The five-year-old walked to the shelf to get a little tray containing six pictures. He brought them back to his work rug where he had a movable alphabet, a box of sorted, individual letters. He also had a card that said “ee” that went with the set of pictures he had chosen. Within five minutes and with very little help he had spelled “jeep”, “beet”, “sweep”, “feet”, “queen” and “tree”.
He was beaming and I shared his enthusiasm. “What are you going to do next?” I asked.
“First I have to put these letters away. Then I’m going to do another set.”
It was 10:00 on the first day of school.
An hour later in another part of the building nineteen middle school students sat in a circle to prepare for their first seminar of the year. They have all read George Orwell’s Animal Farm but today’s discussion was about the seminar itself. One of them said it is important to create a respectful community so that everyone will feel it is safe to speak out.
When asked what kinds of actions would create an unsafe environment, they gave examples of rude comments, rolling eyeballs, expelled breath, and subtle or not so subtle body language. When asked what kinds of behavior would make a good seminar participant, they mentioned active listening, good eye contact, respectful disagreement, giving everyone a chance to speak.
One student said that the problem with good eye contact is that it makes you say more than you want to say. One of her classmates added that she felt the need to explain her comments more thoroughly–and that its hard to do so.
Yes, thinking deeply and clarifying your thoughts is hard work. It is, in fact, one of the prime objectives of the seminar and one of the primary works for the adolescent.
It was 11:00 on the first day of school.
These two moments are so impacted with meaning, so suggestive of the characteristics of Montessori education: materials and activities specifically designed and geared for the needs of the child at different stages of development; the individual within community; the development of the whole person–not just the intellect; spontaneous activity as a means to develop the will, personal initiative, and an attention span that is both long and deep. Joyful commitment to work.
But I want to mention on this first day of school for the children the work of the adults in preparing the environment. For two weeks and more, every teacher and every assistant has labored long hours, Darwin and Manuel have known no rest, administration has proven that support requires flexibility in working with and around the team of construction workers who have scrambled to complete the building project. More than one hundred people have been at work to make this day possible. Thank you every one of you. Thank you.
And just what have we done? The Montessori classroom is an environment of beauty and order and complexity. The first task of the Montessori teacher is to prepare an environment which invites the child to work, which enables the child to work and which is free of obstructions to his work. We have succeeded in creating sixteen classroom environments and several specialized learning spaces. And the children have put them right to work.
We want to once again thank John Long and the Post Oak School for allowing us to republish John’s wonderful essays in Tomorrow’s Child and in our online resource collections.
John Long has been the Head of Post Oak School in Houston, Texas since 1995. His career as an educator began with the United States Peace Corps in Kabul, Afghanistan. In Montessori schools, he worked first as a classroom assistant, and then as a lead teacher in Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary, and Middle School. He has served as head of two large Montessori schools, written for professional journals, spoken at national conferences and workshops, and writes a blog titled Education by Design. He was on the founding faculty of NAMTA’s “Orientation to Adolescent Studies.
