Normalization Maria Montessori

The Montessori Method We are inclined to believe that children are like puppets, and we wash them and feed them as if they were dolls. We do not stop to think that the child who does not do, does not know how to do. (p.97)

Infancy Two periods: Birth to Three = the “hand” guides the development of the mind (the period of the “unconscious creator” Three to Six = the mind guides the hand, impulse control and intentionality take form

The First Plane of Development Infancy: Birth to Six The Formative Period-the development of the self as an individual being The child uses the environment to change himself while the adult works to change the environment

The Montessori Method The movements of the children from the state of order become always more co-ordinated and perfect with the passing of the days; in fact they learn to reflect upon their own acts…It is remarkable how clearly individual differences show themselves, if we proceed in this way, the child, conscious and free, reveals himself. (p.94-95)

Being Served VS Acting In reality, he who is served is limited in his independence. This concept will be the foundation of the dignity of the man of the future; “I do not wish to be served, because I am not impotent.” And this idea must be gained before men can feel themselves to be really free. (p.97)

The Absorbent Mind The Child’s Contribution to Society-Normalization The initial integration of these traits Concentration Work Discipline Sociability

Normalization The human being is a united whole, but this unity has to be built up and formed by active experiences in the real world, to which it is led by the laws of nature. The embryonic development of each of its parts, which is at first carried on separately from birth till three, must in the end become integrated, when it will be so organized that all of these parts act together in the service of the individual. That is what is happening …from 3 to 6, when the hand is at work and the mind is guiding it.

Montessori says The hand moves aimlessly; the mind wanders about far from reality; language takes pleasure in itself; the body moves clumsily. And these separate energies, finding nothing to satisfy them, give rise to numberless combinations of defective and deviated growth, which become sources of conflict and despair. Such deviations…come from a failure to organize the personality.

The Child’s Contribution … when the attractions of the new environment exert their spell, offering motives for constructive activity, then all these energies combine and the deviations can be dispersed. A unique type of child appears, a “new child;” but really it is the child’s true “personality” allowed to construct itself normally.

The Line of Normality The loss of all these superficial defects is not brought about by an adult, but by the child himself, who passes into the central line with his whole personality, and this means that his normality has been attained.

Normalization Free of coercion Real freedom A consequence of development Is active Development cannot be taught We cannot cause another to develop

Normalization Concentration Begins with motives for activity Engages the child’s whole personality It is the point of departure not the point of arrival “An interesting piece of work, freely chosen, which has the virtue of inducing concentration rather than fatigue, adds to the child’s energies and mental capacities, and leads him to self-mastery.”