Abirami . 2017 March graduate

We, Abirami's parents, wanted to share a summary of our 4 years of experience at Dishaa in this writing. This is our view of the school, as we experienced through our child.

We sincerely feel that a short writeup on Dishaa environment like this is no way complete, but must be experienced in person – as a child, and as a parent.

We are extremely happy that Dishaa is run truly as a house of children.The school is definitely not run for commercial purpose. The teachers at Dishaa are really handpicked for their belief, value and practise in Montessori system. Dishaa closely follows and adheres to the principles recommended and envisioned by Maria Montessori herself - thanks Dharini and Geeta!

We would like to share the impact of Dishaa not only in Abi's life but also the effect on us. For example, Abirami would not allow us, or her friends to use any “harsh” words in her presence. If used, we had to go and goggle the mouth for using the bad words as told by her aunty at school. While driving in our car, we have goggled several times, as we were scolding the other vehicle drivers for rash driving.

Everyone around Abirami – young or adults, were taught to frame sentences with magic words (“please”, “thank you” and “sorry”). The absence of these words in a sentence were incomplete and rude, according to her.

She keenly observed mannerisms around her - coughing or yawning without covering one’s mouth was not allowed by her. Abirami became a Montessori facilitator at home. Our learning as adults, through our child. is too many to list here.

Dishaa gave our child not just academics, but has nurtured her with good habits, discipline, moral values, ethics, kindness and the mindfulness techniques. She has very well learnt to take care of younger children and accept differently-abled kids. We are moved by her love and touching care towards younger ones at this young age. Thanks to the entire Dishaa team, for encouraging these qualities in her – no school can inculcate this sense of empathy and feeling in a child.

When my child was 3 and ½ years, she was not happy with us, parents dropping her in a day care. The aunties at Dishaa were the ones she could trust and solve her problem – they were angels in her eyes. She outpoured her emotions to the elders at Dishaa, who patiently listened to her, heard her in full, and came to her rescue. We then got a call from Geeta herself. They were not happy to see the child so sad. Geeta narrated what the child was undergoing, stood by our child and gave us suggestions to get her out of the day-care. Thanks for stepping in the child's problem, though it is not related to school. As we think back, Geeta and Dharini took great care of the child – in and outside the Dishaa environment, to the extent possible.

For Abi, the aunties at Dishaa are the best and stars for her. They are her role models, and so she wants me (her mother) also to become an aunty in her school. The pressure is huge on me to become one.

☺ On the academics aspect, while graduating Abi was easily able to read story books by herself. As assured by the Dishaa team, our concerns about her writing abilities were misplaced. We greatly credit the Montessori method for her effortless ability to master pencil-holding and then flow with writing, over time. She became interested in arithmetic, maps, drawing, colouring, craft and many other activities, at the right age. To our surprise, she developed a great interest in cooking, in her senior year. She learnt about plants (including photosynthesis) and other practical knowledge with such an ease.

Mindfulness technique is a great subject taught to the seniors of her batch. She could clearly understand and relate the essence of the subject. Thanks very much to Sripriya aunty, for creating this awareness at an early age.

The progress report from Dishaa shared with us every year, was an eager thing we look. It was almost like her having her gene-sequencing done ☺. The report made by her aunties at school, was a stunning observation of her activities at Dishaa, recording her growth to the perfect detail. Every year we were surprised by the keen observations about our child listed exactly – no time in the 4 years we disagreed to the observations. At times, the report was way better than our own inference of her growth.

Thanks so much Dharini , Geetha and the Dishaa team, for opening Abi’s world with such a positive view, developing trust, love and kindness – in short, as a real child, the way Montessori would have wished.

Abirami and we will always fondly cherish the memories of Dishaa. We are proud to acknowledge our own growth, along with our child, who wholesomely imbibed Dishaa in her. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts! Regards, Anbu & Sasi