Montessori chapter 12

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 12 - Movement in Relation to Instinct and Reason

Human babies are more helpless than newborn animals. They can't walk at birth; they can hardly lift their heads. This isn't because they lack strenth, but because they lack coordination. Humans seem to have less instinct than animals because their instinct is mostly in the mind and will, where it's not as apparent. Animals are born with physical instincts; humans are born with mental instincts and must create their physical tools by developing the body. She didn't agree with psychologists of her day who taught that all human drives (love, knowledge, worship) were really just physical instincts manifested through the mind. She didn't agree that what separates humans from animals is which instincts are more important, and how we manifest them. She believed that human intelligence and ability to reason was what separated us from animals.

Man is mysteriously infinite and spiritual, so it's no surprise that the beginnings of a baby's conscious life are a mystery to us. Maria lived when Darwin was blurring the distinction between man and animals. But she based her perspective on her own observation rather than on the theories or religious traditions of others. She felt that science was too focused on the negative aspects of humanity (deviations, psychoses) and ignored higher values and morality. She felt that art, morals and religion weren't the expressions of our subconscious, but that art, morals and religion were what shaped our subconscious.

Man's reason allows us to do what no animal can: to have a consciousness of history and a future, and to have a conscious awareness of ourselves. Man's will allows freedom to choose one thing over another. Our ability to choose makes it possible for us to develop character and integrity if we deliberately make right choices. Grace and salvation can only exist for reasoning, intellectual creatures with free choice.

Babies collect experiences and knowledge, and from this, they develop the ability to reason. [CM felt that we were born with Reason and we just needed to learn how to use it and control it.] Maria explained the growth of a baby's head in its first year as a quadrupling of its intelligence and psyche. Between the ages of 0-3 years, 'the child creates his own mind.' Children start from nothing, and they build their intelligence from their tactile experiences (explained in her book The Absorbent Mind). A child's impressions from his environment are the building blocks of his conscious mind. [This is very different from CM; she felt that the child was born with a mind. Belief that a mind is created out of sensory impressions means that, if we control the environment and experiences, we determine what kind of mind gets created. CM was opposed to that notion.] As the mind is being created, coordination is developing and creating a physical residence for the child's self.

Montessori said that children adapt to their environment, as evidenced by the way they pick up the language and customs of the culture they live in. Dogs don't do that - a poodle in France behaves exactly like a poodle in Africa. Even their bark has no influence from their home country. But humans adapt to fit whatever place and time they live in. If babies had more instincts, they couldn't adapt. Instead, babies are born 'incomplete' in all aspects, so that there's raw material to adapt. Even their bones are soft enough to adapt to whatever kind of movements they'll need. In other words, humans are still unfinished embryos at birth. [The bun in the oven comes out only half baked?] Mind and body are undeveloped. But the mind dictates how to develop the body to whatever's needed to express the inner person. The mind doesn't adapt to fit the body, the body adapts and develops to fit the mind. The inner spirit builds the kind of instrument it needs by shaping the body and telling it how to develop. The body can develop to be as specialized as needed. A surgeon, for example, can develop the hands to do intricate surgery with practice and deliberate effort. Dancers, artists, musicians develop special muscles to do what their minds want. At birth, the baby's mind and body aren't working together, there's a dualism because the baby hasn't achieved 'progressive incarnation.' He can't make his body do what he wants.

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Montessori Chapter 11

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 11 - A Visit to Lilliput

This chapter describes the wonder and delight of a Montessori classroom. Little desks, little sinks, little shelves, and lots of colors. Children are quietly busy on tasks, or talking in small groups, solving their own problems, or helping each other. One girl decodes words on a card that tell her to get a drink of water - she's working on her own to read. Another child works out addition problems. A few children place historical pictures on a timeline. The teacher isn't even noticable. She is available to help if children need it, to help keep materials in order, and to keep new (non-normalized) children from disturbing the work of the normalized children.

At one point, the teacher puts up a sign with the word "Silence" on it. One by one, as the children notice the sign, they become still and wait. The teacher leaves the room, and the children are so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. One by one, she quietly calls each child by name from outside the door until all the children are outside the classroom. For 10-15 minutes, they're quietly waiting for her to call them. Then they all go back in and resume their activities.

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Montessori chapter 10

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 10 - Deviations and Normality or Growth and Inner Directives

The miracle of growth is a mystery, but we can observe a few principles about it:
--Every organism grows according to its kind.
--Organisms selectively use matter taken from the environment to grow.
--They use a process called digestion to assimilate that matter into themselves.

The mind is the same way and uses the same principles. It takes in impressions and digests them for mental growth. [CM said that the mind took in and digested intangible ideas, not sensory impressions of the environment, to grow and broaden.] Montessori said that the child's body voluntarily moved and experienced tactile sensations while the mind used a spiritual force. Mind and body somehow worked in unison for the child's growth and development. Mental imbalance manifested as bad habits and naughty behavior will result if mind and body are prevented from acting together. How does this happen? If the child is prevented from physical movement when he wants to move, or when the adult's will takes precedence over the child's [coersion?] And sometimes the child needs more guidance to figure out how to get mind/body working together. If left without help, children sometimes don't know what to do and will be bored and get into mischief. Engaging the mind and body with learning/work (in a Montessori environment) will restore balance.

A Montessori teacher who has a disobedient child added to her class needs to be firm and respectful with him, continue offering learning activities without pressuring him to do them, and let him be free to choose to participate or not as long as he isn't disruptive. One day he'll suddenly and spontaneously take to it with his whole being and his entire concentration. Then he'll begin returning to 'normality.'

What do normal (or normalized) children look like in the classroom? They like order. They love their work. They have amazing ability to concentrate. They like silence and working alone. They prefer the real world and real things to pretend and make believe. They lose their possessiveness and are content to use and share the learning materials without desiring to own them. They are docile and willing to obey. They cooperate and help each other instead of being competitive. They are self-disciplined and happy.

Children coming from public school to homeschool sometimes need time to 'deschool;' in the same way, Montessori newbies need a period of adjustment to normalize.

Montessori's discoveries about what children are capable of must not be confused with the method--the method doesn't produce a normalized child, it's the observations of normal children that led to the method [not sure I understand the distinction.] Montessori said she didn't create a novel new miracle; it's the luminous, beautiful children themselves who should be credited. Humans apparently are better than people thought. This should inspire us with hope for the human race. With prepared environments, even troubled teens can be normalized.

Does this Utopian vision mean that Montessori believed in the goodness of mankind and not original sin? No, but like stars that are neither good nor bad but follow the laws of the universe in harmony with God's design, human nature is a beautiful thing when it follows the right plan. The internal drive in children was put there by God and will respond to order. Older people might choose evil, but childhood naughtiness is often simply internal disorder that needs to be set on the right path.

Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori
About the Pictures in the Book

Montessori chapter 9

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 9 - The Sensorial Foundations of Intellectual Life

Humans aren't purely intellect; their minds don't work independently. The child's mind is interconnected with his physical body. The five senses are the connection between the child's inner self and his surrounding world. In three years, newborn babies collect enough sensory experiences to understand concepts like hard, soft, big, color, etc. These intangible concepts can only be learned through first-hand experience with tangible objects. In some mysterious way, the mind is able to obtain that knowledge through the five senses.

Maria Montessori wanted to help the child accelerate this process and make it more efficient by isolating each attribute to help bring systematic order from the chaotic impressions in the world. She divided the concepts to be learned and designed objects to focus on each concept. If the lesson was going to be hard/soft, she used rods all the same size and color so that the only difference in them was their hardness/softness. That way, the mind could put all its focus on one concept. To teach color, she used tablets that were identical except for color. All future knowledge is built on the foundation of those experiences, so it's important that those first sensory experiences do a solid job of teaching those concepts. A Montessori child won't have vague impressions picked up from routine life jumbled in the dark recesses of his mind. He'll have neatly sorted mental images and categorized memories. [I think Charlotte Mason would have said that this under-values the child's mind and underestimates the ability of human intellect. I think God designed the mind to be able to learn the sensory concepts it needs from the natural environment. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find God's model more efficient by presenting more than one concept at a time.]

Abstract concepts like math also rely on the use of hands-on manipulatives so that the child experiences the concept first-hand. For example, first steps in geometry are taught by fitting geometric cut-outs into same-shaped holes. After handling the tangible shapes, the child transfers that knowledge to his abstract mind and no longer needs or wants to use the tangible objects. [Hands-on math manipulative curriculums such as Math-U-See use this idea of letting the child handle tangible objects until the child discovers the abstract math concept on his own.]

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Soldiers Who Use Body Armor Could Lose Benefits

I understand that the military might not have had the budget to buy the body armor that would have saved the lives of 80 percent of our soldiers who died in Iraq, but I don't understand why anybody would have a problem with a soldier spending his own $6,000 to buy some body armor for himself.

The story is here.

Some Homeschoolers Don't Read, Either

A well-read society learns from the past, reflects, and therefore moves forward. It's not too far-fetched to say that if our children aren't reading, then they're not thinking.

"If your children do not read then may I suggest that you are running around too much. If your children don’t read you probably have no business joining that co-op." Read more at Dominion Family.

Thanks to DHM at The Common Room for sharing that link, and adding her own thoughts.

Chapter 8

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 8 - The Work of the Child

Adults and children view work differently. Adults are glad to let someone else do their work so they can take a break, but children want to do it themselves. A child will enjoy filling a pail with dirt just to empty it and start over. Adults have a goal of changing their environment, accomplishing something productive. But children just enjoy the process. They'll work at a task, only to undo it when they're done and start over. With children, the work going on as they do their tasks is inside them, manifested as inner growth. Adults, who are done growing and changing, work to perfect the world around them, and their eye is on the completed task. Children work to perfect themselves and achieve 'a more advanced state of being.' They don't try to economize or make it easier by carrying more than one thing at a time. They savor each step of the process, even though it looks to us like they're wasting time and motion. Adults look ahead to the end product, but children live in the here and now. They don't look ahead.

Children enjoy their work because, unlike men of modern society, they aren't working to increase someone else's profits and power. Artists, discoverers and geniuses also love working because their work is for themselves. If children were encouraged to do tasks at their own speed in their own way, they might not grow up to dislike work. [I'm sure I oversimplified that concept!]

Adults tend to divide a project (such as building a house) among different people and different tasks. They try to economize and save steps for efficiency. But the child doesn't care about completing the project, so he does it all himself, and he completes each step methodically. Children thrive on repeating the same thing over and over again. Adults are tired after they work, but children's work refreshes and invigorates them. Children's work isn't productive in the practical adult sense. But it's productive at turning children into men and women.

In the same way that adults need specialized places to do their jobs, children need specialized places where they can do their work in peace and on their own timetable. This isn't referring to the 'prepared environment' of child-sized props, but something even beyond that. We should look at nature for our example. If we would stop building bombs and put our time, money and focus into workplaces where children could learn harmony instead of prejudice, then maybe we could have world peace. [I'm sure this leap is developed better in the book, but I'm skimming, and, frankly, it looks like a leap from my perspective. It might look less like wishful thing if I read it more carefully.] Religion would have a major part in this, but the book hasn't really explained its role.

Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.

Old News, But Still Funny

A search reveals posts about this on different message boards from as early as Feb 2005. I've edited all of these for suitability; the sites I've linked to aren't necessarily family-friendly.

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's winners:

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly
Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
Glibido: All talk and no action.
Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

(Some liberals I know are already proving the existence of their own 'bozone' by trying to mis-apply these in a typical attempt to mock conservatives rather than address any actual issues. So far, in spite of my attempt to discover otherwise, liberalism seems mostly based on sentimentality, suspicion and name-calling. If I had a rolling-eyes icon, it would go here. I haven't given up. Maybe I just need to find more informed liberals.)

And here are some that were added by members of a Theology message board:

Triskyslexiphobia: the fear of the number 31.
Agcrostic: a person who doesn't know whether or not to complete word puzzles.
Theomockracy: A government that professes to be "of the people" and yet operates under religious law or gives veto power to non-elected clerics. (i.e., some so-called Islamic "Republics").
Scalienate: to drive a wedge between the law and the people it serves by appointing hyper-conservative justices to the nation's highest court.
Emailienate: to drive away one's relatives and friends by constant streams of e-mail glurge.
Vacildate: When you cannot figure out which girl to call so she can turn you down.
Tanachronism: Your skin complextion when you come back home after a mid-winter vacation in the Bahamas
Tanakhronism: Asking how many animals Moses took on the ark.
Arachnarchy: Rule by Spiders.

from another message board:

Ebyss: a vast pit where errant emails sent through Web Sites go, never to be replied to on-line.
Densa: A group whose sum total IQ equals 160
Tensa: To join you must have blood pressure over 160
Zensa: They're like, on a totally higher plane, man.
Sensa: A group of really smart people who know better than to send money to self agrandizing organizations. Obviously, there are no dues.

from Word Freaks:

Hatador (n.) One who kills ugly hats (trucker ballcaps, tourist hats, hats with corporate logos, elaborate hats worn by old English dames)
Miva (interj.) [Ital.] Long live ME!
Textraoridinary (adj.) beyond the usual amount of text required
Resighn (v.) the sigh one makes when realizing s/he won't get what they wanted.
Sellphone: the realization that your phone service is soooo bad, that you might as well sell the phone and just start yelling (guess something similar could work for Yellphone as well)
Knome: One of a fabled race of know-it-all creatures who hoard information for wrongful dissemintation.

from Sounding Circle:

Coffence: keeping people away from you by pretending to be sick
Top Prayority: whatever you ask God for first
Investigator: stock broker for crocodiles
Arrestaurant: cafe for criminals
Cameraflage: undercover photography
Lobstervation: crustatean research
Acuesticks: sounds inside a pool hall
Pagerism: a journalist using someone else's beeper
Raguru: Eastern mystic who meditates on pasta
Burniture: chairs you get from a fire sale
Jobstacle: anything that prevents you from doing your work

Also seen on Sounding Circle - a blogger's list of the effects of playing music by composers other than Mozart to your child.

Liszt effect: Child speaks rapidly and extravagantly, but never really says anything important.
Bruckner effect: Child speaks very slowly and repeats himself frequently. Gains reputation for profundity.
Wagner effect: Child becomes a megalomaniac. May eventually marry his sister.
Mahler effect: Child continually screams - at great length and volume - that he's dying.
Schöenberg effect: Child never repeats a word until he's used all the other words in his vocabulary. Sometimes talks backwards, up-side-down, even up-side-down and backwards -- usually in early teens. Eventually, people stop listening to him. Child blames them for their inability to understand him.
Babbitt effect: Child gibbers nonsense all the time. Eventually, people stop listening to him. Child doesn't care because all his playmates think he's "cool."
The John Cage Effect: Child is silent but rotates his arm clockwise then counterclockwise 45 minutes at time. Alec Wilder is offered a record contract if he can cut the piece down to 39 minutes.

Random Rabbit Trail Readings

I had a couple of hours today, so I clicked on a favorite blog, from which I clicked on a link in a post, and from there clicked on an article, and ended up on a website I'd discovered years ago when my youngest son was a baby and I had just discovered the attachment parenting community online. I found a lot of articles about parenting and homeschooling by Rebecca Prewitt (she was where I found out about the concerns with Gary Ezzo's Babywise/Growing Kids God's Way) but I haven't been to her site in years. She blogs now! So I read her blog and clicked on some links from her posts. I printed out a few artices she had linked and I'm now reading them. Here's some fun stuff I found there:

During a recent email list topic about whether Charlotte Mason believed in the doctrine of original sin, I found this link to a The 39 Articles of the Church of England (which was CM's church) which says in article 9, "Original sin stands not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk)", but I didn't know what that meant. This AllThings2All blog post explains what Pelagianism is, and then goes on to show scripture references and article quotes to show that Michael Pearl (No Greater Joy) doesn't believe in the doctrine of original sin. [For the record, Charlotte Mason adhered to the standard teachings of the church, which includes a belief in original sin, but one of her educational principles about children being born able to choose either good or evil is sometimes taken by today's Christian to be a doctrinal position of theology.] I don't know enough about what Michael Pearl teaches to know for sure that he teaches Pelagianism, but if he does, it's a serious concern.

I'll also be reading this historical look at blogging from someone who started blogging before everybody else did (at least, that's what I think this is!)

And then there's the Evangelical Update blog which is a response to conservative Christian bloggers by people who aren't conservative Christians.

Chapter 7

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 7

Maria Montessori (1870-1952) defined 'school' as 'a prepared environment' where children could experience freedom to develop with a minimum of interference from adults, so that, in whatever stage of development they were in, they could get what they needed. Her 'law of sensitive periods in development' is the most original and vital part of her method. The concept came from a biologist studying animals. [Once again, the medical/science side of Montessori influenced her concept of children and education.] In the same way that newborn caterpillars who need the tenderest leaves are born with temporary sensitivity to light to help locate those tender leaves, children have certain sensitivities at specific stages in their development to make the most of each critical stage. It's whytoddlers are obsessed with stacking toys, and preschoolers love repitition. These drives compel them to work at the task with an obsessed passion. If teachers match tasks to the child's stage, the child will want to work.

Language is an example of a sensitive period. Children are driven to learn language as toddlers, but it's hard to learn a new language in adulthood. For a child in that stage of development, it comes naturally and without deliberately working at it.

The sensitive period for developing a sense of order is around the ages of 2 or 3. Children in this stage are disturbed by changes in their routine or things out of their normal place. Maria believed that many toddler tantrums were caused by children's distress over a disruption of order that the adult wasn't picking up on. The example given was a mother whose toddler was upset and she didn't know why. It turned out that it had been a warm day and she had taken off her coat, and her child was upset because he knew that coats were for wearing, not for carrying. Even pictures of horses with their riders not on top of the horse, or pictures of hats that aren't on heads can be distressing.

Adults may feel uncomfortable without order, but children absolutely can't tolerate it because they are 'constructing themselves out of the elements of the environment.' A child with little experience or memory needs the world to be like he expects it. That's why they enjoy hide-and-seek, even though they don't "get" the concept of hiding--they love 'finding' something where they expect it to be. How can we help children in this stage? We can take them for walks on the same route every day and let them take time to enjoy the familiar landmarks, so that impressions are made in the 'soft wax of the child's soul.'

Small children are delighted by tiny things, such as ants.

Small children love shapes, colors, sounds, textures, at the same age as their senses are developing. Increased sensory experience at this sensitive period can refine the keenness of their senses. That's why Montessori schools use colored boards, shapes, bells to refine their hearing, etc.

Preschool is the sensitive period for learning manners and ceremonial rituals. It's the best time to teach children how to eat properly, walk quietly, handle sharp instruments, light a candle and carry it carefully. This is the age when they try hardest to do it right.

If school is timed to teach lessons that correspond to children's sensitive periods, then education will be a breeze because children will be internally driven to do the work. For example, they have intellectual periods where they feel driven to spend hours on math. Letting nature set a timetable is more effective than forcing children to learn on our timetables. [Maybe a case for child-led unschooling?] These sensitive periods are windows of opportunity that we need to take advantage of before they're gone. If a sensitive period is missed, it can affect the child's entire development. If children don't do precise movements at their peak creative period (preschool), then they'll be less contented and less confident adults because that period was missed, leaving a small gap in their development that can't be filled in later. If they memorize things at elementary age, it will stay with them for life, unlike when adults try to memorize. Children are most interested in learning to write (or, more accurately, recreating letter shapes) at ages 3 to 4. Later, at age 7-9, children go through a second sensitive language period, when they should learn grammar. The metric system is best learned before children can count, but when they can enjoy the shapes and lengths of sensory blocks.

Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori
About the Pictures in the Book