Boys not boy-racers should be focus of attention

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**Boys not boy-racers should be focus of attention, says visiting educationalist**

With all the focus on the headline-grabbing actions of “boy racers” and other rebellious teenagers, an educationalist arriving in New Zealand this week says that the most important years in the formation of a young adult are their first six – “educationalists and commentators overlook this crucially sensitive period in the development of the child at their peril.”

“The seeds of the later adult – and the teenager – to come, are all laid in those first six years,” says Cheryl Ferreira, international Montessori Teacher Trainer for the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) London.

The Maria Montessori Education Foundation (MMEF) will be hosting Cheryl Ferreira on a whirlwind trip for the final preparations of the inaugural AMI Montessori Teacher Training Course in New Zealand – to be delivered by Ferreira.

Cheryl Ferreira is at the forefront of the worldwide Montessori movement, which celebrated its centenary in 2007.

A noted speaker, trainer, examiner and consultant for the international AMI organisation, (established to promote and develop the pedagogical method of Dr Maria Montessori), Ferreira has been a frequent visitor to these shores in the lead-up to NZ’s first AMI teacher training course. During this visit, from 12th to 20th February, Cheryl will be visiting schools from Auckland to New Plymouth, and delivering a public address in South Auckland on 19th February on ‘The Importance of the First Six Years.'

"The most important part of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one,” said Dr Montessori. “The period from birth to the age of six. For that is the time when a man's intelligence itself, his greatest implement, is being formed." Though developed over one-hundred years ago, Ferreira contends that this important insight is still either tragically overlooked, or widely misunderstood.

“The child’s first six years are vital,” she says. “What we offer our children in those years can either develop a life-long love of learning or diminish it. The way we guide them can either offer keys to make of them self-reliant, independent thinkers who seek to live peacefully and productively with others, or lock them out of that great gift.”

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*BACKGROUND*

Montessori is the single largest method of education in the world with over 22,000 schools in more than 110 countries. The Montessori movement however is far broader and works to assist children and their families in a variety of settings. Montessorians serve as advocates for all children - championing the rights of the child in society.

Dr. Maria Montessori, one of Italy’s first female physicians, combined sensory-rich environments and hands-on experiential techniques in the hopes of reaching children previously labelled “deficient and idiots.” The experiment was a resounding success. In 1907, Montessori continued shaping her learning model by opening Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House) for pre-school children living in slums.

With her scientific background to guide her, she observed how young people learned best when engaged in purposeful activity rather than simply being fed information. She said, “education should no longer be mostly imparting of knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentialities.” In constructing an educational framework that would respect individuality and fulfil the needs of the “whole child,” she drew upon her clinical understanding of children’s cognitive growth and development.Since that time, Montessori’s philosophy, materials and practices have spread around the globe and implemented in a variety of cultural settings, and the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), set up by Dr Montessori herself, continues her work from its base in the Netherlands, and its schools and training programme worldwide.

Dr Montessori characterised the approach as the "discovery of the child." Mankind can hope for a solution to its problems, she said, “among which the most urgent are those of peace and unity, only by turning its attention and energies to the discovery of the child and to the development of the great potentialities of the human personality in the course of its formation."

New Zealand’s Maria Montessori Education Foundation will begin the delivery of the inaugural AMI Montessori Teacher Training Course in June. For more details, please visit the MMEF website www.mmef.org.nz , or the MMEF blog, www.mmefnz.blogspot.com .

*ENDS*

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