The Prepared Adult

            Dr. Montessori believed the guide plays a different role in the world of education than the traditional teacher.  “Not words, but virtues, are her main qualifications” (Montessori, 2017, p. 160).  These virtues are acquired through a transformation of spirit.  The greatest evidence of success for a transformed teacher is to say, “The children are now working as if I did not exist” (Montessori, 2007, p. 257).  The Montessori educator transforms into a guide who nurtures the child according to his or her inner teacher and makes way for the laws of nature to communicate directly to the child. 

Spiritual Preparation

            In order to be transformed, Montessori guides need to understand their limits and abilities, be conscious of what they do and how they do it and have knowledge of child development.  “The basis of this preparation consists in going through a fundamental change of outlook” (Standing, 1957, p. 298).  This requires self-examination. Self-examination is a key element to becoming a transformed Montessori guide because the biggest obstacle to a child’s development is the adult.  This happens because the adult often lacks the patience and knowledge that is necessary to respond appropriately to the needs of the developing child.  In order to discern the situation, the adult must learn to be a scientific observer.  The adult must also understand that the child is unique and that the environment is the key to revealing the authentic personality and potentialities of each child. “Ability to do this can only be attained through a genuine inner effort towards self-perfection” (Standing, 1957, p. 298).

One of the comments someone left for me this week below one of my videos was about how she was shamed for not having the perfect Montessori materials and set-up for her home school environment. I was very frustrated when I heard this because it really does identitify a common problem that is happening in Montessori. For all of you who are working in a "less than perfect" Montessori environment with "less than perfect" materials and, perhaps, with "less than perfect" students, this article is for you.  

If you don't live in a "perfect Montessori world," please don't be discouraged. Here's the hard truth about Montessori...

Montessori can get very judgmental.  Most of the time it is ignorance because many Montessori teachers have no other training or background in education...and often have no training in special education.  Many people also misunderstand the theory of Montessori and rely simply on the mechanics of her materials instead investigating the origin and purpose of her methods.  

Here's what I've learned from my AMI Montessori training: Know the direct purpose and indirect purpose of the materials.  If you know the purpose of the materials, you are free to use them as you need for your environment.  As long as you know the theory behind the material and the theory behind the methods, the materials are exploratory.  The lessons become flexible. 

This leads me to an important point that many people don't understand.  People are often very critical of AMI training and think that is more strict than the others.  I suppose in way it is because it places a greater emphasis on the theory and history of how Montessori's methods developed, but once you know the context of her work and understand her theory, it offers more freedom with the materials, not less.  When you understand why and how she used these methods, you can better understand how to implement these methods and materials in your own environment.

Keep in mind: THE THEORY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE MECHANICS.

In addition to being AMI trained in Montessori, I am also trained through the Montessori Medical Partnership for Inclusion and other special education techniques.  Montessorians who have not trained in other teaching techniques, or in how to use Montessori differently for children who can't auto-educate, tend to cling to their Montessori lessons dogmatically.  They don't know how to do anything but copy their trainer. They don't realize that Montessori first used these methods at psychiatric institutions with children who were thought "unable to learn." She gave these lessons slowly and individually.  She then discovered that these techniques could be applied to children who could "auto-educate." When she used her techniques in that context, she could educate whole groups, not just individual students. 

While she developed her techniques in a psychiatric hospital working with individuals, she developed her classrooms for groups of children who could auto-educate.  If she were to use these techniques with children who had disabilities, she would change her approach again based on the needs of that situation.  Understanding context in Montessori is very important to knowing the best way to present materials and lessons.

This is why theory is important.  It's not enough to simply know "how" to do a lesson, but "why" we do a lesson.  Understanding the "why" will liberate you from being dogmatic with your lessons and allow your students to use these materials as exploratory materials, which is what Montessori designed them to be.

Many Montessori teachers get so wrapped up in "right" and "wrong" based on the mechanics of a lesson that they become an obstacle to a child's ability to explore and learn HAPPILY with the materials.  You might get the child to work reluctantly with the materials, but not they won't have that joy of independent exploration.  You won't have a thriving classroom.

While we don't want our students playing with the materials, or engaging in fantasy with the materials, or using them for a different purpose than what we present, we DO want them to explore.  Exploration is about honoring the purpose and theory of the materials, NOT in perfectly imitating a specific presentation of teacher.  It's not about getting the child to copy you; it's about critical thinking and exploration for the child.  

The teacher's presentation of a material is only the beginning of the child's journey with a specific work, not the end destination. The child can even take a material further than even the adult can comprehend how to use it.  For example: the jumping chart in the addition finger charts was created by a child, not Maria Montessori.

Many trainings don't cover the most important theories in Montessori.  In AMS Montessori you will see teachers using a lot more extensions of the Sensorial materials, but we don't teach those extensions in AMI like AMS does because we want the child to explore and discover those extensions on their own, not through teaching them directly.  For example, there should be so much exploration that the child should be able to independently discover the commonality between the pink tower and brown stair without a lesson from an adult.  They should be so free in exploring these things independently that these discoveries develop naturally without a teacher's intervention.

AMI extension lessons demonstrate the theory and purpose of the materials, but the exploration after that can be endless as long as the children are being respectful and purposeful.  If you only understand the mechanics of the lesson and not the purpose, you can easily make the mistake of only allowing their students to work with the materials the way they were shown in training and nothing more.  Or you might even "over-teach" your students and rob them of discovering something naturally and indepentently, which is far more important than being shown.  It demonstrates they really know and understand the materials when they make discoveries of their own.  By making these mistakes, you will discourage them from exploring for themselves.  

This is not what Montessori intended for her environments.  

Montessori is about exploration, respect, and purpose.  Keep those three key elements in mind and you can work freely with these materials.  And if you have a student who cannot "auto-educate" (learn independently), you will need to learn to adapt these materials and be creative with these materials in order to connect the child to them. For example, you might only be able to use every other cube in the pink tower because your student has difficulty perceiving the change in dimensions, so you adapt to make it easier for them until they can build the entire tower with all the cubes. 

You are free to adapt because you understand the purpose of the materials, not simply the mechanics of doing the lesson like it is in your album. 

There is no perfect Montessori environment, and we should adapt these materials to the needs of our students and our environments.  In fact, the best Montessori teachers are the ones that know how to explore, think outside the box, and adapt.  Dogmatic teachers can't explore, can't be creative, and can't adapt...and honestly, can't teach. They only know how to give one lesson, one way, to one type of student in one type of environment.  

This is not beneficial to our students.

It's not as black and white as many Montessori teachers make it out to be, and that is why so many of them fail to reach children in their classrooms.

Fantasy and Imagination

Creativity and imagination are “inborn powers in the child that develop as his mental capacities are established through his interaction with the environment” (Lillard, 1972, p. 45).  Dr. Montessori believed in cultivating the qualities of creativity and imagination in the young child in a way that connected the child to reality.  In the Montessori environment, “creation is in reality a composition, a construction raised upon a primitive material of the mind, which must be collected from the environment by means of the senses” (Montessori, 2016, p. 182). 

There is a natural, instinctive desire in humans to create and transform the world, but this can only happen if imagination and reality work in cooperation with each other.  Dr. Montessori believed that the young child, who often fantasizes, must be called out of his fantasy world and back into reality in order to use his creative energies purposefully.  She wrote, “when imagination starts from contact with reality, thought begins to construct works by means of which the external world becomes transformed; almost as if the thought of man had assumed a marvelous power: the power to create” (2016, p. 179).

Dr. Montessori’s View of Imagination

            Dr. Montessori viewed imagination in connection with reality as part of a positive science.  She described this science as “a return to natural laws of psychical energy” (Montessori, 2016, p. 180).  She believed that truth must be the foundation for creative energy because it constructs the mind and stimulates the imagination in a purposeful way.  The product of interacting with reality in this purposeful way is intelligence based on observation, logical reasoning and artistic imagination (Montessori, 2016). 

            Dr. Montessori determined that imagination is constructed from external impressions that inform the mind of the concrete world.  “Imagination can have only a sensory basis” (Montessori, 2016, p. 184).  External impressions collect information through the sensory organs to inform the mind, which then stimulates creative thought.  The more the senses are refined, the more accurate the impressions become, which gives the mind greater clarity and discernment.