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