Normalization In The Montessori Classroom

The Normal Child

Within each human is an innate push to move forward, to learn more, to learn how, to create oneself. On this path to self-creation each person meets with opposition and obstruction. Continued obstruction causes deviations in a person’s behaviors. An infant may feel the pull to learn to turn over onto their stomach and will work and try until they have been successful. Having done that they will work to perfect their new skill until they can turn over with ease. What if instead of having success in their strivings there was something that impeded the ability to turn over? The infant would become agitated and upset. They may be very likely to cry and make a fuss because they NEED to do this work. There is an innate drive to learn this skill and then another; to go from skill to skill. What would happen to the child if they were stopped at EVERY struggle to turn over? Their behavior would become changed or deviated until the impediment was removed. It would also be just as damaging to the child for the parent to turn them over every time they began their needful struggle for greater independence. Just as we see the infant becoming disturbed when their pursuit of learning is obstructed, the young child’s behaviors become deviated when they cannot follow that inner guide in accomplishing the task of creating the adult they will become.

When a child meets with an obstacle to their learning we see unwanted, or “naughty” behaviors exposed. Many of the behaviors that are commonly attributed to childhood such as rowdiness, bossiness, naughtiness, defiance, carelessness, timidity, laziness, and stubbornness are actually an outward manifestation of unmet developmental needs in children. These behaviors, contrary to belief, are actually not attributes displayed by a child who is allowed to follow their voice unimpeded. The world is still largely unacquainted with the true normal behavior of children because the world, at large, does not understand the innate needs that children have and, even more importantly, how to meet them. At every turn the child is hampered in their journey to independence and growth by well meaning adults. The child must grow, and they must do this themself. No one can do it for them no matter how we might wish to. In Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work by E. M. Standing Dr. Montessori spoke to this need to work out their own growth by saying that “In fact, ‘every useless aid arrests development.” What the child needs is to work. Work is for him a necessary form of life, a vital instinct without which his personality cannot organize itself. So essential is it for the child to have the opportunity and means for this creative “work” that if it is denied him his deviated energies will result in all sorts of abnormalities.”1

The publishers of educational and parenting materials have no shortage of, and make a great deal of money on books in the subject of the management of children, the correction and alteration of undesirable behaviors, and using the “good” child as a model of behavior in the classroom. In her work with the slum children of Rome, however, Maria Montessori discovered something new; something that is amazingly still new. She began without any preconceived idea about what education ought to be. She approached her young charges with an eye toward scientific exploration and observation. She was most astounded by what the children divulged. E. M. Standing relays to us that “It was thus, through experience, that Montessori discovered - one might say stumbled upon- the characteristics of the normal child. She was not looking for them; she was not expecting them; she was not even thinking about them. It was a genuine and unforeseen revelation. . . These normalized children - “the new children'' as they were often called - have appeared again and again in almost every country in the world for a whole generation. Race, color, climate, religion, civilization, all these made no difference. Everywhere, as soon as hindrances to development were removed, the same characteristics appeared as if by magic. 2

What then are the characteristics of the normalized child?

Love of order
Love of work
Profound spontaneous concentration
Attachment to reality
Love of silence and of working alone
Power to act from real choice and not from curiosity
Obedience
Independence and initiative
Spontaneous self-discipline
Joy 3

In Maria Montessori’s words, “The children of our schools revealed that the real aim of all children was constancy at work, and this had never been seen before. Neither had spontaneity in the choice of work, without the guide of a teacher, ever been seen before. The following of some inner guide, occupied themselves in work (different for each) that gave them calm serenity and joy, and then something else appeared that had never yet appeared in a group of children: a spontaneous discipline. This struck people even more than the explosion into writing. This discipline in freedom seemed to solve a problem which had been insolvable. The solution was: to obtain discipline, give freedom. These children going about seeking for work in freedom, each concentrated in a different type of work, yet as a whole group presented the appearance of perfect discipline.”4

This idea that to obtain discipline we must give freedom is even more counterintuitive in our society today than in her time. Within the traditional education system it is common practice to believe that a disruptive child needs an intervention. If a little intervention is good, then a lot must be better. When a class is struggling they must need more assessment from which to draw data. If a little data is good, a lot must be better. People in our society sometimes make horrible choices, therefore they must need policing. If a little policing is good, then a lot must be better. When a group of people becomes unruly they must be forced into obedience. If a little force is good, then a lot must be better. One might even consider that, from this perspective, we first make thieves and then punish them. From this camp of thought, how could greater discipline possibly be achieved through greater freedom? In absolute contrast to this deeply rooted misconception, year after year in Montessori classrooms all over the world this guided freedom unveils the true nature of children and their capacity for internal discipline. We teach our children correct principles and then with carefully constructed environments, prepared adults, and loving logical and natural consequences we allow them to govern their choices.

Laws or Principles of Childhood

Before the age of three a child is in a state of unconscious preparation for later years. They begin, as it were, a blank slate onto which all stimuli and experience is written. Their mind is absorbent and they construct themselves bit by bit, little by little. By the time the child has reached three years of age the unconscious work is fixed and the child steps into a new frontier; the development of their mental functions. They are ready to take what is unconscious and make it conscious. Once a child emerges into this conscious arena they are ready to follow their innate pattern for development. If two conditions exist, an environment that appropriately supports all the children, and freedom within said environment to follow the innately motivational pull of development, we will be witnesses to the laws and principles of childhood. It is as if the child is the theatre and will show to us:

The Law of Work
The Law of Independence
The Power of Attention
The Principle of Will

The Law of Work

In the fall the leaves pile up under the towering maple tree in our front yard. I will want to find the easiest and most economical way possible to do the job of raking up and removing the leaves. I may spend extra money on a fancy rake or even perhaps a leaf vacuum that will help this tedious chore be finished more quickly. I honestly look forward to the time when my chore is completed and the possibilities that are now mine. For me this is a job to get done with, and I am so grateful when the last leaf has fallen and my raking is finished for the year. Conversely, how often do we see the children of a house rake up the leaves into a pile just to scatter them out again and begin the process all over. The adult and the child have VASTLY different aims in work. For the child the interest is not getting to the end of the process; the process IS the aim. Work, and it’s timing, are a different thing to children. Repetition of work is a seminal observation of the normalized child. Because her work is to develop her skill, and to understand what is before her she takes it up again and again. Dr. Montessori speaks by saying, “ …as we have seen, the child does not stop when the external end has been reached; he very often goes back to the beginning and repeats it, many times. But he does stop in the end - and that quite suddenly. Why does he stop just at that moment? It is because, unconsciously, he feels within himself that he has obtained what he needs from that particular activity - for the time being at any rate. While he has been repeating the exercises, there has been going on inside him a process of psychic maturation, which has now come full circle.”5

Because our aims in work are so opposed to the child’s, we miss the needs of the child and consistently project our own views of the value of work onto the child. This presents no small opposition to his growth. The adult may see the repetition of work as unnecessary, because it might be for us, or become agitated with the amount of time it takes her to be ready to move from one activity to another. Again the words of Dr. Montessori ring out to us. “If adults persist in interrupting the child during this cycle of repetition, his self-confidence and ability to persevere in a task are severely jeopardized.” Constant interruption during this time is so upsetting to the child that Montessori felt it caused him to live in a state “similar to a permanent nightmare.”6

The world is tailored to the adult for his convenience. Everywhere in the child’s life plans of usefulness are created for adult. This convenience is planned into even the cups and dishes that will not shatter to save money, time and necessary supervision without considering the impact on the child because she is unaware of what he may actually need. “Because of the social nature of his life, which is neither adaptive nor productive to adult society, the contemporary child is largely removed from it. He is exiled in a school where too often his capacity for constructive growth and self-realization is repressed. This problem in contemporary civilization increases as the adult’s role becomes even more complex. In primitive societies, where work was simple and could be carried out at a relaxed pace, the adult could coexist with children in his working environment with less friction. The complexity of modern life is making it increasingly difficult for the adult to suspend his won activities “to follow the child”.7

There are great factories built for adults to do their work. Even the home seamstress or weekend carpenter understands the need for a place to complete their projects, and of the importance of access to all the necessary items for their occupation. It is so frustrating for the adult to try completing something without the right tools for the job that they plan and save to create the “perfect” workspace for themselves. The child as well needs his own places in which to do his incredible work, but he is not just building a car or a quilt, the child is building himself. Indeed “In order that the child may be able to carry out his great work properly, he needs something more vital and dynamic than a workshop. We must accustom our minds to the notion of an environment which will be more akin to that living environment which surrounds the embryo in the maternal womb.”8

Therefore children need a “living environment” that is prepared to answer the cry of their heart. When adults understand and prepare themselves and an environment that is conducive to the very sensitive periods of learning in children, they respond by revealing themselves.

Maria herself had this to say about the role of the prepared environment in this way: “All children, if placed in a new environment allowing ordered activity, show this new appearance, so there is one psychic type common to all humanity, which hitherto had remained hidden under the cloak of other apparent characteristics. This change that came over our children and made them appear as of one uniform type, did not come gradually, but suddenly. It always came when the child was concentrated in one activity; so that if there was a lazy child, we did not urge him to work. We merely facilitated contact with the means of development in the prepared environment. As soon as he found work all his trouble disappeared at once.9

It is imperative to understand the importance of the correctly prepared environment and sufficiently trained and practiced adults in achieving normalization. Children need the right conditions in order to do their work, to follow this law. If their conditions are not right we see all kinds of problematic behaviors surface…”but once the conditions for building the psyche are there, the normal type appears. We therefore called the type that developed in our schools “normalized” children and the others deviated children.”10

Some years ago there was a girl in our class named “Lila”. She was nearing five years old at the beginning of the year and had begun attending a Montessori school just a couple of months before I transitioned into directing that class. She exhibited several deviated behaviors when we began classes together. She consistently sought inappropriate attention. She would speak out of turn and over other children, interrupt children who were talking to me and demand that it was her turn, and deliberately make a lot of commotion at the line and outside in an attempt for one of the adults to pay attention to her. When she didn’t succeed in getting the thing she was after, she would cry very loudly and flop on the floor. Rather than turning our attention to her problematic behavior, my co-teacher and I strategized that we would ignore anything that didn’t disturb other’s work, hurt herself, the items in the classroom, or others. We also strategized what works might interest her and made plans to present them. She was interested in the practical life exercises in the classroom, and even more interested in works using water. I gave her a few preliminary exercises to make sure she could be successful with more advanced ones, and then I presented her with the lesson of scrubbing shelves. Being allowed to have a tub of water at her disposal was an experience that made her giddy. She loved the soap, the bubbles, the dirty water, the drying of the shelves and seeing them gleam when they were dry. She was completely engaged at this occupation the remainder of the work cycle on day one and returned to this same work for the three days following. She never once brought us over to look at her work; she almost didn't even notice that anyone else was there except when they got in her way. Each day when she would clean up she had the most satisfied and calm demeanor about her. From this moment on she was a changed person. It was as if something inside of herself opened up and light poured in. She came to class eagerly looking every day for work that called to her and would get busy alone and eventually with friends. She remembered practically everything we ever said or sang, and drank in the entire experience. She loved demonstrating the grace and courtesy lessons, and took delight in her abilities to wait in absolute silence at the circle, especially in being called to leave the circle very last because she was so adept at waiting. It was no longer about what someone else saw her doing, but what she knew she could do herself. She was no longer possessive about our attentions and looked for opportunities to be the teacher and helper to the younger children. There was a little three year old with some sensory issues that she took under her wing. Line time was particularly difficult for this child. Lila once saw me rub her back in a circular motion and took it upon herself to sit by this girl the remainder of the year and rub her back at the line so she could be successful. This tale of change is just one of many that has been repeated again and again in the classrooms I have directed, not to mention my own home.

The Law of Independence

Help me do it by myself is the watch cry of the child. They long to be in the world and to work in it as the adults in their life. They are driven to do things on their own and in their own time. It is the necessary application of our stewardship to respect the law of work in such a way that the child feels that they have been their own teacher; in truth that the child does indeed become their own teacher. To set up the environment with success in mind, to prepare work that will isolate the difficulties the child meets in their life in such a way that they can be successful in mastering it. To step away from the child and allow them their own work and development within bounds that supports progress from one step to the next. It is our aim that when the parent asks the child if we have taught them a new skill the child answers that he learned it all by himself. In Montessori philosophy and application we understand that “except when he has regressive tendencies, the child’s nature is to aim directly and energetically at functional independence. Development takes the form of a drive toward an ever greater independence. 11

The Power of Attention

At a certain stage of his development, the child begins to direct her attention to particular objects in his environment with an intensity and interest not seen before. 12 It becomes the responsibility of the adults to make the environment attractive and irresistible to the child in order that she may pick up whatever may direct her attention and use it. The child becomes concentrated in her work and will not leave it even when disturbed. Dr. Montessori noted that “when a normal child is concentrated on his work, he refuses to be interrupted by those who try to help him. He wants to be left alone with his problem. The result is a spontaneous activity that is of far greater value that simply noticing differences in things, which is, of course, of great value in itself. The material thus proves to be a key which puts a child in communication with himself and opens up his soul so that he can act and express himself.”13

“Sara” was a first year student. At the beginning of the year she was fearful and intensely quiet, but soon lost these attributes and worked well among her peers. Every day she would begin with the broad stairs and pink tower as long as no one else got there first. She was careful and attentive. On a day in February I made the particular observation that Sara was performing this work with such concentration. She looked around the room intently for the right place to put her rug, and began taking each cube and prism to her rug. The classroom had a cement floor with seams. She had set her rug so that she could take a trip to and from her rug on the seams in retrieving her work, and placed each foot carefully in front of the other. She walked so slowly and patiently. She would stop and wait if anyone went in her path. We noticed this quickly and worked to shift a rug that was in her path as soon as that child was finished, and helped other children set up in another spot of the room so she could keep up her work uninterrupted. Once she had gotten them to the rug she made the tower and the stairs only once, and proceeded in the same fashion to return them to the shelf. Her work that day was the trip back and forth to the rug. She began this work at approximately 9:15 and did not end until roughly 11:20.

The power of attention is that once a child has developed this skill and is attuned to the things that draw their attentions they can then move from being acted upon to acting. “He has more experience and builds up an internal knowledge of the known, which now excites expectation and interest in the novel unknown.” 14 The appetite has been wetted for experiences and the knowledge that work and learning imparts to them in the quest to create oneself.

The Principle of Will

Once a child has established this ability for prolonged attention and concentration they reveal within themselves the principle of will. This will continues to develop further as they work harmoniously in an environment that supports their needs. An inner formation of the will is gradually developed through this adaptation to the limits of a chosen task. He must make decisions and act, and these in turn develop will. Because traditional schooling severely limits the choices, decisions, and actions of a child, Montessori felt it “not only denies the child every opportunity for using his will but directly obstructs and inhibits expression.”15 The observations garnered in her work with the children of the Casa de Bambini have been vetted by generations of Montessori children. She has detailed three stages of the development of will. The first stage begins with the repetition of activities. When a work draws deep concentration and attention he will repeat such work again and again and demonstrates obvious satisfaction in said repetition. This “achievement, however trivial to the adult, gives a sense of power and independence to the child.”16 The child has achieved independence in this work. We could say the first step of the will is independence through repetition. Whereupon succeeding in this, the child progresses to the second stage of the development of his will. This second stage is marked with an independent and spontaneous choice of self-discipline. The child makes conspicuous choices to exert his efforts in the discipline of his own body in its relationship to his environment. He develops self-knowledge and self-possession. At the onset of this stage of development we may see a child exerting great effort to walk around a rug and not on it, to use “quiet” water, to shut the door with no sounds at all, to walk without so much as a shuffling sound during the quiet game, to walk the line with ever increasing precision, or to sit in an absolute stillness during the Silence.

A particular memory stands out, although many similar experiences have been repeated often in my Montessori years. “Anton”, a five year old student, had been deeply normalizing in the last few months. During work time he showed an increased concentration and self-awareness which had transferred into line-time. During our daily silence he was expertly controlled and still. The silence had nothing to do with me. His focus was increasingly inward and on several occasions he became unaware that others were leaving the circle to go outside. His work was for himself alone. It was personal and inward work. I spoke to his father about Anton’s development in concentration and stillness. He asked if there was some kind of prize for the child who sits in silence the longest. He had a difficult time understanding that his son would do this by choice since there was nothing for Ashton to gain for this work except inside himself. He wondered aloud why he was behaving so unlike himself. He was much more astonished to learn that many more students in the class were doing the exact same thing.

Out of self-knowledge and self-possession springs the third stage of the developed will, the power to obey. Obedience is not the same as the “discipline” so often described in parenting and educator help-books. Obedience is the conscious choice controlled by the child themselves to work in cooperation with their environment and world. Dr. Montessori has declared that “will and obedience then go hand in hand, inasmuch as the will is a prior foundation in the order of development and obedience is a later stage resting on this foundation…Indeed if the human should did not possess this quality, if men had never acquired, by some form of evolutionary process, this capacity for obedience, social life would be impossible.: 17

This is the pinnacle of normalization that we, as Montessori educators, look to. This is the bar that is set for us and by which we measure the effectiveness of our classroom environments. Are we participating in the development of a whole child? A child who is in possession of all their faculties, who is awake in looking to learn, who displays self-awareness and knowledge, and who has developed the will of obedience?

In Summary

The revelation of “new child” is the work of the guide. This is not a work we can take off the shelf and manipulate. Our work is the constant observation, experimentation and careful management of the prepared environment. We must become attuned and experienced in the cues the children give about current needs so that we may alter that environment to meet them. We must remove pride from ourselves since humility is necessary to keep our eyes open to the workings of the classroom. We must remove what distracts, discard what does not entice (even though we may have spent time creating it) and become the practiced observer of the children’s space. We must teach ourselves; must choose to change ourselves and value the ways and workings of the child. In the end we do not need greater interventions but greater independence, greater understanding and greater preparation in both the environments for children and the adults responsible for such environments.

Each time a child walks the path to becoming new I am rewarded for every effort. Each time the child discovers themselves through concentrated work and I become invisible, I am EXULTANT. There is a feeling under my skin that cannot be described. When the child awakens their new self and develops their will my heart flutters.

This is the work I love.