Once your baby starts pulling themselves up, either people around or data mining on social media will throw walker suggestions in your radar. What is the deal on walkers? Are they montessori? Are they recommended? And most importantly, are they necessary?

Commercial walkers

Walkers, and other commercially available movement aids hinder development in the same way. They make a child mobile so quickly that he sometimes just gives up on his own attempts when outside the walker. They also give the child misinformation about where his “space” or body ends, and how legs really work, confusing messages that have to be relearned later.

Susan Mayclin Stephenson, The Joyful Child: Montessori, Global Wisdom for birth to three

That quote really sums up the case against commercially available walkers. For one, the baby depends on the adult to be put in and out, which straight away removes independence and need to walk.… Click to read the rest

My bio reads “parent, educator, montessorian and feminist”. People often ask me how all of it work together. How does being an educator and a montessorian translate in feminism, especially since child care and teaching is traditionally considered women’s territory in India?

Here are 3 reasons why I think Dr. Maria Montessori was a kickass feminist.

1. She went to an all boys technical school to study engineering. She was first refused admission into medical school. However, she persisted and became one of the first women to practise medicine in Italy. She faced gender discrimination ( for one, she wasn’t allowed to study male cadavers with male students and had to do it after class hours).

2. A staunch believer of equality, she advocated for equal pay in her speech in Berlin in 1896. She was for women following their passions, but also that all sexes do every chore with dignity, which is seen in the philosophy even today.… Click to read the rest