When we discuss aiding the child to become a confident, kind, loving individual, we are discussing the child’s inner character traits, in other words, the qualities or virtues that the child possesses.  The terminology that is popular today for this growth in children is Character Education.  All of us enjoy being around children who are loving, kind hearted, polite, obedient, joyful, confident, patient, friendly, respectful, responsible, etc.   This long list of characteristics sounds like the perfect individual!   No one is perfect, children or adults.  Our goal should be to try to present our best selves to everyone.  To treat others like we would want to be treated.  Just imagine a world, where everyone treated each other with respect and love for one another.  Montessori believed that we could change the world through educating the children to be peaceful, loving individuals.   In such a world there would be no wars or fighting between countries or within them. The premise was if children all over the world were taught positive character traits then we could truly create a peaceful world.

As adults, in the lives of children, we must not just rely on “teachable moments” for the children to learn these qualities!  We need to be intentional with lessons that introduce these qualities to the children.  

Maria Montessori stated:

“Values such as global citizenship, personal responsibility, and respect for diversity, must be both an implicit and explicit part of every child’s (and adult’s) education. These values in Montessori education are every bit as crucial as the subjects of math, language or science.”                                                         

Educator Grayson Kirk stated:                          

“The most important function of education at any level is to develop the personality of the individual and the significance of his life to himself and to others.”  

These are two very powerful statements!  The development of the child’s inner self is part of their education!  I feel we have missed the mark in this area of educating children in our country.  We are so busy teaching the basic subjects such as reading, math and science that we have neglected to aid the child in his development of his inner self.  Do not leave this important concept of virtues to chance, just waiting for a teachable moment!  Just as we present lessons to the children in other areas, we must make an effort to create a curriculum that introduces and reinforces virtues or positive character traits which we want the children to obtain.

A starting point for teaching virtues is giving them EMOTIONS VOCABULARY.  It is a fun exercise that can be done with children as young as two!   This exercise is simple, I start with small mirrors, one for each child.  I also have a set of pictures that show children in various emotional states such as happy, sad, excited, scared, proud, angry, surprised, silly, etc.  I teach only a few of the emotions in a lesson.  The child or children are given a hand mirror and then shown a photo of a child in one of the above states.  Then have the children try to make the same face.  Give them the new emotional vocabulary term and then discuss things that will make them happy or sad, whatever emotion you are discussing. 

A follow up lesson to this is a set of emotions nomenclature cards.  This is just a beginning point or foundation to build their emotional intelligence.  Once this foundation is built then other lessons can aid them in communicating their emotions, managing them and assisting them in resolving conflicts and hopefully making a lifetime of responsible decisions when they understand their own and others emotions.  More to come in our basic lessons of character building in our next article!