Boys should be the focus of attention says visiting educationalist

With all the focus on the headline-grabbing actions of “boy racers” and other rebellious teenagers, an educationalist who was recently in NZ, 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) hosted Ms Ferreira on a whirlwind trip for the final preparations of the inaugural AMI Montessori Teacher Training Course in NZ – to be delivered by Ferreira.

Ms 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), Ms Ferreira has been a frequent visitor to these shores in the lead-up to NZ’s first AMI teacher training course.

During this visit she visited schools from Auckland to New Plymouth, and delivered a public address in South Auckland 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 100 years ago, Ms 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.”