Maria Montessori, Order, Deviation, and Naturalization

I love this woman: Maria Montessori. She was a wise woman, born wise, stayed wise. She had a mother who believed in her and she was blessed with a good upbringing. She was perceptive to the struggles of the world and had a good heart that wanted to help. She was intelligent, and diligence fueled her life. I really admire this woman.

She created materials that are age appropriate and promote concentration naturally. She comes from a time when adults really tried to hammer in "education" into supposedly empty, blank-slated child, and she instead recognized that humans have an inner drive to learn and explore, and their interests shouldn't be thwarted.

I am so happy we have come so far socially that children quite regularly have chairs and tables that fit their height. Did you know that having furniture adapted to the size of children was her idea? We can even thank her for the proliferation of playgrounds. However, the toy industry and capitalism has created a cacophony of sounds and flashing lights and entertainment entrapments that don't nourish the growth of a child. They are certainly attractive, but so not spark real interest.

Babies and toddlers and children can concentrate, and given the right materials, they will do it willingly and naturally. Montessori observes that after "working" at a task of their own accord, they seem rested and at peace. In her day, children were made to memorize and do dull tasks and the common problem was that children became fatigued. Their willpower was being sapped!

Besides her observations on children, I appreciate her view on the necessity of the caretaker to prepare herself mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically for taking care of the child. The directress of a Montessori class needs to be self aware and contained in her manner, only intervening when a child is deviating and becoming disruptive. She needs to show how the materials are to be used and not allow them to be used inappropriately. The point of not misusing materials is controversial with Waldorf lovers because Steiner as well as Froebel values imaginative play. I did too, until I read the observations Maria makes, and then felt it out with my own experience. She had designed materials to teach them math, to teach them language. I have observed children in classrooms using these materials playfully without the interruption of a teacher, but they do receive lessons on the materials so that they can be used appropriately and the value can still be gained. Imaginative children will play. Surely some directresses will be stricter than others regarding how closely to follow the guideline of the materials. I have found that if a child is playing a lot, they enjoy making art. We can direct them away from the language and science materials that they are "misusing" so they can come back to them later and learn how to categorize scientific objects, or how to discover the initial sounds of language material.

Maria observed that children were given doll houses and toys to play with, but in her observation they preferred to do real work. She described dignified children who have a sense of order and self discipline. They are grounded and more concerned with reality and figuring out how it functions, organizing reality into categories of similarity and contrast. That is why it is called "work" and not "play", because according to Maria, a child's work is to build a person, an adult who will function in the world. And for this the child must understand it first.

And it seems to me, through observing my own son, that pretend play and imaginative play is a process of experimenting in the Mind, with ways that a world COULD work, and practicing by repetition what he already knows.

It does not really build much on top of worldview unless an adult is contributing real dialogue, and not creating fantastical fairy tales on top of reality.

Maria doesn't advocate against fairy tales, though. She says that at around age 7, when a child already understands basic reality, fairy tales become interesting because it is a platform from which to explore morality and sort out conflict of characters.

For a child younger than 6, however, fairy tales only confuse them about reality.

Personally, I love fairies and mermaids. However, I have never liked the idea of lying to children about Santa Claus. It seems unfair, deceitful and totally unnecessary. I know a few who have vivid memories of realizing the lie, and they are very atheist now, and I think there is a connection there.

Our parents shouldn't lie to us intentionally!

Anyway, Maria Montessori worked tirelessly until she died an old lady.

I admire Rudolph Steiner too, but female role models come along so rarely in my life. She enrolled in a boys technical school at age 14 and then med school in 1890 when no other women were admitted. She graduated with flying colors and amidst opposition and then represented feminist occupational movements by the time she was 27 or 29.

I'm 25 and I've studied diligently but not nearly enough compared to her!