Dr. Maria Montessori’s Language Environment, like the rest of her intricately designed philosophy of education, was prepared with the child in mind at every turn. Each nuance revealed by the child, every detail of their interests, the idiosyncrasies of their development, noted and embedded into her practice. The language environment being unique in that it is perhaps most readily pervasive in daily life. For our Cultural and Math studies, our pedagogy and practice as Montessori educators are primarily aimed at bringing the outside in and relating learning out into the world. Language, however, is as universal and equally necessary for all students regardless of background or experiences. Everyone has the experience to tie a verb to. Where math reveals the patterns of the universe and culture shows the people and places who’ve interpreted it over time, language is that common struggle across all of time and history for connection, community, and communication.
As you enter our bustling classroom filled with chatter, you may hear sounds of distraction, excitement, or pondering. I hope, that regardless of the content, you will choose to hear learning. Language in the Montessori Environment looks like colorful cards and big black spheres and maybe even a miniature bathtub, but above all else, it looks like everyday communication. Every verbal or non-verbal message between my students builds the rapidly ever-growing sense of communication for your child. I am honored to be in the presence of their thoughts every day, whether they make it perfectly onto paper or not, and I’ll ensure the Mechanics, Word Study, Grammar, and Sentence Analysis skills are ready for when they do. In addition to being in alignment with, and often exceeding Ohio State Standards, our language curriculum is child-led and aimed at the joy of learning. Joyful learning leads to meaningful work. Perhaps you have noticed your child making developmentally appropriate spelling errors or flipping letters backward. It isn’t that we aren’t aware, it’s that we’re celebrating the effort along the way. If we aren’t addressing the spelling error, we are probably focusing on another skill, like capitalizing the first letter in a sentence or remembering that pesky end punctuation. The best writers of all time received those accolades, not for their perfect grammar on the first try, but the authenticity and vulnerability of their writing. To build that kind of confidence, we must make sacred space for the child to safely express their creative thoughts. Dr. Maria Montessori is well noted for many contributions, her most well-known being her theory of Sensitive Periods within different Planes of Development. Many parents find themselves in great company to discover that the 3-6-year-old child is in their sensitive period for order and is developmentally appropriate in losing it over a broken cheese stick or a particular toy out of place. The 6-9 child, however, develops into a new social being, one wherein “The direct teaching of handwriting in a low- stress, positive atmosphere is effective when the children are still sensitive to the joys of movement” (Woods, 2001, p. 41). It is essential that we, both at home and school, support that joy of movement. When joy is fostered from the beginning, improving and correcting towards exactness will naturally follow. The love of learning is followed by the love of improvement and correction, we need not harshly examine their first attempts at writing. Whereas, "Later on the children themselves will tend to become careless in the exact performance of their movements. Their interest in developing the coordination of the muscles will begin to decline. The mind of the child will press on, he will no longer have the same love that he had before" (Montessori, 1967, p. 88). This is not to say that your third year child is headed for a loss of the love for learning, but they will never again have the precise and immense joy of writing for the first time. The longer we can stretch this passion and joy, the greater the possible learning outcome. Assist me in assisting your child by celebrating their attempts at writing and reading. Promote storytelling in the car ride home, listen to their questions about the world, collaborate towards those answers. Ultimately, the role of communicating with your child, at this special stage, is to sculpt an environment for their natural explosion into a language to thrive. Perhaps most universal to the 6-9-year-old experience, regardless of class, culture, or continent is the inevitable and unavoidable question: where do babies come from? Laughable as it seems, your child is at the exact age for questioning the origins of our universe. At the core of answering, “Who am I?” and “Where did I come from?” It is the innate desire for children to answer their great cosmic call back to cosmogonic origins. The language enigma, in the mind of the child, is no exception. Where and how language developed is at the core of exciting the child about its modern usage and understanding its very human beginning. The need and desire to communicate which spurred on ancient peoples is that same urge inside of you and me. How incredible to realize, for the very first time, that you are a part of a world not only so much bigger than you but older, too. The Great Lessons, the backbone of Dr. Montessori’s Cosmic Curriculum, includes the History of Language, a thrilling tale on early communication. Storytelling is used, in this instance, to peak initial inquiry and spark the inevitable conversation. Although this Great Lesson kicks off our language curriculum, Dr. Montessori’s employment of the miraculous power of storytelling on children didn’t end here. The grammar many of you were raised on has transformed into a story-telling, interactive game your child will love. I don’t say this merely as their teacher but as the personal beneficiary of the Montessori Method of being taught grammar. While we may hold onto the old faithful School House Rock songs, or other pneumonics, Dr. Montessori’s gift to perhaps the world’s driest subject, the parts of speech, ignites children towards the kind of joy in learning you’d expect to see when they learn about their favorite Pokemon, stuffed animal, or song. It ignites the light in their eyes only visible when a personal touch has connected with the innermost part of the child. Storytelling capitalizes on the captivating power of the human narrative. The universal draw of our methodology is precisely that: how do we tell living, breathing stories, present impressionistic lessons, and make a lasting impact not only on the child’s long-term memory of the content but of the joy that they felt. How can we, as frequently as possible, tie learning to play? By preparing the environment for it. Preparing the Montessori environment for all of these seemingly silly stories about noun pyramids, or magic compound word baskets, of course, requires the teacher to prepare countless baskets full of the necessary materials for the grand show, but it also requires preparing the community culture. A literacy centered environment is text-rich and full of environmental text (words labeling things outside of books or on the language shelf, something you could find in a grocery store even), as well as a variety of books. Do not shy away from allowing your child, especially as an emergent reader, to explore a variety of genres and styles of writing. For some students, wordless books and graphic novels are precisely what is needed to spark a love of reading. Furthermore, parents are better equipped to motivate their children to read. Parents provide excitement about reading that only a parent can. The emotional bond promotes connection and deeper learning. Students who read the most, read the best, achieve the most, and stay in school the longest. Homes with print-rich environments (such as newspapers, magazines, or books) can help ensure success for children (Trelease, 2009). Overall, the home is where children learn who they are and where they come from. We want to help children see themselves as readers and authors of literature. Just as the child’s definition of self comes from the home, thus so does their love for language. Language is a representation of culture, “Not only does it fuse men into groups and nations, but it is the central point of difference between the human species and all others. Language lies at the root of that transformation of the environment, we call civilization” (Montessori, 113, 1995). In this way, language makes us human and enables us to teach and to learn. Language is the conduit through which humans attach with each other and our ideas, it is the heartbeat of connection. Mechanics, Word Study, Grammar, and Sentence Analysis, the four pillars of our instruction, all weave in and out of the reading and writing happening inside and outside of our classroom. Grammar, the backbone of logical thinking about the way we speak, is perhaps most paramount in the 6-9 Montessori classroom, “By teaching grammar, we help him master perfectly the spoken language that he is absorbing” (Montessori, p. 174, 1995). We support students inside the classroom, and eagerly await collaboration in continuing the joy of reading and writing at home. Writing connects the hypothetical knowledge in the brain to the physical realities of paper, “writing is a double gain. It enables the hand to master a vital skill…and to create a second means of communication that reflects the spoken word…Writing is thus dependent upon mind and hand” (Montessori, p. 131, 1946) Language is aimed at communication, connection, and community, and I, for one, am ecstatic to build this new collaboration with you. Works Cited Montessori, M. (1946). Education for A New World. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Montessori- Pierson Publishing Company. Montessori, M. (1967) The Discovery of the Child. Notre Dame, Ind., Fides Publishers. Montessori, M. (1995). The Absorbent Mind. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, Inc. Trelease, J. “Why Read Aloud to Children?” 2009. Woods, C. (2001). Handwriting Doesn't Have To Be a Lost Art. Spotlight: Language Arts. Montessori LIFE.
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Montessori geometric materials support the understanding of patterns, relationships, and functions to represent and explain real-world phenomena by integrating all subjects together to point outward to answer inward questions children ask. Independence in answering those questions through experiment, experience, and personal expertise scaffold the child towards deeper knowledge of math, the world around them, and themselves. The sequential preparation both of the three-year cycle and further planes of development capitalizes on current stages and sensitivities in preparation for the future. Early childhood sensorial materials such as the geometric solids prepare the child sensorially through impressionistic lessons to build vocabulary and synthesis in lower elementary grades. Abstraction, rooted in memory of sensorial experience with their environment, takes flight from a solid foundation. Furthermore, some materials don’t showcase a resurgence until the upper elementary environment, such as the binomial cube, which can now be represented using algebraic functions. Geometry, like all Montessori subjects, requires a careful dance between peaking curiosity in children and overstepping their Zone of Proximal Development. Much like the transition from pre-modernity to post-Cartesian principles, “we may say that the adult works to perfect his environment, whereas the child works to perfect himself using the environment as the means” (Standing, p. 143, 1998). The child, like Aquinas, uses the material world, taken in through sensation, to take on its perfection to fill the previous void and take on the form and perfection of the environment. Descartes, inventor of algebraic geometry and a singular method for math, would later argue for a new world wherein man is master and possessor of nature. If we want children to thrive in a post-modern world, we must first teach them the laws of the universe Descartes pursued through mathematical physics, and then use the standard of certainty found in this singular mathematical method of algebraic geometry as arbiter for certainty in all else. Handing the child the method inspires independence to reason and use the world around them to construct not only their consciousness, but tools and machines as they deem useful and necessary. This mature specimen, raised up according to the perfected environment for education, is set forth into freedom with reason and nature at their disposal. Montessori argued that “his hands under the guidance of his intellect transform his environment and thus enable him to fulfill his mission in the world,” and thus our pedagogy, aimed at the preparation of this, prepares the child for this faculty (Montessori, p. 81, 1936). Our prepared environment molds the consciousness of young children, but is therefore limited to our classroom. However, “to consider the school as the place where instruction is given is one point of view. But to consider the school as a preparation for life is another. In the latter case the school must satisfy all the needs of life” (Montessori, p. 5, 1973). When we emphasize the “real-world” of geometry, we re-center our instruction around children rather than standards, administration, or fleeting fads. Teaching children to gaze out the window during class, Montessori is dedicated to expanding the walls of a child’s classroom as broad as their little feet can carry them. The real world is unshakingly relevant across decades of instruction and future growth of children after they leave our care. The natural world sends a message all around: that math is ubiquitous, useful, and unrelenting in application. Trusting children to take in from the environment real experiences which they are independently capable of developing definitions and drawing conclusions from can feel overwhelming and threatening to both educator and student. Suddenly, struggling students appear as a liability, intelligent students in danger of moving to much further than their peers for you to assist in, and the diversity of experience a threat to standardized anything. Through preparation of the environment and preparation of the inner teacher, however, leaning into the natural perfection of geometry and its availability to the intellect can allow for greater educational acquisition than ever imagined. Through the normalization and extension of geometry into the natural world, educators and families can collaborate to create a community culture of recognizing geometry in all. “Creating an environment in which math is part of everyday life won't transform kids into overnight math sensations,” Ernst argues, “but perhaps it can help kids realize math is a subject for curiosity, discussion and growth” (Ernst, 2018). Other pedagogical masters agree, including Van Hiele’s Levels of Geometric Reasoning. Van Hiele’s levels, which must occur subsequently and over up to a decade of instruction require special activities for facilitating children through each stage through informal geometry activities, which ought to be focused on exploration and investigation, constructing and taking apart, hands-on drawings, and aimed at making “observations about shapes in the world around them” (Van de Walle). Stories and conversations about math ignite curiosity and capitalize on the emotional portions of the brain more likely to enter long-term memory. In addition to serving as an entry point into math, according to Ernst, children tend to “solidify their fear of math” from first to third grade, and they learn it from us; their educators, parents, and role models (Ernst, 2018). It is time we began a new narrative: one where geometry serves the child as a tool to master their environment, leads to creativity, and extends to deeper learning across all subjects. Squealing, “acute! A cute cute cute angle! It is so small and so cute!” may sound alarming to a neighboring classroom, but students will always remember the name of the littlest angle. They remember, not because they necessarily gained something more useful than the other names of angles, but because of how you made them feel, how you made them laugh, how you connected with something within themselves. Geometry connects with a variety of students for a plethora of different motivating factors, but with nature as your leverage, the buy-in power is often greater than other mathematical concepts. Math is the language of reason, but geometry is the language of creation. Patterns found in the universe and natural world remind us that those same patterns make up not only our experiences, but who we are. If the heart is a machine and a sickled cell is a cell which has lost its geometric perfection, suddenly geometry is a matter of life or death. Elliptical eyeballs impede eyesight, mis-calculated angles on bridges crash to the ground, and unevenly sliced pizzas lead to familial brawls. Visual imagery and personal buy-in lend themselves easily to mathematics focused on quality rather than pure quantity. For example, the function of a spider web is to catch and hold the weight of a bug horizontally and vertically to prevent it from falling. In the real-world, the function is to feed the fly to maintain the food chain, however, mathematically, the function of the structure is to provide the necessary strength, through the types of triangles, the distance of the threads between each other, the thickness or thinness of the material. The spider does not have a PhD in engineering, but rather, nature, just like an engineer, works smarter not harder. The real-world patterns that repeat do so intentionally, not necessarily by divine intention, but by the usefulness of the thing. Like Descartes, what is useful is what we will to be, given our present circumstance, with nature as our vessel towards satiating those needs and desires. A new creation narrative centers the child, in awe of the creation of patterns of the universe, creating from nature a new world and a new self: an independent problem solver. The personal interest of children for independence, community, and creation can be satiated by geometry, if taught correctly. Suddenly, children are allowed to self-regulate throughout the day by taking breaks to draw a still life of a geometric solid, take ownership of their research assignments by decorating a border using straight line designs, or finding a piece of themselves in the stories we tell about divergent lines who move to new schools. When we allow students to see that we have made room for all of who they are in every facet of our classroom, we give children our trust in exchange for the most meaningful, engaged work an educator could hope to receive from students. Comprehension skyrockets, quality of work increases, and most importantly, our community practices engage with who children are rather than what they can recite. The implications of Montessori’s geometry method stem beyond mathematics; they create a pattern in our classroom of building relationships of trust that children will function according to their own intellectual perfection, if only given the perfect environment and a teacher willing to sit on her hands. Works Cited Ernst, S. (2018, December 18). “How to make sure your math anxiety doesn't make your kids hate math.” Retrieved from https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/52749/how-to-make-sure-your-math-anxiety-doesnt-make-your-kids-hate-math. Montessori, M., & Carter, B. (1936). The Secret of Childhood. London: Longmans, Green and Co. Montessori, M. (1973). From Childhood to Adolescence. New York: Schocken Books. Standing, E. M. (1998). Maria Montessori, Her Life and Work. New York: Plume. Van de Walle, Elementary and middle school mathematics, pp. 311-349. Van Hiele, P. (1999). "Developing geometric thinking through activities that begin with play," Teaching Children Mathematics 5, no. 6. pp. 310-16. Dr. Maria Montessori, philosopher in the footsteps of Aquinas and Descartes, and researcher of children and scientist in the footsteps of Itard and Seguin, serves as revolutionary both in practice and in the significance of her conclusions and method of arriving at them. Where Descartes invented the first singular mathematical method combining algebra and geometry, Maria, in the wake of modernity, pedagogically united arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, and taught it early, trusting the child with The Method (of Descartes) through which they can know themselves directly and immediately independently. Always focused on freeing the child, Maria handed the best to the smallest. However, her emphasis on handing this knowledge to the child remains mediated by the material world prepared initially by someone who already completed this process of personal liberation and actualization. This method, according to a Socialist Congress at Berne, best serves the child, and “to be educated according to Dr. Montessori’s method is one of the social rights of man” (Standing, 1998, p. 57). The philosophical set aside, Maria managed to move the child through the process of habituation while letting them believe they were leading the way, creating a spirited and playful method which best served the child. If your math journey could have been a series of games, stacking towers as high as you could, and moving around the classroom with your friends to create your own bank, I’d imagine you would have loved math, too. The Montessori 6-9 math curriculum supports the child in the second plane of development and fosters a love of learning mathematics by intentionally targeting sensitive periods, skilled application of didactic materials, and storytelling.
Sensitive Periods found in the intermediate stage of childhood, the second plane of development, by targeting their sensitive periods for cosmic order, moral order, analytical thinking, and social peer or herding association (McDermott, 2011). In this stage, the child is mentally “in a state of health, strength, and assured stability” (Montessori, 1995, p. 30). In this stage, direct help impedes growth. Although the child is ready for instruction and remains impressionable to adult intervention, it is best practice to step back and allow the child to interact with the prepared environment. Wherein the stage of infancy contained growth with transformation, ages 6-12 exhibit growth without much transformation and “successive levels of education must correspond to the sensitive personalities of the child” (Montessori, 1973, p. 1). The new growth of the child nods a directress towards informing her instruction by her students’ developmental stages. This second level of education which occurs from 7-12 includes a “veritable metamorphosis” (Montessori, 1973, p. 2). We see this rapid, successive change from our 1st years as they emerge in strength of self-assurance and leadership. In our social community, works like the bank game require students to be patient and communicate with one another to work collaboratively towards a goal while capitalizing on that sensitive period for herding, moral order, and analytical thinking. Careful attention to sensitive periods as the entry-point for calling the child to the content of math is the real strength of Montessori’s pedagogical approach. Activities like this build up executive functioning skills such as perspective taking which serve our students to be that salvation for mankind that our world so desperately needs. Balancing the buzz of socialization with an environment that serves the focusing needs of all children requires careful planning and proactive classroom management, but done well, further amplifies the community’s sense of the needs of the whole community and how to take care of one another, advocate for yourself, and find room in between. The major transitions of children from 3-6 to 6-9 environments may outwardly seem like their noise-level, height, or perhaps even a new-found sassy attitude. However, for Montessori, “while the younger child seeks comforts, the older child is now eager to encounter challenges” (Montessori, 1973 p. 8). Calling on that competitive nature which takes on challenges, Montessori refers to most of her math materials as games. Children in this stage are obsessed with quantity and correlate mass with importance. Concepts such as water, with overwhelming size yet easily accessible experiences and schema, spark the imagination of the child. Thus, materials which involve large impressionistic lessons such as stacking thousand cubes as high as they won’t wobble or moving successively from a tiny cube which delicately sits inside the small hand of a young child all the way to a ginormous box larger than the teacher (hierarchy of numbers), symbol of human completion, can wrap their arms around, ignite the child’s desire for learning. Montessori utilized her knowledge and observations of children to design a method which perfectly served their development. Skilled and intentional creation and use of didactic materials by Dr. Maria Montessori serves as the tool which would free the child and eventually lead them into abstraction. Montessori’s incredible skill in creation, preparation, presentation, and utilization all serve the child in a more fluid and holistic manner than any other math curricula I have observed. Montessori's belief that the hand was the tool to the brain would not go untouched by her math materials. Montessori argued in the early 1900s that “his hands under the guidance of his intellect transform his environment and thus enable him to fulfill his mission in the world,” and research continues to prove her right today (Montessori, p. 81, 1936). Only under the guidance of intellect do the hands function properly. If we hand children meaningless didactics without control (control of error, observation, and assessment), we have defeated the purpose and violated Montessori’s intention. In other words, an untrained or unskilled use of even Montessori's own materials would likely prove fatal. "A second way Montessori instruction allows for children to have extended time with manipulatives is that it uses a limited, but central, set of math materials to represent number concepts and operations, " argues Laski et. al, asserting the importance of both use of the hand as sensorial faculty by which to take in the material world, as well as for intentional, consistent materials (2015). Major critique of other math manipulatives such as plastic bears for counting or unifix cubes with random coloration and non-meaningful shape simply confuse and take away from the intention of the activity. The aim becomes the plastic bear, not the math itself. However, Maria, the scientist and observer she was, dodged pre-emptively this critique. Her materials have consistency and intentionality in size, shape, and color, so that "when the concept of the relationship between unity, tens, hundreds, and thousands has matured spontaneously, he more readily will be able to recognize and use the symbol" (Montessori, 1964, p. 211). That genius of preparation of the materials is the gift which roots the child in the sensorial experience, ignited by imagination to take off into abstraction. "Our children gallop freely along over a smooth road, urged on by the inner energy of their growing psychic organism,” Montessori concludes, “while many other children plod on barefooted and in shackles over stony paths" (Montessori, 2007, p. 261). This essential spark of imagination is drawn out of the child through impressionistic lessons with storytelling as backbone of the cosmic curriculum. The Fifth Great Lesson, adapted from Montessori’s original by Syneva Barrett, published in The Deep Well of Time by Michael Dorer, begins by describing math and numbers as “gifts we have been given, by many people around the world” (Dorer, 2016, p. 129). The true power of both impressionistic lessons and storytelling is that humans rarely remember what we taught, sometimes remember what they did, but they always remember how they felt. It is so uniquely and intrinsically to tell and bear witness to story, that great human heartbeat. All communities tell stories, whether it be with oral or written traditions, sacred or unsacred text, classic symbols, themes, messages communicated by the prepared environment or inward preparation (or lack thereof) of the teacher, but the common thread which transcends all tapestry of the human experience is that great question which 6-9 year-olds love to ask; where do babies come from? Dr. Montessori’s response? Stardust. And where do numbers come from? Human necessities whose solution turned out as vast and diverse as the environments, experiences, and cultures of the person or peoples solving it. It is as if to say, “numbers are tools invented by very human people just like you and me to solve very human problems with very human solutions and this grand cosmic pattern which began long before you can even fully conceive is now yours ripe for the picking. Join me on this mathematical dance filled with laughter, creativity, and joy.” Works Cited Dorer, M. J., & Epstein, P. (2016). The deep well of time: the transformative power of storytelling in the classroom. Santa Rosa, CA: Parent Child Press a division of Montessori Services. Laski, E. V., Jor’dan, J. R., Daoust, C., & Murray, A. K. (2015). What Makes Mathematics Manipulatives Effective? Lessons From Cognitive Science and Montessori Education. SAGE Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015589588 McDermott, M. (2011). Four Planes of Development. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/19437369 Montessori, M., & Carter, B. B. (1936). The Secret of Childhood. London: Longmans, Green and Co. Montessori, M. (1964). The Montessori Methods. New York: Schocken Books. Montessori, M. (1973). From Childhood to Adolescence. New York: Schocken Books. Montessori, M. (1995). The Absorbent Mind. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, Inc. Montessori, M. (2007). The Advanced Montessori Method II. New York: Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company. Standing, E. M. (1998). Maria Montessori, Her Life and Work. New York: Plume. Dr. Maria Montessori developed a rich and broad cultural curriculum based on the perspective and needs of the child. The 6-9 cultural environment serves the child in their second plane of development, childhood, by targeting their sensitive periods for cosmic order, moral order, analytical thinking, and social peer or herding association (McDermott, 2011). The Montessori cultural curriculum effectively serves the 6-9-year-old child by employing Cosmic Education with impressionistic stories about the integration and interdependence of the universe, which fulfill and exceed developmentally appropriate standards.
Cosmic Education is that holistic lens under which students learn to synthesize vast knowledge and find universal connection in all things (Wells, 2018). Furthermore, Cosmic Education is telling the origin story of all things. It is answering the child’s innate desire to know the answers to questions of, “who am I?,” “where do I come from?,” and “where am I going?” (Blackford, 2018). Montessori differs from traditional education both in that the Montessori sequence fades from broad conceptualizations of the universe and the cosmos inwards towards examining the student in their universal context, rather than from a micro to macro scope and sequence, as well as seeking “to make students consciously aware of the fundamental unity of the entire universe” (Duffy & Duffy, 2014, p. 136). Furthermore, “facts are of less interest to the child than the way in which those facts have been discovered, and so children may be led to the history of human achievement, in which they want to take their part” (Montessori, 1989, p. 62). As children recognize their place in the universe and begin building themselves up in that context, Michael and D’Neil Duffy (2014) believe that the function of Cosmic Education is to help children bring about a better future: As we gaze into the future, exciting and alarming at the same time, we are faced with accepting responsibility for shaping that future. Our children have the opportunity of becoming conscious of the fundamental unity of humans, life, and the vast reaches of the universe. Only with this consciousness can they create a world that is peaceful for all human beings, as well as respectful of our place in the spectrum of living species and, ultimately, our place in the universe. Cosmic Education can prepare children to accept each challenge and make the wise choices that will persevere and advance the process of evolution (p. 137-138). In the introduction of concepts, didactic materials are used to build up a mental image; however, like a plane which begins rooted on the ground to build up potential, imagination is that force which lifts the child from concrete to abstract thoughts. Dr. Montessori discovered that “children show a great attachment to the abstract subjects when they arrive at them through manual activity” (Montessori, 1989, p. 13). The first plane of development prepares for the cosmic plane which follows (McDermott, 2011). The human character is prepared here, and "the cosmic ‘subject’ in the Casa dei Bambini is the ecology of the person and concerns, above all else, the interior dimension of the human being, whereas elementary, the cosmic "subject," is the ecology of the world and this concerns the exterior dimension of the being" (Grazzini, 1997, p. 40). Just as the physical environment of the classroom has developed the freedom of the child, the cosmos at large is constantly encoding the child with knowledge of the universal patterns of interdependence, bringing up humanity as a thread in the one-ness of all creation. On this note, Dr. Montessori asserts that “the point and the sphere touched the imagination of the younger child, leaving him full of enthusiasm for something beyond his former limits, belonging not to the physical environment, which is not possible to be grasped by the hand … imaginative vision is quite different from mere perception of an object, for it has no limits” (Montessori, 1989, p. 15). This is essential when building up comprehension of non-tangible content, such as ancient civilizations, far off planets, or microscopic organisms. Wikramaratne, a student of Dr. Montessori, discussed her time working with 11 and 12-year olds on Botany using the method of Cosmic Education. She prepared them with the sensorial orientation of the objects "so the children saw the differences before we showed them how culture has classified them," freeing the child from the rigid definitions which stand in the way of children attaching new knowledge to what is already known (Kahn, 2013, p. 89). This relates to the political and geographical maps. First, we introduce the geographic reality, then the man-made dividers. We are teaching geography on the surface, but we are exposing children to the idea that humans made choices which affect the way we perceive the world, and a new perception can be accepted, freeing the child from biases. Children are particularly attuned to stories. Cosmic Education includes 5 Great Lessons, including the Story of the Universe, the Story of Life, the Story of Humans, the Story of Language, and the Story of Numbers. Rather than impart memorization or regurgitation, “our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core” (Montessori, 1989, p. 16). Storytelling does precisely that; “by offering the child the story of the universe, we give him something a thousand times more infinite and mysterious to reconstruct with his imagination, a drama no fable can reveal” (Montessori, 1989, p. 17). These stories ignite the imagination of children which scaffolds between the concrete and the hypothetical. These impressionistic stories, along with their corresponding beautiful charts and engaging experiments, build up meaningful neurological pathways on which to build up knowledge. These stories are the umbrella under which the rest of the cultural curriculum hangs, an essential backbone of the Montessori cultural environment. The impressions often entice children who may feel less attached to other subjects, and as a result, serve as a perfect trampoline for launching cultural works into making meaningful connections to various other content areas. The cultural curriculum is integrated into all subjects so as to live out the Cosmic Education belief system of interconnectedness (Wells, 2018). As a doctor, Maria Montessori saw science everywhere, and she tucked it into many subjects. Just as “Cosmic Education attempts to establish the oneness of all living things with the Timeline of Life and all the biology presentations found within the Montessori curriculum,” Montessori intentionally structures the classroom to reflect curricular mutuality (Duffy & Duffy, 2014, p. 136). Notably, language materials can be made relevant to cultural studies, such as identifying parts of speech within sentence construction wherein the sentences discuss the cultural topic. The integration of all subjects is essential, but according to 9-12 Montessori educator Lisa Blackford, art and research elements smoothly blend together. She argued that due to the impressionistic age of stories and the importance of story-telling, there is a perfect opportunity provided to connect phonics to invoke creativity. Furthermore, children are sensitive to large numbers at this age (Montessori, 1989, p. 87). Integrating understanding what those large numbers look like in bead chains, such as when describing years or quantities of matter, leaves a powerful impression on students. This classroom unification builds up a physical reality which sculpts our students’ mental images. Due to this breadth and depth, rigid constraints cannot hold our Montessori cultural curriculum. Reviewing, reteaching, and going deeper than necessary is precisely what makes Montessori work. Translated into quantification, the Montessori cultural curriculum may appear erratic and ineffective, nonsequential at best. Montessori cultural curricula reach higher academic standards than traditionally taught to any given grade. In addition to being siloed based on content, limiting integration, the three-year cycle is left unimagined by the Ohio Content Standards for educators. For example, the word galaxy is not even mentioned until 7th grade in Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science, Earth and Space Science (ESS): Cycles and Patterns of Earth and the Moon. However, in works such as the Cosmic Nesting Boxes, the galaxy we live in is the foundational context of the lesson and the child’s universal positioning (History, 2019), (Ohio Department of Education, 2011). We trust our students with more and know that “we must offer grand and lofty ideas to the human mind, which we find ever ready to receive them, demanding more and more” (Montessori, 1989, p. 16). Furthermore, following the suggested order and sequence found in the back of Children of the Universe by Duffy & Duffy would suggest bouncing from grade to grade, pulling standards in an order which is not supported by the Ohio Department of Education. However, as a Montessori educator, it is necessary to remain unflinchingly dedicated to our pedagogy and to justify our standards by explaining that the concentric rings of cycles in our schools hit all the same destinations, even if it appears from the outside that we dig 10 foot tunnels and sprint to a seemingly unrelated topic across town before even crossing the street. It is our collective duty to trust the methodology, justify it on paper, and above all else, serve the child. Montessori knew that the child desired something more after being rooted in the concrete materials from ages 3-6. She sculpted a perfect environment for the 6-9-year-old which would build up mental images of the universe. Dr. Maria Montessori argued that “at 6 years of age all items of culture are received enthusiastically, and later these seeds will expand and grow” (Montessori, 1989, p. 5). Our responsibility is to harness this human potential while they are sensitive to cultural narratives to spark that innate imagination; “once the impressionistic lessons have been given, the children are ready to pursue a subject as far as their interest will carry them” (Duffy & Duffy, 2014, p. 37). Once we tease out minimal information and show how to use materials, it is our responsibility to sit on our hands and let the cosmos whisper its majesty into the ear of the child. We must trust Cosmic Education to do what we have prepared it to do; Cosmic Education connects, prepares, and empowers the child to be a student of the universe. Resources Blackford, L. (2018). The Nature of Cosmic Education. [Powerpoint Slides]. Duffy, D., Duffy, M. (2014). Children of the Universe. Parent Child Press. Grazzini, C. (1997). Cosmic Education at the Elementary Level and the Role of the Materials. The NAMTA Journal. 22(1). pp. 40-63. Kahn, D. (2013). The Kodaikanal Experience: Chapters 1 and 2. NAMTA Journal, 38(1), 84-96. Ohio Department of Education. (2011). Ohio's Learning Standards and Model Curriculum for Science. Earth and Space Science (ESS): Cycles and Patterns of Earth and the Moon: Grade 7. Retrieved from: http://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/Science/Ohios-Learning-Standards-and-MC/ScienceStandards.pdf.aspx?lang=en-US Opfer, L., Quaranta, R. Montessori Cultural Methods: History Album. (2019). Xavier University Montessori Teacher Education Program. McDermott, M. (2011). Four Planes of Development. Available from https://vimeo.com/19437369. Montessori, M. (1989). To Educate the Human Potential. Oxford: Clio. Wells, B. (2018). “Cosmic Education Content Paper.” Prepared for Lesley Roth in EDME 351. Last Friday morning I sat in the 3-6 classroom where I have observed all semester. I saw one 6-year-old walk herself over to the shelf and remove the movable alphabet box from the shelf, carrying it to her workspace. She had carefully prepared her rug for work and placed the box upon it. She removed the lid and began to work. I watched as her gentle small hands placed each wooden letter in a jagged row along the red yarn line that had been sewn through the rug. She proudly sprung up, looked at me with a smile broad across her face, and showed me the 5 sentences she had spontaneously constructed with hours of focus. She had spent her entire morning, a two-hour period, constructing stunning sentences like “I hav a balrena ornimant.” Her glowing pride shown through her face. The educators in the room had honored her approximations and celebrated where she was rather than intervene and superimposed their knowledge of correctness. Entirely independently the child was capable of practicing the process of sentence formation. The Montessori environment was prepared for her to carry, prepare, place, remove, and construct entirely by her own hands and without the hands of others. This is the power of the hand in conjunction with functional independence. Functional independence is the state in which an environment is fully navigable by the child, fulfilling their need for autonomy. Children learn through their senses, and the hand is the ultimate vehicle for learning in this way. The child requires an environment which allows them to navigate independently using their hand. The Montessori environment effectively serves the child through the didactic materials readily accessible to the child in the prepared environment. The hand is the primary tool for functional independence. The hand allows humans to manipulate the world around them and interact with the universe independently. A tool is only as powerful as its operator, and the empowered child makes excellent use of the hand in dominating their environment. A disempowered child is like a wilted flower who had infinite potential squelched by an inept environment. The hand is a powerful tool in the classroom. The hand scaffolds learning to abstract concepts by rooting them in a physical, manipulatable reality. If it is known that “always the child works operations in the concrete first, until the very essence of the “rule” becomes absolutely clear to him” then it is relevant to mention the key role of the hand in building up this concrete reality (Standing, 1998, p. 166). Dr. Montessori observed the child always watching and reaching to touch the world around them and created didactic materials to serve this desire. Children are forming themselves through their environment, and “when playing with this material, a child forms a visual image of the arrangement of the objects and can thus remember their quantity and order … the sense impressions obtained from these objects furnish material for the mind” (Montessori, 1967, p. 278). Not only does the hand have a unique key role unlike any other of the senses but is a part of caring for the whole child or practicing the Ignatian Value of Cura Personalis. Dr. Montessori questioned “must a man be classified either as a worker with his head or with his hands, instead of being allowed to function with his whole personality?” asserting that this would not serve the child (Montessori, 1989, p. 13). The child is a holistic being whose internal and external worlds are linked in a grand orchestra of perception on a journey towards the creation of self. Knowing that “the child’s intellect does not work in isolation but is everywhere and always intimately bound up with his body, particularly with his nervous and muscular systems” further expands upon the importance of the hand (Standing, 1998, p. 159). Ultimately, to value a child’s hand is to value the contributions they must make in this world, wholly honoring the little ones. The consequences of the hand on learning are vast and infinitely positive. The hand not only roots concepts in reality but empowers the learner to manipulate and own their intellectual worlds. Dr. Montessori discovered that “children show a great attachment to the abstract subjects when they arrive at them through manual activity” (Montessori, 1989, p. 13). Through observation of the child Dr. Montessori discovered the power of the hand as quintessential to the nature of the child. Despite the fact that “…our brains evolved in a world in which we move and do, not in a world in which we sit at desks and consider abstractions” many mainstream schools isolate portions of the child and ask children to learn in that very environment (Lilliard, 2005, p. 30). The allowance of movement, particularly of the hand beyond writing, accounts for the child’s sensitive periods for sensation and small objects. To ignore the hand is to ignore its use for reception and expression of intelligence in a powerful, non-verbal way. The hand is in this way a tool of preparation for the brain and must itself be prepared. The directress must, for example, help the child to trace the sandpaper letter with two fingers at age three so that they can hold a pencil at age 4. Just as tools require instruction, practice, and maintenance, “the hands are instruments of a man’s intelligence” and must be treated as such (Montessori, 1995, p. 37). This progressive incarnation of the child is “…building up the physical instrument which is to be used for the expression of his personality” (Standing, 1998, p. 214). This innate desire of children is not to play or indulge, “their real needs are for stimuli … to touch and handle all kinds of things … and most of those they can see they are forbidden to touch” and it is thus necessary for educators to take advantage of these driving factors (Montessori, 1995, p. 169). Children desire real objects because they are preparing for life in a real world! If ignored, “the inert child who never worked with his hands, who never had the feeling of being useful and capable of effort, who never found by experience that to live means living socially, and that to think and create means to make use of a harmony of souls; this type of child will become a selfish youth, he will be pessimistic and melancholy and will seek on the surface of vanity and compensation for a lost paradise” (Montessori, 1973, p. 89). The loss of the hand is the loss of the body mind connection. The long-term impact of capitalizing on the hand is a fully formed adult. According to Dr. Montessori, “only practical work and experience lead the young to maturity” (Montessori, 1995, p. 32). The hand as essential to functionality in adulthood must be prepared. A.M. Joosten points out in her 1971 article “The Hand in Education” for the AMI Journal The hand serves the child during the whole long struggle for ever widening conquests of ever fuller independence, until he emerges as an adult, strong, healthy, and really independent so that he can contribute to the construction of a better and more human society. (p. 53) The hand is that forgotten yet essential object of a child’s independence. Every mother remembers her child’s first steps, but few remember the stages before in which the child climbed independently using their hands and knees with the same sensation of awe. The hand grasps and clenches onto the world around the child, holding tightly onto a father’s large fingers or pulling on the hair of an unsuspecting victim. The hand will carry the child through the days of riding a bike, driving a car, signing a mortgage, and will eventually begin to deteriorate. My father, who has lost most of the control of his hands, described the feeling to me as feeling helpless and without purpose in society. The hand is built up as the great tool of contribution, and the loss of the hand is closely linked to a loss of independence. In this way the two are inextricably linked. The hand connects to functional independence in a very real way. Being that the hand is the apparatus for directing the environment and all elements within it, as the child develops a new relationship to the environment so does the functionality of the hand shift and adapt. Although “…in the first stage the child absorbed the world through his unconscious intelligence, merely by being moved about in it, now he takes it in consciously, using his hands” (Standing, 1998, p. 112). The hand enables the child to master their environment. The child’s manipulation of the prepared environment by means of the hands provide the child with functional independence and a sense of autonomy. Ludick said about children in “The Work of The Hand” for a 2013 NAMTA Journal that He is able to do exercises with his hand leading to independence and purposeful movement. The little one is cleaning, dusting, and soon laying a table. The adventures continue with trails of strength on the road toward independence and by the urging of nature to take an active role in life, in all that is going on around him. Amazingly, he is also building strength of character. (p. 94) This strength of character derived from functional independence is impossible without the solicitation of the hand. Functional independence is the state a child lives within when the environment, both social and physical, is designed to be fully accessible to them without the intervention of adults. The child is naturally inclined to learn independently, and “…the child’s nature is to aim directly and energetically at functional independence” (Montessori, 1995, p. 97). Being that it is the nature of the child to operate in this way an ideal miniature universe must be designed for them. First, the directress must prepare herself and get out of the child’s way. An ineffective teacher desires to be needed by their students, but the Montessori “teacher is satisfied when he sees them acting by themselves and making progress” (Montessori, 1936, p. 111). The environment must, however, be prepared by a skilled educator who serves as the link between the child and the materials after being informed by observation. Functional independence is achieved using the hand, but first requires the prepared environment. Dr. Montessori declared that “it is essential to prepare the environment for children, and to give them that freedom wherein the soul can expand its powers” (Montessori, 1946, p. 54). The assumption that children are naturally inclined to work and desire choice with limits informs the prepared environment. The environment offers choices at the child’s physical height which play to the developmental planes of the children in the classroom. Ludick said in “The Work of The Hand” for a 2013 NAMTA Journal that Our prepared environments are built upon the premise that the hand and the intellect are connected and vitalized by each other, that they speak to each other, and that activity, movement, work, orientation, and manipulation have critical roles to play in a Montessori education and in the formation of the centered personality. (p. 103) Building up a mental world in which children see themselves as leaders requires educators to step out of the way of children and remove the pre-supposition that the educator is the one with knowledge and children the ones without. Functional independence trains up children to see themselves as the creators of their own intellectual journeys readily capable of their own research and passions. The primary goal of Functional Independence is to prepare the child for existing in community with others as they age. Liberty in the classroom “enables the child to live as a free, independent, active member of a miniature but real society” (Standing, 1998, p. 296). The consequences of functional independence on learning and child development evolve beyond self-perception to help students build relationships. Living within this miniature society “…he uses his hands as an instrument of mannerly social behavior, another of the factors of independence” (Joosten, 1971, p. 50). If the goal of education is merely to create informed voters or to train children up as future members of the work force, traditional education will do just fine. However, if an educator is concerned with the development of the whole child, ready to interact meaningfully with the world around them, sufficiently capable of functioning at full capacity in all the requirements of adulthood, a classroom filled with practical life practice, physical objects to draw connections between broad subjects and control of error within materials which require critical thinking and problem solving skills are the cure for the craving children are begging for. All this and more are found in the Montessori classroom. Overarching all of this is the idea that these skills were not forced upon the child, but rather the child learned from the environment that they are the master of their bodies, independently capable of changing themselves and the world around them. This empowerment of the hand empowers the whole child towards autonomy! Uninhibited by a directress, a child’s sense that they are the owner and maintainer of order and functionality of their environment formulates life-long self-determination. Montessori “education has its primary aim at the discovery and freeing of the child” (Montessori, 1936, p. 110). No longer is the child expected to be confined to the chair or the knowledge within the teacher, as this is not effective. Rather, “…the child must learn by his own individual activity, being given a mental freedom to take what he needs, and not to be questioned in his choice” (Montessori, 1989, p. 7). Feeding into that inborn independence forms life-long learners. It is not a temporary gift which we give the child, but “our apparatus for educating the senses offers the child a key to guide his explorations of the world” (Montessori, 1995, p. 183). The child is naturally an explorer, and they have far too long been held back from taking in the world they desire. Control is often given the Orwellian twist ‘classroom management,’ but it is time that we uncloak this lazy and ineffective strategy for the raising of our next generation. In fact, “research in psychology suggests that more freedom and choice are linked to better psychological and learning outcomes” (Lilliard, 2005, p. 30). If children are to be the salvific gift to our world that they have the potential to be, we must step out of the way, refuse to impart our own biases and traumas, and make way for the next great explorer! The greatest skill of adulthood is resilience. Resilience is taught by providing the environment necessary for functional independence. So often adults jump in to help a child or to correct their approximations, but “to succeed by himself intensifies his efforts” (Montessori, 1995, p. 97). Rather than show the child where we believe they should go, it is essential that we step out of the way and allow the perfect inner teacher to reveal the child’s sensitivities to us, providing an independent environment where the child can fill their own needs. Fundamentally, combining the premier opportunity provided by the hand with an acute understanding of the power of Functional Independence and allowing this to inform your work as a directress creates life-long agents of change in your classroom. The expedition of the child is unfolding before our eyes; “his hands under the guidance of his intellect transform his environment and thus enable him to fulfill his mission in the world” (Montessori, 1936, p. 81). The hand, as the primary tool of the brain, is inextricably linked to functional independence. The hand facilitates the intake and expression of knowledge and human story. The story that we allow children to construct for themselves creates a powerful inner narrative. As educators, it is paramount that we create environments which physically empower children as the absorption of the environment is forming the brain. The Montessori classroom which nurtures the child’s inner desire for autonomy and mastering of the environment is missing the mark without the inclusion of the hand as essential instrument for grasping the world around them. This inclusion of the full body acts on the Jesuit Value of Cura Personalis, caring for the entire child and promoting holistic education. The result of building up a mental world for the child within which they see themselves as empowered learners is their long-term self-conceptualization as a determined and resilient learner and powerful communal leader. In short, the hand and functional independence work together beautifully in the Montessori classroom. References Standing, E. M. (1998). Maria Montessori, Her Life and Work. New York: Plume. Joosten, A.M. (1971). The Hand in Education. AMI Journal, pp. 47-53. Lilliard, A.S. (2005). Montessori: The Science behind the Genius. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Ludick, P. (2013). The Work of the Hand. The NAMTA Journal, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 89-107. Montessori, M., & Carter, B. B. (1936). The Secret of Childhood. London: Longmans, Green and Co. Montessori, M. (1946). Education For A New World. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company. Montessori, M. (1967) The Discovery of the Child. Notre Dame, Ind., Fides Publishers. Montessori, M. (1973). From Childhood to Adolescence. New York: Schocken Books. Montessori, M. (1989). To Educate the Human Potential. Oxford: Clio. Montessori, M. (1995). The Absorbent Mind. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, Inc. Dr. Maria Montessori left a long legacy, one that someone could study for a lifetime and still not know everything. If you were to ask Dr. Maria Montessori whether she had created a pedagogy she would staunchly disagree, arguing that she merely listened to the child, and began a movement of observation informed service to the child. Dr. Maria Montessori opened her first school, Casa Dei Bambini in 1907, serving a forgotten demographic (Standing, 1998, p. 133). Experiencing both poverty and requiring special education, the children she taught in her first school were orphans from an “insane asylum” (Standing, 1998, p. 134). Dr. Maria Montessori would die in 1952, but her legacy would live on through her son, Mario Montessori (Standing, 1998, p. 134). In 1966 a woman by the name of Nancy Rambusch met Mario Montessori and went on to bring an explosion of Montessori schools to the American public, starting the American Montessori Society and eventually the Xavier University Montessori Teacher Education Program, the first Montessori Teacher Education Program in the United States. As the movement continues, Montessori educators around the world strive to carry her torch.
Dr. Montessori established a broader conceptualization of human development as well as a more idiosyncratic one. It is believed by Dr. Montessori that there are four planes of development: Infancy from 0-6 years old, Childhood from 6-12 years old, Adolescence from 12-18 years old, and Maturity, which is anything beyond 18 years of age (McDermott, 2011). Within each plane or “season” there were times of progression and times of regression. She believed that each plane lasted 6 years, and that the first three years followed a line of progression, the second three years following a line of regression (McDermott, 2011). The first three planes are referred to also as the first, second, and third stages. Each stage is further broken into two sects which mirror the lines of progression and regression (McDermott, 2011). During the first stage, a period of transformation, the sect from 0-3 years old is referred to as the Absorbent Mind (unconscious) and from 3-6 as the Absorbent Mind (conscious) (Standing, 1998, p. 108). The Absorbent mind is the time in which the child is constantly taking in and being neurologically molded by the environment. During the second stage, a period of uniform growth, there is only one sect from 6-12, and it is known as the intermediate period or childhood. The third stage, another period of transformation, is split between puberty from 12-15 years and adolescence from 15-18 years (Standing, 1998, p. 108). Dr. Maria Montessori believed that after 18 there is no longer any transformation, the individual simply becomes older (Standing, 1998, p. 108). It is important to note here that the Montessori classroom is multi-age, and each classroom holds children for a three-year cycle. The cycles mirror the three-year sects previously stated. In addition to her study of the planes of development, Dr. Maria Montessori asserted that there were sensitive periods in which a child was most apt to acquire a certain skill and would become wholly fixated on it if only they were allowed by the environment to do so. It is our responsibility as educators to prepare an environment readily at the disposal of children interested in practicing these sensitivities. Dr. Montessori asserted that there is a great and perfect inner teacher within the child. Despite general trends, each child becomes sensitive to certain things at their own pace. Montessori educators are asked to be great observers, patiently waiting to be called so as not to disrupt the sensitive inner teacher steadily working inside of the child with a much keener sense for the child than we have. Infancy occurs from age 0-6. From birth to 3 “the child has a type of mind that an adult cannot approach” (Montessori, 1995, p. 30). In this stage, the unconscious mind is formed by the environment and impressions shape the newborn brain, “impressions do not merely enter his mind, they form it” (Montessori, 1995, p. 36). Where in ages 0-3 “the child absorbed his world through his unconscious intelligence, merely by being moved around in it, now” in ages 3-6, “he takes in consciously, using his hands (Standing, 1998, p. 112). The absorption of language and other knowledge occurs primarily through the senses as a means of interacting with the environment. Infants hold within them an instinctual creativity which makes them adept at “building up a psychic world at the expense of his environment” (Montessori, 1936, p. 37). Furthermore, the mother does not teach her child to talk, walk, or speak, “it is not the mother, but the child himself who spontaneously does these things” (Montessori, 1946, p. 3). For example, the language environment in the 3-6 classroom prepares the child for that explosion into language and harnessing that great potential for group works in the next plane. Sensitive periods of order, refinement of movement, language, refinement of the sense, sensitivity to small objects, grace/courtesy, aesthetics, independence, and concentration occur in this time period. Childhood occurs from ages 6-12. By ages 6-12, the child is mentally “in a state of health, strength, and assured stability” (Montessori, 1995, p. 30). In this stage, direct help impedes growth. Although the child is ready for instruction and impressionable by adult interaction, it is most advantageous to step back and allow the child to interact with the prepared environment. Where the stage of infancy contained growth with transformation, ages 6-12 exhibit growth without much transformation. The new growth of the child nods a directress towards informing her instruction by her students’ developmental stages. “Successive levels of education must correspond to the successive personalities of the child” (Montessori, 1973, p. 1). This second level of education which occurs from 7-12 includes a “veritable metamorphosis” (Montessori, 1973, p. 2). Sensitive periods of cosmic order, moral order, analytical thinking, peer or herding association (social) occur in this time period. Next, adolescence occurs from age 12-18. Dr. Montessori describes this stage as “a period of so much change as to remind me of the first” (Montessori, 1995, p. 30). This stage includes “the creation of a socially conscious individual” (Standing, 1998, p. 116). This third level of education, the period of adolescence, includes “all these traits – physical as much as psychic – constitute the links of the chain which is the metamorphosis of the child” (Montessori, 1973, p. 2). Finally, maturity occurs from age 18-death. After 18, a human is “fully developed, and no further marked changes occur in him. He grows only in age” (Montessori, 1995, p. 30). Where the child was constantly changing, the adult has “reached the norm of the species” (Montessori, qtd. in Standing, 1998, p. 106). While the child’s mind may be unconscious, whereas the adult’s mind conscious, it is not to imply that an unconscious mind is an inferior mind. There is no more transformation in this period, only aging. Adults may find that if a sensitive period was missed in their childhood that they are missing certain essential developments and understandings. Adulthood or maturity is the culmination of the stages in which we can examine the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of younger instruction. Maximizing the growth which occurs in the sensitive periods of earlier stages, as is suggested by Joosten, ensures a well-rounded adult. This time period is characterized by a sense of calm and spiritual and moral independence. Understanding the development of the child informed the way Dr. Montessori prepared her beautiful learning environment. In older models, education was a transferring of information from teacher to student directly, with little to no independence or deep learning for the child. However, due to Dr. Montessori’s understanding that “the immense influence that education can exert through children, has the environment for its instrument, for the child absorbs his environment, takes everything from it, and incarnates it in himself,” she has enlisted a third factor of education: The Prepared Environment (Montessori, 1995, p. 74). A prepared environment frees the child from any and all obstacles to learning (including too much adult interference), rendering the child independent, and “is dedicated to him” (Montessori, 1995, p. 169). The room is dedicated to the child in its child-sized nature, with low windows with bright curtains, small painted tables light enough for the child to move themselves, short stairs which children can independently climb, and aesthetically beautiful materials which speak to the child’s sense of order. The relationship between the child and the environment, therefore, is one in which “our education system esteems a child’s environment so highly that it makes it the center of instruction” (Montessori, 1936, p. 60). This prepared environment protects the spiritual embryo of the child. Children have a desire and need for order at every level and feel a strong pull towards the aesthetic quality of organized materials and recognize the careful patterns of the universe. Students deprived of order may develop defects of character. Children are interested in the lessons, watching carefully as the directress moves precisely and slowly setting out the beautiful material from top to bottom and left to right. The essential role of the teacher is to create a beautifully prepared environment and to continually restore it to its perfection and beauty, involving the children it this restoration whenever possible. This functional independence derived from the prepared environment comes from a classroom that is accessible to the child and is constructed with them in mind. With this concept in mind “it is essential to prepare the environment for children, and to give them that freedom wherein the soul can expand its powers” (Montessori, 1946, p. 54). The prepared environment in which the child requires no adult intervention leads to the classroom hum and flow of the community steadily working towards the task of self-improvement. This desire for order is found fluently throughout the materials, from the careful methodology of laying out and putting away materials to the pleasant simplicity of the shelves. Uninhibited by a directress, a child’s sense that they are the owner and maintainer of order and functionality of their environment formulates life-long self-determination. Montessori “education has its primary aim at the discovery and freeing of the child” (Montessori, 1936, p. 110). No longer is the child expected to be confined to the chair or the knowledge within the teacher, as this is not effective. Rather, “…the child must learn by his own individual activity, being given a mental freedom to take what he needs, and not to be questioned in his choice” (Montessori, 1989, p. 7). The prepared environment frees the child and allows for maturation to occur through environmental experience. The prepared environment scaffolds the child from one Zone of Proximal Development to the next. “We serve the future by protecting the present,” our care of a current period ensures the success of the next (Montessori, p. 194, 1995). Perhaps most important to the prepared environment is that it allows the child to begin in the concrete before moving to the hypothetical in learning, all with an exactness and a sense of order which serves the child’s sensitivity for aesthetics and preciseness in early childhood. We must ensure that the child’s development is guarded, “this psychic embryo needs protection in order to develop properly-a calm, ordered environment and the right mental nourishment” (Standing, 1998, p. 268). This prepared environment frees the child and prepares them to enter into the world more resilient, independent, and well equipped to organize new information. Furthermore, all areas of the Montessori environment support all other areas of development. These areas include practical life, sensorial, math, science, art, and cultural. Each area, although seemingly disconnected, beautifully flow and scaffold each other, preparing the child for every aspect of their intelligence. The direct aim of the language environment is “to support the development of language during the period of the absorbent mind” (Dahlmeier, 1993). The area of Practical Life is concerned with order, sequence, fine motor development, left-right movement, concentration, independence, and coordination (Roth, 2018) (Dahlmeier, 1993). The area with Sensorial works is directly concerned with refinement of the senses, visual and sound discrimination, vocabulary related to attributes, and understanding contrasts and patterns (Roth, 2018) (Dahlmeier, 1993). The math curriculum is concerned with concrete learning bridging to abstract thinking, one-one correspondence, math as its own language universally, and a love for learning (Roth, 2018) (Dahlmeier, 1993). Science, art, and cultural shelves are rich with literature, storytelling, music, and creativity (Roth, 2018). The overarching universal beliefs of the Montessori classroom and her careful attention to the universality of things flows throughout all subjects and connects the interrelatedness of the world in a physical, visual, interactive way. Understanding the intersectionality and interdependence of broad topics leads to understanding and peace because children learn to make room for multiple truths. “What is generally meant by the word peace is the cessation of war. But this negative concept is not an adequate description of genuine peace” rather peace is a concrete idea which requires action steps for its attainment (Montessori, 1972, p.4). For Dr. Montessori, “…establishing peace is the work of education” (Montessori, 1972, p. 30). Education radically changes systems by removing their concept from the brains of children, who, unclogged by prejudice, are empowered to visualize solutions previously unimaginable. As a result of her observations and the historical moment she was in, Dr. Montessori has been accredited as the inventor not only of child sized chairs and special education, but of peace education and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace prize (Standing, 1998, p. 107). Dr. Montessori’s peace education pedagogy offers unique methodology for enriching and maintaining the spirituality of the child. The key difference between Montessori and other educational philosophers is that “we believe that experiences of wonder are not taught but caught; they can be awakened and affirmed” (Roth & Thomas, 2013, p. 356). When children have spiritual awakenings and experiences it is essential that educators honor them. The spirit of the child is nurtured in the Prepared Environment because it is free to flow. It leaves room for diversity of thought, spontaneous activity, and spirituality. This environment also leads to synthesis. Dr. Montessori observed sudden connections and sparks of interest in children. She referred to these moments as Spontaneous Activity. The Prepared Environment with an integration of subjects allows for this Spontaneous Activity. Spontaneous Activity is often the precise moment when the child reveals their heart at the exact same time they are sensitive to a particular subject. It is the intersection between the special tendencies and universal sensitive periods which entices children towards spontaneous activity. Similar, yet distinct from impulse, it is an undeniably human urge for creation and connection, it is the precise moment of inspiration towards synthesis and extension. The child becomes aware of the world surrounding them and has been raised in a social environment which promoted exploration with healthy limitation of choice such that the prepared environment becomes mastered by the child in a new way, a spark of imagination and splendor as correctly applied to the faculty of education. Spontaneous Activity cannot occur without an environment prepared with the necessary supplies. Dr. Montessori was highly scientific and pragmatic, given her background as a medical doctor. For Dr. Maria Montessori, observation informed her work, rather than having her work inform her observation. She would watch how the children reacted to the world around them and sculpt a universe best suited for their curiosities and tendencies. Most importantly, she abandoned preconceived ideas and allowed the children to present whatever truth they brought into the room. After having children swarm her to feel the texture of her clothing one day, Dr. Montessori, “stood in still and silent admiration of this spontaneous activity of the children” (Montessori, 1967, p. 168). Dr. Montessori invented a style of education which was informed by observation and served the needs of the child. Dr. Montessori found that children were attracted to manipulative objects and developed didactic Montessori materials. The materials have aesthetic beauty and entice the child by playing on their sensitive periods. The materials root abstract concepts in physical reality by producing a real way for them to be seen, carried, touched, or smelled. Although we expect the child to be inwardly motivated towards this spontaneous activity, “if the children do not reveal a desire to work spontaneously the fault lies not in the children but in the manner of presenting the subjects to be studied” (Standing, 1998, p. 90). It is a directresses job to include some theatrics when enticing the child to a work, leveraging personal connection and enticement for the bridging between the child and the material. This is where the directress is that essential link between the child and the environment. She models, by use of the hand, the pleasantries of interacting with the environment and the materials. The goal of the Montessori educator in all things is to bow humbly before the needs of the child. Didactic materials as a means of instruction serve the whole child. The consequences of the hand on learning are vast and infinitely positive. The hand not only roots concepts in reality but empowers the learner to manipulate and own their intellectual worlds. Dr. Montessori discovered that “children show a great attachment to the abstract subjects when they arrive at them through manual activity” (Montessori, 1989, p. 13). Through observation of the child Dr. Montessori discovered the power of the hand as quintessential to the nature of the child. Despite the fact that “…our brains evolved in a world in which we move and do, not in a world in which we sit at desks and consider abstractions” many traditional schools isolate portions of the child and ask children to learn in that very environment (Lilliard, 2005, p. 30). The allowance of movement, particularly of the hand beyond writing, accounts for the child’s sensitive periods for sensation and small objects. To ignore the hand is to ignore its use for reception and expression of intelligence in a powerful, non-verbal way. The hand, as the primary tool of the brain, is inextricably linked to functional independence. The hand facilitates the intake and expression of knowledge and human story. The story that we allow children to construct for themselves creates a powerful inner narrative. As educators, it is paramount that we create environments which physically empower children as the absorption of the environment is forming the brain. The Montessori classroom which nurtures the child’s inner desire for autonomy and mastering of the environment is missing the mark without the inclusion of the hand as essential instrument for grasping the world around them. This inclusion of the full body acts on the Jesuit Value of Cura Personalis, caring for the entire child and promoting holistic education. The result of building up a mental world for the child within which they see themselves as empowered learners is their long-term self-conceptualization as a determined and resilient learner and powerful communal leader. In short, the hand and functional independence work together beautifully in the Montessori classroom. Before, during, and after presenting a lesson, it is essential that the Montessori Directress observe and serve the child. Assessment is an essential part of any classroom. It informs the educator on where the students are so that they can help them get where they need to be. It helps gage where they are in relation to the zone of proximal development and how effective certain instruction was. It gives the directress observational tools for informing and developing adaptation. Assessment is that essential element of an educator pausing and reflecting before continuing blindly. However, in early childhood Montessori environments you will rarely see tests, quizzes, worksheets, or homework. Instead, you will hear the hallmarks of the three-period lesson. Already embedded into the Montessori pedagogy is the three-period lesson. The three-period lesson is the vocabulary used to describe the three steps a Montessori educator uses when introducing a new lesson or concept. Naming is the first step. In this step you point to the object and name it (i.e. “This is a cat”). The second period involves recognizing. Most of the learning happens here. A neural pathway is built connecting images to their names Here the child engages both body and mind when responding to a demand (i.e. “Show me the cat”). The final period is one of remembering. In this period, you would point to an object and request that the child name it. This challenges child to use their memory to produce the name (i.e. “What is this?”). The three-period lesson structure naturally embeds assessment into the cycle of a lesson. If a child indicates through expression of knowledge that there is a gap in the understanding then the educator would remain at that period for a longer time, repeating the correct instruction rather than critiquing the improper understanding on the part of the child. This honors the child on their journey and celebrates approximation. The focus is on the process, never the result or accuracy. This natural progression follows the child on the development from introduction to mastery of concepts. Other assessments are still utilized in Montessori classrooms, however, and many are required by the state. The essential role of assessment is still clear to the Montessorian, but the structure of that assessment has flexibility in a Montessori environment. The role of the teacher in a Montessori environment is unique. Claims from Dr. Montessori that directresses should be able to leave the room and it function entirely without her there may lead an uninformed outsider to believe that the role of the directress is simple. I once had a child tell me that being a Montessori teacher is easy because all you do is “look around and make sure everyone is happy.” What the child failed to recognize was the great work of preparation which was done by the directress before entering the classroom. The role of the teacher morphs during different stages of development. In the first stage the teacher is the guardian and custodian of the environment. The teacher is to concentrate on the environment instead of the problem child, as the environment is their cure. In the second stage, the teacher must deal with children who are still disorderly and help children with aimlessly wandering minds to find a work which will fulfill their need for work and help them focus. Finally, once the child’s interest is aroused the teacher is to withdraw to the background. This is tricky and “mistakes are often made here, as for instance by uttering an encouraging “good,” in passing a hither to a naughty child, who at last is concentrating on some work. Such well-meant praise is enough to do damage; the child will not look at work again for weeks” (Montessori, p. 68, 1946). Although the environment should be prepared such that the directress can step out of the way and provide as much Functional Independence as possible, “…without a trained directress, the prepared environment would be useless … she is who must make it alive. She is the “dynamic link” between the children and the environment” (Standing, 1998, p. 276). It is my job to promote the intrinsic joy of learning and capitalize on moments of spontaneous activity in the classroom, preparing the environment to have all of the materials necessary inside of it. Dr. Montessori asserted the importance of the transformation of the teacher. The transformation of the teacher is the process by which one learns to let go of control of the classroom and trust the process and flow which will derive from a well-prepared environment. It is learning to sit on your hands and allow children to grow and develop. “The teacher requires a special preparation, because it is not logic that can solve the child’s problems…the child takes from the environment rather than from the teacher” asserts Dr. Montessori, the teacher needs “only to stand by, to serve when called” (Montessori, 1946, p. 56). Certain intervention may take place, but it is ultimately the observation which informs instruction, and not two separate phenomena. If we are to free the child, we must first free the child from ourselves. Many educators look to sculpt children rather than create space within which children are capable of sculpting themselves. It is assumed by many educators that they play an essential role in revealing what is true to children, but the reality is that the faculty for the reception of truth is within a child and truth will naturally reveal itself when the child is ready, if only the child is within the correct context. A Montessori environment is the perfect context for this to occur within. It is the directress’ role, then, to maintain this perfect environment. In our role as observer, it is revealed to us that “the new education has its primary aim the discovery and freeing of the child” (Montessori, 1936, p. 110). The ultimate goal, therefore, is to watch children “acting by themselves and making progress” (Montessori, 1936, p. 111). Dr. Montessori asks us to abandon our presuppositions about children and the world, refusing to project this onto our classroom or our children, and to give the children what they need, which is order and control. The role of the teacher is to prepare the environment. The role of the observer, however, is to collect data to inform the preparation of the environment. It is the child’s inner teacher who will do all the rest. The underlying belief which defines Montessori Philosophy is that children have value and are naturally inclined to learn without overwhelming teacher intervention. Dr. Maria Montessori defined education’s role in the historical moment of WWII. In a time of turmoil, Dr. Maria Montessori looked to the child to serve as the great seed of hope for humanity, asserting that “if salvation and help are to come, it is from the child” (Montessori, 1946, p.1). She listened for the child to reveal their own development, prepared an environment with didactic materials to serve their needs and desires, serving the whole child and redefining the role of the educator for decades to come. Resources Dahlmeier, C. (1993). All Areas of the Montessori 3-6 Environment. Cincinnati, OH., Xavier University Montessori Teacher Education Program. Lilliard, A.S. (2005). Montessori: The Science behind the Genius. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. McDermott, M. (2011). Four Planes of Development. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/19437369 Montessori, M., & Carter, B. B. (1936). The Secret of Childhood. London: Longmans, Green and Co. Montessori, M. (1946). Education for A New World. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company. Montessori, M. (1967). The Discovery of the Child. Notre Dame, Ind., Fides Publishers. Montessori, M. (1973). From Childhood to Adolescence. New York: Schocken Books. Montessori, Maria, 1870-1952. (1989). To Educate the Human Potential. Oxford: Clio. Montessori, M. (1995). The Absorbent Mind. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, Inc. Roth, L., & Thomas, T. (2013). Spirit books: promoting conversation with picture books. International Journal of Children's Spirituality, 18(4), 351-368. Roth, L. (2018). 3-6 Language Rationale [PowerPoint slides]. Standing, E. M. (1998). Maria Montessori, her life and work. New York: Plume. “If salvation and help are to come, they can only come from the children” - Maria Montessori
Education for Peace Children are God’s salvific blessing to our world. Regardless of how horribly we stray from the good and perfect plan of the earth, disrespecting our fellow plants, animals, and humans, there is always hope laying in a crib somewhere sound asleep, waiting to change the world. This glorious opportunity to sculpt a new world without bias and full of love for what is alive lays beneath the drooping eyelids of sweet babes all around the globe. Somewhere lays a baby black girl who will see engineering as a possibility, a baby boy dreaming of tutus and dolls, and sweet child with down syndrome dreaming of college. In this new universe constructed by youth in the correct environment exists the great wonders of equality and opportunity previously unimagined. As servant, saint, and scientist in my classroom, I promise to observe, wait to be called, and serve where I am needed as the link between child and environment. I promise to maintain the child’s independence and uphold their honor. I vow to trust the child to do great and glorious works previously unimagined. I swear to bow at the feet of all children, graciously providing them with whatever they need to succeed. I will fight on behalf of the child and their needs, balancing fire and water in a single glide through the classroom. I will be the Montessori Directress Dr. Montessori envisioned, providing poise, beauty, and strength at every turn. Special Education lies close to my heart as the stories of many of my students will mirror and draw out my own. An IEP is not merely a document I have studied nor a simple plan from A to B, it is the heartbeat of classroom success, a living document designed to continually serve the child, just as it served me. Legislature like FAPE and IDEA uphold the dignity of the individual. As a part of my pro-life identity I feel called to uphold the dignity of life as inherently valuable. The neurotypical child and the child who needs special education bring the same intrinsic divine spark. All children bring beauty and benefit to the classroom. This inclusion philosophy is not only exposing children with different abilities to the general curriculum, but supports social integration and provides an environment for the synthesis of social skills they may be working on with a specialist. While this technique is effective for the child with a need for more support, it has infinitely more benefits on their neurotypical classmates! Imagine the empathy, social adaptation, and communication skills built in this scenario! Peer to peer scaffolding, in which one child with a higher level of comprehension helps bridge between where the child with lower levels of comprehension is and where the child with higher levels of comprehension is, is an effective comprehension extension. They say you remember 90% of what you teach, and for a peer to work side by side with another struggling peer upholds the value of both students! You are trusting that your students have something to share, providing opportunity for language reception and expression, and incorporating Bandura’s Social Learning Theory. Now, imagine how proud a student with differing needs might feel after teaching a peer about a passion area of theirs. This happens frequently in a Montessori classroom, or any classroom which allows for it. Focusing on the strengths of children does justice to the wholeness of person. Celebrating the process rather than the result is effective educational practice! When we meet children where they are rather than asking them to meet us where we are, we are targeting genuine learning. Capitalizing on strengths logically makes sense, yet so few individuals begin the conversation with the family of a child with special needs with, “what is his greatest strength?” When we practice the Ignatian Value of Cura Personalis we have a significantly greater chance of reaching the child. We must scaffold between where the child is and their zone of proximal development, rather than banish them to a corner to try to figure it out themselves. Direct, personalized instruction focused on strengths or restricted interests accomplishes this goal. The child is our great salvation. Offering a genesis of hope, I pray it will never by I who would get in the way of this ambition. By lifting up the regality of the child and opening my eyes to the precious gift within every little one I hope to create a classroom consistently bubbling over with child independence, celebration of difference, and an insatiable, deep, organic, adventurous, curious love of learning! Understanding that “We cannot separate anyone from her cultural context” is essential to our understanding of children, but it is also essential to our self-conceptualization (Renton, p. 15). As a white individual I navigate the world with ease, and see the world as a place that loves and accepts me for who I am. My perception that Police officers are safe and loving individuals, that I can wear a hoodie at night, or that everyone has access to the tools to educate themselves doesn’t take into account the complex webs and systems of oppression which influence my culturally and linguistically diverse students. This presupposition is one of the assumptions I must leave at the door of my classroom as a part of the preparation of the teacher. I cannot be an effective educator if I see the natural world of my students as a hindrance. If the goal of Dr. Montessori was to serve the child and listen for what they needed, not what I wanted to give, then as a white individual I must work towards breaking down the lenses I wear and attempt to see the world from all children’s perspectives. Understanding this combined with the understanding of transference necessitates a critical journey of my whiteness as a portion of the Preparation of the Teacher because I do not want to project prejudice onto my students. Further than simply avoiding prejudice, it is essential to first critically encounter my own cultural and linguistic origin story. If I do not understand my own story and the history of whiteness I am predisposed to appropriating, romanticizing, or misunderstanding the students of color I may very well intentionally encounter. The sharing of story is done gradually as a piece of forming community in the classroom, but we so often quickly ask children from different backgrounds to share what makes them special. This is wonderful and uplifting in intention, but if we do not create a cultural in which all children share what is special to them and their family we may unintentionally romanticize minority students. Having role models of color in your classroom to share their stories is an excellent way to authentically encounter and represent stories different from our own and allow children to see people who look and see the world they do in positions of authority. . Montessori Philosophy supports the Culturally and Linguistically diverse student by creating room in the community for any and all. Students learn that peace is not the absence of war or disagreement, but a goal that they all have ownership over and are capable of striving towards. Linguistically diverse learners, whether that be an ELL or a student who excels, the 3 year nature of the Montessori environment allows children to work ahead or regress within a 3 year limit. Furthermore, the materials are at the disposal of the child and allow them to choose the works they feel drawn to. Rather than a teacher guessing what a culturally diverse learner may be attracted to, the environment lends itself to being at the child’s own autonomy. Montessori philosophy also recommends a beautiful cultural environment as well as weaving this into the entire classroom. I distinctly recall using a push pin to carefully poke all the way around different countries that had been outlined on paper using the map puzzle. I also remember Heidi Larson’s husband, who was Japanese, coming in and sharing about his culture and bringing us foods to try. The sensorial material was now at the utilization of culture! Furthermore, we learned about different cultures in the history of math, read books about far away places and people we didn’t look or think like. The beautiful Montessori classroom provides representations and hands on experiences of diverse cultures and world views. Ultimately, what the Montessori method succeeds at is pursuing, grasping, and basing instruction off of the perspective of each individual child. So long as you are listening for the voice of each child, your work with culturally and linguistically diverse learners will already be miles ahead of what it would be if the environment was teaching the same lesson to the whole classroom the same way with little to know room for individualization or extension. The prepared environment is a gift to diverse learners. Diverse learners may come into the classroom with a very different lens than their teacher. At home various cultures have different expectations. “Denial of cultural difference is the state in which one’s own culture is experienced as the only real one” (Hammer et. al, p. 424, 2003). While it is incredibly easy for the educator to, with great intentions, put out the works she loved as a child, read her favorite books, and hope to invite children into the love of learning she experienced by using her own favorite memories as a sounding board, this can easily transfer into ignoring whole chunks o the classroom who don’t learn in those same ways. The Montessori directress, however, has at her disposal a pre-planned classroom filled with works appropriate for all kinds of learners! The prepared environment frees the child from the educator teaching only in one way and allows room for creative expression of identity. The experiences I have had with those different me as well as who I see myself as shapes my lens. At YMCA Camp Ernst, where I am a camp counselor, I had an issue once in which a child of color who came from a lower economic background who had experienced trauma in the home (I’ll refer to her as “P”) hit a child who was white and from a more affluent home situation (I’ll refer to her as “S”) because S had been bothering P by critiquing her and being snippy. P felt that she had adequately attempted to resolve the issue by communicating her frustration in other ways such as being standoffish, body language, and showing anger in her tone of voice. S did not pick up on this type of communication because she came from a different cultural background and so P took both of her hands and smacked S on both of her ears. Although this interaction is by no means an okay one, it is however common when children are not given the opportunity to develop communication skills with people they don’t look or think like. All too often we expect children of color to pick up on and understand a white expectation for behavior. P would later tell me that her mother told her that that was the way to handle bullies. It is also essential to understand that an environment in which P was the minority already had her feeling singled out, frustrated, and out of control. Although these children were only 8, it served as a missed opportunity on my part to talk about appropriate and inappropriate behavior without invalidating the language, both verbal and non-verbal, that was used at home. It is also important to mention that the first thing P’s mother did when picking her up at the end of the week was to playfully hit her. Punishing children for their learned behaviors tells children that who they are in the home cannot be the same as who they are in the world, and it is essential to carefully handle these situations so as not to create trauma regarding the child’s racial identity. “For the optimal development and learning of all children, educators must accept the legitimacy of children’s home language, respect (hold in high regard) and value (esteem, appreciate) the home culture, and promote and encourage the active involvement and support of all families, including extended and nontraditional family units. When early childhood educators acknowledge and respect children’s home language and culture, ties between the family and programs are strengthened. This atmosphere provides increased opportunity for learning because young children feel supported, nurtured, and connected not only to their home communities and families but also to teachers and the educational setting” (NAEYC, p. 2, 1995). As a white counselor I did not hold this lens. I was young, only 15 years old, I grew up with friends from all sorts of cultures and my parents purposefully took me into spaces and places that weren’t invented to make me comfortable. As a result my journey through whiteness has been easier. I am on the White Caucus for Anti-Racist Allies here at Xavier and also wrote a series for The Xavier Newswire titled A White Girl’s Guide to Privilege. The series included interviews with staff and students at Xavier discussing their experience with privilege or lack thereof compared to the privilege I benefit from and having transparent dialogue about what I, or any person of privilege, could do to contribute to the movement toward equal opportunity for all people. The series was well received and was even used as required reading in a first-year seminar! No matter how much work someone who is white does towards knowing themselves or knowing those around them, there is no end to the journey of whiteness. I will always carry a lens, ignoring that fact is not helpful. However, I can work every day to allow others to lovingly critique my lens, helping me to come closer and closer to a lens of reality, a critical lens of an environment that was designed for me to succeed and for others to not, and to aid in de-assembling the systems I benefit from as I have the privilege of doing so. References Hammer, M. R., Bennet, M. J., Wiseman, R. (2003). Measuring intercultural sensitivity: The intercultural development inventory. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Volume 27, pp. 421-443. NAEYC. (1995). Responding to Linguistic and Cultural Diversity - Recommendations for Effective Early Childhood Education. National Association for the Education of Young Children, pp. 1-8. Renton, A. Montessori and Cultural Diversity. pp. 14-21. |
AuthorHi! My name is Brittany Wells, and I am a Montessori 6-9 major. I was born and raised in Cincinnati and attended Xavier University Montessori Lab School, Mercy Montessori, McAuley High School, and now Xavier University! Archives
May 2020
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