In 1897, when Maria Montessori was studying at an asylum for the insane in Rome, she observed great mistreatment of children with mental disorders. It led her to the development of a new educational practice with an idea that all children are able and want to learn with the influences of play, a positive environment, and independence. In 1907, Maria opened her first school called the Casa Dei Bambini (Children’s House) for low income families in the San Lorenzo district of Rome. The teaching in the school was reliant on observations of the children and their interactions with the world around them. The Casa Dei Bambini and the Montessori process was proving so revolutionary that Maria was invited to speak and train throughout Europe and abroad.

While Maria was traveling to India in 1939 to train educators in the Montessori method, World War II broke out forcing Maria to remain in India until after 1946. With her extended stay in India and the support of some dedicated followers, Montessori schools in India became very popular. One such school is the Blue Block Montessori school in Hyderabad, the largest and capital city in the Indian state of Telangana. Established by Pavan Goyal in 2009, Blue Blocks is also affiliated with the Cambridge School of Education and as stated on the school website, “The school empowers the child with self-confidence and independence to develop a well rounded personality. Our focus is on giving children the freedom to choose what they want to learn and promote their decision making skills. We believe experience is the best teacher and strive to make each day memorable for the child.”

Over the last few years, Pavan saw a need to introduce some changes to their Montessori program to enhance their student’s futures. Along with his teachers, a new innovation initiative was launched to encourage children to explore new levels of science and technology through practical implementations. Part of this new program was the introduction of a program unlike any of its kind in India, the Drone Research and Innovation Centre. As explained on the website, “Here we let the children’s imagination take flight. Where we give wings to their abilities to ideate, design and prototype drones that can solve real life problems. They learn where drones can fly and how, what design best suits their purpose and the technology to translate their idea into a working model.”

About nine months after the Drone Research and Innovation Center became available to Blue Blocks students ages 6-12, five groups of these students made history when the school filed for patents on their behalf for new drone ideas. The children, all under the age of 10, were encouraged to design concepts based on the needs of the world around them. The students then worked together to build prototypes with materials they would naturally find in any Montessori classroom throughout the world. Materials like Lego building blocks, wooden craft sticks, paper, cardboard, glue, and tape. With the patents being processed, these crafted prototypes will have the opportunity to be built into working drones.

An example of one of the drone concepts comes from a group of girls ages 7-8, Nayonika, Uma, Aditi, and Akira, which was inspired by the recent quarantine measure from the spread of COVID-19. The girls were concerned for the well being of people at high risk in their community that could not go out to buy daily essentials. The girls designed a complete drone delivery system for basic necessities during a lock down scenario. Another team, three boys ages 9-10 by the names of Ayushman, Sanshray, and Dhairya, were moved by recent stories of children becoming trapped in open borewells. The boys used this as inspiration for a drone that could be used to rescue someone trapped at the bottom of a well. As 10 year old Sanshray proudly said, “We are hoping that we can save all the children who are falling down. We can save their lives with a tool!”

One of the primary principals of a Montessori school is that classrooms around the world will all be very similar. Maria Montessori believed that all children can be encouraged to learn under similar conditions. That the culture and environment found in India, the US, or Italy will not change the needs of how a child learns. Still, it is important for the global environment to help direct the subjects children are presented to learn from. The subject of drone technology has never been more relevant than it is now. Pavan Goyal has set a new precedent for Montessori schools around the world that will foster students to become the innovators and inventors of the future, embracing drone technology.

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