Posts Tagged new generations

Raising Children – Learning Through Montessori’s ‘New Education’ Method

Maria Montessori believed that in order for the world to become a more peaceful and more civilized society for people to live in, the new generations must be taught to live in harmony and their hidden potential must be developed to the fullest. She believed that the only way to do it was through education. However, there was a need for the old educational system to be reformed as it was too teacher-centered, so it would not be able to maximize the potential in each child. The traditional system also did not prepare the child for life in society as the activities did not teach the child to work in collaboration with others, neither did it teach the child important skills such as concentration, responsibility and perseverance. She felt that the teacher’s job should be that of an observer; alert to the needs of the child and ready to react appropriately as “any form of education must be based on the personality of man”. (Absorbent Mind, Chapter 1, p. 8) As such, there arises a ‘new education’ system which proves to be effective all around the world even till today.

In addition to imparting knowledge to the children, Montessori felt that their physical and social development should also be taken into considerations. It is important that the teacher observe the children to find out what they need and thereby providing them with their needs. In other words, the teacher or parent should understand the learning style of the child and thereby pitching the lessons according to the child’s needs. She also believed that it should be part of education that a child is taught to be caring and compassionate towards others, but he must first be showered with care and concern himself. Thus, it is just as important to care about the hygiene and welfare of the child.

In this new education, Montessori described the importance of providing a child-centered and conducive learning environment. She stressed that there are differences between the learning objectives and methodologies between a child and an adult, thus they should not be taught in the same way or even use the same furniture. An adult is concerned with the end result of the task at hand; therefore, he tends to rush in order to finish the job quickly. He would not repeat the same task numerous times in order to perfect it.

On the other hand, a child differs from an adult in that he is still developing and constantly learning, thus he needs to interact with his environment to absorb information for his own development. He has what Montessori describes as an absorbent mind. A child will be able to absorb the specific skills that he needs to learn through repeated activities. He needs to make use of his environment and carry out repeated work to develop his personality, habits and physical being, so he will do a task numerous times in order to perfect it. Montessori believed that each child is a different individual, so he will have his own sensitive periods to absorb different skills perfectly. This new education allows each child to set his own pace for learning as he is free to select the materials that he wishes to work on. Multi-sensory materials are used in these classrooms for the children’s hands-on activities and they get to progress from the simple to abstract concepts without any pressure from the teacher. The child is led to experience a sense of accomplishment as he discovers the skills on his own.

During each sensitive period, a different skill is learned and after the skill is perfected, the child will naturally drop the activity and proceed on to something else. With the traditional education system, the child is forced to perform the task that the teacher has assigned. He would then be deprived of the freedom to learn or perfect the skill that he desired to during that sensitive period. Therefore, Montessori believed that it is more important for the teacher in the new education system to “discover the potentialities of each of the students and of offering him means and motives which could awaken his latent energies so that he might continue to use, expand, and coordinate them through proper exercise”. (Discovery of the Child, Chapter 2, p. 33) She believed that it is more important for the teacher to be an observer in the classroom and that the teacher should prepare the lessons and materials to suit the learning ability of the individual child. In this way, the child’s self-confidence is built up as the teacher is neither demoralizing nor judgmental. Similarly, if the parents are willing to assist the child by teaching him through the use of a method most suited to his learning style instead of forcing him, the child will be able to excel in every way. Parents must believe that every child is capable of learning.

In Montessori’s new education, she showed that it is important that “a school allows a child’s activities to freely develop”. (Discovery of the Child, Chapter 1, p. 9) However, this would be difficult with the use of the rigid furniture in the traditional classroom. Besides restricting the students’ movements as they were not allowed to move about to change the materials that they would like to work on or to move the furniture around independently, Montessori felt that these furniture also hindered the proper development of the children’s spinal cord because the children were forced to remain in the same position at the desk for hours. Instead, she advocated the use of child size furniture and floor mats in the Montessori classroom. Such furniture are not so intimidating and the children can have the freedom to move around independently when they need to.

Since the child will not be forced to carry out activities against his wishes, Montessori described this new education to be a system whereby the children will learn spontaneously. She had tested out this system in many Montessori schools and even up till today, children in Montessori classrooms enjoy carrying out their activities in an orderly, prepared and tranquil environment. Under this new education, the child learns to work quietly and with full concentration as he focuses on the task at hand. He will not be distracted by others around him nor will he give up easily as he will be able to correct his own mistakes through the use of the specially prepared materials. This is an important skill to develop as many children in the elementary schools are still not able to concentrate and they lack perseverance skills too. She believed that developing the child’s spontaneous interest in learning will develop his personality such as kindness, warmth and perseverance which is necessary for peace and civilization in the society.

Montessori believed that this new education must start from birth in order for its effect to be obvious as the child, no matter how young, is capable of learning and he will absorb what he sees or hears from the environment around him. She believed that through the use of appropriate materials at the suitable timing, a child will be able to learn very easily. As such, the job of the teacher as an observer is very important. Montessori had proven the success of this new education, which probably accounts for its popularity all around the world.

Three Current Trends in Education

Although the way we educate is changing, the traditional setting of how we educate has not changed. Often Schools still use the same classroom format used last century, and books are still an essential part of the educational system, based on rigid curriculums.

This is changing, and online education is affecting these changes that are challenging the traditional way we educate.

1. Home Schooling

As more people go online everyday, and our working structures change. The boom in online education has started, that is challenging the way we look at traditional education.

Home schooling is becoming a trend in many countries, as education becomes more expensive, and often still book and exam focused. And the internet provides plenty of sources for families or communities disappointed with the current education system.

International examinations are readily available for students who study at home, and are often recognized internationally. Often they provide curriculums, and even materials on their websites to parents or community leaders, who organize home schools.

This freedom of choice, and of resources does threaten the role of traditional schools, that often are structured around yesterdays education, rather than focusing on tomorrows educational needs for our children.

2. Self-Study

One of the skills that our new generations of net users are learning is self study techniques. These techniques challenge the role of the teacher, who often was the main provider of information through certain books.

Recognizing the achievements of self-study is not easy, but examples of many of today’s successful young entrepreneurs, show that many of them learned more from the web, then from studying at traditional colleges.

In fact, many of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs never went to a traditional college, which often justifies the strengths of self-education.

IB schools recognize this self study trend, and have shifted the basis of education towards an activity rather than a examination based education, and our younger learners are learning to become more independent, because of this change.

3. The Failure of Traditional Education

Traditional Schools and Educational Institutes often based their education on the fact that they produce students who can adjust to life as an adult, and are educated towards the skills needed for the future.

The reality is over 70% of graduates do not work in the field of their study, and often need retraining in the real World. Another reality is that most people are unhappy in their jobs.

A successful education system should produce in theory people who work in the field they excelled to study in, and are happily contributing to society. The opposite has happened, given that only 30% of graduates work in the field they study in, and only 20% of people are happy in their current job.

This may be the ultimate failure of the traditional educational system that produced unhappy graduates that needed retraining, and employees that disliked their work.

Challenging the traditional monopoly of the education system has never been greater, with the birth of on-line education. The inevitable movement from exam based to practical activity based learning, may create Students that enter the real world, equipped with the skills to survive future changes in the 21st Century.

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