Supporting Self Discipline

A disciplined being for Montessori means a person who is a master for himself, and is able to excercise self control as a respect for his environment and himself.

An individual on his way to becoming self discipline should be prevented from doing anything that is offending/hurting others, or which is impolite and improper. While Montessori encourages freedom and liberty in her schools, these are checked concurrently with rules and limits for the child who is on his way to becoming a normalised being.

The teacher of the child sets the rules, that is the basis of organised external discipline, in the child's surrounding.

• To build up a child's sense of order

All items have their rightful place, the child should be shown where a particular item can be found and to be returned after use. The child cannot abandon his material/work after use, he must be willing to return it to the same location out of respect for the environment and its rules. The child may never pass on nor take material from another. No matter how badly he wants the material, he should be patient and wait till the material is being returned (to its location) before taking it for his own use.

• To show respect for materials/work

When the material is being used in a way that does not attain it's goal in educating the child's mind, its usage should be stopped. If the child is calm and good tempered, the teacher will stop him sweetly. If the child shows otherwise behaviour, the teacher will exercise authority to guide him, but not in a way that seems to be a punishment for noise and disorder.

• To strengthen self control

The child might sometimes perform acts which baffled us, like scattering things about, acts that they know very well would upset us. It is best to deal with the matter on hand as clamly as possible (reflect the cause later), careful not to give the kind of attention (that the child had intended to get, eg. scolding/punishment) but to show your disapproval in the calmest manner. Wait for the child to calm down before giving him positive suggestions.

The Montessori Method

What is the Montessori method? This is a question I am often asked.

The Montessori Method is different, sometimes contrary to, what I am/we are accustomed to. . These key issues will probably take a lot of time to sink in and become part of me and my teaching intention.

1)It is NOT a question of giving the child a knowledge about qualities/quantities of things such as size, shape,and colour, by means of different objects.

2)It is NOT our aim to teach the child how to use the material correctly, meaning no spills when teaching wet pouring or that the knobbed cylinders are fitted into the right hole in the 1st attempt.

3) It is NOT about actively participating and correcting the child's every mistake until he had learned his lesson.

The Montessori Method is about helping the child to achieve self-education and self discipline. With this, he chooses the material that he wants to work on, be shown how the material works. From then, he is left to work with it as long as he wants. He is only to be observed that the material is being treated with respect and that it is adequate (neither too easy nor too had) for his developing mind.

Found this to be worth savouring in our fast paced life, where we want/forced to demand sometimes too much from our child, as she puts it

".. On the other hand, she(teacher) should not present objects to others who cannot as yet appreciate them and thus discourage their first childish enthusiasm."