Preparing our children for the future will take us developing a keen eye for details. This is a quality of being that we do not take very seriously but we must in order to move ahead and make tomorrow great for our nation. Alright, I know this is heavy and you are wondering where is this coming from, and most especially what has this got to do with ‘the boy who could really see’? Well, let me break it down for you.a story retold to us during our Montessori training. It’s about a young boy who watched an experienced carpenter, trying to cut out a piece of glass to fit into another piece, in the school hall where the repairs were to be done. The carpenter thought it would be much more cost effective to cut out the broken shape and fit it into the hole. So with his plan in place, he took out his tape, measured the hole and started cutting. One of the students sat watching the old man at work, and after a long while, the boy got up and walked over and said to the carpenter,

First, here is a story retold to us during our Montessori training. It’s about a young boy who watched an experienced carpenter, trying to cut out a piece of glass to fit into another piece, in the school hall where the repairs were to be done. The carpenter thought it would be much more cost effective to cut out the broken shape and fit it into the hole. So with his plan in place, he took out his tape, measured the hole and started cutting. One of the students sat watching the old man at work, and after a long while, the boy got up and walked over and said to the carpenter,

‘Sir, it’s not going to fit.’

The carpenter insisted that it would fit as he had carefully measured the hole several times before he started and had been carefully checking each step of the way. The young boy insisted that he was certain that the two pieces would not fit.

Lo and behold, when the carpenter tried to fit the two pieces together, they did not fit. The old man was perplexed! how did the boy know that it would not fit?

‘How did the boy know that it would not fit?’

The boy’s teachers knew how, it was the Sensorial Education materials, the boy was able to develop a keen eye for details and dimensions so he could see that the pieces would not fit just by looking and comparing them!

An eye for detail is an important attribute needed in today’s world, even in yesterday’s world and we are yet to crack this nut. So many sign-posts with wrong spellings and several grammatical errors. Many books are published with errors ranging from typos, pages missing or wrongly ordered, grammatical errors, bad quality pictures etc.

We need to be careful what experiences we give our children. If things are done correctly and we give them those experiences then we may produce in the next generations answers to the pressing problems we have with electricity and low manufacturing standards.

Obviously, the first step is to ensure that when we produce materials for our children to learn with, they need to be done properly and accurately. Cutting corners will not work.  So book publishers and Montessori material manufacturers please take note.

We are taking this opportunity to ask all Book Publishers and Montessori material Manufacturers and sellers to please keep their eyes on the details as they are bound to have a major effect on our future generations. Make sure you can see and that we produce work that really helps our children see. Let’s develop a keen eye to produce quality materials for the next generation.