Models of Education – The Montessori Method

It was a normal school class – noisy, a little chaotic. A few students paid attention to the teacher standing over them. But most of the kids pushed and shoved and screamed at each other. Two or three just stared off into space.

Next door, in the Montessori classroom, it was a different story. No pushing. No shoving. It was quiet and orderly. Children picked up materials and worked on their own, with minimal assistance from the specially-trained teacher. When finished, the kids put the materials back where they had found them. A four-year-old cut carrots by herself. The children exuded a quiet confidence and a natural eagerness to learn.

My encounter with the Montessori method of education grew out of an article on education that I wrote as part of my “Resurgent India” series a few years back. I was invited to visit the Sri Ramacharan Trust in Chennai, a local NGO that had introduced the Montessori method in Corporation schools in the region. When I visited a range of classrooms – some traditional, some Montessori – in a government school in Saidapet, I was truly amazed by the stark contrast.

The spirit behind this endeavor was a feisty lady – Mrs. Padmini Gopalan – and her colleagues. An inspiring leader, Mrs. Gopalan took it upon herself to convince the government to allow her to try this experiment. She claimed existing classrooms, installed her own Montessori-trained teachers and assistants, and began running classes in a whole new way. Under her able leadership, the Trust now runs almost 20 Montessori programs in schools and Balwadis in Chennai.

Having studied different education models over the last eight months, my wife Girija and I are yet to find a better system than the Montessori method. I have devoted the last month reading up on Montessori methods. The more I learn, the more I am amazed by the depth of insight that Maria Montessori has generated in the area of children’s education.

A medical doctor by training, she first applied scientific learning principles to the education of disabled and mentally challenged children in her native Italy. She found that she could get these children to be on par with normal children in their reading and writing abilities within a few years. That set her thinking about how normal children could do much better, too.

Montessori tried to get the government to apply her scientific education principles in public elementary schools. Not surprisingly, the governing bodies in Rome would not give her access to these schools. Montessori, however, got the opportunity to set up a day- care center and school in a poorer district in Rome, where the parents were quite happy to have their pre-school children taken care of during the day. This allowed her to experiment with all aspects of the education system, starting with the classroom design and the furniture. She spent the close to 50 years defining and refining the Montessori method – a dedication and commitment that is difficult to find in any other system.

We can see the philosophical essence of the Montessori method in one particular story. In a public park in Rome, Maria saw a baby of about a year and a half, a beautiful smiling child, trying to fill a little pail by shoveling gravel into it. There was a smart and loving nurse next to him. Since it was time to go home, the nurse was exhorting the child to finish his work. When that had no impact, she herself filled the pail with gravel and set the pail and the baby into the carriage with the fixed conviction that she had given the child what he wanted.

Maria was struck by the loud cries from the child and by his expression of on his little face. She realized that the little boy didn’t want the pail of gravel; he wanted to fill it himself. It was part of his self-development. This is what happens to children all their lives, Maria thought. They are not understood because adults judge them by their own adult measures; and the adult, trying to help, lovingly helps him do this; but the child normally is looking for the learning opportunity and not the object itself.

I am puzzled why the Montessori method, the most scientific system of education that mankind has developed, remains largely ignored. With its ability to handle large class sizes and mixed-age classrooms, this system seem ideally suited for the Indian context. Please share your own insights of why the Montessori system has not found more widespread appeal.

Sudhakar Ram is Chairman and Co-Founder of Mastek, a leading IT solutions company. Committed to transformation on all fronts, he has written articles on transforming India, corporate governance, financial markets and governments. He believes that we have the potential to create a sustainable world and live in harmony with our environment. However, this would require a fundamental shift in our mindsets – the “constructs” that drive our attitudes and actions. The New Constructs is his initiative to leverage Connected Intelligence in realizing the Connected Age. Do you have any unique schooling models to share? Do post your own examples on the Wall.

Properly Listing Education on a Resume

Oftentimes, I see some awkward management of how people list their education on their résumé. Here are some tips and tricks to help effectively convey your investment into your educational career to prospective employers:

1) Understand what constitutes education. The EDUCATION section of a resume actually is composed of two parts: your formal schooling (with an accredited institution), and then everything else, which should be listed under a separate subheader (not ‘training’, ‘coursework’ or ‘classes’) called “Professional Development.” “Professional Development” constitutes any kind of educational coursework that you’ve taken that enhances/updates your knowledge, hones your skills, and helps you do your job better. This can include workshops, trainings, classes, CEUs, industry certifications, conventions, conferences and the like. Many people can have a lot of listings under this area from years of being at conferences/workshops. Two dimensions that you want to use to cull this down to a shorter list include relevancy towards the job target you are pursuing, and going back no more than 5-7 years. Anything more than that is going to be fairly obsolete – we simply don’t do business now the way we did 10 years ago, and you definitely don’t want to look like an ancient dinosaur who hasn’t keep their knowledge up-to-date!

2) Don’t be afraid to list degrees that weren’t completed. Many people hesitate when told it is okay to list educational degrees that they started but didn’t finish. “It makes me look like I can’t finish something,” is a common concern. Look at it this way: ANY type of learning beyond the high school/GED level shows initiative and an interest in bettering oneself. Give yourself credit for the time, effort and money you’ve invested!

3) Beware the most common educational deception – a ‘perceived’ graduation date. Did you know that the EASIEST thing to check on backgrounds is education? Many people don’t realize this. Several clients of mine have come to me with résumés that, when in our consultation, turn out to be listing a school attended rather than a degree earned. “Bachelor of Science”, the document reads. When I probe a little further, the person clears their throat uncomfortably, and says, “Well… I didn’t REALLY graduate….” If you are playing this game, thinking you are smart, you need to stop. Human resource people are all over this little tactic. Either you graduated or you took program coursework. It’s just that black or white. And believe me, you’d rather hear it in this blog than not to hear that you didn’t get the job for ‘fibbing’ or inaccurately portraying your credentials.

4) Don’t fall into the educational credibility trap. Unless you are seeking employment in an educational or highly technical field which requires constant educational commitments, avoid needlessly listing scholarships, honors, GPAs and for pete’s sake, what year you graduated. The harsh reality, unless you are pursuing the above-mentioned fields, is that employers only care about this: Did you graduate? Yes/No. They don’t care about the other details. And by listing a lot of irrelevant information, you appear desperate to justify yourself. Sure, if you graduated Magna cum laude or similar, you can list this, but the rest of the info just isn’t going to make or break you for the most part!

5) List EDUCATION later in your résumé. Résumé writers and school career centers have a running battle going on about where to list EDUCATION on a résumé, believe it or not. Schools (including colleges, universities and institutes) tell students to put EDUCATION right near the top of their résumé. But again, most employers put more weight on experience versus education. Professional résumé writers advocate listing this section later in the document because you need to address the employer’s priorities first. My own humble opinion is that the school career centers are rather self-serving in that respect- OF COURSE they want the school front and center on that résumé! But is that what the employer really cares about? Not really- experience first, education second (except for educational/technical fields, of course).

6) To include or not to include unrelated educational experience? Good question. The key is to know your audience. If the target company culture values education and adult learning, listing unrelated educational background might make sense. Other times, job seekers are shifting fields, and their formal educational field is incongrous from their new career direction. It’s acceptable to list just the degree (i.e. Bachelor of Science) only if the emphasis going to distract employers.

7) Spell it out! There’s an alphabet soup out there of degree names, and you can’t assume that your intended audience is fluent in the language of academia. Spell out (not abbreviate) every degree.

8) How MUCH education to list? Again, knowing your audience is important. There are lots of articles online that talk about ‘dumbing’ down your résumé, but the truth is, many employers are on a talent shopping spree. They are able to afford top industry talent they couldn’t have just five years ago. Sure, there’s the risk that you’ll jump ship as soon as the economy improves, but if they can hire you now at the top of your game, they stand to benefit. So at least do some research on what the corporate culture is like to find out how you should approach listing your educational background.