What are Montessori schools exactly?

There is no argument about the importance of education. Education in today’s world is as important as breathing air. You can’t live without it. Naturally all parents will want their children to have a steady and wholesome education in the best of many schools. But the question I ask, is today’s education really wholesome? A student goes to school everyday, takes his seat in his class greets the teacher and ‘blindly’ listens as the teacher teaches him or her several facts or terms, that he or she has no idea about in the first place. The student just sits there and tries to survive the day. The only thing he or she understands is to score marks and pass the examinations. Their teachers, families and their peers tell them the same thing. “You should study!” “But study what? Study for what?” The student may ask. What am I going to get out of this? A good job? But I am so young, I cannot think of a job now. I want to live my life, I want to learn and explore and not just study!” In this case, the option before him or her would be to go to a ‘MONTESSORI SCHOOL’. In these types of schools, children are not told what is written in the books. They are taught what do the books mean and what to do with them. They don’t just study the different forms of life in nature; they understand it. for them animals and birds are not pictures you see in books; they are instead literally other forms of life. Below we can see, the some of the different programmes, offered by montessori schools. Practical activities. Montessori schools introduce students to different practical activities. These activities explain different

habits of adults to children and make them independent. Activities like pouring water, sorting goods, slicing vegetables, cutting and pasting, perceptual motor activities as well as many other social activities. This helps young children educate and refine their senses to recognize similarities and differences, and make decisions based on human judgemental abilities. The Sensorial materials include the Cylinder Blocks, Pink Tower, Red Rods, Broad Stair, Geometric Solids, Color Boxes, Smell and Sound cylinders, Baric Tablets, Constructive Triangle Boxes, Fabric Box, Thermal Cylinders, and many others. Sensory activities: Not only this, but sports, recreation and disciplinary activities too are a part of this sort of school system. For any event, study, or activity, the focus is not on studying alone, but also on making its students independently capable and strong minded human beings. More can be known about the importance of montessori education by watching this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM1Gu9KXVkk

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One fine day, I visited the K’sirs International School in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu on an official visit. Personally and professionally, I had visited several institutions of education and frankly;wasn’t expecting anything new. But oh boy! I was in for a pleasantly big surprise! K’sirs International School functions with the montessori system of education where almost no stress is given on theory and instead it is on learning about life and improving your aptitude to live with it. This is a ‘school’ which justifies the exact meaning of the term that it had been intended, for in the English language. K’sirs International is a school of knowledge, thoughts and life, where you don’t just ‘study’, but you also ‘learn’. Several events and activities too are held here, not only for recreation but also re-discovering life. For example, one of the first things I noticed when I went about the school, when i took a walk around it, was the creation of objects with brown paper. As I enquired, I came to know that this task was taught to enlighten kids to stop using plastic as it would pollute the environment. Yeah yeah, all schools teach this. But this is different. Guess who explained to me the concept of what they were doing and it’s reason? A 3rd standard boy!!This boy created a paper cup out of brown paper all by himself and showed it to me. Not only this, he even explained the reason we should opt for such a cup instead of a plastic one. And he wasn’t repeating what his teacher told him. Now I ask, which school system equips a small child to know the importance of preserving the environment and the steps he or she should take to do so? In other schools, they just blindly repeat what their teachers tell them, but not so in K’sirs

International school. Another activity I observed was the students visiting a cow shed. And this wasn’t some weekend excursion! The students were actually learning about a form of life other than themselves. They learnt where they got their milk from everyday, the nature of cows, their eating habits, their offspring etc. Again which other system gives students such an in-depth knowledge of a form of life? Learning theory from biology or science textbooks are just mere words according to me. All words and no action! Now for example, another class was taken for small students to observe how pottery was moulded from clay, by a professional. This might seem like another extracurricular activity, but it was not! Students not only learnt how pottery was made, but also learned the values of patience, hard work, concentration and finally that ‘everything is built from a small beginning’. To conclude, the boys and girls studying in this school were not seeing their school life like a burden. They were in fact enjoying it, while at the same thing they were learning on how to shape their life. And seeing them smile and enjoy throughout the day, I confess I enjoyed my day at K’sirs International school!