The Adroit Facilitator

The following is an interview of Mrs. Meenakshi Sivaramakrishnan which appeared in the newspaper "The Deccan Herald" under the same heading. The interview was conducted by Geeta Ramanujam.

Geeta: In what sense are the Montessori schools different from the regular schools? Is it the space, the teacher-child ratio or just a western concept adopted to Indian conditions?

Meenakshi: Montessori schools at the pre-primary level have more teachers than students. The teachers are the materials. When people ask me what is the ideal student-teacher ratio that Montessori prescribes, I tell them that it is the inverse ratio.

In this system you do not call the person around the children as "teachers" but are there merely to guide children. There are 150 teachers for 35 children.

Dr. Montessori coined a name to this facilitator or teacher and called her "Directress". It is not in the dictionary but she used it because you direct not the child but the child's development.

She is not a regular teacher but facilitates and gives the right condition for the child to develop. In that sense Montessori environment is different from the regular type of education especially for the pre-schoolers.

For children between the ages of six and nine, we continue to give the same individual attention; where the child also needs more physical space. That is what we are aiming at, but we need a lot of resource materials for regular lessons have to be taught.

Yet, that is not the mainstay. The teacher continues to be a facilitator and looks at the child from a different point of view.

Geeta: Most of the Montessori schools in India are only up to the primary level. In many of the regular nursery schools the administration claims to merge the Montessori method of education with the regular medium of education. Is it possible to do so, or rather, is it right?

Meenakshi: Yes and No. We admire Montessori as a human power... She was not worldy wise to patent her name and Montessori is just being used. Many things go under the name of Montessori. The fact, however, is that you can either have Montessori or not. You cannot mix things up.

I refrain from saying anything when people say I have this and that. A suitable environment, good equipment for learning, guidance and freedom to work are the four corner stones of Montessori method of education. Even if one element is missing the system cannot be considered to be complete.

It becomes difficult to implement it in the higher classes in our country.

In some schools Montessori materials are stacked in glass cupboards and are used as teaching aids and not as learning materials. Children should use them, not the teachers.

Geeta: Would you then say that freedom should be given to a child to feel and play in your schools? How do you view the concept of freedom in the Montessori schools?

Meenakshi: I do want people to understand that freedom in the Montessori schools is not total but within developmental limits. It cannot be called freedom when a child is allowed to handle the play materials the way he wishes. That is not the freedom we are talking about. We are in fact training how to use a particular thing or how to use a particular thing or how to do a particular job as to tying the shoelace or buttoning a shirt.

We also had a conference recently in Bangalore on how to direct the child to become independent and the limitations of freedom.

Geeta: From freedom, back to training. You say that you train teachers regularly. I am sure you aim at quality but somewhere when the teacher actually gets ... ing and its implementation. How do you ensure in the training programmes that you get the best quality of teachers?

Meenakshi: It is difficult to erase a personality trait and train any person when they are adults. A personality is built up in a person from early childhood. What we can do is to help them understand consciously that even though we are different persons we should behave in a manner that is in favour of the child. We tell them to become worthy of the child. Sometimes we have to pretend to be different for the child's sake but not play acting. It is difficult to erase a personality trait completely.

I disapprove with you when you say that we are training teachers but I would say that we are giving training to people on how to live with children and understand them.

When Maria Montessori came here in 1939 her intention was not to train teachers but enable adults to understand a child. I have tried to continue that tradition with utmost awareness.

Geeta: More schools are now opting for the Montessori method of education. In what sense is this method helping the child as against the regular systme fo education?

Meenakshi: It is a heterogeneous beginning for a a relationship when you treat a child with respect. The behaviour pattern of the child is being determined by you.

Montessori stresses intensely on making the child a human being first. Maybe examination and academics cannot be evaded but the Montessorian method concentrates first on the behaviour of the child for a strong foundation.

Moreover, Montessori methods teach you to deal with situations realistically.

Talking of teaching methods don't you feel that the teaching profession has taken a completely different turn over the past decade. Teachers no longer choose the profession out of choice but take up teaching as a last resort. Where do you think the lacunae exists?

All over the world especially in India the teaching profession is most lowly paid. Inflation, economic crisis and a stress-filled life in the cities have lured us away from peace. A teacher, especially a Montessori teacher, has to be self-satisfied to be a good teacher. Self-satisfaction is slowly diminishing from our lives.

A teacher who is peaceful can reflect a creative atmosphere around her. A person who can appreciate can definitely make a difference to a child. Today parents are happy to send away their children to a school all suited and booted. Teachers get a regular pay so they are happy. The management are complacent for they get their money and children are happy anywhere.

Geeta: What do you think are the necessary steps to be taken to create a more hopeful climate in our country especially in the field of education?

Meenakshi: Sometimes it is a wonder to me as to why education has not become a ground for human beings to learn about themselves. Everytime I take a teacher's training course I think of something innovative and different.

Training a teacher has to be innovative and not teach them on how to sing, dance and overfeed them without giving them space to think for themselves.

I often tell the teachers: "Why do you just listen to what I say? Do you want to be only clerks and not managers?"

Geeta: Teachers don't doubt, question or enquire. How will they transmit these qualities to a child then?

Meenakshi: In my course I make sure there are no textbooks, no printed notes. One of the main focus of the Montessori method of education is to tap the creativity of the child. The problem is that children are creative but most of the time curbed by the adults and teachers. Let the child be what he wants to be and do what he wishes with the materials provided to him. Allow the child to do so and give him more room to do it.

Geeta: What about the impact of computers?

Meenakshi: It is true that children, especially urban children, are more restless today. I would not attribute it to the TV or computers but also to the attitudes of parents.

We are perhaps focussing on the lesser important things like accumulating information rather than building the personality. We believe that if the child knows some quantity of information then he is intelligent. It is not true.

The children today have more exposure to information as the computer is prepared to dole out that knowledge, but cannot keep the child active. Early childhood is a time when a child learns only by being active.

As Dr. Montessori would want to say, that you cannot reach the intelligence directly. It has to be fed through the senses and the senses and the senses are fed through activity. So activity becomes a very important point even for the development of intelligence; not only as a mode of human expression but as an instrument of learning.

So learning happens only when children are active around things. Any amount of information that is fed in can just evaporate from memory if it is not consolidated by action. So what we try to do in the Montessori environment is to give the child a lot of action.

Montessori tries to combat that situation by providing a lot of activity to the children. You cannot totally disregard the role of computers also. There is a lot of coordination both horizontal and vertical when the child uses the mouse.

The TV by itself is not bad; neither can we insist on the child viewing only the National Geographic Channel. Everything has changed and a child is able to absorb and adapt himself to both.

Geeta: How did you enter the field of Montessori training. What made you choose the Montessori System of education?

Meenakshi: I did not choose Montessori but Montessori happened to me. The credit of spreading the Montessori movement in various parts of India goes to late Mr. Joosten, the former director of the Indian Montessori training courses. I started working as an assistant with Mr. Joosten and learnt a lot of things from him. Then later I worked with Dr. Montessori, then Mr Swamy who became the director of the Indian Montessori Centre. Suddenly like a hot potato Mr. Swamy dropped the responsiblity of the Centre on my lap in 1990 and from then on I have taken over the training centre.

There was no confusion in my mind since I knew from the beginning that I wanted to be a Montessori teacher. I even had a school of my own which I eventually closed down in 1968 as I was unable to dedicate my time to both the family and the school.

Later Dr. Montessori's daughter-in-law invited me to the US to do things related to the Montessori method of education.

Geeta: Any memorable incident that you cherish in your life?

Meenakshi: The whole work that I have been doing at the training centre is memorable. I have related to you many things that are memorable. My aim is not only to spread the Montessori message far and wide but to improve the quality. I often tell the teachers that even the best is not enough for the child. I am thinking of people who can take over from me now.

However, when students come back after the course and tell me "Ma'am I am a changed person. You have made a difference to my life," I feel happy and touched.