Dear children, if you are currently sitting in a classroom, staring blankly at the blackboard and the teacher on the podium, wondering, “Why am I here?”

Dear children, if you have many curiosities and questions in your heart right now but dare not ask, fearing that you will be laughed at by classmates, scolded by adults, or labeled a “problem student” by teachers.

If you are feeling lost and overwhelmed about learning, I would like to ask you to stop first, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and give yourself a big hug. None of this is your problem, and in fact, quite the opposite: it means you have begun to develop the ability to think independently.

Since childhood, we’ve always heard adults say, “As long as you study hard and get into a good school, you will find a good job with a good salary after graduation, and your life will be smooth sailing.” But is this really the case?

Dr. Montessori once said:

“The purpose of education must be the elevation of the individual, otherwise education will be of no use. This must be the goal of education. We must desire to love humanity, rather than merely wanting to apply a preconceived plan.” – Maria Montessori, The 1946 London Lectures, p. 31

However, does our current learning environment truly achieve the “elevation of the individual”?

Under the constraints of traditional systems, institutions, and concepts, everyone often does the same thing at the same time, takes the same classes, learns the same things, and progresses at the same pace. But have you ever wondered, “Why must we do the same things and acquire the same knowledge? Just because we are of a similar age?”

When you give a wrong answer, when you ask a question that others think you should naturally know, or when you feel out of place in a group, please remember: that is not a “failure.” That is actually your brain working hard to explore the world—the brave traces of building your own unique thoughts.

Learning shouldn’t just be about cramming knowledge into your head; it should be about deeply understanding how this knowledge is applied in our daily lives. The learning environment shouldn’t be like a factory, sending students in, putting everyone through the same production line, and then grading different individual students based on the same evaluation standards.

Learning shouldn’t just be learning for the sake of learning, for grades, or for finding a high-paying job in the future. Learning should be about developing personal potential, satisfying a child’s lifelong curiosity of “why,” assisting them in understanding how this universe and this world operate, and helping them find work that is truly meaningful to them and to which they can fully devote their passion in the adult society they are about to enter—a cosmic task exclusively for them.

To accompany you in finding this cosmic task, and to help parents better understand what the essence of education should be, I started writing this blog. Here, we won’t talk about standard answers; we will only talk about how to become yourself…