Freedom and the Montessori Classroom

“To give a child liberty is not to abandon him to himself."

Montessori classrooms often receive two types of criticism. The first is that our students have too much freedom – “they do whatever they like!” – and the second is that they are not free at all: “all these poor children do is work!” Well, both can be true, our students often want to work. But we do have a very specific notion of freedom.

To us, freedom doesn’t mean chaos or doing whatever we please, anytime (what Dr. Montessori called “being a slave to one’s own impulses”). Rather, it means being able to set a goal and reach it, whether that goal is “I will learn Spanish and live in Madrid”, or “I will work with the pink tower material next.”

To be free to reach our goals, we need the capacity to weigh our options, the ability to make a choice and go through with it. In other words, freedom requires knowledge of our environment, the necessary skills, and the self-control to follow through. It is in the child’s nature to work hard to gain all three. As educators, we just need to give the opportunity.

Our toddlers have the freedom to wash laundry, because they can do it without flooding the classroom; our four-year olds have the freedom to practice hammering nails or using sharp knives because follow safety precautions. Our Elementary students have the freedom to put together their weekly work plans because they accept that they have to include necessary tasks as well as their favourites. As we grow in knowledge, skills and self-control, our freedom naturally grows too: gradually but inexorably.

“To let the child do as he likes, when he has not yet developed any powers of control, is to betray the idea of freedom.”

We don’t want our students to be quiet during their classroom work because they are not free to raise their voice. We want them to have the knowledge, the understanding, and the self-control to choose to speak in a low voice so as to be polite and not disturb their friends. We want children to learn that freedom isn’t the absence of rules and boundaries – there is no such thing, we are always tied by laws and rules. But freedom means willingly following rules that we accept and appreciate, and having the space to live a happy and productive life within them.

By Michaela Tučková / Toddler Teacher

Want to learn more? Read our next article:

THE BENEFITS OF CURSIVE HANDWRITING

Gallery
Comments

Další články

IMSP Podcast: Meet alumna Tara Svobodova

"I would really encourage you to enjoy the time you have at IMSP because it is something I look back fondly to."

Understanding your child's inner sense of order

Have you ever noticed that your child enjoys singing the same song over and over again, or wants you to repeat the same story for what feels like a million times? Dr. Montessori highlighted the importance of sensitive periods in children, which are known as windows of opportunities for children to develop skills, including movement, language and most definitely, order. A child’s need for external order is present as early as childbirth and peaks in their second year, before fading at about the age of 5. This period of development helps a child to develop a connection between themselves and the world, process information and overcome challenges.

Cooking With Children can be fun

It is often said that “the family that eats together, stays together”. We would like to suggest taking it a step further – and encourage every family to cook together, too. In Montessori, we know that kitchen work provides a host of benefits to children, all the way from toddlers to adolescents; it is a part of the Practical Life curriculum as soon as children can walk! However, its advantages are in no way tied to the classroom and can be just as easily – if not more so – applied at home.

Benefits of Practical Life for Toddler Development

“The first thing to realize about these exercises of practical life is that their aim is not a practical one. Emphasis should be laid not on the word “practical” but on the word life. Their aim is to assist development.” E. M. Standing, Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work

Magic mat

There are a few things typical to Montessori classrooms worldwide that might give the casual observer a pause. Picture it: you walk into a beautiful Casa environment, full of children working, many of them on mats rolled out on the floor. The students moving through the room know to step between mats, never on them. Of course, in the beginning of the school year it took many presentations, repetitions and reminders to instill this routine in the students.