One hundred fifty years ago tomorrow, August 31st, marks the birth of Maria Montessori. The woman physician from Italy who is known throughout the world as an advocate for the human rights of children. One thing that has always drawn me to the Montessori Method of education is that it was and still is based on Science. The Science of daily experiments and observations made by Maria Montessori during her work with children and her observations of teachers using her educational method. Her method of education was revolutionary, in that respect, was and still is given to the child. How did she show respect to the child? They were given rights. The right and freedom to explore things that they are interested in. This is a freedom in the Montessori environment but it is also a freedom with boundaries. It is a freedom in which the children develop responsibility, self-discipline and independence. To many of you this may sound like a fairy tale, allowing children freedom in their environment and then expecting the child to be responsible and act with self-control.
I have been using this method of education to teach children for over thirty years, and I have found it to be successful for all children…. those with behavioral differences, the child who has learning disabilities, the children who excel, EVERY CHILD. One of the major tenets that Montessori based her method on is the child’s right to choose what they want to work on. What calls to them, what meets their physical, social and emotional needs at the time? We need to follow in the steps of Montessori and truly observe and follow the child. That means we must change our own thinking, to become revolutionary as she was, and reform our own thoughts of education.
Montessori acknowledged that every human is different in their interests and abilities. We need to watch/observe the children and see what they are truly interested in. When we do acknowledge what interests them, then we can assist them in developing concentration, self-discipline, and calm through materials that “call to them,” and variations with that particular work or area of study. Yes, there are works and subjects that will need to be practiced and memorized, which will come with repetition with the materials and working with others.
What can we do to assist the child in his development of concentration, self-discipline and respect? Create a beautiful environment and observe them… Find out what they are interested in! Rather than forcing our interests upon the child or what we think they should find interesting….sit back and observe. What is the child drawn to? Then take that interest and expand on it. Show the child works and read books in that area and then watch the children as they experience periods of concentration. It is beautiful to watch a child so absorbed in what he is doing that he forgets all else, developing within himself an attention span and the ability to concentrate! He becomes self-disciplined with the use of the materials that excite within him an intense concentration.
There is a wonderful passage in Montessori’s book, “Spontaneous Activity in Education,” that addresses how the child changes within through the use of the materials. The passage tells of her observations of children and those of Ms. George, an American Montessori teacher as they work with the children.
“..at a given moment a child begins to show an intense interest in one of the exercises…it may be any object that fixes the attention of the child so deeply; the important factor is not the external object, but the internal action of the soul, responding to a stimulus, and arrested by it.” (p. 89)
I am challenging each of you and myself, to “respect the child,” as Maria Montessori did so many years ago. Give them the beautiful materials, presentations of interest to them and watch them change internally with outward signs of concentration, self-control and joy! If you are not achieving the success you would like with a child, evaluate the environment you have created and look at your presentations. Are they interesting or boring? Yes, we need to observe ourselves with the child and evaluate our work with them. Become an observer of everything just like Montessori! Her method works if you observe and follow each individual child giving to them our best each and every day.
