Arman Aituar

I spent my first twelve adventurous and rich years in Kazakhstan. I was surrounded by many fascinating mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. The following years were spent adapting to various cultures within Canada. I found my love for sports, visual art, and music. I studied graphic design and with the discovery of podcasts my interest in the meaning of life grew ever more. Feeling psychologically and spiritually dry, I travelled to Dubai and explored religion, science, love, heartbreak, maturity and matter. 

I grew out of the graphic design field and into the world of physiological and psychological well-being. I realized that clarity and accuracy are the things I seek to be healthy, and that I could pursue those via education. Now I live in Kitsilano, and I am exploring the relationship between movement and stillness, sound and silence.

What lead you to become an early years teacher?

I feel privileged and thrilled to know that my actions have the power to cultivate the personality and character of a child. Affection, morality, will power, intelligence – I have come to believe these pillars bloom from within, informing and reforming our environment, our culture and every interaction with the animate and inanimate – while conscious or unconscious.

Describe your personal teaching style.

“We are all one question and the best answer seems to be love – a connection between things.” (Mary Ruefle, Madness, Rack and Honey: Collected Lectures)

 

I want children to know what freedom feels like regardless of the conditions set by their society. The most freeing learning experiences I can recall were the ones when both sides are the learner and the educator. Through this dialogical format, a connection is bridged that allows for trust and autonomy. With autonomy the child explores failure and success,  practices self-control, and reaches out to their environment for support. This makes the child adaptable to the environment and the environment to the child, harmonizing their inner world.

 

The child is brought into the world of chaos and with our help can navigate between chaos and order to progress. One of my favourite ideas of Dr. Montessori are the guiding principles with which we present materials to the child. She believed the child should travel from the familiar to unfamiliar, general to specific, simple to complex, and concrete to abstract – all resonating with the flow of order and chaos, the new and the old. With this in mind I try to connect with each child and understand how they perceive the world so I can further enrich it.

What do you love most about working with children?

In Principles of Psychology, William James writes, “The faculty of bringing back a wandering attention over and over again is the very root of judgment, character and will, an education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.”

I don’t work with children, perhaps it’s the other way around, the children work with me! I often am paralyzed by over-analysis, and to be reminded by them of their power of attention is their greatest gift. So, in that sense I am educated by them, and they bring the best out of me.  

What is your signature dish?

I’ve loved to make Borsch for the ones I appreciate since my mom taught me when I was a kid. But my favourite snacks would have to be roasted buckwheat or blackberries.

If you had a superpower, what would it be?

Time-travel. I love history and I would love to see what happened yesterday or a million years ago in the same place or at a place unknown to us.