What education could be: A Montessorian‘s perspective

It is no secret that education is always a hot topic. Everyone has their opinion to share, their problems with the current education system, and, of course, how they would fix it. Yet, very few of these ideas yield any result. Even though the current Prussian system is limited, we still sadly have few realistic alternatives. But a few do show some promise. Today, I want to describe one alternative I particularly like. I present to you the Montessori education infrastructure!

The method

The brain-child of Dr. Maria Montessori, it came into being at the start of the twentieth century from observations Montessori made on toddlers in her school. She noticed that children learnt most efficiently when: 1. They were left to experiment on their own. 2. They worked on specifically prepared exercises rather than solely on their own.

From this, Montessori began to tinker with some standardized material for her children specifically made to help build up patterns and order in their minds. Her technique was therefore to fill the children's environment with such carefully planned material and let them work with it on their own. Being free to experience on his own, a child can better experience the joy of learning. Every material becomes an exciting new challenge that he can work on at his own pace. The ultimate goal of the material is to begin to build patterns in the child‘s mind with concrete examples. With such a solid base, he becomes much more able to grasp abstract interpretations of the pattern afterwards. The reasoning is sound. Remember my post on numerology: most researchers agree that we humans understood numbers and mathematics by assigning them to concrete things before anything else. Montessori is exerting the same energy on a larger scale.

In that way, the Montessori teacher is not the focal point in the classroom but rather the “keeper“ of the prepared environment. But preparing a Montessori classroom goes much farther than just premade tools. Every crook and cranny of the room is tailored to the children and the learning objectives. For example, the room contains self-contained sections where a child can work with a specific material without being distracted by other things. The classroom must also offer a wide range of activities reflecting all aspects of the child’s development, with everything being aesthetically pleasing and geared to the child’s size, needs, and interests. Go read a few books on the Montessori Education for a better idea of just how intricate that can be.

In any case, the point is that children absorb effectively from their environment. If they didn‘t nobody would ever learn how to speak on their own. I also truly believe that self-motivation is the key to learning anything. The Montessori method acknowledges that and puts much emphasis on making sure the child understands concepts with concrete material. Afterwards, the children can build up competency with repetition.

“But wouldn‘t that much repetition be boring after a while?“ you object. Fair point, but the truth is that children are surprisingly much more comfortable with repetition than we are. Keep in mind that, as adults, our senses have experienced thousands upon thousands of stimuli. Children on their part, can see any new colour, pattern or smell for the first time. Being used to anything requires time and practice. We could even say that children are geared toward repetition - that‘s what they do.

The curriculum

The Montessori method centers on a few aspects at a time, increasing in complexity with time. A general schedule would look like this:

From birth to about 3 years: Sensory experiences.
From a year and a half to about 3 years: Language development.
From a year and a half to about 4 years: Coordination, muscle development and interaction with small objects.
From 2 to 4 years: Refinement of movement and awareness of order in time and space.
From 2 to 6 years: Sensory refinement.
From 3 to 6 years: Writing.
From 4 to 6 years: Reading.

For the rest of this blog, I want to exhibit some activities and materials used in Montessori education. Hopefully, you will realize that setting up a Montessori environment can be surprisingly intuitive. Let‘s begin with the material used by Maria Montessori herself:

Three sets of solid insets.
Three sets of solids in graduated sizes, comprising pink cubes, brown prisms and rods of different colours.
Various geometric solids (prism, pyramid, sphere, cylinder, cone, etc.)
Rectangular tablets with rough and smooth surfaces.
A collection of various stuff (Maria‘s own words).
Small wooden tablets of different weights.
Two boxes, each containing sixty-four colored tablets.
A chest of drawers containing plane insets.
Three series of cards on which are pasted geometrical forms in paper.
A collection of cylindrical closed boxes.
A double series of musical bells, wooden boards on which are painted the lines used in music, small wooden discs for the notes.
Two sloping desks and various iron insets.
Cards on which are pasted sandpaper letters.
Two alphabets of colored cardboard and of different sizes.
A series of cards on which are pasted sandpaper figures (1, 2, 3, etc.).
A series of large cards bearing the same figures in smooth paper for the numeration of numbers above ten.
Two boxes with small sticks for counting.
The frames for lacing, buttoning, etc., which are used for the education of the movements of the hand.

Here are a few more from Elizabeth G. Hainstock (a more modern Montessorian authority):

Thermal Bottles
Tasting bottles
Smelling bottles
Mystery bags
Sandpaper letters (one of my personal favourites)
Phonetic alphabet
6 beads in line, 36 beads in a square and 216 beads in a cube

Finally, here are some extremely easy exercises you can set up at home:

Washing hands (that‘s right: doesn‘t need to be more than that)
Pouring rice/water
Sweeping or dusting the floor
Folding a napkin
Setting a table
Sorting
Washing and drying dishes
Cutting and pasting
Walking a Line
Opening and closing a drawer
Carrying a chair
Lacing a shoe
Sewing
Almost any puzzle

As you can see, almost anything can be Montessorian. Children strive from new experiences. This is why it is so important to invite your children to your everyday tasks: they will enjoy much more than what you would expect. This is something we should all strive to achieve, whatever our age. We have much to learn from our young friends as they do from us.

As a last note, Montessori‘s method heavily focuses on the youngest children but variations do consider older students. One similar education method that focuses on older children (high schoolers) would be the Waldorf education - an education system with a high focus on science, imagination, creativity and practical skills. Reading on Waldorf education is another highly recommended read on my part. Even then, most education systems focus on children but education is relevant at any age. We can all learn more every day… including how to better learn itself.

See you next time.

References

Francis Edmund 2004, Introduction to Steiner Education: the Waldorf School.
Elizabeth G. Hainstock, The Essential Montessori.
Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook, Maria Montessori, 1914.