Workshops at Banjara

Motivated and enthusiastic students always perform better, not only in academic exams, but in all challenges of life. It is our duty to provide them with the right type of motivation. Very often I have used the following example to make students not only sit up and think about how they should look upon exams, but also to reduce their tension.  Discuss it with them:

I start off by asking students:  “Do you like to do Batting?”

-> If you are a cricket enthusiast, which role do you enjoy most?  Isn’t it batting?  And yet you know that batting is the exam where you are being tested.  You could be out for a duck in the first ball, or you could go on to hit a century!  Yet, don’t you look forward to batting, and risking your reputation?  The same is true of exams, you are on the crease.  Have confidence in yourself, take the correct position – and start hitting out!

-> You have already learnt most of what you needed to learn for your Board exams, not only in this academic year, but in the years of education that you have received.  Now there is very little that can go wrong.  At the worst you will score just a few marks less.  But if you face the exams with the enthusiasm of a batsman taking the crease, you will definitely score a few marks more.  So, just pad up and go for it!

“Creation of Knowledge”

We are used to acquiring knowledge, spreading knowledge, even memorizing and hoarding knowledge. But very few have the courage and inclination to take the adventurous route and try to create knowledge, skills, and awareness of something that is unknown so far.
In today’s world of rapid change, many find it easy to follow the herd mentality of chasing what everyone else is chasing. It is wonderful if we can think for ourselves and use our brains (whichever intelligence we have predominantly) to think outside-the-box, carve something out of nothing, nurture new forms of knowledge, put it into practice, and have the satisfaction of seeing it blossom out.
It can be done, it is not as difficult as it sounds! All it needs is determination and practice.

I come across many students who have just not been able to bounce back from the academic slow-down and disruption, some who have become screen addicts. I know elders who are still scared to step out of their houses. People are flocking to hospitals for specialized diagnostics and consultations even for slight ailments. Auto-immune disease has seen a significant rise.

Equally important, some of us are experiencing a disconnect from social activities (not social media – that has increased beyond normal limits), going through mood-swings, going into depression. Careers are facing ups and downs, financial insecurity is making some people spend sleepless nights.

The pandemic, the lockdown and the mass migration of poor people back to their roots could have been a great opportunity for us to de-congest cities and provide livelihood for them in their homes. Similarly, we need to do intense review and rehabilitation to ensure that the effects of covid on all of us are finally overcome.

By Dr. Ali Khwaja, a Montessorian, counselor, trainer, columnist, life skills coach, and a perpetual student

Five decades ago I used to walk down to Casa Montessori on Marine Drive in erstwhile Bombay. I spent the day with a group of boys and girls who were boisterous, to say the least. Aunty Sarla seemed to have unlimited patience in dealing with us – even on the day when she put her hand in the stack of old newspapers kept for craft work, and accosted the putrefied green vegetables I was stuffing there quietly every day! She again explained to me the importance of eating vegetables, ensured I did not hide them anywhere, and threw out the stack of stinking old newspapers.

After two years I moved on to a “mainstream” school, and began the process of discipline, straight-jacket academics, and comparison in terms of “Rank” in every term Report. I remember with pain when my rank once went down from 5th to 15th, and I was stripped of my “Prefect” badge, even though my teachers had continuously said that I made a very effective Class Prefect.

I went on to college, a prestigious engineering institution like IIT, and eventually even managed to acquire a Ph.D. In the past three decades I have also had the privilege of conducting workshops and training for teachers of over two hundred schools in Bangalore and elsewhere.

Whenever someone asks me for my bio-data, I mention in the first line that I am a Montessorian. Either because they don’t understand what it means, or because they cannot pronounce it correctly, they often skip that part of my introduction when I am being welcomed to give a talk. And yet I know what I am today is because of the two years I spent (“studied” would be a wrong word) at Casa Montessori.

When I look at education today I wonder why we are regressing. Innumerable unnamed Gurus of the past, Sigmund Freud, Dr. Maria Montessori, Howard Gardner (of “Multiple Intelligences” fame), Daniel Goleman (who introduced “Emotional Intelligence to the masses), President Abdul Kalam – everyone has been telling us that learning should be initiated and inspired, minds should be ignited, children should experience what they are doing, and how it is relevant to them. Yet we are stuck with the old MacCaulay system of “chalk and talk” education, which the British had brought to India two centuries ago to develop us into efficient clerks and assistants. We would like to compare children’s memorization ability through meaningless exams, and compare them mercilessly. Competition is the buzzword that forces both teachers and parents to make the student gain those extra marks at the cost of learning. Those unable to get high ranks lose self-esteem, and those at the top of the class are perpetually insecure when they will lose their high perch!

With globalization and free market economy, Degrees and Diplomas are losing their significance. Employers are only interested in skills and capabilities, organizations are looking for team players and leaders – but the mainstream education system continues to provide bookworms and zombies. If we cannot bring about a change in college or secondary education, the least we can do is to give a strong foundation to the children in their first few years of life, and then at least they will be able to discern what is good or bad for them.

Montessori education is more gravely needed now than in the last century when Dr. Maria first introduced the concept. With technological developments, learning by rote has lost its meaning. Computers, robots and machines can perform tasks much faster and more efficiently than humans. But what society needs is a generation of people who can understand themselves, understand others, relate harmoniously, and remain motivated and balanced. These abilities are built in the first few years of life (refer to the Marshmallow Experiment of Stanford University where tiny tots were tested for their ability to delay gratification, and decades later monitored to see whether they could do so as adults too).

Dr. Maria Montessori has opened the doors to us, but we need to walk inside and experience the joy of true learning, for ourselves and for the twenty-first century children (I personally would not mind taking off for a year and enrolling in a Mont-1 Class). As concerned adults, parents, teachers, let us give the strong foundation to children that will not only enable them to face life better, but also take better care of us when we are all doddering old men and women dependent on them!

We have done extensive research and experiments on the ways and means of supplementing the social and emotional learning of children of all ages, and are presenting the techniques in our on-line program, open to all adults, named “Certificate in Child and Adolescent Development” starting on 15th May, 2021.

We will not only be teaching you through weekly sessions the practical ways to work with children and ensure their balanced growth and development, but will also give you sessions with qualified and experienced Mentors who will review and guide you every week on the activities you may try out with any child. This learning will be very useful far beyond the current pandemic, and will empower you to work towards bringing up a new generation of mature, sensitive and balanced children who will face the future world with confidence.

Contact us at #9958488667 for more details