How worried are you about your child's education?

There seems to be such a trend to "inform" our children on many

subjects, through toys/activities/games which support the economic fabric of our society, expensive new technologies which apparently promote early understanding of maths, language, the various qualities of things(size, shape, colours etc...). But where do we draw the line? Where does the genuine interest of the child end and the eagerness of the parents to prematurely advance our child's learning begin? In his article "Children Educate themselves 1: Outline of some of the evidence", Peter Gray delineates our responsibilities as parents towards our children to provide "proper food, fresh air, non-toxic places to play...and respectful environments". But, he continues, we do not need to worry about educating them.

Dr Maria Montessori, more than 100 years ago, through careful observations of children, discovered their natural tendency to learn, their curiosity leading their inner capabilities to absorb information from the environment. Through interaction and engagement with a carefully prepared environment they 'constructed' themselves, they developed skills and acquired knowledge which, up until that moment, had been thought possible through educators only. Dr Montessori realised that children hold the keys to their learning and to the unfolding of their potentials...All we need to do is to provide a suitable environment which feeds those needs.

With an understanding of each individual's stage of development, made possible through careful observation, one can come to really see the child's interests, drives, learning styles, and support this same development by providing a respectful environment, as mentioned by Gray, in which the young one can explore, manipulate, discover, compare, classify, while developing complementary skills and expanding their understanding of how things work.

The child's social development seems to also require a little help in that today's young ones are commonly exposed to so much more violence, competitions, rewards and punishments than they ever used to, and the focus of their efforts is commonly directed to external gains. The status quo does nothing to support the development of each individual potentials and the sequential self-fulfilment; it does nothing to promote a sense of community, but fuels separation, alienation and depression, especially when expectations placed upon them are not met.

So what do we do? Looking at where our young generations are today, can we leave education entirely up to them or does this "respectful environment" we need to provide them with require careful preparation, to help our children "do their work" and come together?

#EDUCATION #MONTESSORI