Lighting up the temple of knowledge on Diwali

Diwali is the celebration of good over evil. But it is more popularly the festival of joy and that of light. It is symbolic of fighting off darkness. What could be a better way to celebrate Diwali than by building a temple of knowledge that could fight off the darkness of ignorance and illiteracy..! What could be a better way to celebrate Diwali than by creating a space for the tiny human beings- the students of the Kindergarten section- of my school to learn by exploring in an 'adapted' Montessori Method..! 

This beautiful space would have only remained a dream, but for the Principal of the school. The Principal's belief in the changes that Mantra had been bringing into the school and his trust on the process of transformation made this possible. This huge shift of mindset from garnering the little profits earned from the school to spending most of it on development of school is very heart-warming and is an achievement worth being proud of.

Read our previous blog on how we introduced the ‘adapted’ Montessori to our pre-primary classrooms.  

Gradually as the principal of the school started realising how kids were excited about this new way of learning and how this is benefiting them, he went out of his way to ensure that his kids get the best environment he could offer. The dirty-looking corner that used to store all the junk and discarded materials suddenly got transformed into a shining and bright ‘Activity Room’.  At Mantra, we reached out to our partner, Let's Do Some Good Foundation (LDSG) for monetary support. They contributed part of the funds for building this space, and so did the extremely invested principal of the school. Now that is how magic happens..!  

Usually these kids in the pre-primary section are live wires, full of so much energy that they can't always seem to contain it. Turns out that the activity space is their Zen-zone, a place as envisioned by Maria Montessori; a place where the child is a dedicated worker and explorer.

Every day, we (adults) stand around the kids watching them in awe as they labour in pure bliss and concentration. The teachers look on proudly at the children and why should they not. It is their handiwork, indeed. They imbibed the training, meticulously implemented it and even created a few activities to add on to the already existing Montessori activities. Such was the dedication of the staff and the management of the school.

Nobody could have come up with a better way to celebrate Diwali. It was the day a dump yard in the school got transformed into a beautiful activity space for children.

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Amrutha Krishnan, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change.

Transforming the KG classrooms: Venturing into 'adapted' Montessori Methods

"Bacchon aise dheere se jakar yeh rakhna hai, or apni pasand ki cheez uthakar wapas apni ‘mat’ ke paas aana hai. Miss ko dekho!!!", (roughly translates to "children you have to walk noiselessly and keep it there and pick out something you would like and place it on your mat. Look how your teacher is doing!!!"). 

And I was pleasantly surprised, to see Rizwana ma'am tip-toeing dramatically in order to drive home the point that in the activity space everyone has to be quiet. For your information, the audience, consisted of a bunch of three feet tall tiny human beings, myself and my colleague, Pallav. This was the same teacher who often expressed displeasure earlier when students would not listen to her. As she and her co- teacher Afreen ma'am gushed on about the tiny success stories during their three days' stint at using the Montessori Method in the classrooms, my faith in the success of the programme was reaffirmed.

Dr. Maria Montessori was a true visionary who researched and created a whole different educational approach to child development- the Montessori system. This approach thrives by creating a match between the child's natural interests and the available activities. This approach intends to give the child his/ her space and encourages him/her to learn from the experiences created in a Montessori classroom.

Every day, as we passed by the Kindergarten classrooms, we were at loss as to how to bring quality education to these tiny kids who often smiled at us sweetly, beckoning us to play with them. We had neither experience nor expertise in the area of early childhood development. Luckily for us, we chanced upon Mrs. Nandini Prakash from the Indian Institute of Montessori Studies. Her extraordinary levels of knowledge about early childhood development and passion to reach the children who weren't privileged enough to experience this revolutionary educational space blew our minds. She kindly agreed to guide us through the process of setting up a Montessori space and training the teachers to conduct Montessori activity hours.

In their own words,

"The Indian Institute for Montessori Studies was started in 1996 with the main objective of providing quality Montessori teacher training from Bangalore, India. It also aimed to bring back the ideas and methodologies of Montessori as applied to Primary Education, long forgotten in our country. Keeping the basic principles the same, the training program was adapted to suit the needs of the children and teachers here, by adding elements of Indian languages, culture and History."

As I watched these little ones in my school crawl towards their teacher eagerly for approval for a work done well or folding up their mats and screwing up their eyes in concentration, my heart warmed at having such a venture piloted in two of our partner schools.

I am reminded of the fact that children are exceptional ‘workers’. They work till they get perfect at doing something. Have you ever noticed a child trying to climb stairs? S/he will do it once, fall, then try it again and again and again till finally, s/he is able to climb. And s/he would still not stop; rather would come down and climb again till s/he is satisfied and confident about doing it.

For those of you who have supported Mantra through its inception, thank you! We are grateful to you for keeping us in your prayers, for it is that and more, what keeps us going and continues helping us see the programme through its success; and in turn, bring this world class 'adapted Montessori' learning system to 19 other partner schools that we will be working with. 

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Amrutha Krishnan, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change.