Montessori Method is Artificial?
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.