The Montessori Toddlers Understanding the Role of Spirituality in Teacher-Child Relationship

By Mike Parson

Maria Montessori, considered "a citizen of the world," as indicated on a commemorative plaque in Rome, is one of the most outstanding educators of the twentieth century. She was born in Chiaravalle, Italy, in 1870. In 1896, she became the first woman in Italy to become a physician. For many years, she worked with children with developmental disorders as part of her duties stemming from her appointment to the Psychiatric Clinic at the University of Rome.

Basing her approach of the education of the child's senses on the work of Froebel, Itard, and Seguin, Montessori developed unique materials for the children to use. She came to believe that their learning could be immensely ameliorated with a particular educational program, and, indeed, it was. During the ten years after her graduation, Montessori was also involved in her private practice, with hospitals around Rome, her lectureships at different women colleges, and eventually, her Professorship in Anthropology. Later in years, Montessori would comment on how her life, in its entirety, was an example of her principle that "the preparations of life are indirect" and that one must be "obedient to events." As her biographer, Standing became acquainted with Maria Montessori in 1921 and continued to contact her up to her passing in 1952, collaborating with her in writing articles, teaching in schools, and assisting her in the teacher training. He reflected on how Montessori's first part of her career built her later work with children.

Following is a classic example of her life's mission.

Montessori's interventions, at that time, were "anything but scientific"; however, what someone else may have considered insignificant, Montessori deemed necessary. For example, she noticed that the children would repeat an exercise many times over, for no apparent external reason, before they would be finished working with the material, at an age when adults expected children to have a brief attention span. During this time, they demonstrated the ability to concentrate intensely on their work. Another example was the children following the teacher, who would put the materials back in their proper places.

Contrary to the teacher's thinking that they were being disobedient by not staying in their places, Montessori realized that the children had a love for order: they wanted to put the material back in their proper places themselves. This, in turn, led to the astounding discovery that the children could choose their cloth according to their interests. Therefore, the free choice was added to the principles of repetition of the exercise and concentration, which gave her insights into "the unexplored depths of the child's mind."

Other discoveries included that the children preferred to work with the material rather than play with toys. They were oblivious to rewards and punishments. They loved silence. When Montessori decided to teach them the delicate art of blowing their nose, an action that adults usually criticized and humiliated the child about, the children broke out in applause. Montessori surmised, "children have a deep sense of personal dignity," and "later on the inculcation of this respect for their dignity-of even the smallest child became one of the most prominent elements in the training of her teachers."

• Language: English
• Publisher: vincenzo nappi
• Release date: Aug 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201782221

Book preview

Chapter 1: The Journey of the Heart

Describing a facet of a teacher’s love for the child, Montessori offered an example that one would not usually think about in the teacher-child relationship. Addressing how a child’s deviations, which refers to what we would call misbehaviors today, disappear when he begins to concentrate on some work that he has chosen on his own, Montessori explained the role of love:

Nothing matters while the children have still deviated. Everything will correct itself after concentration has come. We may use any means we have to attract the children’s attention. Their attention is attracted through activity. Give them activity, attract them through the sweetness. This can also be a method of love because we know what we are aiming at. We know that this energy exists inside the children and urges them to do exercises that are necessary for their development. It is nature that brings the children to the point of concentration, not you.

Being essentially spiritual, in this relationship the teacher respects the inner spiritual forces within the child that are guiding her to learn. Montessori called these inner forces the inner teacher. This concept truly inspired me and I surmised that if a child is born with an inner teacher, then this inner teacher is still within us as adults. I contemplated what the relationship with this inner teacher could mean for the teachers.

Montessori perceived her life’s work as defending the child, and educating adults to better understand their role about the child:

In going about his dedicated labors on behalf of the child, the adult must realize above all else that his task concerns a revelation of the child’s soul. If he does so, the steps he subsequently takes and the aid he offers the child will be of great importance; if he does not do so, all his work will go for nothing. This work must have a twofold objective: constructing a suitable environment and bringing about a new attitude toward children on the part of adults.

Moreover, Montessori claimed, change must be made in the adult if the child is to fulfill her true potential. More specifically, she cautioned:

Adults have not understood children or adolescents and they are, in consequence, in continual conflict with them. The remedy is not that adults should gain some new intellectual knowledge or achieve a higher standard of culture. No, they must find a different point of departure. The adult must find within himself the still unknown error that prevents him from seeing the child as he is. If such a preparation is not made, if the attitudes relative to such preparation are not acquired, he cannot go further.

Maria Montessori, considered a citizen of the world, as indicated on a commemorative plaque in Rome, is one of the greatest educators of the twentieth century. She was born in Chiaravalle, Italy in 1870. In 1896, she became the first woman in Italy to become a physician. For many years, she worked with children with developmental disorders as part of her duties stemming from her appointment to the Psychiatric Clinic at the University of Rome.

Basing her approach of the education of the senses of the child on the work of Froebel, Itard, and Seguin, Montessori developed unique materials for the children to use. She came to believe that, with a special educational program, their learning could be immensely ameliorated and, indeed, it was. During the ten years after her graduation, Montessori was also involved in her private practice, with hospitals around Rome, in her lectureships at different women colleges, and eventually, with her Professorship in Anthropology. Later in years, Montessori would comment on how her life, in its entirety, was an example of her principle that the preparations of life are indirect, and that one must be obedient to events. As her biographer, Standing became acquainted with Maria Montessori in 1921 and continued to be in contact with her up to her passing in 1952, collaborating with her in writing articles, teaching in schools, and assisting her in the teacher training. He reflected on how Montessori’s first part of her career built the foundation for her later work with children.

Following is a classic example of her life’s mission.

One day a building society in the slum area of San Lorenzo in Rome approached Maria Montessori to open a school for children, between the ages of three to six, who were abandoned during the day while their illiterate parents worked. Montessori described the fifty children: "They were tearful, frightened children, so timid that I could not get them to speak.

Their faces were expressionless, their eyes bewildered as if they had never seen anything before in their lives...They were like buds that seemed never destined to bloom. Nevertheless, she was gratified to finally try out her method with normal children."

Montessori opened the first Casa de Bambini, translated as Children’s House, on January 6, 1907. On opening day, Montessori had an intuitive feeling: For some undefinable reason I felt that a great work was about to begin and that it would prosper. As yet, Montessori had no special system of instruction, beyond the objects she had successfully used with the children who were developmentally delayed. Within a few months observing these children in the classroom, she was surprised at what she was witnessing: I was like Aladdin with the lamp in his hands, not knowing that it was the key to hidden treasures. She and her teacher were incredulous and remained for a long time in disbelief. The children’s negative characteristics disappeared and Montessori saw for the first time the true spirit within the child.

Montessori observed the following startling changes in the children. The children placed their whole attention on the material and worked with a remarkable state of concentration. Afterward,