Swami Vivekananda said,
“Education is the manifestation of the potentials already existing in an
individual.” “Free the child’s
potential, and you will transform him into the world,” quoted Maria Montessori,
a pioneer in Montessori education.
Thus we can see that, a child’s
education gets kick started in the early years of his life, within a few months
of his/her birth as the child starts realizing the use of his/her sense organs.
Early childhood generally refers to the period from birth to the age of six,
during which the child’s cognitive development starts, which includes building
skills such as pre-reading, language, vocabulary, numeracy and awareness.
Developmental scientists claim that the brain acquires a plethora of
information about language in the first year of life even before infants can
speak. By the time babies utter or understand their first words, their brains
can comprehend which particular sounds their language uses, what sounds can be
combined to create words, and the tempo and rhythm of words and phrases. Their
gibberish chatters, highly entertaining, slowly verbalize into distinct
articulation.
There is a strong connection
between the development a child undergoes early in life and the level of
success that the child will experience later in life. Infants exposed to the
continual use of their visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile and sensory organs
find themselves at an optimum level in perception to concepts in their later
years of life. Therefore, no sooner than the child learns to walk, he/she is
exposed to the new environment of early schooling, a prep – school concept
which has emerged as a widespread trend in the field of education. Preschool
curriculum comprises of various activity based play way methods oriented at
enabling the child to imbibe the concepts related to recognition of objects,
colours, shapes, sizes. It requires immense patience encompassed with utmost
care and affection to infuse the kids with these concepts. The technique behind
this pattern of education requires highly proficient teachers’ expertise in
handling mood swings of the toddlers and fully devoted to the cause of training
the young minds, and exposing them to the vast sea of knowledge. Once the recognition
of alphabets and numbers gets going, the focus shifts to penmanship, a very
difficult task for the trainers. Since the finger muscles are soft and supple,
the kids are first exposed to smooth crayons and the world of colouring,
followed by strokes and curves. The child’s first writing of alphabet, and
number is an achievement in itself, and a pride for the parents and teachers.
The most significant aspect of this early childhood education is installing
confidence in these kids. Oral recitation of rhymes, songs, stories is an
activity which enthralls the children and rejuvenates their energy levels to a
new scale, and sows the seeds of confidence simultaneously. Equal efforts from parents and the preschool
teachers play a pivotal role in shaping the minds of these toddlers. Laden with
tiny, colourful school bags, clad in bright uniform, the toddlers slowly march
their way to the world of knowledge. By the time the kid completes a year or
two of preschool education, the child knows and can identify animals, flowers,
fruits, and many other objects he/she sees around him/her. Thus the preschool
education prepares the 6 year old now to step boldly into the shoes of primary
education.
Kudos to the preschool teachers
for their undaunted priceless efforts in performing this herculean task of
giving the first shape to the clay. The effort of the preschool teachers is
highly commendable and praiseworthy, and requires utmost recognition and
unanimous gratitude from the society.
