Minds on Montessori

To create a Montessori classroom, you need a prepared environment with specially designed materials tailored to the sensitive periods and characteristics of children in the particular plane of development.   You need a prepared directress to connect the children to the prepared environment.   And you need the children.   Many adults who study Montessori feel strongly that it is the best way to educate children.   Some of these adults go on to become Montessori directresses. These directresses-in-training learn the history of Montessori education and the facets of its theory.   They learn precise purposes and extensions of materials and the ways to present them.   They study details such as how to walk across a classroom, how to position one’s body when talking to a child, how to use encouragement instead of praise, and the list goes on.   Through observation, these directresses learn to follow the child. Some directress training happens in lectu...

This post is inspired by recounts of the AMI Montessori Refresher Course held in Tampa, FL in February.  At the conference, Montessori Teacher Trainer Ginni Sackett of Portland led a session on working at the "intersection of home, casa, community, and culture."  Sackett advised directresses to "meet the child at the door" to recognize that each child comes to school from a different family, value set, neighborhood, socioeconomic class, and the list goes on.  Children are wired to absorb the cultures that surround them.  If a child is born in Vietnam, she will learn Vietnamese; if a child is born in Ecuador, he will learn to eat rice, beans, potatoes, and corn.  If a child frequently watches cartoons or plays videogames, he will become accustomed to these activities.  We cannot begrudge a child for absorbing the cultures he experiences, but we can "meet him at the door" of the Montessori Children's House and help him apply order to the many parts ...

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend an AMI training session for Assistants with sessions on movement and transitions in the classroom.  Jennifer Shields, the Primary Teacher Trainer, who presented on movement emphasized its importance in childhood development and the Montessori environment. Movement is one of the major acquisitions during the first plane of development, which stretches from birth to age six.  During this time, "neurons that fire together wire together," and a substantial amount of brain development must occur.  In the Montessori environment, children's work is intrinsically tied to movement.  Whether children are walking in the classroom (control within group), walking the line (whole body coordination), carrying materials (order), or using materials (hand-eye coordination; absorb concrete concepts); their movement serves not only as a means to an end, but as a primary vehicle for absorbing new ideas.  Montessori dire...

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend an AMI training session for Assistants with sessions on movement and transitions in the classroom.  Denise Merkel, the Montessori directress (A to I), who presented on transitions compared leading transitions with toddlers to "trying to herd cats: it's just not possible."  The presenter reminded us that the transitions we deal with do not involve choice, which is the antithesis of the rest of the children's experience in the Montessori environment.  Whether the children need to transition from outdoor play to lunch or from nap to dismissal, we ask them to control themselves which is challenging since they have not fully developed the inhibitory pathways in the brain. The presenter said it's the child rolling on the floor or using his jacket as Superman's cape who needs us most.  We must lend our calmness and ability to make choices to this child.  We must exaggerate our calmness, as we do our caref...