Which is important - Readiness or Outcome

A teacher from Germany visited our School on a Sunday. She is working in a 6-12 years Montessori School as a craft teacher. She liked our school. She went through our system, our website, our observations & assessments and said it is in-depth. There are few things she shared with our teacher. I would like to take one out of them for our discussion here.

“Children in her school (in Germany) begin writing only after 6 years”

Not a surprise!

We may argue that if sensitive period for writing falls between 3½ to 4½ years then how they can begin writing by 6-12 years. May be that they acquire all the skills required for writing (like pencil handling, dynamic pincer grip, advanced hand eye co-ordination) during the sensitive period. It is just that they begin alphabet writing as part of elementary(6-12 years).

It is like this. Our children develop running skills at the age of 3. But we do not give much importance to it at this age We recognize and take account of ‘running skills’ only when they grow big. i.e. upper elementary ages (9-12)

This gives us an understanding that

Our focus should be more on the development of skills required for the outcome and the child’s readiness for the outcome and help the children to develop them properly.

We should not compel the child to deliver results quickly for the sake of satisfying our urge to compare our child with others. We can give more time and freedom for the child to deliver the outcome.

In our normal life, the outcome is given more importance. But when it comes to child development, child’s readiness for the outcome should be given more importance than the outcome.