Richmond’s Nicky Nickpasand considers herself to be a bit of a visionary, a quality she believes helped her recently be among teachers from across Canada to win a Prime Minister’s award.
Nickpasand, 50, owner of Fine Arts Montessori Centre on Garden City Road, said she strongly views young children as the future, something she firmly keeps in mind when devising lesson plans, especially for some youngsters who have trouble fitting into the regular flow of learning.
“These children, they are the future bank tellers, lawyers and doctors — people who will be looking after us when we are older,” she said. “We have to treat them properly so they can learn well.”
Originally from Iran, Nickpasand came to Canada in 1994 and immediately put her degree from the University of Tehran to use, first working at the elementary school level. She then switched to the early childhood education stream where she felt she could make a bigger difference.
In 2004, she opened her own school and was the first in the region to offer fine arts as a major focus in the curriculum.
“We include a lot of dancing and singing here,” said Nickpasand, who earned a certificate of achievement for Excellence in Early Childhood Education. “It helps with the way young children learn.”
Away from the curriculum, she explained that teachers at her level need to possess an abundance of compassion to help youngsters along as they learn.
“We need to give the children a lot of hugs and kisses. We’re like their second mothers,” she said, adding that type of nurturing relationship can unlock ways to better learning strategies for some students. “We give the children much love because they are here eight to 10 hours a day, then they’re home for...two hours before they are asleep.”
When it comes to adapting approaches to learning, Nickpasand said that can be as varied as the individual.
“A lot of schools can tend to focus on a student’s behaviour and lose sight of the uniqueness to of the person and their particular needs.
“I believe every child is gifted in different ways.”
