As part of my Montessori Training course we went to several schools which are Montessori as well as regular schools that have Montessori Method practiced between 3-6 years of age. I had mixed reactions and opinions and was really contemplating as to what is Montessori? Is whatever we are learning as part of our course just to write an exam? But, when it comes real practice of the method and philosophy it all gets compromised to the expectations of the parents.
Well, my understanding of the Montessori philosophy is that children have a natural urge to learn and they have the sensitive periods that guide them to learn and do certain things for their development. For example, we do not teach the children to walk or to talk etc. yet they learn, all children within a particular age. This is so, since they have the sensitive period to achieve that development. Where the initiative to develop themselves comes from within, and when the right kind of environment is provided for it, they achieve it. For example, in case of talking, he should have people surrounding him talk a particular language so that he can pick that language to talk and doesn’t even have to be taught any vocabulary as he can apply his language at appropriate places. This to us seems very natural. So the same can be applied to even learning language and math, which to our Indian parents are so important and are considered as the benchmark for intelligence.
When I observed, I was able to sense that in certain schools that gave the children a choice on their work, children between age 4 – 6 chose mostly language and math activities, while the preschoolers chose EPL and sensorial. This demonstrates beautifully the sensitive period of the child. But some schools do pressurize the children to concentrate mostly on only language and math, considering EPL to be such a waste. But this is where Dr. Montessori created magic. One must see the child’s face when he or she is engrossed in doing the EPL activity, it is like meditation. They work with so much concentration and the completion of task gives them immense satisfaction.
Also the child at such a young age has his or her own agenda for learning. And when that agenda is met, his learning becomes complete and may even be with him for the rest of his life. Parents of today have become totally blind to all this. We only want to push, push and push the child into doing whatever we want and complain that he/she is not good at something. We need to understand that though it is our child we have to respect them as another human being with its own brain and thoughts and desires etc.
My humble request to parents is stop talking and start listening to your kids. Not just to whatever they are saying, but also other things, their feelings, their involvement in certain experiences. There is so much we can learn from them. Because they are small in structure doesn’t mean they are less to us. How many times have we as parents stopped our children from learning when they were toddlers because we had to rush somewhere. Learning? What am I saying here? Yeah cos we do not even realize that when the child just wanted to stop and stare at the march of ants is even learning something. Who are we to decide that, that is not even something that is worthy of learning?
So our real role of educating our children is to facilitate and be there for them and understand their eagerness to learn and not put pressure on them with our own agenda on whether they have to get into IIT or IIM etc. There is Kamal Hassan and there is also Amartya Sen. They are what they are because of their passion and involvement in their work and not because that’s what the world expected them to be.
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