Spontaneous Activity in EducationMontessori, Maria
Science
Spontaneous Activity in Education
Montessori, Maria
Montessori method of education
A phenomenon of constant occurrence when the children begin to be
interested in the work and to develop themselves is the lively joy
which seems to possess them. Certain psychologists would say, it is
the "sentimental note" corresponding to the intellectual acquisition;
a physiologist, making an exact comparison, might affirm that joy is
the indication of internal growth, just as an increase in weight is
the indication of bodily growth.
The children themselves seem to have the "sensation" of their
spiritual growth, a consciousness of the acquisitions they are making
by thus amplifying their own personalities; they demonstrate with
joyous effusion the higher process which is beginning within them.
"All the children," says Miss George, "show that pride we ourselves
experience when we have really produced something novel. They skip
round me, and throw their arms about my neck, when they have learned
to do some simple thing, saying: 'I did it all alone, you did not
think I could have done that; I did it better to-day than yesterday,'"
It is after these manifestations that a true discipline is
established, the most obvious results of which are closely related to
what we will call "respect for the work of others and consideration
for the rights of others." Henceforward a child no longer attempts to
take away another's work; even if he covet it, he waits patiently
until the object is free; and very often a child becomes interested in
watching a companion at work on some object he would like to use
himself. Afterwards, when discipline has been established by these
internal processes, it will happen all at once that a child will work
quite independently of the others, almost as if to develop his own
personality; but no "moral isolation" results from such work; on the
contrary, there is a mutual respect and affection between the
children, a sentiment which unites instead of separating; and hence is
born that complex discipline which, moreover, contains within itself
the sentiment that must accompany the order of a community.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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