WANGMO'S MONTESSORI DAY CARE - Thimphu
To enter Bhutan, the tourist must pay minimum 250 dollars per day and travel in a group with a guide.
A combination of my desire to discover this mysterious country and my aim to help more fully and concretely in a school lead me to magical Bhutan, where I was invited to work as a volunteer one month in Wangmo’s Montessori school in Thimphu (the capital city)
Meditation and prayer are the morning ritual in each of the five classes of the kindergarten. The school principal, Wangmo, followed the 3 to 6 Montessori teacher training in India thirty years ago. Deeply convinced of the benefits on children of this pedagogy, she purchased some material progressively since the opening of the school, about five years ago. But having never worked herself into a Montessori school (there is only one more in Bhutan that has opened very recently), she didn't know anymore how to use it, and had stored everything safely in boxes.
When I arrived, I was impressed by the beauty of the children in their traditional clothes (the gho for men and kira for women), which are worn daily by the entire population. I was also surprised to meet shy children. It's part of the culture. It actually made the joy of seeing them open up to me little by little all the greater.
After two days of observation, we have set a very structured program for the month we had, including training time for the teachers (one week per material family: practical life, sensorial, language and mathematics), time for handling material, time to go buy the required material to establish the practical life section, and time for teachers to observe in the classroom where we installed shelves and equipment in progressively.
Two of the five teachers practicing the handling of the practical life material.
How thrilling to see the children jumping for joy in discovering new material every day in their classroom, so excited that they no longer want to go out and play and queue to be presented the new activities!
And what an honor to give a speech about the Montessori pedagogy in front of the Queen Mother present at the academic year ceremony of the school!
She is very interested in education and will undoubtedly help the development of Montessori schools in Bhutan.
She told me of her interest, especially for the way it opens the children and gives them the habit of expressing themselves without embarrassment in front of others.
There are currently two Montessori schools in Bhutan. This one and one in Paro. But there is a good chance that the system grows there. A volunteer to be a pioneer in the land of happiness?
Wangmo’s school needs someone trained to continue the work we have done.
Nestled at the foot of the Himalayas, Bhutan measures prosperity bu gauging it's citizens' happiness level.
After centuries of voluntary isolation, it partially opened its doors in 1974. Blown, the first travelers discovered ladscapes of extraordinary beauty, architectural wonders, inhabitants of exceptional hospitality and a perfectly intact traditional culture. Refusing to engage in the pursuit of profit at any cost, deeply rooted into the past, it now began to modernize in its way, serious about preserving its culture, its natural heritage and its buddhist values.