Used in more than fifteen thousand schools in 154 countries around the world, the Montessori method has acquired more and more popularity thanks to its principles, first of all self -direct learning.
In recent years the Montessori method has conquered more and more popularity all over the world and is used in numerous educational schools and institutions, more than fifteen thousand schools In 154 countries of the world (1)
Bookstores, children’s shops and the web overflows with “Montessorian” proposals and many parents try to Apply the Montessori principles for the education of their children. But What is the Montessori method? What are its foundations and what makes it so different from the traditional educational approach?
His emphasis on self -director learning And respect for the individual rhythm of the child makes him an approach appreciated and recognized for his contribution to childhood education. In the article we try to get to know this pedagogical proposal and its fundamental principles better.
Montessori method what it is
The Montessori method He was born from the mind and the tireless work of Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori, one of the first Italian women to graduate in medicine. Doctor with training in psychiatry, anthropologist, representative of the feminist movement, scholar and researcher, Maria Montessori has dedicated his life to study of boys and girls With the aim of understanding the mechanisms that regulate their development and thus define the optimal characteristics of the environment and the adult educator.
What is the definition of the Montessori method? If we wanted to give A definition of the Montessori methodin fact, we could call it briefly as a “life help“So that it can fully blossom. It is a pedagogical proposal aimed at support holistic development of the boy or girl through an environment and an educational intervention capable of enhancing and respecting hers internal resourceshis autonomy, his freedom.
It is something extremely complex, well beyond a simple “method”. Montessori herself, in fact, did not particularly love this expression and referred to it more as a “mission”.
What is defined as Montessori method is a educational approach and a philosophy of lifea spiritual attitude and a different way of seeing the world and interrelationships between those who live in it. In all this, the Montessorian approach also presents solid scientific basesbeing based on one empirical observation careful of the child’s free activity and on experimentation.
What does the Montessori method say?
With his Principles The Montessori method He brought with him a real revolution with respect to the vision of the boy or girl, his potential and his needs. In the past, in fact, i children – especially the little ones – they were mostly considered passive individualsreal “vases to be filled” having the need, in order to grow and develop, of the wise intervention of the adult.
Starting from his observations, careful Maria Montessori discovers that The boys and girls are, from the beginning, Extremely competent and active individualsendowed with a different mind from that of the adult (which she defines absorbentsince capable of absorbing the necessary to grow effortlessly) and capable, by means of one’s activity, of grasp the environment Everything necessary to build the different skills such as language or movement in a spontaneous and natural way.
Why all theirs potential can develop fully they need, however, of an environment made to welcome them and to support them. And it is here, the Montessori method tells us, that we adults enter the game.
We are not the “plasma” of the child, writes Maria Montessori, but his own facilitators: our task is that of Create a master educational environmentwho is able to awaken the interests of boys and girls and accompany them to learn through active experience.
When these conditions occur, according to Maria Montessori, the boy or girl is able to reveal “Different characters” from those normally attributed to him: It is interested, concentrated, always at work, disciplined, autonomous, happy. And it is not a “miracle”. These are the real traits of the child, when it is placed in an environment designed for support him and respond to his needs of growth.
It is a approach to the child and natural educationsimple, but at the same time complex. To understand even better in which consists of the Montessori method, then we analyze more specifically the key principles on which it rests.
Principles of the Montessori method
Through the observations With her carried out on the behaviors and work done by the little ones at her “children’s homes” was able to define some Montessori principles. What are the important principles of the Montessori method? The first concerns without any doubt the importance ofmaster environment and of theindirect education.
The environmentboth the domestic and the school one, performs a essential educational function. If the adult thinks, organizes and structure the environment to really be To the extent of the childproportionate not only to his strength, but also to his psycho-physical abilities, he puts the latter in the condition of being able to act with autonomy and learning fromexperience.
The environment, Maria Montessori tells us, must to be able to speak to the child, guide him and accompany him. If, for example, we organize the environment by choosing light and proportionate furniture, the children will be able to move them without help. At the same time, it will be the furniture themselves, By making noise, to report to children – without the need for our intervention – that their movements have perhaps been too abrupt and that greater care and control is needed.
Still too often boys and girls live in environments that they are not adequately thought For them. It is therefore essential to rethink the space, especially that of our homes, both to measure, beautiful, limited, not overflowing with objects and ordered. Just as the directors do, it is our job to intervene on the setting and create the ideal conditions so that the actors can give their best.
But organizing the environment is not enough. In order to grow and develop, the child must also have the possibility to move and act in it on the guidance of one’s interests. Thus we come to another fundamental principle of the Montessori method: the freedom of choice and theinterest.
Through its observations Montessori was able to ascertain how the evolutionary process of boys and girls is not guided by the case. There are a sort of “directives”, of the special sensitivity it defined Sensitive periods. At certain moments of development these light specific interests of the child, thus allowing him (thanks also to the power of the absorbent mind) to carry out those acquisitions necessary for the construction of new skills or skills.
In order for this to be possible, however, it is necessary that the child be placed in the condition of be able to independently orient themselves and to be able to choose the “psychic nourishment” he needs at that moment. This means guaranteeing children and girls the opportunity to move freely in the environment and allow them to devote themselves to the activity that at that moment feel most responding to their interest.
THE’interestoften reiterates Montessori, is the foundation of concentration and work and therefore engine of learning and growth.
How to understand what are our child’s interests? To do this it is necessary observe it. Observing is much more than looking: it is an intentional act, it means carefully examining with the intent to understand something.
If we leave them free to moveto act, to communicate, the actions, the looks, the gestures of the children will tell us what their growth needs are.
We now come to the third, a fundamental principle: the role of the adult. In fact, it is necessary, in fact, to design the environment or identify the most interesting activities, if we are not able to correctly guide children and accompany them in the full realization of the their potentiality.
In his Testi Maria Montessori speaks in depth about the role of the adult (parent and teacher). It recognizes that it is an extremely difficult and difficult task, and provides many important indications on how to work on ourselves on an intellectual, emotional and spiritual level in order to become the guide that children need.
The first and perhaps more important quality for the adult is humility. We cannot go far, according to the Montessori approach, if you do not undress before many old and dangerous preconceptions that prevent us from entering one genuine relationship with children and accompany them correctly.
Being humble means abstain from the judgmentknowing how to take a step back, trust in the child in front of us and in the fact that these, if left free to express themselves, will be able to indicate the right educational way.
Equally fundamental is the respect. Have respect for the child and his timesthe patience to observe him, with depth, to grasp his messages and his needs and thus be able to respond to them in the most convenient way.
Pride, haste, the tendency to replace or want to protect excessively are obstacles to the educational relationship. The Montessori method tells us that boys and girls they don’t need adults who do in their placebut of figures that accompany them and support them so that they can learn to do alone. We must act just like wise gardeners, taking care of the ground with love and patience e creating the most suitable environment In order for the child to sprout and grow luxuriantly, until he blossomed.
