Anika Pravin (Grade 12 Graduating Class of 2019)
Student at Head Start from 2004 to 2019
Joining Shrishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore

I don’t remember much of my very early years of Montessori but whatever memories I do have, take me back to a time where digging trenches in the sandpit was my idea of an hour well spent. The learning module was very experiential and allowed me to do a lot of things with my hands, which in hindsight was engaging on a deeper level when compared to traditional book centered learning. The materials were particularly fun to interact with and I used to love carrying around various shapes, making the Pink Tower and tracing letters in the sand before I learnt how to write them. Every room in our school had a big blue ellipse right in the middle of it and we used to play this game, where we would jump in and out of the “sea” (the ellipse), or try and walk precisely on the line such that we didn’t “fall in”. I took part in this with much enthusiasm and spent time at home practicing by leaping over random things. I learnt some essential life skills quickly too, as they were part of our curriculum, such as cutting cucumbers, mopping floors and buttoning up little shirts attached to wooden boards. Another thing I recall was enjoying the act of laying out information with pictures of dinosaurs and other creatures in the form of a timeline while listening to my teachers talk about various prehistoric eras. It is safe to say that my appreciation for history in high school stemmed from those early experiences with placing events in their chronological order. Similarly, sitting on the floor and using low tables to write, was something that has definitely influenced my love for working on the floor today. The environment was always peaceful as well as welcoming and even though I was young, I associated my school with a lot of joy. The Montessori experience was a rather unique one that I will truly cherish for many years to come.