Voici mon premier essay concernant la philosophie de Maria Montessori. Il s'agissait ici de poser les bases de sa pensée et de son point de vue sur l'enfant et son développement. De nombreux concepts fondamentaux à la pédagogie Montessori y sont ici développés et illustrés. Bonne lecture les têtes d'ampoules !
Growing is a fascinating process. Maria Montessori spent
her life studying children in order to create a system that would eventually
allow them to bloom fully. In this essay, we will develop some of her
fundamental concepts in order to understand her pedagogy. Who is the child? How
does he/she develop? How school can
supply him/her the favorable environment for his/her development? Those
questions will lead us to focus on the child in a first part, his/her stages of
growth and sensitive periods. In a second part, we will discuss the importance
and the details of a good environment including both adults and classroom.
To understand the child’s development, one should pay
attention to Maria Montessori’s concepts on the topic. First we are going to
underline the stages of growth, focusing on the first one and its two embryonic
stages. Then, we will focus on the sensitive periods, putting them into the
perspective of the child’s development.
Maria Montessori divides the child’s life into three
main periods (Isaacs B., 2012). The first one, from birth to six years old, is
also called the “Absorbent Mind”. The second period, “Childhood”, is from six
to twelve years old. The last period, from twelve to eighteen, is also known as
“Adolescence”.
In
order to unfold and grow, the child has been given an “absorbent mind” to go
through the “sensitive periods”. Both concepts are fundamental in the
Montessori pedagogy. The term “absorbent mind” refers to the child’s ability,
from their creation in the mother’s womb to the
age of three, to learn constantly without any effort, thanks to their
interactions with the environment around them. Montessori compares the child’s
mind to an embryo (Isaacs, 2012).
This period can itself be
subdivided into two stages: the “spiritual embryonic period” (Montessori, 2007) – from zero to three years old -
and the “social embryonic period” (Montessori, 1966) – from three to six years
old. The spiritual embryo refers to the unconscious absorbent mind (Lillard,
1972): like a sponge, the child explores the world and collects information to
start to build their understanding of it. Those experiences are collected in
the “mneme” (Isaacs B., 2012), their unconscious memory.
During the second stage, the child gradually pays more attention to the
others around them, becoming a “social” person. From three to six, the child
will classify their impressions, making sense of the world in a more conscious
way.
The
psychic development happens hand-in-hand with the physical development, one
influencing the other. It results in a “normalized”, balanced, and fully
blossomed child. In order to reach this state, the child will go through
different sensitive periods.
These
periods are moments in the child’s life when specific abilities or skills are
omnipresent. The child keeps on repeating actions in order to master those
skills. Lead by a great inner natural will to develop, the child looks to fulfill
their human needs and understand the world. This special will is also named
“horme” (MCI, 2010). We can see that the child shows genetic traits unique to
human beings: it is what we call the human tendencies to adapt to any kind of
environment (such as the homo sapiens leaving his cave [Stephenson, 2000]). Let
us present the sensitive periods with regard to their
human tendencies.
The sense of order is the first to appear,
from the first months of life. Order helps the child to understand and
categorize the world, creating their conceptual framework. Order has to be
everywhere in their environment – environment including space, time (routine),
and relationships with their people. Montessori states: “It is necessary for
the child to have this order and stability in his environment because he is
constructing himself out of the elements of the environment… It is his
foundation” (Standing, 1984, p.125-126). The peak of this period happens when
the child is one and a half year: at that age, the child can walk and
manipulate the objects around them, allowing them to explore even more. For
instance, a one-and-a-half-year-old toddler sees a shiny cube on the other part
of the room, takes it, looks at it intensively and decides to show it to their
parents. They will then walk back to the place where they originally found the
object to put it in the exact place where it was. Then, evolving in a secure
and predictable environment with order will allow them to fulfill their human tendencies
for exploration and orientation.
The sense of movement is present since the
fetus is moving in the womb, and that period lasts for six years. The child
needs to move, and according to Montessori, movement is a key in the process of
learning (Lillard, 1972). Little by little, the child refines their motor
skills (gross and fine) through the repetition of many different movements
(pulling, pushing, grabbing…). Repetition is a human tendency visible in the
young child: in order to master their new faculty, a toddler repeats many times
the same action, acquiring precision. One of the clearest examples can be seen
by observing a child who has recently learnt how to walk. They can walk for
hours from one place to another for the only sake of moving. One of the main achievements
in a child’s life is mastering how to walk. It is a great step towards
independence: it allows the child to become an active being able to explore an
even wilder world. Thus, the sense of movement shows the human tendencies for orientation,
repetition, and exploration.
From
six months old, the child shows a great interest in small objects. This sensitivity for details shows that the
child becomes more aware of his environment. A six-month-old baby will for example
grab the shampoo whereas their parents are washing them, and stare at the ingredients
list for a long time with great interest. Details are part of the environment the
child is trying to conquer.
The sensitivity for language starts from the
mother’s womb and lasts until the age of five. It is a very important part of the
child’s development, and it fosters the tendency of communication and
gregariousness. It becomes a core tool during the social embryonic stage.
Montessori uses Itard’s experience with the boy from Aveyron that had been excluded
from any contact with language in his first years, to prove that the
environment is decisive in order to develop the sense of language. That boy had
been kept apart from any language environment during his first years of life,
and thus had never learnt how to communicate properly.
Together
with the sense of language, the sensibility
for the refinement of the senses is central in the social embryonic stage. By
exploring with their hands and tongue, the toddler learns how to discriminate their
senses and foster their coordination. For Montessori, the path to intellectual
development is going through the hands (MCI, 2010). Through repetition, their
senses become more precise. We can see that
children are all the time touching what makes their environment: it is a way to
understand it.
The last
sense is the one for social aspects of
life. It doesn’t start before the age of three, when the toddler is aware
of the others and less self-centered than before. The child wants to be part of
a group (gregariousness) and starts to imitate his peers. This sense is based
on the human tendency for communication, enabled by the recently acquired
language skill. For Montessori, the wish to be part of a group belongs to human
nature, creating a spontaneous cohesion in the
group (Montessori, 2007). It is obvious in the Children’s House when one of the
pupils is missing: the rest of the group will notice it, and ask for the reason
why the group is not complete.
Now that we have discussed in details the process of
child growth, we can wonder what we adults can do to support the child in this first
crucial stage.
Maria Montessori said: “Just as a physical embryo
which needs its mother’s womb in which to grow, so the spiritual embryo needs
to be protected by an external environment that is warm with love and rich in
nourishments, where everything is disposed to welcome, and nothing to harm it”
(Montessori, p.165, 1964). We will first focus
on the reason why the six first years of life are crucial, then we will reflect
on the adult’s role in supporting the child, and we will eventually highlight
the elements needed for the best environment.
If the
child misses the chance to explore those senses during their first six years,
Montessori assures that their psychic development will never be able to reach its
best potential (Lillard, 1972). Therefore, the environment – such as the
mother’s womb for the physical embryo – has to support the child’s needs in their
path to self-construction. The goal of early education is to allow the child to
build their character and future social role, until they reach the “normalized”
state. As such, the child will be able to play an important role for a better
society. “This is the most important single result of our whole work”, states
Montessori (Montessori, 2007, p.186). Thus, we have to put the greatest efforts
in order to build a favorable environment for those future citizens.
Montessori
explains the process of the child’s self-construction as the result of two conditions:
freedom, within a favorable environment (Isaacs, 2012). The environment stands
for both prepared adults and prepared classroom.
The
adult has a decisive role in the process. Our main goal is to teach the child
how to be independent, as the child needs freedom to bloom (Montessori, 1966).
Therefore, the teacher has to be a guide towards the child’s path to self-construction (Isaacs, 2012).
As a
role model of behavior for the children, Montessori says that “the teacher
should be precise like a scientist,
and spiritual like a saint” and also
“patient like a servant” (Montessori,
1965, p.138). The saint would show a great respect for the
uniqueness of each child and have faith in their fundamental goodness and in their
individual potentials. The servant would be patient, have the capacity to stand
back and refuse to control the child to leave them the opportunity to make
choices and express themselves (Isaacs, 2012). Kindness, consideration, and consistency
are required as well. The scientist would be able to reflect on their actions
and practice, always aiming at what is best for the child. In order to know
what the child needs and accompany them in their path, the teacher needs to
observe (Montessori, 1966). In order to analyze those observations, we should have
updated knowledge of the child’s development. Thus, the teacher can anticipate,
prepare, and improve the environment to fulfill their thirst of discovery.
The
teacher (prepared adult) is the custodian of the (prepared) environment. We should
not teach the children, but instead prepare a rich environment to allow them to
teach themselves through exploration, manipulation, and discovery (MCI, 2010). To
be favorable, the environment has to allow the child to be free and to express their
human tendencies in the discovery of the sensitive periods.
Providing
freedom in a class is a key principle of the Montessori pedagogy (Montessori,
1965); the limits thereof are the ground rules of the class. Freedom actually
creates a sense of responsibility from the child within the group they belong
to. Having freedom also implies having self-discipline (Isaacs, 2012).
A
Montessori classroom is well-structured, tidy, and predictable for the child,
in order to foster both senses of order and movement. If the environment
changes constantly or is messy, the child will be confused and will not be able
to create the conceptual frameworks they need. To fulfill the natural tendency
for orientation, the organization of the classroom is logical, with well-delimited
areas (practical life activities, education of senses, numeracy and arithmetic,
literacy, cultural studies, and an access to the outdoors). Exploration is
possible only if the child feels safe. In the classroom, each child is able to
move, choose an activity (placed on low shelves, reachable by the small ones),
work, and put it back. Therefore the teacher needs to take great care of making
sure that the material is where and how it is supposed to be in the classroom,
ready for the next explorer. If so, the child can independently make good use
of it without any assistance. As for the didactic material designed for the
children’s use and size, the children are able to carry the classroom furniture (Montessori, 1966). The room is spacious so the
children can sit on the floor (Isaacs, 2012).
The material is made from natural matters, and the walls are free from too many
decorations. Nature can be found in the classroom (plants). The atmosphere is calm,
relaxed, and harmonious.
In a
Montessori classroom, you will find pupils of different ages. Indeed, the
vertical grouping is a very important principle of Montessori pedagogy, putting
together children with up to three years of
difference. The result is like a small society. Moreover, we can notice that
learning is more natural in this way. For instance, Jan, 5, is tying his shoelaces.
Maria, 4, is looking at him. She tries to imitate him, and fails. She goes to
Jan, and asks him to teach her how to tie hers. The result is that Jan learns on
a deeper level the activity he is teaching and Maria learns with great interest
how to tie shoelaces, imitating Jan. They use their language skills and they
develop social cohesion.
Now that
we have considered the classroom and its organization, let us focus on the material on the shelves. It is rich,
beautiful, attractive, and located within the visual field of the child. The
material helps the child to go through the period of refinement of the senses.
It presents a great diversity of sensorial components such as weights, textures,
or colors (Stephenson, 2000). The learning process has to be separated in
different achievable steps, supported by different pieces of material. Its
purpose has to be clearly defined, with a control of error. Thus, the child is
able to learn by themselves, totally independent from adults.
The child
is free in the classroom: in their space (they can walk, sit on the floor, or
grab a table), in their time (the organization of the day
in work cycles and cycles of activities, with breaks when needed), and in the
activity conditions (working alone or with other children). If the child is
free, they will follow the “horme”. Only then the learning will reach its
higher potential, and the child will fully bloom.
The first years of any human being are both wonderful
and mysterious. The child is going through different stages specific to their
needs. As adults, we have to support the child’s in this hard path. To be able
to follow the child, we have to know the child. Therefore, Montessori’s
theories must be the foundation of our work, the frame of our behaviors.
Bibliography
·
Isaacs, B (2012) Understanding the
Montessori Approach London: Routledge (Chapter 2: Montessori’s views on
Children’s Development, Chapter 4: Teaching & Learning, Chapter 5: The
Favourable Environment)
·
Lillard, P. P (1972) Montessori: A
Modern Approach New York: Schocken Books (Chapter 2: The Montessori Philosophy)
·
Montessori Centre International (2010) Module 1 Philosophy
London: MCI.
·
Montessori, M (1964) The Montessori
Method New York Schocken Books
·
Montessori, M (1965) Dr
Montessori’s Own Handbook New York Schocken Books
·
Montessori, M (1966) The Secret of
Childhood New York: Ballantine (Chapter 3)
· Montessori, M (2007) The Absorbent
Mind Amsterdam: Montessori Pierson Publishing Company (Chapter 23: Cohesion in
the Social Unit)
·
Standing, E. M. (1998) Maria
Montessori, Her Life and Work New York: Plume
·
Stephenson, M.E. (2000) The Human
Tendencies NAMTA Journal (Vol.25 (No.3), pp 5 - 22.
