by Kim Cowen
We’ve all set out looking for dinner recipes online. You scroll through pages of a blog, past gorgeous pictures of food, the author’s kids, their recent family vacation, then their life story, their influences, and so many ads. You get to the instructions, you wing it, and life moves on. Your dish looks nothing like the goal, but it’s edible.
Similarly (kind of), it’s impossible to find a recipe for life, and equally difficult to find a source that explains the basic principles of the Montessori philosophy of education, which I feel is a recipe for life itself. Although there is always more to learn about Montessori (and life), there is a simple foundation upon which it is based. Here’s my version, including some important vocabulary words (since I am a teacher), and I sum up my life story later in just two sentences.
The folks at UNICEF say “science shows that life is a story for which the beginning sets the tone”. Maria Montessori would agree. I adore this method of teaching and learn alongside my students daily. In a Montessori classroom, we don’t believe in boxes. Instead of competing and basing our competence on grades and standards, we learn together. We discover obscure facts and strange animals. We make art and we recap our knowledge of world countries and capitals. We learn the names of plants and discover whether or not they are native to our home. We learn patience and Sanskrit yoga words. We learn how to make pasta and how to pull apart math problems to more fully understand numbers. We learn from creating new works for the classroom based on current student interests (I recently learned the parts of an airplane engine!). We enjoy novels that I read aloud, then we discuss them in our own little book club. I look up words that I don’t know the meaning of. I don’t pretend to know everything, because I don’t, obviously, and because modeling my own love of learning is the very essence of Montessori education.
Maya Angelou*, a Montessori parent and distinguished advocate, said that “we are the sum total of our (experiences)”, and because of this, she vowed to make sure that her influences and experiences were mostly positive. These small (-ish), joyful humans that I work with and collaborate with daily, make me who I am. We encourage each other, challenge each other, and drive each other crazy somedays. And although our routine generally stays the same, every day is different. Every day, we learn together and take care of our environment together. As we should in life. Forever.
My life story: I discovered Dr. Maria Montessori’s philosophy about 20 years ago when I was in my college Child Psych class where I had to write a research paper about someone known for their contributions to early childhood education and/or psychology. I chose her off of a long list of mostly men, wrote a great paper, got a good grade on it (and saw the irony in that), changed my major from education to art, graduated, applied for a job at the local Montessori school, got the job, enrolled my son, moved to the Outer Banks of NC, got Montessori experience and credentials, and the rest is history.
After you read this, I encourage you to read up on Montessori and her much more fascinating life, and the story behind her first schools. Her bio on AMI’s website** is a great start. The woman dealt with a lifetime of adversity, lived through both World Wars, was friends with Gandhi, was exiled from Italy by Mussolini… and was a genius.
Her philosophy is this. Put kids in a “prepared environment”. This is a beautiful room packed with breakable, expensive materials all at their eye level. Now set up in an organized fashion where everything is perfectly in its place, and let them have at it. That's simplified a bit, but she knew, from her years of scientific observations, that children possess an innate desire to learn and when they are trusted with responsibility and respected, they develop responsibility and respect. She also discovered from these observations that humans experience “planes of development”. These are stages in life defined by specific needs and developmental characteristics. If each plane of development is honored and understood, children move into the next plane gracefully to continue learning and growing into maturity, the last plane of development.
Montessori divided these planes into this framework:
Birth to age 6 (infancy, the “what?” age), age 6 to 12 (childhood, the “why?” and “how?” age), age 12 to 18 (adolescence, the “who am I?” age), and 18-24 (maturity, the moral independence age).
The classroom environments are designed to foster their specific needs for each stage, and the work they complete helps them to answer these life questions.
Each six year plane consists of two three-year cycles. These are mixed age classrooms where children have an opportunity to play three roles. Each role is equally important. The changing environments not only suit their mental needs, but also their physical needs. For instance, during infancy (remember, birth to age 6!), they become mobile and much taller and require different furniture, hence an infant/toddler and a 3-6 environment .
Year one of the cycle is the explorers. They are new to the classroom, the routine, the teacher, and some of the peers. They are the young, curious ones who are refreshingly excited about everything. While they get plenty of new lessons to get them started, the teacher is more apt to let these students explore independently and soak up the routine. These children are sponges. Year two is the experimenters. Students expand on their skills from the previous year and want to learn more. They begin to ask about any “mystery” works on the shelves to prepare for Year three, as the experts. This is their year to shine and play a leadership role. They have been in the classroom for two full years. They know right from wrong and how things are supposed to be. They love giving lessons to younger peers, which helps solidify what they have learned, and in turn demonstrates their mastery of the concepts to their teacher. The experts enjoy reading aloud, presenting their work, and receiving important tasks. Students complete this year with confidence and a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Then of course, they move into the next cycle and start the process again in a new, fresh, exciting environment. We continue to take on these same roles in our adult lives, just one of the many ways Montessori education mimics life beyond school.
Dr. Montessori also observed that children are biologically ready for specific concepts and skills during “sensitive periods”. They naturally choose to learn tasks that meet their developmental needs, and sometimes a sensitive period resembles an inner compulsion or hyperfocus, especially in infancy. Once the brain acquires what it set out to learn, the period is over, the child moves on, and doesn’t look back.
Montessori teachers take note of what their students are naturally drawn to and use this information as a tool. If a child seems to be obsessed with a topic, or developing a new ability, this is the best time for them to learn it and retain the information. For example, a 3 year old child who is constantly pretending to write or trying to reproduce letters, is in a sensitive period for writing (which comes just before reading). It is crucial, and easiest, for them to learn it and retain it during this time. Likewise, I am writing all of this (naturally and quite effortlessly), for no established reason (yet), and thoroughly enjoying it, at 2am. I am in a sensitive period for regurgitating my Montessori knowledge. Hopefully someday I’ll enter my sensitive period for Quickbooks.
Those are the basics. Fundamental Montessori 101, which is essentially Life 101. I tried to avoid some of the esoteric pedagogical jargon that scares people away (such as the term ‘esoteric pedagogical jargon’), but the Montessori-specific terms that I used (in quoted bold) are important to know in order to understand Montessori’s brilliant mind and methods and to become the advocates that we need out there in the world. I am well aware of the logistics that go into choosing Montessori for your child's education (location, finances, family situations, etc), and whether this is feasible or not, a Montessori lifestyle at home based on peace, life skills, relationships, community, and learning- most definitely is.
Here is one last term to learn. Maria Montessori preferred the title, “guide”, rather than ‘teacher’. I chose “teacher” here for user-friendliness, but I can’t argue with her reasoning. If we “follow the child”, not literally or physically (that’s creepy), but follow their interests and their sensitive periods, we can successfully guide them to mastery of all academic areas and guide them to realize their truest selves, to be stewards of the world, care for their environment, retain their curiosity, and never stop exploring, which is a pretty ideal recipe for life.***
~kim
*When Maya Angelou spoke at the annual AMS Conference in NYC in 2007, she spoke of courage. “It takes courage to speak honestly. It takes courage to advocate for peace. It takes courage to rear open-minded, curious children in uncertain times.”
** www.montessori-ami.org
*** The title and phrase, “Recipe for Life” that I chose to use for this piece came from a close friend’s final Facebook post before his passing in 2020. My friend Scott was a natural Montessorian. He loved fiercely, danced with reckless abandon, surfed every wave of life with gratitude, positivity, and charm, and was a genuine friend to all.
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