Brain development myths and pre-schooling

Myths of brain development have contributed to the proliferation of pre-schools. There are many myths of brain. Here is one list. We shall discuss here about three top most myths that affect pre-schoolers.

1. Myth 1: Brain is plastic only till the age of 6: Many parents today believe in this myth and therefore are eager to put their child in the pre-school. They believe that if the brain is kept 'idle', it will remain un-utilised, and therefore the child will not develop better. This myth has been busted and is not considered to be true. Our brain is plastic enough to change at any age. So do not put your child in pre-school, because his brain is more plastic at this age.

But why is it still important for a child to learn the 'right way' till the age of 6? It is due to 'brain wiring'. Each of our brains is wired differently depending on where we start, what we experience, and how we learn. This 'wiring' is unique for each of us. So if we learn 'numbers' in a particular way, for instance, our wiring will be happen in that specific way. And our future learning also gets 'channelised' due to the existing wiring. Certain types of brain wiring, for instance, how we learn to react to people or how we develop patience impact our 'future learning' much more than, say the way we learn 'a subject like geography'. Montessori is more helpful because it helps child to properly wire his development of 'traits' like patience, concentration and overcoming the fear of failing, instead of wiring the 'content' of subjects.

2. Myth 2: Our brain impressions are permanent: This myth makes parent believe that whatever the child learns at the age of 3-6 stays with him forever. Once again, this understanding is mistaken. When we learn something for the first time, we use our 'memory' to retain it. If we however do not repeat this often, we lose the 'content'.

How does the child retain the 'content' for a long time? He/she retains it by using five tricks: repetition, use of emotion, interest, understand the relevance and interlinking. These five keys help the child  retain the 'content' for a long time. That is why, when the child  repeats the content again and again, the child retains it after few repetitions. How do we make the child repeat 'content again? 

One is by force. For instance, ask the child to 'write' 1 to 100 three times in his homework every day. This use of force however creates unintended consequences. It 'distorts' the will of the child and makes the child feel 'helpless'. The state of 'helplessness' affects the child's overall learning, because he loses motivation. This is what happens in normal pre-school. After the initial spurt of learning new content, the child soon loses his motivation to learn. Morever, it also affects his future learning of  arithmetic, because the foundation of his brain wiring of 'numbers' is not proper.

On the other hand, Montessori uses 'interest' to fuel the repetition. A child in Montessori repeats an activity due to his/her interest. And because every child can take the material on his own ( there is no group learning in Montessori), he can repeat it as many times as he individually wants. This repetition enables the child to first master the 'fine motor skills' but also the later 'sensory' impressions. Even when the child is 'taught' numbers, he learns it in a 'fundamentally proper' way. This helps his brain to 'wire' the numbers in an appropriate way, which later helps the learning of numbers through an appropriate channel.  

Myth 3: Brain has compartments for different content and skills: This myth has resulted in misdirected strategies of learning. One is , for instance, left brain-right brain compartmentalization. Now researchers agree that brain does not have these left brain-right brain compartments. 

But this dichotomy has resulted into various misdirected learning strategies. For instance, Left brain retains analytical content and right brain retains imagination. So to teach imagination, some pre-schools teach content like 'drawing, music or craft'. Naturally this does not help the child to 'imagine' better. On the other hand, Montessori takes a different approach. It trains the child to build 'reproductive imagination' which later can mature into 'creative imagination' using the entire brain, not just one part of the brain. 

Another myth arising out of this compartments is that we have different learning styles. For instance, some learn by 'doing', some by 'visual pictures'. Once again, this is just a myth. We may prefer to use a specific  mechanism of learning more than other, but that is not determined by our 'brain'. It is determined by our 'initial wiring'.

If you are interested in knowing more about brain development in simple language, see this http://www.brainrules.net/. 

Source of image: http://www.kayramuhendislik.com.tr/

How Montessori helps child imagination

Many parents are confused about Montessori's role in helping child's imagination. Because Montessori does not encourage art activities like singing and drawing, or telling stories of fairies or animal talking to each other, it is assumed that Montessori does not develop imagination. Here is an attempt to present the full picture of the Montessori's role in developing child's imagination.

Two types of Imagination

Imagination of child grows in two steps: Step 1 of Reproductive Imagination and Step 2 of Creative Imagination. 

Reproductive imagination develops when a child has to remember a sensory impression and use it: whether it is sound, smell, taste or visual ( shape or colour). For instance, when a child is reciting a song's melody ( not the words), the child is using reproductive imagination. This imagination uses  memory and involves faithful representation of what already exists. 

Creative Imagination develops when a child learns basic variables of a medium, say Sa Re Ga Ma in music, and then learns to 'creatively' reconfigure them to construct a new 'tune'. Creative imagination therefore goes one step ahead: it does not stop at faithful representation of reality, but recombines the 'real variables' in a new image. Creative imagination therefore requires 'mastery' of basic inputs of a medium ( the medium could be painting, dancing or physics ) before those inputs can be reconfigured creatively. Therefore a scientist takes longer time to use his creative imagination to produce an innovation, then say a musician or painter. 

A child therefore first uses reproductive imagination when he learns to 'copy and reproduce' the music or painting. Only when the child masters the 'real variables' through using step 1 repeatedly, a child can take a leap and start using the creative imagination to 'reconfigure' those variables and produce 'new music'. 

How does Montessori help a child in imagination 

Montessori helps a child in reproductive imagination during the pre-school stage , age 3 to 6, or also called as first plane of education. Montessori actively develops this imagination by designing M1 and M2 activities for many sensorial material. For instance, M1 activity in cylinders involves the child keeping all the cylinders in one tray, and then bringing each cylinder to fit a 'cylinder socket' by recalling the image of a cylinder that may fit the socket. M2 activity uses 'imagery' even more because in this activity, child distributes the cylinders in the various parts of the Montessori environment, not just in one tray, and therefore requires to use far more 'reproductive ' imagination to complete the activity.

In Montessori, shapes and textures are also used in developing reproductive imagination by doing them with 'blindfolds'. Doing stereognastic activity with blindfolds using 3-dimensional solids like cube, cylinder and prisms also develops this imagination. More importantly, the child in Montessori is enabled to understand the real properties of a object such as length, breadth, thickness, colour and sound more distinctly with various sensorial material such as Geometrical cabinet, colour cylinders and three dimensional solids. These distinct properties can then be used to 'reconfigure' in second plane of education, which starts after 6 years of age. In other words, the foundation of creative imagination is laid in this pre-school very firmly in Montessori.

How to help your child of 3 to 6 age to develop his/her imagination 

Based on the available literature, here are 4 ways that a parent can help a child develop his/her imagination:

1. Avoid unhelpful fantasies

Unhelpful fantasies are those that encourage 'wrong correlations'. For instance, when a child watches a cartoon where a character hits someone with fist and that person 'flies' and falls without getting hurt, the child also 'believes' that hitting by fist does not hurt. These wrong correlations of 'cause' and 'effect' confuse the child. Therefore fantasies presented in typical cartoons confuse the child by introducing 'wrong correlations' which he has to 'unlearn'.. Fairy tale stories also introduce child to wrong correlations and are therefore not helpful.

2. Facilitate helpful fantasies like pretend play

On the other hand, some type of fantasies may actually help a child. For instance, 'pretend play' type of fantasies are fantasies where children role-play imaginary conversations of adults, such as parents asking the child to 'eat' his food. Children also role-play the role of a fruit vendor and imagine buying fruits from him. These fantasies help the child understand the 'real world'. Accordingly psychologists believe that these fantasies are helpful.

Other fantasies - such as when we tell the story of animals talking to the child - are supposed to be neither helpful nor unhelpful. Psychologists believe when children are told that 'animals talk', they actually believe that 'animals can really talk'. In technical language this is called 'Credulity'. Child uses this information as 'real variable', instead of 'imaginary variable'. Montessori therefore does not encourage these kind of stories.

3. Help the child learn a medium like music, painting if the child shows inclination

As we mentioned earlier, creative imagination can be done only when the medium is 'fully understood'. As mediums like music and painting can be learnt at an early age, a willing child can be helped in learning this medium just by watching others sing, play a sitar or drum. If the child shows an inclination ( inclination is more important) in learning music, encourage it because it will help him later after he reaches the age of 6. In Montessori, child is introduced to music through a musical material in an appropriate manner. However, I have not heard of any other medium ( such as drawing) which has been introduced to a child at such a early age ( before 6). If anyone knows this, i would be glad to be informed.

4. Use the child's imagination to incite his curiosity

Child's imagination is developing at the age of 4, not at 3. If a child of 4 is introduced to the card, say 'potter' making pots, it can excite the child in asking lot of questions. If the child's curiosity is sufficiently triggered, the child may 'want' to see a real potter and the process of making pots. When such a willing child is shown the process of pot-making, the child has more questions because of his use of imagination. Learning is deeper and stickier. This method of firing the child's imagination to make him ask questions is a very effective way of learning for a child. You can use this method to help him understand lot of things in real life. Instead of 'stuffing the child' with more and more information, which he is not interested to hear, use child's imagination to incite his curiosity so that he learns 'better' and 'deeper'.

Summary

Montessori, before the age of 6, helps the child develop her 'reproductive imagination' through various methods in a very active manner. It also helps the child to introduce fertile mediums like 'music' that can directly help the child use creative imagination later. Further, by preventing the child learn 'wrong correlations' through unhelpful fantasies, Montessori reduces the confusion in the child's mind and therefore helps him use his imagination more productively. More importantly, Montessori incites curiosity in a child , so that child can start asking his own questions and direct his own learning.

Reference to the above material has been sourced from many Montessori books. I owe a lot to this paper of Sarah Andrews on Montessori and imagination

I see the parrot sound

This is how one of the student in the Sapience Montessori spoke in his early attempt of conversing in English at the end of first year. In India, a child normally speaks in his mother tongue which is different than English. His English conversation therefore starts in a set up of Montessori, either at the end of the first year, or at the start of second year.

How can a child, whose mother tongue is not English, converse in foreign tongue of English in one year. Montessori makes this possible by using three tools:

1. Adults converse with children in English from Day 1: At the age of 3, the child is absorbing language. This is how he learns his mother tongue from his parents. The same method is used with English. For instance, all instructions like 'please tie apron' or 'please pick the pounding material', 'please take the chair for eating' and so on are spoken in English. However, as the child does not understand English at all, after every English instruction, the instruction is converted into his/her mother tongue so that the child can understand. With every passing day, the child is more and more comfortable in English.

2. Increase his English Vocabulary by 100 words a month: As the child is getting comfortable with English, he is introduced to English words for all the normal objects he sees in the house. For instance he is introduced to objects in the kitchen, bathroom, living room. He is introduced to names of games, cars, trucks and other water vehicles, musical instruments. Animals, vegetables, fruits are other normal categories introduced to the child. With his vocabulary of English increasing every day, the child is ready to speak in English

3. Mistake-tolerance created by Montessori environment: When the child is going to speak English, he is going to make mistakes, infact lot of them.It is therefore important for the child to not feel embarrassed with his mistakes and continue to try to 'speak' even if it is wrong. Mistakes, instead of creating guilt, should be the source of finding one errors quickly and then correcting it.

Whatever mistakes are known to the child are due to the self-corrective nature of most of the material. Child knows her mistake through control of errors like that are designed in many activities such as when the pounding spills on the oil cloth, or water spilling. And when a mistake is committed by the child, the adult is not supposed to 'tell' this to the child. Montessori creates this environment where mistakes are not even 'commented', leave alone 'punished'. Mistake tolerance is Montessori's unique contribution to the development of the child which allows the child to take on challenges without the fear of losing their self-respect.

Summary

By the end of first year, the child has the confidence to 'speak' in English and knows 'sounds' of many objects. In the second year, the child learns to 'construct' words from the sounds of object. This word creation and construction of simple sentences - Noun and verb - enables him to 'write' English.

In the third year, the child is introduced to Grammar ( Noun, Verb, Article, Adjective, Adverb) so that he can decipher 'long' sentences'. By the end of third year therefore, a child in Montessori can 'read' English and understand it. It is called 'Total reading" in contrast to 'Mechanical reading'. Mechanical reading is 'reading' each word without understanding the sentence.

And this starts the 'next' virtuous cycle of the child. Because the child can 'read' books, she enjoys reading. That in turn increases her vocabulary. Which in turn makes it easy for the child to 'speak' and converse. This in turn increases her 'subject knowledge'. And on and on.

Putting in your child in the virtuous spiral of  language is the best way to ensure that the child becomes 'smart'. I do not know of any method of education, apart from Montessori method, which teaches language like English as beautifully. But if you can initiate this spiral with  your mother tongue - Hindi, Marathi, or Kannada - this also helps the child equally well. The child should however be introduced to the literature of mother tongue fairly early.

In short, learning language for the child is not just about communicating. But it is about opening up his windows and doors for more and more learning which can be 'powered' by the child himself. 

Photo credits: YIM-Hafiz / Flickr

Slow is Fast in Montessori preschool

Piyush, a parent of 3 year old child, called me up as he had gone to a Montessori pre school for getting admission for his child in Montessori (M1 to M3) preschool. After hearing what a child learns in the first year of Montessori - M1 - Piyush said that he was disappointed. According to him, while in a normal pre-school, the child learns to write alphabets A to Z, count numbers 1 to 100, learns to sing rhymes, a child in Montessori M1 does not learn any of this. So Piyush asked me if this is because Montessori offers too much of freedom to the child? Is the progress of child in Montessori too slow?

A girl doing Geometrical cabinet by the end of first year in M1 which requires 35-40 minutes of focused attention 

Photo : Courtesy : Sapience Montessori House of Children

If you compare M1 (equivalent to Nursery) to Nursery year of a normal pre-school, the above statement may seem to be true. So why is the first year slow in Montessori?

Because in the first year, the foundation is being led. The initial period is spent on helping the child sit on the mat without getting distracted. This is done through EPL activities like pounding, cutting cucumbers and self management activities like buttoning shirt and washing hands. In the first year, sensorial activities utilise the 'senses' of the child which help him activate his 'senses' and develop patience. A large set of practices are adopted in Montessori to ensure that the child sees 'mistakes' as a source of learning, instead of being embarrassed or punished by them. As a foundation for teaching English, the child is introduced to at least 100 new words in English per month in the first year through cards and object boxes. Morever, the Montessori adult always speaks with the child in English. Combination of these -  EPL, Sensorial and language - enable the child to work patiently for a longer time without fear of 'mistakes'. 

By the end of first year, with the attention span increased to more than 30 minutes, with no fear of mistakes, the child is willing to learn new things at a faster rate, be it in language, mathematics or Geography. More importantly, his learning is fast because he chooses his activities himself without being forced. He learns it individually at his own pace, not in the group.

So what does this foundation of one year help the child learn in the second and three year of pre-school? By the third year, a Montessori child learns to count add, subtract, multiply and divide 4-digit numbers. Some children even learn fractions. All children learn to count 4-digit number, some even count 6-digit numbers. ( Typically this is learnt in second/third class in normal schools!) In English language, the Montessori child not only speaks, writes English in his own words, but can also read English story books ( which is called comprehensive reading as compared to Mechanical reading). As though this is not enough, a Montessori child is introduced to Geography, Zoology and Botany ( with botanical names for leaves) in the third year, besides being introduced to second language, which could be either Hindi or Marathi in Maharashtra, or Kannada in Karnataka.

At the end of three years, a Montessori child is far ahead of a child in Normal pre-school, both in terms of learning ( be it maths, language or geography) as well as in terms of development ( be it patience, concentration and ability to make his own choices). Piyush understood the benefits of laying doing sound foundation of a child.

As Piyush said it succinctly, Slow is fast in Montessori. It takes time to lay down the foundation in the first year, but once it is laid, then it can achieve huge results in the next two years. 

Montessori is not activity based learning

Because of the numerous activities used in Montessori method, Montessori is often confused with Activity based learning. However, Montessori method instead strives to re-configure the balance between EAN ( Execution Attention Network) and DMN ( Domain mode Network). EAN is used when the child does activities, while DMN is used with the child is doing internal focused tasks like, daydreaming, reflecting, and changing the perspective. When a child uses activity alone, it is considered to be autistic because he is using too much of EAN, and when a child uses DMN, we consider it to be schizophrenic. The key is balancing EAN and DMN.

Here is how Montessori method balances the EAN and DMN in a pre-school: 

1. Utilising Sense of order

Montessori method uses the time before and after an activity. That is why it stresses on the importance of taking the kit from the shelf as well as keeping it back on the shelf. It also uses the child's sense of keeping things in order such as when the child keeps the boots on the rack, hanging the bag on a specific place and so on. These 'non-activities' use the DMN network of a child.

2. Doing an activity end to end

In Montessori method, EPL activities for instance, have several steps before the activity and after the activity. For instance , pounding activity has several steps before the activity (taking the apron, using oil cloth, taking the nuts in a vessel, putting it in the pastle) of pounding. Similarly, there are activities after pounding. Infact one of the central activity is sharing the pounded nuts with other children. This series of activities enable the child to look at the 'purpose' of an activity and not just the key activity. Shifting the attention to the purpose of activity enables the child to balance between DMN and EAN networks.

3. Creating child-centric method

Unlike any ABL method, the child can 'chose' his own set of activity and perform it as many time as he wishes. As long as the child sits on the working mat, child has freedom of not doing anything in Montessori method. In Montessori, child's voluntary efforts to do any activity are considered to be important if his learning has to happen. Montessori method is student-driven method while ABL is teacher-driven method.

4. Focus on behavioural pattern of child to imbibe the learning habits 

In Montessori, there are EPL, Sensorial, Language and Mathematical activities arranged according to the age of child. These activities, although predetermined, are offered to the child according to his age and the challenge it offers to the child. The focus is not on teaching a 'concept' to a child like in ABL. The focus is on developing three 'behavioural habits/patterns' of a child that aid the child in deepen his learning such as choice, mistake-fearlessness, and patience. Montessori method is development centric method, while ABL is learning-centric method.

Summary

In short, Activity based learning is learning-centric teacher-driven methodology while Montessori method is development-centric student driven methodology.

On the surface, Montessori method looks like an activity based method. But if you scratch the surface and delve deeper, you will realise that activity is used as a 'tool' to serve a different 'end'. In Montessori, Activities are used to help the child to develop the foundation of the personality of a child while in Activity based method, activities are used to help the child learn something better and faster.

To alter child's behaviour, it is important to follow the child

If you have read the last month's blog on five levels of learning, you will understand that the school mainly helps the child in learning at a cognitive level ( Level 1 to 3). But some alternative schools, like Waldorf and Montessori, also help the child in developing the 'appropriate behaviours' by following the child.  Here is one example that happened in a Montessori.

In Montessori, adults ( or teachers) are taught to follow the child. This example of learning, described below, occurred at the dining table of a Montessori.

Courtesy: Sapience Montessori face book page

Two children, let us call them Neil and Saket, were eating their tiffin on the dining table. Neil had brought Sabudhana Khicdi , which Saket loves very much. Saket therefore asked for a tbsp of Khichdi to Neil. Neil refused. Saket asked the Montessori Adult to intervene. In such situations, Montessori adult takes a back seat and follows the child. So she asked Saket to directly request Neil. Saket again requested Neil for Khichdi. 

After sometime, Neil gave him a tbsp of khichdi. Saket ate it. But he asked for more. Saket was not eating his tiffin. He kept on looking at Neil's tiffin. He even tried once/twice to directly take the Khichdi from Neil's tiffin. Neil blocked Saket's hand. Saket continued to request, very emotionally. After sometime, Neil again gave him a tbsp of Khichdi. Saket ate it quickly and again asked for more. Then he waited for Neil to give him Khichdi. Neil again gave him a tbsp after some time. Again Saket ate and waited. This drama continued for 10-15 minutes. During this 10-15 minutes, Neil gave him 5-7 tbsp of Khichdi. Saket continued to ask for more but also waited. Neil, who normally does not finish his tiffin, ate his full tiffin that day. Saket waited until his Khichdi was over and then he opened his tiffin. 

What did Saket learn? First, he learnt to request for something which he wanted. Generally children do not learn this. When they want something, they grab it, pull it or cry when they do not get it. Saket avoided these three actions and continued to request in a very right tone. Two, Saket learnt to wait patiently for Neil until he gave. This is perhaps the most difficult habit to learn. Patience. Saket learnt to practice 'patience'. More than anything this habit determines the extent to which the 'potential' of a child unfolds.

What did Neil learn? First, he learnt to 'share'. Neil is an independent child when it comes to eating. He neither asks for any 'food item' from others, nor does he 'give' it to others. For the first time in 4 months, time he 'gave', even though it was little. Surprisingly, 3 days after the event, he brought in Khichdi and gave it to Saket without being requested. No amount of 'cajoling' would have helped Neil's behaviour to change to 'sharing'. Second, he also learnt that 'requesting' for some food item is OK. Next day, Neil asked for a 'cheese dosa' from another girl student. Neil had changed his behaviour.

Many parents want their children to change their child's behaviour, for instance, the habit of sharing, waiting for someone, or requesting before shouting. But they resort to wrong methods - instructing, cajoling, black-mailing, or exhorting. Parents do not know that they cannot change their child's behaviour just by 'instructing' the child. Parents can only 'enable' the conditions and hope that the child learns from it.

Unfortunately, parents are too biased to notice learning situations.  For instance, when i told the above example later to parents, many fathers and mothers said that they would have asked their child 'not to ask for any food item' ( like Saket did). They think that it is akin to begging. Some parents also said that they would have asked their child to 'share'.

Some parents have intuitive sense of what should be done in a situation. But most parents do not know how to enable such 'dense situations' that are ripe for learning. Such dense situations - where emotions and real events happen - are required for learning. Once the situation has been 'enabled', it is important to step back and not interfere in the learning process by letting the 'biases' interfere. In the above example, Montessori adult ( or teacher) watched the proceedings without making any comment. She just followed the children. She was careful to see that Saket did not 'put' his hand in the tiffin of Neil, for instance. Neither did she ask Saket to eat his own tiffin and not 'ask' for anything.

This is a paradox. If you want to change the child's behaviour, it is important to 'follow the child', instead of leading the child. Many parents want to inculcate the right 'culture' ( or what they call 'Sanskar' in marathi or Hindi) in their children, but they do not know how.  Instead of following the child, they constantly try to lead the child.

Learning is painful, individualistic and idiosyncratic

There is a huge difference between learning and teaching. To understand learning, one has to see it. But how can one see learning when learning happens in the head. So here is a chance to see learning 'happen'. See this video tape of live-learning of a young toddler, which will help us peep into the mind of a learner. 

After seeing this video ( of the child we shall call Adi), you will appreciate three characteristics of learning:

1. Learning is painful

We assume that learning is joy and fun. But contrary to this understanding, learning is painful. We watch this everyday in a Montessori. When a child is 'learning' something real, his face is taut and tense. When he cannot solve a problem, like Adi in the above video, the child is frustrated and often throws the 'items'. Sometimes the child yells and even beats someone closer to her.

Sometimes the pain of learning is seen differently. For instance, when the child works on something where he is learning, like Adi, the effort of learning is so high that he wants rest after doing the activity. Or if we praise 'right' outcome in activities, we have observed that the child avoids taking challenging activities later because he is more worried about performing poorly. 'Praising child for right performance' hampers the child learning. Carol Dweck has documented the effects of performance-anxiety and learning extensively.  Montessori therefore avoids praise.

As the child grows, he or she cannot show this pain easily to others. Instead of showing his frustration of learning, he shows it in more acceptable ways of defiance or disengagement. Without helping the child to assimilate the pain of learning, the child does not learn.

2. Learning is individualistic

Even if the classroom is full of students, every student learns at a different pace. If you see Adi's video above, one can imagine many different ways in which Adi could have been helped to finish the cylinder rods successfully and that too in lesser time. But would our help facilitate Adi's 'learning'? Help, at a wrong time in a wrong way, hampers learning.

In my working in a Montessori, I have realised that the 'right' timing of help is very very tricky. After many such attempts, I have discovered that Montessori's policy of 'not helping' is a better policy. As the child grows old, the policy of 'helping only when asked' is perhaps a better policy to facilitate learning. ( But that too requires planning by the teachers!) Helping a child definitely helps learning, but doing it without hurting the child's self-confidence is a bigger challenge. Help from other children is more effective than help from older adults for the child. And that is why, multi-age classrooms like that of Montessori are more helpful.

Homework system has got maligned in the education system. But due to homework, help from other sources is available to the child. In other words, if the parents can help the child do the homework with the right spirit, it actually helps the child get the right help before it is too late.

3. Learning is idiosyncratic

'Idiosyncrasy' means that learning can happen anytime anywhere. What is Adi learning while putting cylinders in the blocks? He is learning about the physical properties of length and diameters through his senses. He can learn the same 'properties' even when he is working with pink tower? Or trying to put screw in the right hole? Or when he is trying to put his legs in the right shoe? His learning of 'properties' can get 'completed' in any of this instances. Once the child 'sees' the problems, he uses other situations to connect with it. That is why even when the child fails in producing the right outcome, it does not matter.

In our normal coercive learning systems of schools, we always insist only on one 'right way' of learning. We do not help the child in connecting one 'learning problem' with other. When we are teaching latitude/longitude in Geography, for instance, we do not help him connect the same problem with 'Geometry'. Or we do not help him understand the concept of 'light' by showing how India has daylight when USA has night? When using arithmetic operations, you will observe some children struggling with subtraction and addition because of the difficulty in carrying forward 'the tens' in the decimal system. But the same child can easily calculate the amount of money he has to take from the vendor when he is buying toys. In short, Interconnections of concepts across subjects is a major source of learning that we miss in normal schools.

Here parents can immensely help their children. Life is interconnected; subjects in the schools are not. Parents can help their children learn if they can help the child interconnect the concepts in different subjects like geography to water management. Or demonstrate the relevance of concept in real life such as by showing how a bell works. Real-life demonstration like taking child to a real factory also helps.

Summary

Montessori method works because the environment is designed to be 'learning-friendly'. Right from the scientific kits to the method of teaching, everything is designed to help the child tackle the above learning difficulties. Every child is taught individually. That helps the child chose his own pace and convenience. When the child is stuck he learns from others while 'observing' others in the multi-age classroom, because the child can sit and 'do nothing' in Montessori . Because the child is not praised for right outcomes, the child is not afraid of poor performance.

And more importantly, the child is helped to connect his learning with day-to-day life in a continuous manner. For instance, the child connects 2D images of cards with 3D objects all the time. See this example of introducing vegetables with cards.

By laying proper foundation of learning-enabled child, child is helped for his life. It helps him use these practices of learning throughout his life even the external environment is less friendly.

Courtesy and copyright of video: Sapience Montessori House of Children