For this post I decided to tackle a couple of common myths that surround the Montessori Philosophy! This post is fully an opinion piece,my own opinion which I know isn’t going to be the exact same as every other Montessorian out there!
Number 1: Montessori children don’t play!
As a Montessorian, I sometimes hear negative views of the Montessori environment for not allowing children to play. This is always confusing to me, since it just isn’t true! If you take some time to observe a Montessori Casa classroom, you will see that our student’s “work” has all of the key aspects of play in it; free choice, intrinsic rewards, manipulation of various materials and most importantly constant enjoyment of the activities they are taking part in!
What we don’t do is pretend play and fantasy. Children within this age group have difficulty understanding the difference between reality and fiction; therefore we keep our environments filled with real, concrete experiences.
Most of you know that we don’t actually use the word play in our classrooms; we say “work” instead. Many people have different views on why we “work” instead of play, but for me its simple. The word work helps to create a more respectful environment than a typical play environment. When you play you throw, run, act silly and don’t always respect the toys you are using. With omitting the word play in our environments it allows the children to slow down, think carefully and respect the materials, environment and their peers. They learn to play in a more respectful way that allows everyone in the classroom to enjoy their learning experience to the fullest.
Myth Number 2: Montessori students get total freedom in their classroom
A lot of people think of Montessori as either totally rigid or total freedom (aka chaos). People hear that the children have the freedom to choose their work, but what they don’t always realize is that they are given “Freedom Within Limits”. Freedom Within Limits means that the children are free to choose their own work as long as they are making good choices and being respectful. It is our job as teachers to guide and motivate our students to the materials they should be working on.
The reason we are able to allow this freedom, is because we spend the first six weeks of school consistently teaching the classroom ground rules and helping the children develop their routines and work cycles. This is the busiest time of year for Montessori teachers! We call these six weeks Normalization, a word that Maria Montessori borrowed from Anthropology meaning becoming a contributing member of society. Normalizations happens for every child over a different amount of time; even second and third year children will need to renormalize at the beginning of the school year. To make a long story short, Montessori students do not just get to choose whatever they like. We give them the necessary tools to make an appropriate choice for their academic level and if they are unable to make that choice then they are motivated and redirected by their teacher.
It has been a couple of very busy weeks in our classroom! The children are normalizing beautifully and are motivated to work, work, work! Enjoy a few pictures from our last couple of weeks!
Number 1: Montessori children don’t play!
As a Montessorian, I sometimes hear negative views of the Montessori environment for not allowing children to play. This is always confusing to me, since it just isn’t true! If you take some time to observe a Montessori Casa classroom, you will see that our student’s “work” has all of the key aspects of play in it; free choice, intrinsic rewards, manipulation of various materials and most importantly constant enjoyment of the activities they are taking part in!
What we don’t do is pretend play and fantasy. Children within this age group have difficulty understanding the difference between reality and fiction; therefore we keep our environments filled with real, concrete experiences.
Most of you know that we don’t actually use the word play in our classrooms; we say “work” instead. Many people have different views on why we “work” instead of play, but for me its simple. The word work helps to create a more respectful environment than a typical play environment. When you play you throw, run, act silly and don’t always respect the toys you are using. With omitting the word play in our environments it allows the children to slow down, think carefully and respect the materials, environment and their peers. They learn to play in a more respectful way that allows everyone in the classroom to enjoy their learning experience to the fullest.
Myth Number 2: Montessori students get total freedom in their classroom
A lot of people think of Montessori as either totally rigid or total freedom (aka chaos). People hear that the children have the freedom to choose their work, but what they don’t always realize is that they are given “Freedom Within Limits”. Freedom Within Limits means that the children are free to choose their own work as long as they are making good choices and being respectful. It is our job as teachers to guide and motivate our students to the materials they should be working on.
The reason we are able to allow this freedom, is because we spend the first six weeks of school consistently teaching the classroom ground rules and helping the children develop their routines and work cycles. This is the busiest time of year for Montessori teachers! We call these six weeks Normalization, a word that Maria Montessori borrowed from Anthropology meaning becoming a contributing member of society. Normalizations happens for every child over a different amount of time; even second and third year children will need to renormalize at the beginning of the school year. To make a long story short, Montessori students do not just get to choose whatever they like. We give them the necessary tools to make an appropriate choice for their academic level and if they are unable to make that choice then they are motivated and redirected by their teacher.
It has been a couple of very busy weeks in our classroom! The children are normalizing beautifully and are motivated to work, work, work! Enjoy a few pictures from our last couple of weeks!