Et voilà, c'est ainsi que s'est terminée ma formation Montessori. Un petit essai réflexif sur ce que le cours nous a apporté, et s'en vont... Une jolie page bien dense dans mon cahier d'enseignante, qui risque bien de changer toutes celles qu'il me reste à écrire ! J'ai donc tout validé, je suis officiellement une praticienne Montessori (Youhou!).
Voici le fameux dernier essai:
When I arrived at Bloom, I have been dazzled by the
smiles. The children’s smiles, first. Then, the teachers’ and the school
staff’s smiles. I was just arriving from the former school I used to work in,
in Toulouse, France. This school is a public one from the French National
Education System. What stroke me the most, was the contrast between these two
schools. In one, I have found joyful people. In the other one, I have found
stressed children and stressed teachers.
What
is the inner distinction between those two schools so the result is that
different? This question is the reason why I decided to participate in this
Montessori training Bloom school offered me. I wanted to figure it out. The
process has been intense, but I found the answer. Watch out, it is not going to
fit in one line.
Very often, people ask me: “What is Montessori?” To
make it short, I often answer: “Montessori is freedom for the child in a
prepared environment”. The other day, I was leaving Sarajevo to come back to my
home town. In the flight, I started to chat with my neighbor. He asked me why I
was in Bosnia. I explained him that I came to finish a Montessori training I
started in March. “Montesso-what?”, he asked. I tried with the fast answer, but
it didn’t convince him. “By freedom, do you mean that the children can do what
they want, when they want? If so, I am sure they would spend the whole day playing
with construction game!” And suddenly, I realized that I have learnt a lot for
the last 6 months. “If they feel they want to play with construction game”, I
said, “it means that they need it. They need it because they need to touch, to
see, to hear, to feel, to experiment shapes with all their senses. It is in
human nature, answering to human tendencies that we all have inside of us. We
want to explore by ourselves to understand the world around us.” First, he
stayed still. Then, he asked: “But what if they never want to work? If I would
have the choice between working and playing, I would play, there is no doubt
about it!”. Well, I answered him that every child wants to learn, because
learning will allow them to understand the world and fit in it. My neighbor
nodded slowly, looking in front of him. “Ok, I get that. But if the child is
doing what he wants with the objects in the classroom, they don’t need any teacher
anymore!”. I was expecting this one… “In a Montessori classroom,” I replied,
“teachers are not at the center of the attention. They are more like a guide to
the child in their own path to grow and learn. The teacher is here to prepare
the environment (the material, the organization, the order) and observe the
children, to understand what they need to fulfill their thirst of discovery.”
My neighbor looked at me, and said: “I wish I had studied in such a school.”
Well actually, I wish I had, too !
I have studied all my education in the public French
system, where teachers are stressed and children are stressed. 8 A.M.: French;
9 A.M.: math. September: multiplication tables from 2 to 5; October:
multiplication tables from 5 to 9. Where is the respect for individuality and
human rhythm – both children’s and teachers’ – in such a tight schedule? In a
word, where is the respect for nature? The public French system is like a
factory. They want everyone to fit in a box. And this causes stress: “What if I
don’t fit in it?” or “What if I don’t manage to make my students fit in it?”,
are worries shared by many of us.
Despite
of that, I have personally been mostly happy over my school years. “Excellent
student.” Yes, I was an excellent little robot which was able to answer what
the teachers expected me to answer. Please the teachers, please the society. Everyone
is happy, Daddy, Mummy, bravo.
And
suddenly, you’ve grown up. You go to university, and no one cares about you. No
one asks you anything. Independence of learning, self-esteem, creativity in
problem solving are some of the skills that you need to face this big change.
Let me check in my schoolbag, I must have something helpful in there! Mmmh…
“multiplication tables”… No. “e=mg²”… Mmmh, I don’t think this will help me
either. Oh, blast! I have spent 15 years of my life at school, taking in tones
of formula, dates and vocabulary, being told that I am one of the best students
of my grade, but I am not good at adult’s life! Well, I have learnt in the hard
way. After a couple of years, I was able to show the qualities requested for
university and I was feeling comfortable in my studies and in my life. But I am
a lucky one: I have been raised in a loving and peaceful family, with respect
and harmony. What about all those other people who have not been that lucky?
What do they feel when they don’t fit in the box? What did my neighbor from the
flight feel when he had been told that he was “bad at school”. Bad at school,
bad at life? Well, those people feel fear of the world, of life and of the
others; they feel a lack of self-esteem and ambition. How can someone with
those feelings would try to make the box that is our society nicer, wider and
more welcoming?
Here
is the main point of education: to make everyone able to take part in society
and in its betterment, to help future human beings to grow at their full
potential, ready to make the world they belong to a better place. And this is
why Montessori’s philosophy and education struck me that much. Education should
be nothing but holistic - because a human being is a whole. It is Montessori
schools’ main objective, and every Montessori practitioner is heading towards
it, looking carefully at the child walking in front of them… or better said,
following the child.
As a future teacher, I am very thankful to have
crossed the path of those children and teachers, the path of the Montessori
community. It put some words on my unease towards mainstream educative systems,
and fostered my ideas about education.
First
of all, I have been astonished to learn more about child’s development. Of
course, I was familiar with some elements thanks to the Teaching University I
have attended in France. But the knowledge I acquired with the training is much
more practical than theoretical. I have been taught how to observe and analyze children’s
behaviors. From then on, I can’t help thinking when I look at a toddler picking
a small piece of stone on the floor, “Would this baby be exploring his
sensitive period for small objects?” Everything makes sense now, as I am
observing a child. It is the same with movement: I used to see the child’s need
for movement as a need of letting off the steam. Now I understand and I respect
that every child needs to move, not only during recess but all day long, in any
of the activities they would do.
The
role of a Montessori teacher is another thing that blew my mind. Passing from being
the point of attention under the spotlights, on the stage, to hide behind the
curtains, was very surprising for me. I was used to see – and to be – the
teachers standing in front of the students, waiting for gathering the attention
of all the children at the same time to start the show. In a Montessori
classroom, the theater show is still on, but the actors are no longer the
teachers but the children. The teacher is at the same time director – preparing
cautiously every detail of the environment, guardian of its order and harmony –
and audience – carefully observing and analyzing the little actors exploring
the stage. Montessori refers to the teacher as a scientist, a saint and a
servant. All those professions are based on one thing: the virtues. My
director/audience teacher needs some virtues to be a genuine Montessori
teacher: they must show love, compassion and patience towards all the little
actors on stage, to be able to analyze their needs without judging them. The
teacher’s perspective in Montessori approach definitely changed my point of
view and my behavior, both inside and outside the classroom.
As a
language teacher, I nevertheless think it is challenging to act like a real
Montessorian. How can the child learn a new language just through the use of
materials? According to me, it is very hard to do, and probably not the best.
To learn a language means to practice it in order to communicate. Then, I think
that if Montessori’s classroom organization is not very compatible with
teaching languages, Montessori’s philosophy is. For example, by letting the
child making their own choices in their learning, by proposing motivating,
appealing and funny activities, and by creating concrete situations such as pen
friends’ correspondence. Language is a subject that can be mixed with many
others. By this way, it is not hard to imagine joining French learning to the
students’ current project, sticking to Montessori’s precept: follow the child.
My time at Bloom school and the Montessori training
have both turned my teaching perspective upside down. And for the best: I feel
now more in harmony with myself as a professional of education. One thing still
remains disturbing for me. Nowadays, all over the world, most of the Montessori
schools are private schools and expensive ones. Thus, this wonderful pedagogy
is for now reserved for the upper class of society. This fact is in total
opposition with Montessori’s first years of practice, dedicated to the needy. I
dream about a free education system, welcoming all kind of children from all
economic and social backgrounds, following the philosophy of the great
pedagogue who is Maria Montessori. But I deeply think that most of the
Montessori’s precepts can be adopted by any kind of school, in any places of
the world, no matter the admission fee. More than fancy objects and beautiful
buildings, Montessori for me is a way of living, a way of loving.
