The following is the text from this section of the 2009-2010 edition of Child of the World, Montessori from Three to Six Years
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The child can
only develop by means of experience in his environment.
We call such experience work.
—Dr. Maria Montessori
THE FIRST SIX YEARS
Today the importance of the formative first six years of
life is common knowledge. During this time a child becomes fully a member
of her particular culture and family group, absorbing language, attitudes,
manners, values, of those in which she comes in daily contact. A child
who spends the first six years in a loving and supportive environment,
learns to love herself and feels safe in the world. A child who has experienced
the joy of making a contribution to her family or group, learns to love
making an effort, and feels needed.
Every child, by instinct, wants to learn and grow to the limit of his
abilities. In the first six years of life he does this by imitating those
around him. To support this need we must carefully prepare the physical
and social environment, provide tools that enable the child to work to
create himself, watch for those first tentative moments of concentration,
and get out of the way, following the child as his path unfolds.
THE CHILD'S PURPOSE
The child's reason for, and way of, working
is different from ours. Adults will usually choose to do things the most
efficient and quickest way and to rush through or avoid anything labeled
work. A child, on the other hand, is working to master the activity and
to practice and perfect her abilities. She may scrub a table each day
for weeks, then turn her attention to some other activity to master. We
must not look upon this method as inconsistency or laziness but rather
cumulative mastery of abilities. The child's purposes is not to complete
the task as much as to construct the self.
Practical life activities may well be the most important work in the Montessori
3-6 class. By means of these activities the child learns to make intelligent
choices, to become physically and then mentally independent and responsible.
She learns to concentrate, to control muscles, to move and act with care,
to focus, to analyze logical steps and complete a cycle of activity. This
lays the groundwork for mental and physical work in all other areas of
work, not just in early childhood, but throughout life.
PARTICIPATING IN FAMILY LIFE
The traditional work of the family
is referred to in Montessori as practical life work. It is the single
most important area of an education for life. The activities of practical
life are generally thought of in three main categories, and looking at
the child's life in this way helps to keep a balance in the activities
we offer children to master. These areas of practical life depend on the
culture in which the child is growing up, and may include, but are not
limited to:
(1) care of the environment—cleaning, sweeping,
washing clothes, gardening, etc.,
(2) the care of the person—dressing, brushing
teeth, cooking, setting the table, etc., and,
(3) grace and courtesy—walking carefully, carrying
things, moving gracefully, offering food, saying "please" and "thank
you" and so on.
It is in learning to do such seemingly mundane activities as dressing,
dusting, sweeping, preparing and serving food, and fixing or building,
work that the child sees going on around her all day long, that she
learns to use her body and mind for a purpose, to concentrate, to complete
cycles of activity, to finish what she started, and most importantly
to contribute to the important work of the family, the social group.
Practical life activities provide superior groundwork for physical,
mental, and social development, and teach the work habits that lead
to success in all later academic work.
Practical life work provides practice in eye-hand coordination, the
control of large and small muscles, the ability to walk and to carry
objects with control, and to behave with knowledge of good manners.
These are the activities that bring the child's attention to his own
progress and development, and that open up a world of important work.
Learning to look a person in the eye when speaking, to listen patiently,
to exhibit thoughtfulness through good manners, enables the child to
be welcomed into a social group, to be happy and to make others happy.
Children have for eons shown an interest in daily life through make-believe
cooking and cleaning. It was one of the pivotal discoveries of Dr. Montessori
that, given the chance, children usually choose real work over imaginary.
Allowing the child to participate in the daily work he sees going on
around him is an act of great respect for, and confidence in, the child.
It helps him to feel important to himself and to those around him. He
is needed.
We can empathize if we think about the difference in treatment of a
stranger, perhaps a dinner guest in our home, who is served and waited
upon, compared to that of a good friend who is welcomed in our kitchen
to talk and laugh while we prepare the meal together. Children don't
want to be the guest, they want us to help them to do it themselves.
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