Dear Kishwar Allahwala, - WordPress.com€¦ · Web viewMinwala Montessori Institute inaugurated at the venue of the 1949 Montessori Teacher Training Course conducted by Dr. Maria

Minwala Montessori Institute inaugurated at the venue of the 1949 Montessori Teacher Training Course conducted by

Dr. Maria Montessori

Minwala Montessori Institute or MMI was inaugurated at the Jamshed Memorial Hall Karachi, Pakistan on October 31, 2015, It is yet another TOS Pakistan educational and humanitarian project. The ceremony was presided over by Mrs. Kishwar Allahwala, the Hon. Secretary of the Pakistan Montessori Association. The other Montessorian who attended the function were the President PMA Mrs. Zohra Gaya and the senior Montessori consultant Mrs. Parveen Islamuddin.

The venue was of historical importance. This was the place where the first month long Montessori course was conduct by Dr. Maria Montessori herself in 1949, the second course in 1966 was attended by the Dr. Montessori’s grandson, Mario Montessori and again the International Montessori Congress was held here with the participation of Mario Montessori, the grand daughter Renilde Montessori and Mr. Portillieje, President AMI, the Netherlands. This is also the building where Jamshed Memorial Montessori School was established by the founding President of PMA late Mrs. Gool K Minwala in 1967.

The history of support to Montessori Education by Theosophists goes back to the year 1939 when Dr. Maria Montessori conducted her first training course in Adyar. Mrs.Gool Minwala attended that course there. On inspiration from Jamshed Nusserwanji, she was also instrumental in inviting Maria Montessori and her family members to Pakistan.

Setting up a Minwala Montessori Institute is a small tribute to the loving memory of late Gool Minwala for her untiring dedicated efforts in promotion of Montessori Method in Pakistan.

The function hall was tastefully decorated. Mrs. Rehana Arshad the senior Montessori trainer gave salient features of the program. She elucidated that the course would benefit not only the aspiring teachers but also the mothers and would be mothers. They would be able to help their children better with the Montessori concepts and methodology.

The children of Jamshed Memorial Montessori School presented a tableau. The teachers enacted a brilliant talk show that compared the advantages of Montessori Method with the traditional teaching. In the plot, the traditional teachers complained that they were tired of teaching as it was boring and there was no fun in it. A teacher who had completed a Montessori course recently, suggested them to do a course in Montessori system that will change their lives.

Mrs. Kishwar Allahwala, the chief guest gave glowing tributes to Mrs. Gool Minwala. Others who spoke on the occasion were Mrs. Zohra Gaya Mrs. Parveen Islamuddin, Mr. Hamid Mayet the President of TOS Pakistan and Mr. Mushtaq Jindani, the project Director of MMI.

Mr. Mushtaq Jindani who had earlier worked as the Executive Officer of the Aga Khan schools in Pakistan, recounted his association with Mrs. Gool Minwala in early 1960s as a member of Karachi Theosophical Lodge .He was very young at that time. He used to attend lectures of Mrs. Minwala there. Mrs. Minwala at that time lovingly gave him ‘The Absorbent Mind’ to read. She also took him with her to visit her barely started Montessori school in Clifton. The study of ‘The Absorbent Mind’ completely changed his views about the child. The concepts were revolutionary. He learned that the child at 3 was already an old man. It would take 60 years for an adult to learn what a child of 3 already knows. The child learns himself. He or she only requires a proper prepared environment to learn further without a teacher. By reading the Absorbent Mind of Dr, Maria Montessori his concepts that a child was handicapped, need to be disciplined etc. completely changed. He now understood Wordsworth when he said poetically ‘The child is father of the man’.