Sit still, do not make a sound, spend years learning what is being served to you, have good grades and your success in life after high school is guaranteed. Raise your hand all of you who believe and know that this approach to our education system is completely and utterly wrong! Having high grades at school does not promise anything. All of you who might be reading this ask yourselves – what will happen and what are you going to do when instructions on what to learn and what road to take stop?
Apparent issues of the youth
I dare to say that the main cause for many problems people face in life is due to the flawed system of traditional schooling that by the 10th grade produces students with complete lack of curiosity and desire to independently and joyfully learn something new. This may sound like exaggeration but it is a fact that we spend most of our lives at school before deciding about the next most important step for the future. Instead of being prepared to take up new challenges and seek opportunities, the only thing we think about, until the last moment, is to be good at school subjects. I witnessed many of my former high school classmates as well as people at college losing the battle with independent thinking, finding their own place that would make them happy and sudden transition to adult-like responsibilities.
Where has the point gone?
I really cannot blame it all on education system because there are many factors that can influence someone’s behavior and choices, but, as I said before, I strongly believe that it is one of the significant causes for dissatisfaction and losing grip once the high school is over. Our basic human nature involves curiosity and with it the main spark and motivation are gone too. I do not wish to sound pretentious because in the end it all comes down to hard work, but I honestly think that I was very lucky to receive Montessori schooling all the way up to high school. It stays with you till the end.
True abilities of human mind and heart
The truth is I would definitely like to say that Montessori education prepared me for life itself but that can seem like an overstatement so I will just say that it 100% prepared me for college. Positive and inspiring learning environment with accent on the strengths of every individual is what really matters. Freedom to choose and constant encouragement to seek improvement in fields of your interest with emphasis on essential parts of other subjects of course created an opportunity, a habit, for us students to think for ourselves even though we were young and stay persistent in finding ways to build up the useful and powerful knowledge. Thanks to that I was able to go through high school easily without losing the focus on my favorite subject that I wanted to make my future calling or fear to engage myself with other subjects and hobbies thus trying something new.
Practical application
The most important part that I have Montessori to thank for is the fact that I learned how to learn in a way that suits me the best and organize my time. Thanks to this skill that stuck with me all these years I managed my college schedule perfectly – I had time for classes and studying, part-time job, dance classes and, of course, some fun free time.
The importance of enjoying the notion of knowledge, learning and becoming aware of yourself as a person should hold a lot of meaning for young people, their parents and their teachers. Influence that proper education style has should not be taken lightly and I am grateful that Montessori helped me in my academic journey and that it continues to help me in daily life.
