30/12/2017
Is montessory necessary for our children in our context?
Culture of sending babies at montessoy in Nepal has been developing since last decade. Though, a handful of parents have been benefitted from its service but it does also have few limitations. Before sending children to montessory we need to be aware about its advantages and disadvantage. I think, it has less advantages and more disadvantages. In the context of Nepal, our teaching learning activities get started from our parents and grand parents with their oral narratives in a funny family environment which is crucial for the healthy psychological development of a child. In our context, neither for learning nor for entertainment for the children, montessory schools are necessary except for some exceptional families. If we are worried about the education and the future of a child, till the time, most educated and successful persons in our country have home learnt background before joining primary school.Though the time has got changed but our traditional learning culture is quite significant. They have learnt from their parents without joining montessory. It is hard to deny the fact that, for children, home is the most significant environment for learning. Mostly, we do have a joint family in our Nepali context which is more benificial for child development. Again, if we talk about children's entertainment or their friends that can be celebrated at montessory, in that case family members are their most loved entertainer and best friends. A healthy development of a child takes place at house not at montessory school.
Other limitations of the montessory school are the services at the school. Except some schools in Kathmandu or in other famous cities, the services provided by the school are poor. Neither the infrastructures are children friendly nor the nurturing is safe and secure. Mostly, such schools do not have their own buildings to be children friendly. They are in ranted private houses. In every season children have to face lots of health related and other problems because of not getting quality services. In winter, probability of catching by cold, in summer troubles from hotness and other problems according to the weather are at high chance because of poor services available in the schools. Nepales people can not pay high to such schools and the schools also can not provide quality services. Per capita income of Nepali people is not good, we know. Sending children to the montessory schools is being a fashion more than necessity. In our society people feel standard and developed when they adopted foreign practices by leaving their own. Montessory is one of the foreign practices in Nepal.To fulfil parents incomplete dreams, they use their children as a tool. They compel their children to study hard from the early age according to their own will not according to the passion of the child to compete with society which is not good for the personal development of the child. Montessory in our context is used more for parents and less for children. It may have serious consequences in the future for the child and for the family as well. People are managing somehow and sending their children to the school in order to compete with the society. This tendency is less in the favour of the child. It has serious disadvantages.
While talking about nurturing, in most of the schools, staffs are not well trainedl. They lack caring and nurturing qualities that can cause serious problems in physical and psychological life of the children. We can see innocent children sharing eaten food items to their friends which can transmit diseases as well. Most of the time, the pathetic condition of a child is there at the school. They are not happy with the staffs, they cry till getting slept inorder to seek for mother, they remain half fed, they quarrel, sometimes dirty undergarments are not changed for long time, in most of the schools, floor is too cold or too hot with the changes of weather and untidy. School staffs are less conscious about such minor but serious things because of their not well trained services.
Such schools do not seem to be run for social purpose so that we can rely on them, rather they seem they are for economic purpose. It is well known that, the country has poor economic status and high rate of unemployment. In such conditions, we cannot expect people contributing more for society and less for money. Organizations' emphasizing more on money are not trustworthy at the contemporary time. Their attempt to maintain high profits and less services directly effects the quality of services and later the life of the children. This is the age of money where the consumer is deceived. Children are safer in homes not outside. High chances of deception for children and parents are there. And the staffs at the schools necessarily cannot share motherly love to each children. Hired staffs generally regard their service as their duty not responsibility. They are there for job. We cannot expect the same love from the staffs that family members share with children. Though the staffs also share love to the children but that cannot be as sufficient as the love they get from their family members.
We are the people who trust on common values. Our rituals and cultures do not teach us to be isolated. Keeping children in montessory in their undeveloped brain and functionality is the practice of developing individualism mentally. Gradually it affects the entire life of the children. They are taken to montessory and later hostels. Always they are away form parental love and family environment.The risk of getting isolated and not emphasizing social and family values are at high chance which is not good in our context. Our values are more safe in joint family where there are lots of people for caring the child. Keeping a baby in a early age away from the family is the beginning of development of individualism in the children. Though, physically children remain with the friends and the staffs at school but mentally children are always seeking parents. Mental health is more serious than physical.
Keeping a quite young children away from the parents or from grand parents is a danger practice of developing individualism in the children and in the family members as well as westerner do. We can see, in the western family and society, children are isolated since very tender age. They are kept in such schools from early age and later they are taken to hostels. Children are deprived from our family and cultural values and also from a crucial thing that is love of parents. And the result of that growing up culture is isolation, intoxication, depression, chaoes, divorses and sometimes suicides in youth. For our healthy life we need the mind and body free from individualism, depression and other related entities. To be free from such things, we have to share our emotions, feelings, unsuccessfulness, depressions and other unfulfilled dreams. And for this, we need a family where there is a presence of frank grandfather, loving grandmother, friendly parents and siblings. Our traditional joint family has a great role for child development.
Though montessory schools have benifits for the families which are quite busy in their business, who have no time for nurturing the children, for a social development of the child, for educational benifits, and other things. But, I think, a child must be given first priority in the family and physical and mental development is essential before looking for social development of the children. Children are healthy physically, mentally and socially as well inside the family environment.
Let the parents be the great teachers and let the children learn their first life on the lap of their most loved people.