The Ultimate Montessori Blog

(This post is the second in a series of posts which tries to explain Dr. Maria Montessori’s interpretations of certain leading concepts. The previous post dealt with her interpretation  of the concept of education. The present post provides her interpretations of the concepts of “Adaptation” and “Development”. )

Adaptation

The child adopts himself to society and the world by building a psychosomatic structure which will enable him to enjoy a maximum of happiness in the conditions to which he has become adapted.

Adaptation normally implies a negative element. Western missionaries in India, for example, may announce that they have adapted themselves to Eastern conditions, but have found the process painful. This is equivalent to saying that, in spite of tremendous efforts to appreciate the food, climate, customs and people they encounter, their adaptation has remained partial or negative. Positive adaptation is to find your happiness; spiritually and physically; in the conditions which have become yours.

Development

Development means the process of becoming; the process one goes through after birth in order to reach maturity. It is too psychosomatic, for both body and spirit are involved. This development is directed by an energy which has been called the horme: that is the iresistable drive which is inherent in all organisms (non-living organisms are also impelled by it), which urges them to assume their specific bodies and the appropriate behaviour. For instance, a fertile hen’s egg contains the germinative cell which divides and multiplies, building the structure which eventually becomes a chicken. The various cells have received their own commands as to what they should build - beak, eye, feathers, internal organs - and an inner compulsion obliges them to complete their task. Once this process has begun, nothing except destruction can interfere with it. You can maim a child but - except by killing him, you cannot prevent him from growing.

Why does the egg become a chicken, or the acorn an oak, each reproducing detail by detail the pattern of its species? In the germinative cell there appears to be present some kind of unconscious memory, to which psychologists have given the name mneme. This must be present also in inanimate matter. Solutions of certain chemicals, for instance, will always produce the same type of crystals; the molecules invariably rearrange themselves in their characteristic shape.

(The next post in this series will deal with Dr. Montessori’s interpretation of Heredity and The Unconscious)

Dr. Maria Montessori was and is often misunderstood, all the more so because she and other experts often used the same terms with different meaning. It is in this sense that the statements of Maria Montessori must be evaluated. But even when the meaning is the same, her conclusions are often in conflict with that of experts. Some of the leading concepts  like (1)Education (2) Adaptation (3) Development (4) Heredity (5) The Unconscious were interpreted by Mr. Mario Montessori Sr. and these interpretations will be serialized in this blog. In this current posting we are presenting Mario Montessori Sr.’ s interpretation of Education.

Education

The Montessori approach to education follows the lines of developmental psychology. Ours might be called: Development Education. It differs sharply from education as normally understood, when the emphasis is on the ends pursued and what is felt to be important is the career or occupation for which the student will be equipped by the time his studies are over.

Previously all education was based on this kind of preparation for the future. To pass from primary to secondary school, or from grammar school to university, the pupil must acquire certain knowledge so that he may finally qualify for a job and parents and educators combine to urge him towards his goal. The child himself has not been greatly considered. At an early age he does not grasp the importance of the future or the equipment he will need for it and his inclination may not be attuned to what his mentors propose. So he has to be enticed to follow his curriculam and the question whether the way he is expected to study is suitable to his age and capacity is of quite secondary importance.

The Montessori ideal is not Utilitarian in this sense. Developmental education is concentrated on the phases of the individual’s growth from birth to maturity. It tries to respond to his needs as he develops to help the process of his adaptation, without laying too much stress on the programme officially imposed. Our Montessori schools cover the same programme. In fact our programme is generally wider, but this is because the children themselves, as their minds expand, pursue their interests in all directions. We regard their studies as food on which the child’s psyche can feed in order that it may become adapted to society and the world to the best that civilization has to offer. It is the child and his optimum development, not his stock of knowledge, which is the main objective of developmental education.

(The next article in this series, ‘Certain Leading Concepts Explained-Part II’, will provide Mario Montessori Sr.’s interpretation of the concept of ‘Adaptation’.)

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.

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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.

1. Never touch a child unless invited by him (in some form or another).
2. Never speak ill of a child, either in his presence or in his absence
3. Concentrate on strengthening and helping the development of what is good in a child so that its presence may leave less and less space for the bad.
4. Be active in preparing the environment:take meticulous and constant care of it help the children to establish constructive relationships with it. Show the children where everything belongs and demonstrate the use of the materials
5. Be ever ready to answer the call of a child who needs your assistance. Listen and respond to his appeals.
6. Respect children when they make mistakes. As soon as they can, allow them to discover their error and correct it by themselves. Stop firmly any misuse of the environment and any action which endangers a child, his development, or others.
7. Respect the child who takes rest or watches others or ponders over what he himselfhas done or will do. Neither call him nor force him to other forms of activity.
8. Help those who are in search of activity and cannot find it.
9. Be untiring in repeating presentations to the child who has refused them earlier; in helping the child acquire what is not yet his own and overcome imperfections. Do this by animating the environment with care and purposive restraint and silence, with mild words and loving presence. Make your ready presence felt to the child who searches and hide from the child who has found.
10. Ever treat the child with the best of good manners and offer him the best you have yourself and at your disposal.