Lizard Talks: Geetha Waters

We welcomed the first speaker in our new series of Lizard Talks for the 2023-24 school year: Geetha Waters.

Geetha is an educator and writer, and has facilitated programs at the Krishnamurti Study Centre in Summer Hill, Australia. She is also the parent of Oak Grove alum, Jayson Waters, who graduated in 2010. Geetha is currently visiting our campus from Australia and took this opportunity to speak with our students.

About Lizard Talks

The Oak Grove Lizard Talks comprise a series of TED Talk-inspired presentations for our high school students that take place throughout the school year. For each talk a guest speaker visits our campus and tells their story, with subjects ranging from professional to deeply personal accounts.

Geetha’s Profound Connection to Krishnamurti Schools

Geetha has a profound connection to the Krishnamurti Schools as she attended Rishi Valley School in India as a child, and Brockwood Park School in the UK during her high school education. Her writings include Road to Rishi Konda, A Memoir About Growing Up in Kerala in the ’60s and ’70s, and Waking the Mind: A Personal Study of the Pedagogy of J. Krishnamurti’s Educational Philosophy.

How Does Conditioning Shape Our Thinking?

Geetha is a passionate advocate of an inquiry-based education that allows children to discover the complexities of language and thought and their impact on how they regard life. During her Lizard Talk she explained to our students why she considers the early years of education to be crucial in helping children to understand the role conditioning plays in shaping our thinking, our outlook, and our understanding of the world we live in.

“I am beginning to realize that only by actually engaging in dialogue can children learn to dialogue within. Hence the need for inquiry. It is a profoundly moving transition from declarative to generative speech – enabling the innate unqualified love of nature to counter the dismissive censorship of the intellect. ”
– Geetha Waters

She stressed the importance of dialogue in education to nurture our capacity for empathy and compassion, as well as our understanding of the inner monologue and how it is responsible for shaping one’s life.

We thank Geetha for taking the time to kick off this year’s Lizard Talks series and sharing her knowledge and understanding with our high school.