Montessori Philosophy

Montessori Theory:

Montessori education is driven by an ambitious aim: To aid the child’s development into a complete adult human being, comfortable with himself, with his society and with humanity as a whole. Whereas the traditional approach to education, which prevails today, remains focused on the transmission of prescribed blocks of knowledge, the Montessori approach is focused on giving support to the natural development of the human being. This in done with the understanding that the fully developed human being is then better disposed to learning the things that he needs to become an integrated and contributing member of society. The substance of the human being – the development of character and integration of the whole personality, are traditionally approached as values that must be instilled into the child. The result is children who are bored or stressed and a society with increasing levels of mental illness.

Today, as it was a century ago, education is rightly seen as a means to tackle poverty, inequality, anti-social behaviour and other ills of society. From before birth it is the child that guides its own development. The fundamental problem with traditional education is the lack of faith in the child to continue to guide his own development – and to guide the educators in supporting this task.

Montessori education begins with the understanding that the role of the adult is to help the unfolding of the child’s inborn developmental powers. The child, from the earliest moments of life, is possessed with great constructive energies that guide the formation of his mind and the coordination of his body. The Montessori approach was developed without preconceived ideas as to how best to aid the child in his journey to adulthood. Instead the ideas were based on the observation of children in diverse cultures and in many countries. Key theories emerged from these observations:

1. That there are four key developmental planes in the journey to adulthood – 0-6 years old, 6-12 yrs, 12-18 yrs and 18-24 yrs. Each of these planes has its own goals; in the first the development of the self as an individual being, in the second the development of the social being, in the third the birth of the adult and finding one’s sense of self, before consolidating the mature personality and becoming a specialised explorer in the fourth plane. The complete development of the adult human being requires the specific needs of each of these periods to be satisfied.
2. Within each of these planes the child or adolescent has specific ‘sensitivities’ or ‘windows of opportunities’ to acquire a particular human trait, for example a sensitivity that guides the child to the acquisition of its language in the first plane (0-6 yrs), or that guides the child to the development of a moral ‘compass’ in the second plane (6-12 yrs).
3. In addition to these age-specific sensitivities, human beings have a number of behavioural tendencies that give each child the ability to adapt to its place and time. These human traits, for example, to explore, order, manipulate, imagine, repeat, work, and communicate have been crucial to human evolution and are active within the child.

The following sections explain how Montessori education responds to this understanding of child development:

Montessori Practice:

A prepared environment

Montessori education seeks to provide the child with an environment ideally suited to his stage of development which allows him to respond to the inner call of specific ‘sensitivities’, and the freedom to act in accordance with the natural behavioural tendencies. This provides a secure and permanent foundation on which to base education, if education is viewed as a method to fulfil the optimum potential of the child in every facet of his emerging personality.

The child needs a place designed to meet these innate sensitivities and tendencies. This place, or ‘prepared environment’ is different for each developmental plane, but guided by the same principles. The prepared environment and the role of the teacher in the classroom distinguish Montessori from other educational approaches. For example, independent activity constitutes about 80% of the work while teacher-directed activity accounts for the remaining 20%. The reverse percentages are generally true for traditional education. The special environments enable children to perform various tasks which induce thinking about relationships. The logical, sequential nature of the environment provides orderly structures that guide discovery: Theorems are discovered, not presented; spelling rules are derived through recognition of patterns, not merely memorised. Every aspect of the curriculum involves creative invention and careful, thoughtful analysis. In viewing learning outcomes at each Montessori level, it must be emphasised that why and how students arrive at what they know is just as important as what they know.

Montessori materials

The most widespread examples are the Montessori environments prepared for 3 -6 year olds. At this formative age the child is consolidating the formation of the self as an individual being that began at birth. The environment is set up as a bridge between the home and the wider world. Montessori called this place a Casa dei Bambini or Children’s House. The first materials the child encounters in this setting are the ‘practical life’ activities. These are everyday activities, familiar to the child from his home, such as pouring, scrubbing a table, polishing or buttoning. Whilst helping the child’s independence by acquiring a particular skill, the main purpose of these activities is to help the child develop his ability to concentrate and to coordinate his movements.

The other areas of the curriculum for the children of this age are the ‘sensorial’ materials, mathematics, language and culture. The sensorial materials respond to the way the child learns at this age – through the senses rather than the intellect. There are materials for the refinement of each sense, with each activity isolating one particular quality, for example colour, size, loudness, taste or weight. For example, the material known as the pink tower is made up of ten pink cubes of varying sizes. The 3 year-old child constructs a tower with the largest cube on the bottom and the smallest on top. This material isolates the concept of size. The cubes are all the same colour and texture; the only difference is their size. Other materials isolate different concepts: colour tablets for colour, geometry materials for form, and so on.

As the child’s exploration continues, the materials interrelate and build upon each other. Later, in the primary years, new aspects of some of the materials unfold. When studying volume, for instance, the child may return to the pink tower and discover that its cubes progress incrementally from one cubic centimetre to one cubic decimetre. At the pre-school age when the child is bombarded by sensory information, these materials help the child to order and make sense of his world and heighten his perception and wonder of it.

The ability to count or calculate, to write or read are by-products of the child’s time in this prepared environment, not the goal. Through working with the different sensorial materials the child has refined his discrimination of size to the point where he wants to know how much bigger one object is from another. The maths materials flow naturally from here. When a child reaches this point, he needs to be introduced to the concept of numbers to sustain their interest.

The same applies with language. The subtle preparation the child has been given in this environment – a rich diet of songs, stories, poems, or the control over the movement of the hand through polishing, allows 4 and 5 year olds to effortlessly start to write and read. Montessori education has been using an effective system of synthetic phonics for 100 years. At the centre of this system are a set of ‘sandpaper letters’ individual boards with the primary symbol for each of the 26 letters as well as a number of the diagraphs (eg ‘sh’ or ‘oa’) sounds in the English language. 3 year-old children see and feel these symbols, and make the corresponding sound, absorbing the combination of sound and symbol through three different senses.

Finally, the cultural materials bring to the child his world and the animals, plants and people within it. Like everything offered to the child at this age, the materials are sensory-based and are introduced to the child in an orderly way; first the world, then the plants and animals in it; first animals, then mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish; first the concrete – a real plant, then the more abstract pictures or reading that may accompany it.

Materials that aid independence

The materials themselves invite activity. There are bright arrays of solid geometric forms, knobbed puzzle maps, coloured beads, and various specialised rods and blocks. All the materials in a Montessori environment are designed for maximum independence in the child: Everything, including a dustpan and brush, is child sized; activities are laid out in an orderly way on easily accessible open shelves; and the design of the materials make it easy for the child to identify, and gradually correct, any error. This last point all but eliminates the need for correction by a teacher, a feature that has become a mainstay of traditional education. Instead of an external force judging them, the child instead relies on the impersonal judgement that comes from their senses. The guide in the material may be mechanical (all the pieces only fit together one way), it may be visual (the eye checking groups of objects sorted by touch), or there may be an answer sheet. Either way, by coming to rely on his own self-appraisal, the child develops a ‘friendly feeling’ towards error, setting him on a path to self-improvement.

Mixed age groupings

In the family, in the workplace and society as a whole we are in constant interaction with those that are older or younger. Children in traditional schools are the only members of society segregated by age. A mixed-age environment is an important feature of Montessori education. Since the children need different environments at different stages in their development, classes are mixed within bands, for example, 0-3 yrs, 3-6 yrs, 6-12 yrs, or 12-15 yrs. The young child in each band is surrounded by role models a little more developed than himself. Similarly, the older child finds herself in a position of responsibility, and, by showing younger children what he knows, affirms to herself, more surely than any test, the extent of her learning. Cooperation replaces competition as the driving force within these minisocieties. The auto-education facilitated by the prepared environment means that each child is learning and developing at his own pace.

Freedom and discipline

Just as important as the physical environment and its contents, is the functioning of the environment. The Montessori environment gives the children the tools they need, but they must also have the freedom to use them and to manifest their tendencies to repeat, to explore, or manipulate.

Each child is given the freedom of choice. The child’s interaction with the environment is most productive in terms of the individual’s development when it is self-chosen and founded on individual interest. From the moment the child enters the class in the morning they are free to choose their activities for themselves. One will choose to start the day with a drink and a chat before washing up some cups. He may then choose to sit and do nothing – quietly watching his friends, before choosing to join a singing group. Another may arrive and immediately start to trace some of the sandpaper letters with his finger, and then write on a chalkboard. This is ‘Auto-Education’ – the child has the freedom to respond to the teacher within him, and has access to materials in the environment that can satisfy each developmental need.

Each child is given the freedom of time. He is free to work with an activity for as long as he chooses, free to repeat it as many times as he needs, or simply take his time. A 4 year-old child might spend 1 ½ hours washing some 50 or more small cloths that have been used during the morning. He is left undisturbed and finishes when the force that compelled her to concentrate for that time is satisfied. Long periods of concentration of this type are frequently observed in Montessori environments in children as young as 3 years old.

Paradoxically, it is this freedom that leads to discipline. The traditional approach to discipline holds that children are inherently disorderly, and that their wilfulness and impulses must be inhibited by an external discipline. The widespread assumption is that children need rewards (such as gold stars) or punishments in order to behave appropriately. In contemporary education the balance has shifted from punishment to rewards but the problem remains the same. If the external motive is withdrawn there is only a weak will or moral compass within the person to direct their intentions and actions. The desire to learn or cooperate within society is based more on the notion of ‘I should’ rather than ‘I want to’.

Montessori education aids the development of the child’s will. Through constant decision making (choices) the child’s ability to listen to his interests and impulses is developed. But the environment also contains within it limits, both natural and social, that give the child constant practice in the inhibition of those impulses. In the prepared environment there is only one of each set of materials – one easel for painting, for example. If a child has an impulse to paint, and another child is painting there is a natural limit to their impulse. Similarly an activity, freely chosen, is only complete when it has been returned to its shelf, ready for the next person to use; the only limit to individual freedom being the needs of the group as a whole.

Montessori education has a special term for the process whereby characteristics including initiative, self-discipline, concentration, independence, a love of purposeful activity, and compassion become manifest in the child – ‘normalisation’. This does not refer to a standardisation or a process of being forced to conform, but describes a unique process in child development. She used this term to indicate her belief that these characteristics are the normal characteristics of childhood . She believed that the characteristics that we normally associate with childhood – such as capriciousness, selfishness, laziness and inability to concentrate only appear when a child’s natural development is being thwarted. When children are allowed freedom in an environment suited to their needs, they blossom. After a period of intense concentration, working with materials that fully engage their interest, children appear to be refreshed and contented. Through continued concentrated activity of their own choice, children grow in inner discipline and peace. This ‘normalisation’ is the single most important result of Montessori education.

The Parent-Infant Class (0-3 years)

The Montessori infant-toddler program has several components that offer a wide variety of options and opportunities for involvement by parents. The most widely found is the Parent- Infant Class. The Parent-Infant Class provides an environment in which parents and children interact alongside a Montessori-prepared adult who uses the environment to facilitate their interaction. Caregivers are taught how to observe what their babies do in order to know what to offer them. Once walking the children engage in the practical activities of every day life such as pegging, folding, preparing a snack, washing or sweeping and a language area including miniature objects, language nomenclature cards and books, as well as art, singing and other musical experiences.

Children’s House (3-6 years)

The Montessori pre-school classroom is a ‘living room’ for children. Children choose their activities from among the self-correcting materials displayed on open shelves that allow the child to learn through their senses. The pre-school environment unifies the psycho-social, physical, and academic functioning of the child. Its important task is to provide children with an early and general foundation that includes a positive attitude toward school, inner security and a sense of order, pride in the physical environment, abiding curiosity, a habit of concentration, habits of initiative and persistence, the ability to make decisions, self-discipline, and a sense of responsibility to other members of the class, school, and community. This foundation will enable them to acquire more specialised knowledge and skills throughout their school career. The activities in the Children’s House are described in more detail in the section ‘Montessori materials’ above.

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The Philosophy

There were certain things that Montessori saw were very important for a child’s natural development.

Natural Spirituality

Montessori saw that children held within them something wonderful, something so special that it could be the key to changing the world. She saw that they were inherently good and that, if allowed to develop freely, they felt connected to everything and were naturally caring to each other and the world around them. The more that she worked with the children, the more convinced she was that they had precise inner guides and that the work of adults was to help them to be all that they could be. She felt that it was the spiritual nature of children that had been forgotten and denied and that children could therefore show adults the way to return to a more meaningful, holistic way of living.

Children thrive on order and structure

Order plays a very important part in the lives of young children. Order consists in recognising the place for each object in relation to its environment and in remembering where each thing should be. Such an awareness is essential for a child to feel secure within its environment and to build on existing experiences. Order in the environment makes children feel safe and that they know how things should be. Great emphasis is therefore put on order within the Montessori classroom. By ensuring that everything has its place, and that the environment is designed to be as accessible as possible for children to work in, they can then be given the maximum freedom to move and develop.

Children move through sensitive periods

Montessori noticed that there were certain periods of particular sensitivity that kept occurring in the children. During these periods the child could learn the activity that she was focused on at a particularly intense rate and that such learning appeared to come very easily. They included a sensitive period for order, refinement of the senses, language acquisition, walking and movement, small objects and involvement in social life. What became clear is that at such times it was as though there was a light shining on that particular activity that completely held the childs attention. If left to follow this natural interest the child could achieve much more than would normally be expected. Montessori teachers therefore watch out for these very creative periods and make sure that the children have the freedom to follow their interests.

Children learn through their senses

Montessori saw that children built on their physical experiences of the world through their senses and that by carefully designing interesting materials which the children were drawn to experiment with, she could help them extend this understanding. She did so by taking each of the senses in turn and developing materials that isolated certain aspects that could then be increasingly explored by the children. She believed that children loved working with beautiful objects so all the materials were prepared with the greatest care. Rather than proving to be outdated in the modern world, these beautifully designed items have gone on to show how accurate Montessoris initial observations were. Many are now reproduced in schools of all types throughout the world.

Children need freedom

Montessori saw freedom as the single most important factor in allowing children to develop as spontaneous, creative individuals. She saw the role of education as providing environments in which the children could be set free to follow their natural impulses to become the wonderfully dynamic, natural learners they were designed to be.

Children absorb their culture

Montessori’s emphasis on children being allowed the freedom to work alone and to develop concentration, did not mean that she underestimated the importance of social development. Instead what she saw was that it was precisely because the children were allowed to work in such freedom that they could display such love and care towards others. She saw that children literally absorbed the world around them and that true discipline and harmony was something that came from within and was not something that could be enforced.

Big Teachers

Montessori called her teachers Directresses because she felt that they sensitively guided, rather than controlled, the childrens activities. She asked that they be more psychologists than teachers and considered that success lay in the ongoing nature of the teachers own personal development as well as on the sensitivity of the observations of individual children. Ultimately she saw their role as not so much to teach the children as to direct the natural energies that they saw emerging.

Little Teachers

As she watched the children busily going about their work Montessori realised that it was natural and very easy for the younger children to learn by watching and listening to the older children. In fact she saw that children learn best this way and that something wonderful happened when a community of children could actively support and help each other. Montessori schools therefore encourage children of all ages to work together as a social group and do not normally split children by sex or age.

Children are natural learners

Montessori saw that children underwent extraordinary transformations in overall happiness, self-confidence and self-discipline when they were allowed to follow their innate needs. She saw that the work of a child, therefore, was fundamentally different to that of the adult: that the child worked for the joy of the process rather than for the end result, that the child had a need to repeat activities over and over until an inner need was fulfilled, and that the child was excited and energised through work, rather than burdened and fatigued by it. She felt that children only stopped loving learning when they were forced to go against their natural impulses.

Processes not Results

Montessori schools believe that children are at their happiest when they are busily involved in processes. Children are natural learners who, if left to follow their instincts, will want to constantly explore the world. All too often what stops children enjoying this natural curiosity are external demands that don’t fit with their needs. The only results young children are interested in are the ones that end up making them feel good about themselves and their abilities. When they learn, instead, that there are unacceptable results that make them feel bad about themselves they start to fear the processes. And that fear can cut them off from the joy of learning forever.

Montessori schools therefore believe that each child is an individual and should be encouraged to work at the pace that is right for him or her. There are no grades or tests. Children are never in competition with each other.

Learning should be FUN!