Man, I have got to give this presentation or rather talk for a mere 10 minutes which seems like an eternity for someone like me who chickens out at the idea of talking in front of people.. I feel hot 'n cold at the same time.. sweat 'n shiver like there's no tomorrow.. heart goes boom boom and the song 'dil dhak dhak karne laga.. mera jiyara darne laga' seems to be penned keeping me in mind except it's not because of any saiyan holding my baiyan.. it's more coz of all those eyes lookin at me intently waitin for me to say something and hanging onto every word I manage to utter without a stutter.. Man.. have no clue what to talk about ..

Basically, am supposed to talk about what I feel about the MOntessori Philosophy .. how it dramatically changed my life and stuff like that.. though I feel strongly about Montessori but dont know how to present it.. Maybe I will give it a try here on my blog.. it's just a backup that if I goof up during the talk I can ask them to read my blog to know how I really feel..

I believe I have been a Montessorian right from my school days.. I never used to believe in homeworks.. that's the reason why I used to avoid homeworks like plague.. but my teachers thought otherwise .. what to do they were not Montessorians like me.. they were not even teachers in my opinion they were more like dictators who would make us sit behind desks and forced us to learn something that they thought was good for us.. the only difference between us and the prisoners were that they were chained but we were not ..

'n like a true Montessorian, I too didnt believe in punishments or rewards.. mmmm... rewards in the form of dresses, chocolates , toys, books... hmmm.. worth relaxing my stance on rewards.. but my teachers believed in rewarding punishments.. so most of the time I could be found sittin outside admiring the beautiful, expansive school ground of ours. I had company though.. boys mostly, who also believed in the No Homework policy.. Initially I used to cry bucketsful but, later on I started enjoyin my days out or time out or break as I would rather call them.. It was my Physics class where I had most of my time outs.. actually it was much better than sittin inside and listenin to a teacher who used to make the earth QUACK rather than QUAKE.. I used to wonder, if the earth went quack so what did the ducks do.. they went quake quake or wot..

Dr. Montessori also believed that the winning or getting it right is not what matters, it's the effort or rather the participation that matters.. Someone rightly said it's the journey that matters more than reaching the destination.. again I feel like humming a song.. hum jo chalne lage ..chalne lage hain yeh rasthe.. manzil se behthar lagne lage hain yeh rasthe... that's what I believe in too especially in my Math paper I used to put in my best efforts to do a problem but the results were not always right.. but my teacher never used to look at my efforts she would just look at my answers.. if only she was a MOntessorian I would have got some numbers to give company to the zeroes...

I think I better stop here coz am kinda going off track.. am digressing from the topic at hand.. On a serious note, dont form any kinda ideas on the basis of what I wrote up there.. To be very frank I do feel strongly and have kind of turned into a true advocate of the Montessori philosophy.. I wont say this course has changed me completely but yeah it was kinda a renaissance for me as far as reviving some of my latent creative instincts are concerned.. I have always loved being with children but gotta admit the love-o-meter does take a dip during those stinking diaper changing moments... yeow.. Jokes apart, this course has surely changed my thinking as far as the child is concerned. Even before joining the course I used to marvel at the way the child learns and goes about his work.. Even though I believed in giving freedom to the child to do his thing but I used to be a bit wary when it came to him handling glass items or knives or scissors 'n stuff that might be a bit dangerous for the child. I used to think of children as being naughty and clumsy with concentration, at the most, fitful. But the course, the materials and the observations we have had has completely changed my outlook towards children.. I bow my head in reverence to the lady who brought about such a revolutionary change in the way we perceive children.. she gave us a peek or rather glimpse into the true nature of the child and made us realise that it is not we who mould the child but he who creates himself. At this point I would like to take a break.. Maybe I would continue later, some other day .. some other time..