The Ultimate Montessori Blog

A single fertilized egg cell, smaller than the head of a pin, only in nine months time in the womb of the mother, grows to a lovely bundle of energy that looks like a human being. In hardly 15 months this bundle of energy grows into a naughty toddler who is curious about everything. The infant learns to walk and talk, think and reason. Emotional responses, intellectual abilities and styles of social interaction evolve.

Children born in every culture share the same human biological inheritance and the same fundamental need for care. Thus adults in every culture face the same major tasks in rearing children. They must provide infants with basic nurturance needed for development and prepare children to function as adults in their particular social worlds. The rules and values of the culture are passed on to children. This process is called socialization.

Children change physically and intellectually as they mature. The transformations in physical and cognitive capacities have a dramatic influence on how children interact with their environment. Play serves important functions for children. It is a means by which they can be active explorers of their environment, active creators of new experiences and active participants in their own development. Children play untiringly till they are hungry or sleepy. No one need teach children to play’ they do so naturally. Children need no reward for playing; play is its own reward. Play is a ‘laboratory’ in which children learn new skills and concepts, play is a child’s ’social workshop’ where he/she tries out rules alone and with other children. The child expands his/her ’self’.

For preschoolers play can be an outlet for their emotions. It is often concerned with important themes and feelings from everyday life. They express their anxieties and fears. Play often centres on the most frightening of topics, such as being lost or having to fight off ‘monsters’.

A common game preschoolers initiate with parents is “you be the baby and I will be the mummy or daddy”. The child might say “now you go right to bed!” The power roles are reversed in play and the parent is charmed and not angry. In play child can pretend to be destructive, disobedient or un-cooperative without being scolded by the parent. This satisfies the conscience of the child.

It is interesting to observe the sequence of social development in children between two and five years. It begins with non-social activity which child psychologists name as ‘solitary play‘ they child plays all alone unaware of children and people around. Then it shifts to ‘parallel play‘ in which the child plays near other children with similar materials but does not try to influence their behavior. A little later children engage in ‘associative play‘ where they interact by exchanging toys and commenting on one another’s behaviour. Finally they change over to ‘cooperative play‘ in which children orient towards a common goal such as acting out a make-believe theme or working on the same product like making sand castle or painting a wall or a picture.

After the children get into formal schooling they start playing rule-oriented games. In middle childhood they play ‘rough-and tumble’-they wrestle, roll, hit and run after one another while smiling and laughing. During mid-adolescence more time is spent with novel play activities and finding partners of common interests. As adolescence draws to a close, most young people show many complex social behaviours and are proficient in their interactions with peers.

A note from the author: I would like to add that the inspiration to put down these few thoughts and concepts about the role of play in the early childhood came from my first visit to a Montessori House of Children, where I happened to have a glimpse of the Montessori method and the philosophy being practised. The children in the Montessori environment are provided with equipment which are are highly impressive, scientific and educative.

(The author of this article is a Professor of Psychology, The National College, Bangalore)

How do we as Montessorians counteract people who say “The method is artificial in the sense that it is so much dependent on the artificially prepared environment, and the so-called scientific materials, and to top it all the artificial ever-smiling adult”?

In life we meet misunderstanding at many levels. They remain misunderstandings unless the persons who raise the queries themselves try to learn the truth. Considering the enormity of this problem it may be impossible for Montessorians to counteract these people/problems.

In reality trying to ‘counteract’ such people helps us Montessorians consolidate and reaffirm to ourselves the validity and the veracity of the Montessori principles. We may not succeed in convincing them but we should be convince ourselves first.

We need to understand that Montessori Philosophy applies itself to the whole of humanity from birth to the last breath. It talks of assistance to LIFE everywhere. Therefore it is not confined to ‘artificial’ environments. Perhaps the reference was made to Houses of Children for children 2 & half to 6 years of age.

Though all living beings need an environment to live and procreate, Man has a singular place in Life that he needs to create his own environment for himself. As adults we prepare special environments for variety of activities we involve ourselves in. For example, an acoustically prepared hall for music concerts, a well-equipped kitchen for our culinary efforts, an aesthetically created place for our religious pursuits etc. We make them ourselves but do not consider them ‘artificial’.

The child needs a special environment, exclusively prepared for him to work at his development and make a masterly acquisition of all the capacities and capabilities during early childhood. As the child cannot build this environment for himself we, adults, prepare it for him. Can we call this ‘artificial’?

“So-called scientific materials?” Why do we refer to Montessori materials as scientific. To explain this we need to define the word ’scientific’. The Montessori materials help the child work with them, arrive at conclusions, verify them and also make discoveries. Though these discoveries are facts already known to the adults we cannot deny that they are discoveries made by the child for himself. There is the same joy and thrill attached to any discovery. Moreover the activities with materials promote that spirit of enquiry needed for a mind to attain a scientific temper. This can be achieved when the adults ensure freedom for the child to work and not descend to teach which kills the Joy of discovery. That is one of the reasons we call them ’scientific’.

We shall hope that the adult working in a Montessori House of Children would enjoy the work and live in a House of Children as a normal healthy human being. At the training center the trainees are not being taught to put on an artificial smile or even use an artificial speech. A put-on-air of saying ‘very good’, ‘How nice’, ‘good boy’, ‘good girl’ etc, are also found unnecessary. Smiles should be outer expressions of the inner mind. The adult should realize the worth of offering assistance to children. In which case the adults will not descend to the level of having to use artificial smiles.

They are usually simple activities he sees grown-ups doing around
him-which have an intelligent purpose intelligible to him.  They
are generally activities that he can manage to do on his own, if
given suitable material and the necessary guidance.  For
instance, activities like dusting and polishing furniture,
sweeping  and scrubbing the floor, or watering plants, folding
the garments, or  tuning on or off the wireless set, etc. do
fascinate a child of this age.  He needs to be independent with
regards to such intelligent yet simple activities.  He is urged
from  within to make efforts to conquer this independence.  He
actually comes to the adults performing such activities and asks
them or appeals to them to let him help them. Many adults
misinterpret this behavior and assume that he is being difficult,
and that he is troubling them! He is told to go out and play as
if he could work at his development only by playing!

If only the child could find the help, namely, the right
material (similar to the material available at the Montessori
House of Children), guidance and freedom, to do the activities he can
perform  even at home,  he would not come in the way of adults
and  in fact, he could make things easier for the adults.

Parents who sometimes struggle to manage their child can in fact
read the book “Take Montessori Home” to help them out. Take
Montessori Home compiles diverse activities for
different age groups of children in which a parent can engage a
child.The activities will enable the child’s development and, at
the same time, make the parent’s life easier.

Related Links

Click for more info on the book Take Montessori Home

The Indian Montessori Centre and the Hindu Seva Pratishtaana established a Montessori House of Children called Maadhurya in a weavers colony called Nele on Banerghatta Road, Bangalore in 2006. Maadhurya was set up with the intention of making available the Montessori Method of education available to the economically backward sections of the society of this area. The Indian Montessori Centre strongly believes that the Montessori Method of Education is not the domain of the affluent only. In fact, in the long term the Montessori Method of education is just as expensive as conventional education and generally more effective and humane.

Maadhurya has been well received by the people of this area. The Indian Montessori Centre and the Hindu Seva Pratishtaana is thankful to the Montessori Community which helped in the setting up of this House of Children by making generous contributions.

Developments at the Maadhurya House of Children

If the child enjoys so much freedom of movement and freedom of choice in a Montessori House of Children, don’t you think this would make him difficult to manage at home as he would like to do things on his own even at home and thereby come in the way of adults?

It is true that it will not be possible to create conditions at home to provide as much freedom of movement and choice for the child as it is done in a Montessori House of Children. This is one of the reasons why the child should get the opportunity of living in the House of Children for a part of the day.

At the same time, let us also not forget that the freedom he enjoys here is not unlimited. It will necessarily and naturally be limited by the needs of the other 30-35 children who are also living here and who also have the same rights to freedom as he has. The other children help him realize soon enough that he cannot enjoy his freedom without at the same time respecting the rights of others to enjoy similar freedom.

Besides, various interesting developmental activities related to social behaviour are presented to him. These also help him to show due consideration towards the rights of others living with him.

Even the freedom with regard to the choice of activities, as we saw, has certain limits. Because he is free to choose to perform an activity only from among those activities that have been presented to him and on condition that the material for that activity be found in its place-which means that he cannot just take away something from somebody who has chosen it earlier but must wait till it is kept back in its place before taking for his activity.

So, we need not be afraid that as a result of enjoying freedom in the House of Children, he will assert his freedom unreasonably at home. This has been amply proved in homes understanding the child and familiar with the Montessori Method which is indeed applicable in the home as well. We must however admit that he does need more opportunities and help that is usually available to “do things on his own” even at home and first of all at home. If he gets these opportunities and help, his “doing things on his own” need not come in the way of adults at all.

In a Montessori House of Children we find that there is no opportunity for creativity. How are children helped in the regard? Secondly, we don’t see any toys or games for children to ‘recreate’ and ‘let themselves out’. What is your comment?

Before answering your question let me ask you what creativity is. The dictionary says ‘it is the capacity to produce’,'to bring something into existence’. So creativity is not restricted only to creative art, as is usually thought to be: but it is all comprehensive. Anything you produce which is worthwhile, is a creative work.

The first and foremost thing that a child does is, that he brings the adult into existence. The quality or texture of this adult depends on how best he was helped in his formative years by the environment in which he lived. Whether he got the maximum benefits or whether he was exposed to deviations. The Montessori Method adapts itself to the child’s needs, recognises his powers and understands his tasks. It studies his psychology and offers assistance to build himself up into a better human adult.

Outward expression is natural to any living being. It is more so in the case of human beings. A child being very much human has great urge to express his experiences and impressions. Richer experiences lead to more intense urge to express. The number of ways of expression like gestures, movements and sounds, increase. He acquires more refined forms like verbal, graphic or pictorial expression. The popularly accepted forms of human expression are verbal through speech, graphic through writing, pictorial through drawing and painting fine arts, mathematics and science may also be classified as fine forms of expression.

Creativity depends on knowledge and skills. Creativity in any form of human expression like mathematics, science, technology etc., calls for knowledge and skills. Children in a House of Children are exposed to rich sensorial experiences which are fundamental at knowledge. Senses are gateways to intellect which is the seat of knowledge. Knowledge is the result of observing, classifying, abstracting and judging. Almost every activity the child performs strengthens this capacity to gain knowledge. Children are helped in acquiring skills like that of language, motor abilities, manipulation of Numbers, experimentation, drawing, painting, music, dance etc. Each of the sensorial activities lays the foundation for one skill or the other.

In a House of Children we do not teach any of these skills. But we do offer direct and indirect help to acquire them creativity is the outward manifestation of an inner maturity. Maturity occurs when knowledge and skills are acquired and consolidated. The children, on their own, repeat the activities to satisfy some inner need, in effort to encourage repetition the same activity with the same material is suggested.

Children do not care much for the ‘toys’ when they have developmental material made to suit their physical and psychological dimensions. Nature provides the child very little time for his total development and he knows no relaxatin. Recreation is meant for people who are tired of their work. But the child is absorbed in his work wholeheartedly. The freedom of choice that the child enjoys in a House of Children enables him to use any length of time and choose another when he wants to. He has the liberty of watching others at work.

The necessity of playing group games in order to ‘let themselves out’ or to ‘learn to behave in a group’ does not arise in a House of Children. The need to ‘let steam out’ is for people with pent up emotions of frustrations caused by the forcing of ideas or opinions by other people. For example, the teacher in a tradition at school who perforce makes the children sit in one place and do what is told In Houses of Children freedom to move and the freedom to choose their work is very evident. A number of collective activities help children become familiar with the norms of behaviour in a particular society.

It should not be understood that toys and games are totally forbidden. It is just that there is no stipulated time schedule for such activities. In a House of Children nothing is forced on them but everything is made possible for them.

What are the salient features of the Montessori Method of education? What are the main differences between a traditional school and a Montessori House of Children?

The function of education according to Dr. Montessori is, to render assistance according to man in course of fundamental development in order to work at his self formation in obedience to the laws that govern development. For rendering this assistance effectively a special preparation is necessary. This preparation is not only physical but also spiritual. The adult world has to bring about both these preparations and them render the needed assistance. Dr. Montessori laid great emphasis on the spiritual preparation of the adult. This helps him to shed away the age old prejudices against the child and serve development.

After having trained and prepared one self the ‘adult’ as he or she is called in a’Montessori House of Children’ should prepare the following:

1. Prepare the environment with proper conditions.
2. Prepare the means of development. These are the very tools with which the child work.
3. The adult should establish positive and constructive contacts between the child and the means of development.
4. Should ensure that the child enjoys freedom with regard to choosing an activity and repeating it as many times as he wants.

The adult in the House of Children is one of the agents in the process of education. The other two being the prepared environment along with the community of children, secondly the means of development. The adult herself is in the background as an assistant. She approaches the child either through the environment or through the means of development. As far as possible the indirect approach is resorted to, because, it doesn’t dampen the child’s enthusiasm and spontaneous, interest and also the thrill of doing and knowing things by himself.

The Montessori Method is adapted to children’s education at three levels.

1. General adaptation to the child in General satisfying his needs in order to follow the path of development.
2. Local adaptation satisfying the needs of local conditions like social, cultural and climatic conditions.
3. Individual adaptation satisfying the needs of an individual child depending upon his specific needs and capacities.

The aim of the Montessori Method of education is to help a being to become a self sufficient and an independent master of himself. All activities in the House of children are directed towards this goal. In fact the very aim of life itself is this independence and education is a means towards this goal.

Alas! in a traditional school this aim is lost sight of, Individuality is crushed under mass education system. The teacher dominates the show. No freedom of choice or freedom to repeat the activites. The child has no freedom of movement either, children are crammed in an enclosure and are made to do what the teacher dictates. In most of these traditional schools activities are not planned with any scientific rationale which contribute to the development of the child. Just the teacher, a board, chalk and a stick on top of it all. The child has to do what the teacher tells him to do and this cannot but curb his development.

Related Articles

• The Montessori Method
• Montessori Philosophy

(This article is a digression from child issues, and tries to explain an interesting feature called RSS that we have added to make your blogging experience more efficient.)

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What is RSS?

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In Montessori Houses of Children the work is chosen by the pupil himself. The pupil seeks the work which interests him most and, therefore, ends up doing the work which is most agreeable to him. How can such a preparation fit him to take his place in social life where duty imposes tasks not always pleasant, in fact often quite contrary to the personal taste?

He who struggles, overcoming difficulties though his task my not be a pleasant one, or, in other words, he who sacrifices himself must, above all, be strong. This question, therefore, presupposes a condition which is of fundamental importance: “sine qua non” - to be strong. The spontaneous exercises which the little children do in our schools, choosing the work which they like and remaining absorbed in it for a long time, in an atmosphere of calm, fortify them, and in this way they are, although indirectly, preparing themselves for the unpleasant eventualities of their future social life. In the same way, the child who is nourished during the first year of his life on milk alone is thus preparing to be able to eat different kinds of food later on. If infants’ nourishment has been such as to permit a healthy and robust physical development, then the grown man will be strong enough to digest heavy food, but not if he has been fed on heavy and unsuitable food as a child.

He who has acquired perfect equilibrium of his body can bend to the right and to the left, and take difficult steps withouf falling. The acquisition of equilibrium, therefore, is a necessary preparation for difficult movements. The same is true with regard to the psychic life. The child who does spontaneous exercises which lead to a healthy mental equilibrium will be able to adapt himself without losing his own individuality. Is it through illness and disease that we prepare ourselves to be strong? Did heroes prepare themselves gradually for acts of heroism from childhood on? NO - their life is one great incognito as regards the future. That which must be prepared through the present is strength, equilibrium and health. Those children who have gained inner strength in their work, and by exercising themselves, as men will be better able than we to adapt themselves to an effort which they do not find pleasant.

????????If the children in a Montessori school work individually rather than collectively, how will they be able to prepare themselves for social life?

Social life does not consist of a group of individuals remaining close together, side by side, nor in their advancing en masse under the command of a captain like a regiment on the march, nor like an ordinary class of school children.

The social life of man is founded upon work, harmoniously organized and upon social virtures - and these are the attitudes which develop to an exceptional degree amongst our children. Constancy in their work, patience when having to wait, the power of adapting themselves to the innumerable circumstances which present themselves in their daily contact with each other, reciprocal helpfulness and so on, are all exercises which represent a real and practical social life and which we see, for the first time, being organized amongst the children in a school. In fact, whereas schools used to be equipped only so as to accomodate children, seated passively side by side, who were expected to receive from the teacher (we might almost say in a parasytic manner), our schools, on the contrary, have an equipment which is adapted to all those forms of work which are necessary in an active and independent little community.

The individual work in which the child is able to isolate himself and to concentrate, serves to perfect his individuality and the nearer man gets to perfection, the better is he able to associate harmoniously with others. A strong social movement cannot exist without prepared individuals, just as the members of an orchestra cannot play together harmoniously unless each individual has been thoroughly trained by repeated exercise when alone.