Watch the news, read the news, listen to the news – so much of what I see, read and hear often fills me with apprehension.
Unfortunately, as humans, we are wired to focus on what’s negative or potentially harmful – it was necessary for our survival when we were just getting started. I know I am not alone when I worry about what I see happening to our planet in terms of what lies ahead for the future of our children. That hard-wired impulse to be wary of the scary, and to focus on the negative is very difficult to resist.
There is hope! I believe that for every negative there is a positive, (has science proved this?) and fortunately for me, I am a Montessori educator. This choice of profession helps me tame some of that fore-mentioned apprehensiveness because one of the tenets upon which Montessori curriculum is based is peace.
Peace in a Montessori classroom is an all-encompassing concept. It starts with the preparation of the teacher and the environment, continues on to the practices and procedures of classwork and lessons, and then runs along with a large dose of what we now call emotional intelligence. Maria Montessori simply called it the “work of peace.”
One foundational pillar that supports peace in a Montessori classroom is called “grace and courtesy.” Children are taught how to interact with one another, how to move calmly through the classroom, how to handle the classroom materials and how to allow a classmate to concentrate on his/her work.
Children are taught consideration for others and respect. Respect, as a concept, has many applications to our lives. We must respect each other, we must respect our surroundings, we must respect the laws that govern us and we must respect ourselves. Respectful behavior promotes a smooth-running classroom and life for a child – which leads to a peaceful world, right?
A second pillar of the peaceful classroom, as Montessori puts it, revolves around the most important thing to a child: him/herself. Children learn best when they are allowed to exert their “will” and explore their world with liberty. When children feel they have been given a level of control in their learning, they do just that: learn. Along with this comes good amount of satisfaction. If the classroom environment is set up in such a way as to invite curiosity, and if the teacher is trained to ignite the passion to learn by allowing children some freedom, children will automatically express a desire to learn and will do so with enthusiasm. When this happens, children are at peace. Their “will” is being serviced.
We know that children like to explore and touch things in order to gain understanding, and the best classrooms offer a wide variety of materials to do so. In a Montessori classroom, even an abstract concept like grammar can be demonstrated with manipulative materials. Montessori believed that “the hand is the instrument of the mind” and therefore created a world where things are learned by social interaction and interaction with materials. Because of this permission (or liberty), children do not see learning as drudgery, but as work that they enjoy.
Maria Montessori had strong opinions formed by a life that was marked by two world wars and a complicated political environment for female professionals. She was a medical doctor with a focus on psychology, and approached the subject of how humans learn from a different perspective than educators of her day. She was very interested in practices that facilitate the desire to learn and developed materials and curriculum based on this idea. Good practices would ultimately lead to a peaceful, content and optimistic child.
I encourage you to look for ways you can engage in the “work of peace” with your child.
This work doesn’t take place only in a Montessori classroom. Learn what your classrooms are doing to deeply influence the development of internal and external forms of peace.
This is important work. Is it too naïve to think that if we all engage in the “work of peace” that those negative news reports will change? Maybe. But maybe if we all work at it, teach it, learn it and engage in the mindset, we can collectively influence our future.
I hope so.
Mary Polino founded Durango Montessori Elementary School in 2005, and is currently the director of curriculum and staff development at the school. Reach her at mary@durangomontessori.com.
