What’s really ailing children
today? Why are they defiant? Why aren’t they studying? Why aren’t they
behaving? Why aren’t they doing the right things?
I have been talking to children
as well. I have tried to find out from many of them what really happens in
their mind. It was a difficult proposition for me to interpret it directly.
Because the children were not able to give me the language of what really their
need was. So with all what I said I started my reading and it all landed on one
major domain. All the children were looking at peace. It surprised me because
the adults too look for peace.
What is this “peace”? What do we
do to get this peace?
People may say that we are living
in a world where there is so much of chaos; we have our families; everything
happens in and out and we have no time in our hands; we have to handle the
children; we have to do the best thing for them; we have to earn for the
family. So there are so many responsibilities we have to take on and there is
very little time to sit and meditate if that is what peace means. So the idea
of peace is so contorted. The idea that peace is an exercise to be done after
our regular work is what people have in their mind.
What is another interpretation of
peace?
When countries or states have
conflicts and are fighting with each other, they conclude agreements and sign
treatise to end the war and bring peace. According the above statement, Peace
is absence of war. But that peace is a state of being is something that Dr.Maria
Montessori defined.
Dr. Maria Montessori said human
beings have the great ability of finding peace even amidst chaos. That is a
spiritual transcending that we are capable of. But why aren’t we getting there?
Why are we being sucked into so many problems that surround us? Shouldn’t we
address those problems? Of course we should. How do we address those problems? How
does that training come about? How do we look at a problem? How do we analyze
it? How do we decide to do the right things that will not shake our inner
peace? So inner peace being the mantra how do we touch that inner peace? We
already have peace within us. How do we touch that?
The starting point of all this is
a consciousness. A consciousness of what we are currently engaged in? What we
currently think about? What are we doing? So these are the things that we need
to contemplate on. The first group of people who would definitely make the
world a better place would be children. So Dr. Montessori started her work with
children. As age progressed, the early sowing of peace right from the very
beginning gave them a longitudinal grasp of life towards adolescence, when it
is supposed to be turbulent and when children are not in good terms with. They
are looking at life differently; they are looking at identity. People think that
they will be so much ill at ease and not at peace. But on the contrary when
they followed a philosophy based education something that made sense to the
inherent grand potential of the human being which always sort learning.
There are different philosophies
that education adopts. But the point is to adopt a philosophy and look at the
philosophy in the education that is being offered to the child. Where there is
a philosophical base to education rather than standardized testing as the basis
of education there is hope. Because there is a human side to it. There is a
philosophical state of mind that looks at education.
There are inherent questions that
children ask. Why should I study it? What does it mean to use what I’m studying
now later on in life? But imagine a condition where they are seeking actively
and also finding answers. The point is not to get adults to give them answers
all the time. Look at the empowerment that will happen if the children are able
to find those answers given an environment that allows exploration in a
meaningful way. So this is what the need to start from very early stages of
life.
Conscious parenting brings about
a peace in the home environment so that the child rests on that peace. By
default the child seeks peace and it is not by escaping or attacking rather it
is in a state of being. This is something that adults need to ponder over. We
all need to find ways and means in which we are able to touch our inner peace
through a journey which needs to start very early. Our whole life is much more
within our frame work of thinking and not having many factors that disturb it
only when you are able to find your inner peace.
Do you agree with the idea of
peace? If yes why? If not, why?
Do you agree with what Dr.
Montessori calls as inner peace? If yes why? If not, why?
What peace initiatives do you
think we can take?
Are you interested to know more
about Peace in Education?
We are interested to hear from you.
