When I first came into contact with Montessori's methods 5 years ago, it was like an encounter with a totally alien concept. How can learning be carried out when children are left to walk around choosing their 'lesson' for the day without the adult guiding them step by step?
From then it has been a journey of discovery. I even took up a distance course locally which I though was already such an interesting journey. However, when I took up the course with Montessorilive, I realised how narrow my earlier course was and how academic centred it was, not much unlike our local school system where children are pressured to do their best to bring up their school ranking in the country and how we are always competing to be the best in the world testing and examinations standards.
I know see the bigger picture for If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future. The children are not factors in production lines to be assigned their different lines based on the paper tests that we give them much like how the industrial revolution in Germany played a role in how schools are organised today.
Instead, I shall now try to humble myself, like the secret hinge on a door as we teachers can only help the work going on, as servants wait upon a master. This will be a great struggle, for we adults, especially as I am not only their educator but also first and foremost their mother, always see ourselves in a position of authority.
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