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| .•. Part
1. The Prepared Environment
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The "prepared environment" is
Maria Montessori's concept that the environment can be designed
to facilitate maximum independent learning and exploration
by the child.
In the prepared environment,
there is a variety of activity as well as a great deal of
movement. In a preschool classroom, for example, a three-year-old
may be washing clothes by hand while a four-year-old nearby
is composing words and phrases with letters known as the
movable alphabet, and a five-year-old is performing multiplication
using a specially designed set of beads. In an elementary
classroom, a small group of six- to nine-year-old children
may be using a timeline to learn about extinct animals while
another child chooses to work alone, analyzing a poem using
special grammar symbols. Sometimes an entire class may be
involved in a group activity, such as storytelling, singing,
or movement.
In the calm, ordered space of
the Montessori prepared environment, children work on activities
of their own choice at their own pace. They experience a
blend of freedom and self-discipline in a place especially
designed to meet their developmental needs.
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| .•. Part
2. The Montessori Materials
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In the Montessori
classroom, learning materials are arranged invitingly on low,
open shelves. Children may choose whatever materials they
would like to use and may work for as long as the material
holds their interest. When they are finished with each material,
they return it to the shelf from which it came.
The materials themselves
invite activity. There are bright arrays of solid geometric
forms, knobbed puzzle maps, colored beads, and various specialized
rods and blocks.
Each material in
a Montessori classroom isolates one quality. In this way,
the concept that the child is to discover is isolated. For
example, the material known as the pink tower is made up of
ten pink cubes of varying sizes. The preschool-aged child
constructs a tower with the largest cube on the bottom and
the smallest on top. This material isolates the concept of
size. The cubes are all the same color and texture; the only
difference is their size. Other materials isolate different
concepts: color tablets for color, geometry materials for
form, and so on.
Moreover, the materials
are self-correcting. When a piece does not fit or is left
over, the child easily perceives the error. There is no need
for adult "correction." The child is able to solve
problems independently, building self-confidence, analytical
thinking, and the satisfaction that comes from accomplishment.
As the child's exploration
continues, the materials interrelate and build upon each other.
For example, various relationships can be explored between
the pink tower and the broad stair, which are based on matching
precise dimensions. Later, in the elementary years, new aspects
of some of the materials unfold. When studying volume, for
instance, the child may return to the pink tower and discover
that its cubes progress incrementally from one cubic centimeter
to one cubic decimeter. |
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| .•. Part
3. The Process of Normalization
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In Montessori
education, the term "normalization" has a specialized meaning.
"Normal" does not refer to what is considered to be "typical"
or "average" or even "usual." "Normalization" does not refer
to a process of being forced to conform. Instead, Maria Montessori
used the terms "normal" and "normalization" to describe a
unique process she observed in child development.
Montessori observed
that when children are allowed freedom in an environment suited
to their needs, they blossom. After a period of intense concentration,
working with materials that fully engage their interest, children
appear to be refreshed and contented. Through continued concentrated
work of their own choice, children grow in inner discipline
and peace. She called this process "normalization"
and cited it as "the most important single result of
our whole work" (The Absorbent Mind, 1949)
She went on to write, |
| Only "normalised" children,
aided by their environment, show in their subsequent development
those wonderful powers that we describe: spontaneous discipline,
continuous and happy work, social sentiments of help and
sympathy for others. . . . 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. . .
. One is tempted to say that the children are performing
spiritual exercises, having found the path of self-perfectionment
and of ascent to the inner heights of the soul. (Maria
Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, 1949) |
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E.M. Standing
(Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work, 1957) lists these as
the characteristics of normalization: love of order, love
of work, spontaneous concentration, attachment to reality,
love of silence and of working alone, sublimation of the possessive
instinct, power to act from real choice, obedience, independence
and initiative, spontaneous self-discipline, and joy. Montessori
believed that these are the truly "normal" characteristics
of childhood, which emerge when children's developmental needs
are met. |
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