My Son moved on from Aanand Preschool to Panchatantra Montessori, a school whose ethos and philosophies come pretty close to mine both as a parent as well as a professional. My association with Maria Montessori's methods was first established in the year 2004 when I studied Montessori methods as part of my training at School Of Rehabilitation Sciences (AADI). We were also taken to a Montessori school for observation. The fascination for a concrete curriculum, a place where a child can learn autonomy, where he / she is respected and regarded for his / her exclusivity stems from back then.
In England I started my work journey by first volunteering with The Iffley Montessori and later within a month since they appreciated my contribution I was offered a part time job there. (http://daastaaneinankahee.blogspot.in/2007/07/iffley-montessori-school-i.html; II; III) It is there that I harbored this innate desire to be able to send my child (whenever I have one) to a school with as much excellence as the Iffley Montessori.
Back home in Gurgaon, we were fortunate to be associated with Anand Preschool for giving us just the same amount of excellence in practice. But sadly they could only give us a year (a life changing meaningful year however). When deciding for our son A, we had offer from three programs out of our list of top 5 out of which we needed to choose. I am glad we chose Panchatantra. What the school did for my child, I will never be able to pay back, all I can extend is my heart felt gratitude. What follows is a letter of gratitude that I sent them, am putting it here for sharing.
Dear Bidisha Ji,
Hope you are well.
Thank you for inviting me over for the workshop (Reach me
teach me) on Saturday, it was an enriching experience for me and coming to
Panchatantra is always the most enchanting experience for me. Panchatantra
School for me is best described in three words … Excellence, Precision and
Artistic. Every element seems just right.
Right from the Orientation day to the day of the workshop,
what is exceptional is how you use the art forms where ever you can – essentially
music. It is your ability to reach out to all parents through the soulful music
and the prayers that accompany it, that
makes all of us want to always connect with you and the school.
As you already know, Aarshabh who is a very musically
inclined child could settle so beautifully just because of the fact that your
curriculum heavily draws from the arts. Infact we experienced many ‘firsts’ for
Aarshabh in your school and that too in just a span of ONE TERM.
His first response to ‘aaj aapne school mein kyaa kiyaa tha’
was a very enthusiastic ‘harmonium
bajaaya thaa’, this later extended to ‘dance class gaya thaa’ … to ‘yellow kadi
khaaya thaa’. Among the many skills that you facilitated, the most important
for us was how he started eating independently, and whats more started asking
for food he had sadly given up like porridge and rice. From Shahana ji apart
from a lot of love we also got the gift of ‘baking cookies’. I attended the
Friday when the class was baking cookies, Aarshabh – a very tactile learner
having complete fascination for aataa was overjoyed and participated fully. At
the end of the day when every one ate the cookies, he helped himself to three!
That weekend at home we too baked our very first successful batch of ‘star
cookies’ as he fondly calls them. The other thing Shahana ji did for him was to
connect him to butter (oh! Bless her) she affectionately took a little butter
while kneading it into the flour on the cookie baking day and offered it to all
children for experience. My Son would never take it from me, but enchanted he
too was with her ‘pied pieper’ ways he took the butter instantly. And now we
have little Aarshabh demanding to snack on butter all the time (true to his
name – another name for Lord Krishna).
It has been such a fun experience watching him become more
and more independent – one morning at his OT class I saw him sit on his own,
take off his shoes, pull out his socks meticulously rolling them into balls and
tucking them in the shoes and the final step, placing his shoes neatly in a
corner. Panchatantra! I said to myself
with a smile. I could never teach him what you could so effortlessly. The other
thing he was often found doing was signing with finger on his cheek and cutely
saying ‘Surabhi Mama’ – Preeti maam I
smiled to myself. We loved the way he got a complete reinforcement for all the
things dear to him like gardening and playing with water, play dough, dance,
music and art. Thanks for giving him such an enriching exposure to life that
can be made beautiful by the art forms.
I remember on one such days when I accompanied him to the
assembly in the basement, where ALL children were enthusiastically
participating in the ‘pip pip pip pip
tara ra ra rum’ I was immersed with gratitude to the Lord for finally
giving me the school that I want my Son to find himself in. This school is very
Shanti Niketan for me, very Nayi Taaleem and very Divaswapna, not to take away the
exclusivity and originality of Panchatanra school. And while I was smiling to
myself watching such magic in the school assembly, my son being a little tuned
out (being new to the expereince); my attention went towards another little
child, who was vibrant, jumping away ...enjoying the music so much that he was
constantly falling out of line … total non conformist I said to myself, a
perfect alter ego to my Son Aarshabh and for a moment I went in fantasy
watching these two connect and grow to be great friends and owning a rock band
of their own. But I checked myself, not to get too ambitious, friendship does
not come easy to children like my son. And as if it was by design, by next week
Aarshabh’s class teacher reported how Aarshabh and Toby were a sight together,
both connecting so beautifully and Aarshabh would come home and talk about Toby
as well.
I found all my answers … really for my son. This is the
place to be, Aarshabh will be so happy and so connected, this is the dream
school for him. But as they say ‘when you think you have all the answers … God
changes the question’. With a heavy heart we needed to bid farewell to this
school as we needed to move to Noida. It was not an easy decision but what
really helped was the generosity with which you said “Aarshabh is OUR child, he
is ALWAYS welcome to come back”. Thank you, for giving him so much love and
most importantly for giving him a voice and a bounce of confidence.
While at England, I started my work cycle with The Iffley
Montessori School and as I watched the precision, with which they worked with
the children, every child confident, every child autonomous, I sometimes used
to pray, when I have a child, wish I can send him to a school like this. And
with Panchatantra school, even if it was just a term, my wish was fulfilled.
May you continue giving direction to all children who come
in contact with you and please pray for him to find his direction wherever he
goes. He often remembers every one taking each of their names in the order ‘Ek
Shahana maam hain, Ek Aditi maam hain, Ek Preeti Maam hain, Ek Divya Maam hain
aur Ek Saanya maam hain’.
We spend time on facebook going over the Panchatantra page
and some pictures I clicked while I was there. I had requested Aditi maam to
mail me some of Aarshabh’s pictures at school, I hope she can make time to do
so, they will go up on our wall of fame.
Thank you once again for everything,
Warm regards,
Surabhi
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