The Montessori Adult

When Montessori tapped into the undiscovered potential of the child, she quickly realized
that along with this new way of looking at education and child development, a new adult
must also arrive, a new educator that could guide the child. This new adult would look at
education in a completely different light. Education would support natural human
development. Education would believe in the constructive power of the child. Education
would support each child in developing her unique potential.

The whole concept of education changes. It becomes a matter of giving help to

the child’s life, to the psychological development of man. No longer is it just an
enforced task of retaining our words and ideas. This is the new path on which
education has been put; to help the mind in its process of development, to aid its
energies and strengthen its many powers.” (Montessori, The Absorbent Mind,)

No longer could the old models of teaching work. Children were not vessels to be filled up
with the adult’s knowledge. Children did not need to be punished or coerced into obeying
or learning. Children were not a “blank slate” needing to be written on by an all – knowing
teacher or parent.

Instead, Montessori searched for a “new adult” that would play a very different role in the
children’s lives. This adult would have a thorough understanding of natural child
development, and prepare and maintain a supportive environment where the child could
thrive. She would observe each child carefully to understand the transformations that were
happening and offer new opportunities to support further development. This new adult
would have a clear vision of each child’s potential, and both the faith and the knowledge to
bring that potential to light.

This new perspective requires a shift in thinking for many adults. Once this shift has begun,
it is a process of breaking down the old, conventional thinking about children and
education, and replacing them with a new vision that supports all aspects of child
development - physical, cognitive and emotional.

Montessori saw that the teacher's preparation would also include a transformation
of "personality and social importance." The teacher would not be the center of attention;
in fact, it would not even be she who did the direct teaching. A 'new educator' with different
personal qualities was needed.

"Instead of facility in speech, she has to acquire power of silence; instead of

teaching, she has to observe; instead of proud dignity of one who claims to be
 infallible she assumes the vesture of humility."(Montessori, The Advanced
Montessori Method Vol. 1, "The preparation of the teacher")

Montessori tells us in creative development,

"If we wish to become successful teachers in this new educational method, we

must reconsider our task, and our personality as teachers. We must take upon
ourselves the mission of bettering the condition of education. The main task is
not to learn the method, but to open a new and better way of life for the child.
Therefore, it is necessary for the teacher to have an inner preparation."
(Montessori, Creative Development of the Child, Vol.2, p104.)

Three Levels of preparation of Adults:

The preparation of adult is an on-going process, with every child you work with will teach
you something about yourself, about child development and about education.

1. Physical preparation
2. Intellectual preparation
3. Spiritual preparation

Physical Preparation:

This is the first level of preparation that an adult must go through is the physical
preparation, the outward persona adult carries. A Montessori adult should be distinguished
with characteristics in her movements and speech. These are observable characteristics,
our movements and speech enhance our work with children.

Slowing down our typical adult pace shows respect for the child who is still developing
control and coordination of movement. Whether it is the way we move across room or
thoughtful movements in presentation, how we move is the daily indicator of patience,
grace and respect for the child.

When our speech is clear and accurate, we demonstrate an understanding of how children
develop language and intellect. Through our language, we model care and respect for the
child, creating foundation of trust and respect for each other that creates a warm, positive
atmosphere in which the children grow and develop.
Intellectual Preparation:

The second aspect of teachers preparation is intellectual or technical preparation. As

Montessori mentions "The teacher must have a good knowledge of the work she is
expected to do and of the function of the materials. She must acquire a precise knowledge
of the techniques determined for the presentation of the material and for dealing with the
child so that he is effectively guided."

The teacher must be through with presentation and activities and how they support child
development. Teachers must use and practice the materials themselves in order to fully
understand their value to the children.

The key to putting the intellectual preparation to work is developing the skill of
"Observation". Montessori calls the capacity of observation as the "fundamental quality" in
teacher's preparation. It is not enough to have eyes and knowledge - but the ability to
observe is a habit developed through practice.

Spiritual Preparation:

The third level of preparation is our spiritual preparation. This is highly personal and
introspective process and requires increasing levels of self-awareness and reflection.
Montessori tells "We have to watch ourselves most carefully. The real preparation for
education is a study of one's self. The training of the teacher is to help life in
something far more than a learning of ideas. It includes training of character; it is a
preparation of spirit."

The children are deserving our very best selves, it is for them we strive to root out any
prejudices, hidden agendas, negative motivations we might harbor inside of ourselves.
What we offer children should be the very best inside of us. We all possess beauty, light,
grace and this is what we want children to find in us.

Three Responsibilities of the Adult

We have three primary responsibilities that define our role as leaders in our community of
children. These responsibilities are:

1) to prepare, maintain, and enrich the environment

2) to connect the child to the prepared environment
3) to withdraw once the connection is made, in order that the child may learn for himself.
Prepare, maintain, and enrich

- The children depend on their environment in order to survive and grow. They literally
construct themselves from what they find in their environment. Children learn through
interaction with their environment, and the degree to which that environment is prepared,
maintained, and enriched determines the extent of the riches the child can take from it.

- We prepare an environment that supports physical and psychological growth so that the
children can find what they need to develop, and can do so in an atmosphere of respect,
safety, and acceptance. We cultivate friendliness with error, for the children are in
development and through their errors will perfect themselves.

- We maintain the environment so that the child can always find what she needs-
complete, inviting, and ready to use.

- We continually enrich the environment, so that it calls out to the child with beauty and
challenge. We rotate practical life activities, create new vocabulary enrichment cards,
rotate books and pictures on the wall, and keep our classrooms as vibrate and alive as
possible.

Link the Child to the Environment

- Our second responsibility comes in linking, or connecting the children to the

environment. Remember, it is the child who must do the learning, not the adult. Therefore,
our role is to connect the child to the activities so that she is interested in working and
exploring with them.

- Before a child can learn anything himself, he must be able to concentrate on the
materials. “When a child concentrates, his character is changed.” (Montessori, The
Child, Society, and the World, “To Teachers,”)

Withdraw

- Once the connection is made, and the child is engaged with the materials, comes the
third responsibility of the adult: to withdraw. Once the children are absorbed in their work,
we must protect their concentration – very fragile at first, but strengthened by repeated
exercise.
- Once the child is concentrating, the very best approach is “to act as if the child does not
exist.” We are observing carefully and discretely. We need to see what the child is actually
doing with the material.

Characteristics of the New Adult

Montessori advises us to be “calm, patient, and humble.” There are not very many
professions that give us the opportunity to develop and change ourselves to this degree. It
is part of our work to look for and cultivate within ourselves positive, life-a_irming
characteristics. Through our desire to help the child, we ourselves become better people.

Patience gives us the ability to understand that development is a process. We hold a vision
in our mind of where we are heading, and we can make that journey with compassion and
empathy for the little children who have so much to undertake. We approach each day with
patience and understanding that there will be mistakes, but we have faith in the child and
we honor the process of each individual, as well as our own.

It is patience that enables us to observe like a scientist- to take the time to

learn to observe, to train our focus on the details that make the diRerence
between seeing and not seeing. Cultivating patience allows us to take the time
to appraise situations properly, to recognize the value in the child’s pace of
activity, and to wait without immediate results. (Montessori, The Advanced
Montessori Method, Vol. 1, “The Preparation of the Teacher,”)

Humility is necessary because part of our journey involves learning from the child.
At any moment, we have to be prepared to abdicate what we thought we knew about
a child, or ourselves, in the face of new observations. Again, this is the science of
our art; like a scientist, we have to be ready to be wrong in order to make a new
discovery of
truth. (Montessori, The Advanced Montessori Method, Vol. 1, “The Preparation of
the Teacher,”)

Humility comes from patience. We cannot simultaneously see ourselves as knowing

everything, and also give the child the time and opportunity to create himself. Humility
allows us to step away and observe, knowing that although we are facilitators, the child’s
most important work takes place without us. Our highest ambition is to be able to say,
“Look, the children do everything by themselves; it is as though they don’t need me at
all.”

It is important to recognize that characteristics of patience and humility do not mean we

are weak and the children are in control of the class. Quite the contrary- we must be strong
leaders. Montessori is clear on this; we are not all equals with the children- she
says, “there are enough children in the class without the teacher becoming a child
with the children...If the children have no authority, they have no directive. Children
need this support.” (Montessori, The Child, Society, and the World, “To Teachers,”)

As we see their deviations fall away, we move from believing to knowing. The certainty of
knowing what the children are capable of gives us the strength to transform ourselves and
become the “new educator” that can support the new child. Montessori calls children
“the teachers of love,” and that is why when a child is born into a family, “his mother
becomes a more beautiful woman and his father a better man.”

In a speech to the World Fellowship of Faiths in London, 1939, Montessori said,

“We are convinced that the child can do a great deal more for us, more than we
can do for him. We adults are rigid. We remain in one place. But the child is all
motion. He moves hither and thither to raise us far above the earth. Once I felt
this impression very strongly, more deeply than ever before, and I took almost a
vow to become a follower of the child as my teacher. Then I saw before me the
figure of the child, as those close to me now see and understand him.

We do not see him as almost everyone else does, as a helpless little creature
lying with folded arms and outstretched body, in his weakness. We see the
figure of the child who stands before us with his arms held open, beckoning
humanity to follow.”

The Montessori
Children, Adult.
E. M. H. (2023,The
O. (n.d.). May 9). EarlyStart
Montessori adult.Montessori
EarlyStartHouse of Children.
Montessori House of Children.
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