Imagination & Reality: The Montessori Approach

Several years ago Batman was the superhero of choice for the largest part of the 12 boys in Blue Class. At the beginning of the year my co teacher and I quickly noticed an issue with physical confrontations. We observed closely to determine what might be behind it all; a singular source or multiple ones. It seemed that whenever a child wore a t-shirt with a superhero on it that child would become more aggressive towards the other children. We sent home an email requesting that children use other clothing if possible. Many of the parents were compliant and we saw a change in those children. However, when it began getting a little colder they all began bringing their jackets from home. Seven of the boys brought the same one to school, it was a Batman jacket that had a hood with a mesh mask that covered the eyes but still let the boys see through them (an educator’s nightmare!). Two of them brought Spiderman jackets of the same variety. When they went outside in their jackets we observed that their behavior became very physical and confrontational with lots of fantasy violence. Several times their interactions with one another erupted into physical violence with some children needing a break from their friends. This phenomenon was so different from what we normally experienced outside that we were fairly certain it had to do with the sheer number of jackets. I decided that I would speak one-on-one with each of the parents about what had been transpiring and ask them to not send those particular jackets to school. Most parents were very obliging. A couple of others continued to bring theirs to school, but their peers kept telling them that we didn't bring that jacket to school anymore so they stopped. What they saw being portrayed on screen at night was translating into fantasy violence at school. This would sometimes erupt into real violence towards other children.

While many erroneously believe that imagination and fantasy are the same thing, they are, in fact, not. Imagination and fantasy are distinctly different sides of the coin. Imagination is rooted in reality and is a creative expression of some known thing. Montessori believed that it is necessary for the Early Childhood brain to be engaged in something constructive. She saw the delving of young children still in the first plane of development into the make-believe, or fantasy world, as a sign of a mind without aim. “When a fugitive mind fails to find something upon which it may work, it becomes absorbed with images and symbols. Children who are afflicted with this disorder move restlessly about. They are lively, irrepressible, but without purpose. They start something only to leave it unfinished since their energies are directed toward many different objects without being able to settle upon any of them.”1

As an example, one year I had a four year old student we will call “Joseph” whose mother was concerned about him, as was I. He was having a difficult time discerning between his real life and what he watched on television. His mother admitted that he spent a lot of time watching television and playing video games at home because she just didn't know what to do with him. His favorite show was Power Rangers and he talked about and acted out the sequences from the show as if they were really happening. She had been the recipient of his fantasy violence becoming real several times. Whenever he was reprimanded at home he would get angry and shout that he would “vaporize her dead!” He then acted this out and proceeded to hit and kick her repeatedly. She was at a loss of what to do since she didn’t want to take away his favorite show for fear he would become even more angry and violent with her. He really wanted to go and see the new Avengers movie over the weekend, which his mother was using for him as a reward for his good behavior during the week. What would things be like for Joseph and his classmates when he came back to school after seeing this new live-action movie with so much violence that was so completely inappropriate for his age and development?

The following Monday Joseph needed to be removed from the classroom for violent behavior toward a particular boy in our class. He said he was his “enemy and had to be destroyed.” Over a period of several months Joseph had daily violent episodes with his classmates to such an extent that none of the students were willing to sit near or even talk to him. We strove during work time to create opportunities for Joseph to normalize, but it was difficult. His mind seemed engaged and disengaged from the entire room at the same time. He moved about erratically, never staying on any work for any extended period of time. Frequently he refused to do anything at all, but still caused mayhem everywhere he went. There were no works on the shelf that were safe from his destructive movements. Nothing seemed to stir his soul, not even the dinosaur works his mother said he loved so well. The lines between reality and fantasy were severely blurred for this child. When his mother continued to be absolutely unwilling to make any accommodations, such as trimming his screen time, he continued to be unsuccessful and stuck in a place of fantasy the entire time he was in our class. Due to his violence the administration did not allow Joseph to stay and he left our school a few months into the year after threatening and harming other children on many, many occasions. We believed the constant exposure to live action shows such as Power Rangers were detrimental to his development, especially since his mother said she was too tired to think of something else for him to engage in. It seemed that his mind had little else to do while he was away from school besides retreat into the realm of fantasy, and that it had been that way for some time. We additionally felt there could have been other things at play with Joseph, and we certainly hope he has been able to get the help he needed.

Let’s be clear that play is important for all children. For young children in the first plane of development this play needs to be rooted in reality. There must be a good foundation from which to develop their creativity and imagination. Being rooted in reality allows for children to delve into fantasy later in life in healthy and amazing ways. This is in direct contrast to the realm of fantasy. A child who uses their imagination attaches themselves to some real object so that “In the surroundings which we provide for them we see these children immediately attach themselves to some task. Their excited fantasies and restless movements disappear and they calmly face reality and begin to perfect themselves through their work. They become normal children. Their aimless actions become directed. Their arms and legs become the instruments of minds eager to know and to penetrate the reality of their environment. A search for knowledge now replaces their aimless curiosity. With a brilliant insight, psychoanalysts have described the abnormal development of the imagination and excessive interest in play as a ‘psychic fugue.’” 2

The manipulation of the Montessori materials invites the child to utilize and build his powers of creativity and therefore his imaginative powers. Here he explores the environment and materials on new levels and according to the dictates of his inner self within the proper limits of the classroom. These materials provide for an incredible amount of imaginative expression and exploration. In fact, it is the work with the Montessori materials that reveals the normalized child. This child is grounded in reality, loves to work with real world objects, and chooses to use “real-life” activities over the make-believe. In the words of Montessori, “Imagination can have only a sensory basis. The sensory education which prepares for the accurate perception of the different details in the qualities of things, is therefore the foundation of the observation of things and of the phenomena which present themselves to our senses; and with this it helps us to collect from the external world the material for the imagination. Imaginative creation has no mere vague sensory support; that is to say, it is not the unbridled divagation of the fancy among images of light and color, sound and impressions; but it is a construction firmly allied to reality; and the more it holds fast to the forms of the external created work…Even in imagining an unreal and superhuman world the imagination must be contained within the limits which recall those of reality.”3

Montessori speaks of two types of deviations to reality in children. The first is the above-mentioned “psychic fugue”. She details that this type of deviation is easier to remedy in children since their ailment is centered in not having the right types of things for them to utilize. The prepared environment is their medicine. The second type of deviation is more difficult to alter. “It is a phenomenon described by psychoanalysts as a ‘psychic barrier.’ A kind of veil descends upon a child’s mind that renders it increasingly less responsive. Through this defensive mechanism the soul unconsciously says, ‘You speak, but I do not listen. You keep repeating, but I do not hear you. I cannot build up my own world since I am too busy erecting a wall to keep you out.” A prolonged defense of this kind causes a child to act as if he has lost the use of his natural faculties. There is no longer a question of good or bad will. In fact, teachers who are confronted with children afflicted with such physic barriers often believe they are below average in intelligence and incapable of grasping certain types of material such as arithmetic and spelling.”4 She goes on to say that if these children continue in building these psychic barriers there can be a block created to any type of learning. These barriers are much harder to overcome in children, even young children.

It is my experience and observation over the years that so much depends on the adults: the guide, directors of the school, and family in determining how grounded in reality a child is and becomes. These very same people are also those potentially creating problems and barriers to learning. Much rests on the shoulders of adults. After the year begins and the classroom has begun the process of regular work, it doesn’t take long to recognize which children have up a barrier. It can be tricky to bring that barrier down. The guide must be tireless in watching for things that sparks the child’s interest or turns their head. They must become more animated as they “do their own work” - usually something off the shelf having to do with interests of the child in close proximity to their person; never letting on that they, the guide, are presenting anything. The guide must truly show love for their work and be very, very patient. For barriers can take a very long time to come down. Sometimes a child with a psychic barrier, from trauma such as abandonment, will never lose them.

What then is the Montessori view on imagination and creativity? This is such a good question because historically one of the criticisms of Montessori has been that it doesn’t allow for enough play or creativity. I find this to be utterly false when the philosophy is well understood and applied by adults who are willing to put their wants behind the needs of the child.

Let us look at the environment… it is a place of beauty, order and reality in which the child has the freedom to choose the things that call to them. They are free from the annihilating influence of an authority that would crush their creative impulse. “Montessori realized that the child needs freedom if [they are] to develop creativity - freedom to select what attracts [them in their] environment, to relate to it without interruption and for as long as [they like], to discover solutions and ideas and select [their] answers on [their] own, and to communicate [their] discoveries with others as well… This is in direct contrast to the traditional school setting, where the basis for evaluation is always outside the child… Montessori deserves credit for an early appreciation of the scope of creativity and for developing better means for encouraging it than had hitherto been devised.”5 The young child in the first plane of development is still in a place of concrete thinking. What they see must be. The 0 - 6 year old child does NOT have the ability to think abstractly enough to make a true distinction between a world of fantasy portrayed in movies and television and the real world around them. It is not until they enter the second plane of development that they can make distinctions between fantastical or imaginary things and what is real. It is the 6 - 9 year old that can overcome these hurdles of early childhood using their new logical reasoning abilities.

The important question as to whether or not the Montessori classroom adequately and responsibly provides a climate conducive to imagination is very important. If a classroom is well stocked with beautiful materials, a child will first use the materials for their presented purpose and then will begin creating imaginative extensions of their own, often without any guidance. It just starts happening. Sometimes a guide does need to show children that it is okay to create something new. Through my own observations in Montessori classrooms over the past 19 years I have seen many, many classrooms that are rich in traditional and open ended materials as well as art materials that encourage the further development of imagination. Children in these classes have been so engaged with the real-life work around them that pretend play things are completely unnecessary, and when they are in the classroom they are largely untouched. The children are happy, busy, learning and self-directed.

When I began studying these concepts it brought such clarity for me. I had been aware for some years about the debate over the importance of play in the world of Montessori education. Research into this subject has helped me to solidify what I already felt. Before my introduction to Montessori philosophy my children were definitely less exposed to real-life work, and were given too much television at a young age. Once I started to flood them with hands-on opportunities based in reality their interest in the world and creativity exploded. Now that they are almost all adults I can see the direct benefit they have gleaned as a direct result from our change of direction. The favorite place for all of my children was in the backyard digging big holes during the summer months. Several times a year that hole became a swimming pool (of mud by the end of each playtime) that all my children were so proud of and thoroughly enjoyed. The toys so often were left behind for the real experience, and eventually we had less and less toys at the house. They were replaced by real things that my children could make and learn. My children began requesting real things over the toys. I used to be afraid I had “ruined my children” because I didn’t know enough back then, but kids are so adaptable.

I am aware of how hard it is for primary caregivers to have something real and constructive for their children to do at all times, and resources can be limited. They don’t have to be expensive, they can be wonderful with what already exists in the home. Be generous to yourself and be balanced. You can do this… giving as many opportunities to do real things as possible.