Interview: Patrick Brillant

Interview: Patrick Brillant

Steiner schools were first started to help educate the children of the workers at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart. Priya Nandu and Trisha Salvi interview Patrick Brillant on how our school came about, what made him believe in Steiner and more…

What is Steiner Education to you?

Steiner education is education that adds meaning to learning. Whatever we teach becomes meaningful to students and teachers. When they can establish a link between what they learn and what they see. It is relevant to their age and their mental development.

Did you ever think of starting a school? How did you start Tridha?

When I was around the age of 16/17 my friends and I criticized the education system and talked about “ideal education system”, but I forgot about that entirely. I had never expected myself to open a German based Steiner school in Mumbai. It was only after I was married, had my first child and had to send her to school that I realized that there were no schools that encouraged children to think for themselves. So, I did research for material that was appropriate to the education I thought was ideal and I settled for the Steiner method.

In 1996, in Mumbai there were no Steiner schools and so with the help of my friend Aban Bana, I tried setting workshops and eventually a school. The workshops were very accomplishing and so we decided to start a school, which we feel has the best curriculum for art. With a lot of help and hard work, we opened our own Steiner School in Mumbai.

What do you think about our school as a Steiner school? How is it progressing?

Well, we are one of the top schools and if you ask me to judge our school, I will always judge it knowing that it is never fully developed. There are always improvements and progress to be made, making it better as time passes. Here at Tridha, we are constantly creating a personal understanding of Steiner. Definitely the outcome is pretty positive; our school is a good experience for people who want to attend Steiner schools abroad. But as I said nothing is perfect, it always has to be worked upon otherwise in terms of success I feel we are quite good.

The most important thing that one should always keep in mind is that the greatest success of Tridha will always be its students. We are very thankful to the parents and teachers who helped us reach here and have always been a step towards success for the progress of Tridha”.

Why did you decide to name the school Tridha?

(Points to hands, head and heart and laughs) Tridha means the “The Threefold Path”. Honestly it was not something I had in mind, I was with all of the co-founders of the school and I had a Hindi-English dictionary with me, after brainstorming for really long, I opened the dictionary and the first thing I saw was “Tridha” and there, it was already chosen.

Apart from relief, what was your feeling after moving to the new building? Were there any negative feelings?

It feels beautiful. Interestingly, there is a lot more work, expectations have also increased, but the dominant emotion is obviously relief.

Many people did feel sad about leaving the old building, which everyone, including myself, was attached to, but it feels good to come here.

What is your favourite part of the school building?

The main staircase or the physics lab.

What is the major goal of Tridha?

Tridha is to create a space where young people can be relieved of parental, cultural or societal pressure, a place to dream, to live, to wish, to be comfortable with themselves.

The people behind Tridha were dreamers, they were believers. We aim for the children to live with their dream intact.

How has starting a school and running it affected your life?

I have had to be practical in so many ways to make the decisions of the school, a lot of times I have had to remind myself of the dreams, not to forget it.