context on this school, the three villages that feed into this school are agricultural villages similar to Dhamapur. According to the Principal, most students from the school migrate to urban areas for higher education, while poorer students remain in the village to farm. For context on this school, the three villages that feed into this school are agricultural villages similar to Dhamapur. The setting in which the games were played was very different. Box Theater was played by boys in 5th and 6th standard as the rest of the school in the assembly hall watched. When the students began to draw their islands, they began each drawing an island in their own notebooks. They were then asked by Syamantak students to create their islands together. They only wrote and were hesitant to draw their islands. One group said – “my island is America, there is no problem of water or anything. It is safe, good and clean. There are lots of buildings”. The students also said that “our island is very good because food is very cheap” and “our island is India, there is a water problem, we are doing farming”.^[15]
iii. Social Service
            A value for social service is clearly expressed by the students through their future plans. When asked about her future, current student Sonali says, “I will help the poor children”.^[16] When asked to compare his future plans with those of peers his age, Omkar insisted this was not possible. He says, “I am not separate from them, I am them. I will live my life for social good, for people and they will see”.^[17] Another current student Vishwas says that he wants to do eco-architecture using local resources like mud bricks. Leader of the Food Lab, Krishna, says that he wants to be a chef who cooks with awareness of people’s health. An alumni of Syamantak, Mahesh, does community street theater in Mumbai. He says while at Syamantak he learned, “why I am living in this world and what is the meaning of life. To self learn and to teach and share with others”. He adds, “Syamantak gave me the confidence to do social work”.^[18]
            Social service is embedded into the framework of Syamantak. Due to its status as an open learning center, there are countless ways that Syamantak engages with the surrounding community. For one, as Sachin says, “we are the place people from the village come if they need guidance or technical assistance”.^[19] On a given day at Syamantak you can see village children enrolled in formal school coming through Syamantak looking for assistance on a solar engineering project at school or looking for a book to borrow. Mohammut, the oldest of the group at 24, takes time to explain solar power to three primary school aged girls from the village.

There are also more formal ways in which Syamantak engages with the surrounding community. Sachin and Meenal created a Conscious Citizens Group. They created this group due to the corruption they have encountered in the government systems they interact with. Having fought this corruption on their own, they wanted to create a forum where people could support one another in legal matters. It is an unregistered group with no leadership hierarchy, they simply have this clear intention, says Sachin. This has influenced one Syamantak student, Omkar, to pursue his law degree.

Additionally, Syamantak students have organized two community groups; a group of organic farmers and the sustainable development group. The group of organic farmers meet to offer one another support and certify one another through a participatory screening process. The second group, the Sustainable Development group, was organized by Syamantak student, Omkar. He received a government fellowship to do this work and is now in the process of making both this and Syamantak certified in food sales. He explains simply his involvement in this group by saying, “villages are becoming like cities. I cannot just tell boys my age to not be involved in sand mining, I have to show that money can be made through living with nature”.^[20] Krishna, another student at Syamantak learning through food innovations, conducts workshops with the women to teach them how to make products to sell that have been innovated at Syamantak like hibiscus syrup and cashew apple juice.
            Syamantak students have created a now annual Fruit and Flower festival in the nearby city of Savantwadi. Working in tandem with the local government, the students create this festival as a way to showcase the abundance of local culture and natural resources in the Konkan region. With pride, they show me photos of the festival ground where they spread cow dung to create a flooring like one you would typically see in villages of the Konkan region. Organic farmers from the organic farming group sell their produce. Women from the sustainable development group sell their food products made from fruits that are typically neglected.
vii. Dhamapur Village Value System

An understanding of the values fostered at Syamantak is incomplete without an understanding of the surrounding village value system. I will begin by addressing the foundational values of the Dhamapur village value system. These values include communitarian values such as co-dependence, self reliance and value for nature. These values can be seen expressed in the memories and ancestral histories of Dhamapur prior to British colonization that were shared with me. Strategically constructed above Dhamapur is a 500-year-old lake built by villagers that still provides water to Dhamapur and surrounding areas. When the Desai, an upper caste Brahmin community, migrated from Calcutta to Dhamapur a caste system was implemented. This caste system was based on skills. There were architects, carpenters, bamboo carvers, farmers, cloth makers all in Dhamapur village. The traditions were such that each group made a contribution and received in return. Sachin Desai’s ancestral home where Syamantak is housed was built using entirely village resources, a testament to the variety of skills and resources available in the village during that time.
            The British presence in Dhamapur significantly impacted cultural values. For one, British interference morphed the caste system from which many cultural values derived. The high caste Desai community became responsible for collecting taxes for the British from lower caste villagers. Lower caste villagers worked the land but the high caste villagers essentially owned this land. This, Sachin insists, was the beginning of castism.^[21]

           Given community perspectives, there is much indication that this castism persists in Dhamapur today. For one, the village is still geographically divided by caste. Turning off of the main road and entering Dhamapur there are first high caste houses then further into the village are houses of lower caste people. Now, little remains of the skills that once defined castes. There is one old woman who has the knowledge of bamboo carving, though rarely practices unless asked. In the section of the village where the low caste people with construction skills lived, there is not one person who still practices this skill. Instead, the prominent feature of the caste system that remains is the legacy of castism.

The integration of consumerist cultural values into Dhamapur village life is visible. Land that has been held in families for generations is being sold to the highest bidder as the cash value replaces landholding value. An apartment building hoping to attract Mumbai vacationers has been illegally cut into the hillside visible from Syamantak. Sand mining of the wide river through Syamantak has increased at illegal rates. With more limited land to graze cattle, people no longer have cows and instead buy pasteurized milk from the market. Similarly, as people farm less they rely on the market for food. The population of Dhamapur has dramatically reduced in the past eight years since Syamantak’s founding, one estimate is by 1000 people.^[22]

Many people I spoke with, specifically elder village women and farmers, expressed concern with these new patterns of living and environmental degradation. They also expressed a link between these issues and the inadequacy of the school system. One farmer says, “In school, the only options are engineering and doctors, no one says do farm work. They don’t grow food so if they don’t get a job, how will they eat?”^[23] Here the farmer identifies reliance on the market as an effect of education and expressing concern with this. In one focus group, six village women recalled that when they were younger they used to eat fruits from the village as snacks during school. Now, they say, children go to the store to buy wafers and pepsi. They also remarked, “A child is 22 and the child does not know about rice, its different types, they don’t know about what is grown in the village, about village festivals – they just know how to get the food from the market”. Again, the women express concerns about this over reliance on the market. “In the city, if you ask the child who gives milk they will say the boy that comes to deliver it, not the cow.” The women addressed this proliferation of consumerist culture more explicitly when they say, “they know about the leader of America but they don’t know about the leader of the village” and “they want western culture”.^[24]
Discussion

Consulting my findings and secondary sources, I argue that Dhamapur’s cultural value system has morphed significantly, which can be marked by two significant transitions.  Findings in Dhamapur, such as engineering feats, community wide traditions and a caste system divided by skills indicate that there is a value foundation of community dependence on one another, self reliant due to the cooperation of different groups with different skills. This assertion is supported by sociological literature that centers core Indian values as communitarian and harmonious existence with nature.^[25]

The first major transition in this value system was British presence in Dhamapur. British intervention in the caste system altered the skill based division of the caste system by placing high caste villagers in a position of financial domination over lower caste villagers. It was also a significant challenge to the cultural value of living in harmony with nature as British rule exploited natural resources. Furthermore, it was the first introduction to values of consumerist culture because the British set up a system for exploiting natural resources to attain power and material wealth rather than to fulfill solely their basic needs.

The second major transition is the spread of consumerist culture values in Dhamapur. Consumerist culture can be defined as when the function of a culture “is stretched beyond the fulfillment of basic needs of each member of society, arising from biological demands”.^[26] Drawing from current literature in sociology, history and economics, the purpose of consumer culture is to create a mass global culture comprised of people with similar tastes, thus, similar buying patterns. This process requires a “forced overhaul of existing value system in order to link tastes of the average Indian person with those in Western EU and North America”.^[27] The values of this consumerist culture include defining success as having everything, fear of solitude or unpopularity that helps to merge buying patterns, and linking material goods to status, acceptance and individual worth. There is a value for instant achievement and results that can only be supplied by the market. Consumerist values are spread through a multitude of ways including television, and as the elder village women noted, school. I argue that this spread of consumerist values had an impact on the value system in Dhamapur. The effects of this are shown in environmental degradation and increasing market reliance in Dhamapur.

Additionally, women and farmers I spoke to in the community surrounding Dhamapur expressed a link between formal schooling and the spread of consumerist values. They expressed that school does not emphasize farming as an option; thus, children have limited interest in farming and instead migrate to urban areas. They then expressed concern that the child will rely on the market for basic needs and be entirely disconnected from nature. Furthermore, they explicitly stated that youth in the community wanted western culture opting for material goods like mobile phones and knowledge about western countries, rather than their own traditions. All these findings further emphasize the integration of consumer culture into the village value system through the school system.

Thus, I understand the value system in Dhamapur to be rooted in values of co-dependence, harmonious living with nature and self reliance. This foundation has adapted to values associated with castism and consumerism. Community perspectives linked formal schooling with this shifted value system. I now move to explore Syamantak’s value system elaborating on how Syamantak fosters alternative values to those in the surrounding village.

Pluralism is fostered at Syamantak given the curriculum that honors different forms of knowledge and the make up of students. At Syamantak, there is no hierarchy in different forms of knowledge. Formal schools place an emphasis on social and scientific knowledge that has been proven and certified. Syamantak, on the other hand, values all forms of knowledge, especially knowledge based on lived experience and indigenous forms of knowledge that do not require certification. Furthermore, equality is fostered because anyone regardless of caste, gender and ability can be a teacher and a learner. A diverse group of students live together in an upper caste household, defying the geographical separation of people of different religions, castes and socioeconomic status that exists in the rest of the village.

            Syamantak students demonstrate limited interest in materialism. They innovate technology and wisely use resources so that they may live in harmony with nature. This shows a clear value for self reliance and sustainability.

This value on self reliance is further emphasized through a juxtaposition of the Box Theater game played at Syamantak and the formal school nearby. The formal primary school students expressed a desire for material gains and Western culture, while also expressing a desire for no environmental issues. Syamantak students expressed little desire for materialism as each island had housing only for the occupants and incorporated resources such as rivers, wells, farms and alternative energy in order to avoid environmental issues. This juxtaposition further elucidates the value Syamantak students place on self reliance and sustainability rather than materialism and other elements of western consumer culture.

            From a discussion of Syamantak’s students’ interest in sustainability and self reliance rather than materialism and other consumerist ideals a connection can be made with the other values fostered at Syamantak. Limited emphasis put on material definitions of success, and value put in different forms of knowledge intimately links with a value for social service. This value for social service is reflected in Syamantak student’s planned careers and the social service embedded in Syamantak’s pedagogy.

VI. Conclusion

Syamantak fosters values of pluralism, self-reliance, sustainability and social service. The diversity of students at Syamantak as well as the valuing of different forms of knowledge fosters a value for pluralism in students. Students show a clear disinterest in materialism, defining their wealth based on living harmoniously with natural resources. Furthermore, the pedagogy of Syamantak involves innovating in order to rely on the environment without harm. Social service is clearly a value fostered at Syamantak according to student’s future plans. This can be credited to student’s community involvement within the day to day life at Syamantak.

Though I do not wish to create a dichotomy between the two value systems, I believe the effects of the micro Syamantak value system and macro Dhamapur village value system are evident. Where the Syamantak community lives with a loving reliance on local natural and cultural resources, the dominant portion of the surrounding community has begun to move to activities with high financial returns and environmental degradation. In acknowledging the differences in actions of both communities, I do not attempt to place a judgment on either. The community may be moving in this direction due to necessity and adaptation to a changing world, thus, it is not my position to judge this process. I seek to acknowledge a connection between the changes in the village and a shifting value system. Furthermore, I use this juxtaposition with the community value system to re-emphasize the impact of values of self reliance and sustainability that Syamantak fosters. This impact includes the spread of ecologically conscious lifestyles, social service and a value for pluralism amongst Syamantak students and surrounding communities.

Thus, I position Syamantak as a necessary alternative to formal schooling if we as the younger generation seek to rise with the strength to change the current global trajectory. Instead of settling for distant and irrelevant schools, we can strive to create self sustaining learning communities supportive of one another and primed to innovate in order to exist in harmony with nature – staving off potential ecological crises while responsibly facing those that are impending. We will reject what we have been told by global corporate narratives that only with more money, more consumption, more schooling and more degrees can we make the change we wish to see. Hopefully, Syamantak can serve as our model, not to be replicated in an assembly line fashion, but whose lessons are used by those hoping to grow sustainable, resilient communities.
VII. Further Research
            It is amazing the limited scope of research that occurs regarding which values are fostered in schools and how they are fostered. Beyond the limited gaze of character education, little research exists on the impact of schooling on students beyond quantitative research. This has occurred little regarding formal schooling, thus, it is even more sparse in the realm of alternative education. Considerations for further research are many. School is not some neutral body occurring in isolation from the rest of the social fabric of life and societies. School has real political motives that impact all aspects of a student’s development. Thus, more research and reflection needs to be done on the impact of school on the whole student.