Almamater
Learning is a process that is offered to all beings by nature. It is the responsibility of our schools to nurture and groom these blessings in our young generations. If schools determine to do that then the purpose of education is attained and learning becomes a joyous and continuous process.
.: Thousand Lights - Initiation
This was the very first project which Ms. Shalini helped set up. The Inner wheel of the Rotary Club generously donated money for the Montessori Material, furniture and for training a teacher, who was struck by Polio since she was a child. They continue to give her salary and have even given her an increment. Even though the basic infrastructure of the building and children were there, children were not using their time purposefully. . . there was something missing .
She started going to the Balwadi and then with her background in education, set up the Montessori environment in the Balwadi. There was tremendous improvement in the children's development and parents, too, started noticing the difference in their children. Soon, all what Dr. Montessori about the children working towards their own development if given the right environment, could be seen.
The environment which was chaotic and was handled by the teachers by screaming and beating the hapless children, had become a haven of peace where each child was taking charge of their own development.
The children were given the freedom to move and interact with other children. They could choose the material and work with it as long as they wanted to and then keep it back in its respective place for the other children to work with.
Soon, seeing the difference in the children's behavioral patterns, the Balwadi teachers who were there for many years and had resisted the system, also became supportive. The success of this led to adopting two environments in the Harrington Road Balwadi.
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