SEEING THE CLASSROOM FROM THE NEW CHILD’S POINT OF VIEW

As new children enter the class, we teachers observe them from the perspective of what skills and knowledge they are ready to develop and acquire. We watch their ability to concentrate, and their interest in developing independence, and their ability to categorize information, which helps us to decide what focus we will have when working with each child.

The children are also observing. They are becoming aware of the teachers and the prepared environment (classroom). First, they strongly need to find out what the teachers in the environment are like, as after all they are trusting them to take care of them for several hours in the day. They observe the adults’ temperament, expectation level, consistency, friendliness, and empathy. Once they feel secure with the adults in the environment, they begin to take note of other things that are interesting and important to them. While they are most likely not doing this consciously, it is very possible for us to understand what they are discovering by watching them closely during the first few weeks of school. There are very important discoveries that they make on their first months or through their first year in the class. It is worthwhile for you to take some time to examine these so you we will be better able to understand how they assimilate the school experience.

Spoken Language Discoveries

There are children who begin school who have had language experiences which largely include directions (It’s time to get in the car.”) and supervising experiences (Let’s get ready to go outside.”). They may have had little experience with conversational language, and little experience with informational language (outside of television and videos). It is common for children to ignore the teacher when their name is called, as they believe they are going to have to stop doing something. They may be enjoying what they are doing at the moment, or know that the activity is an unapproved one (such as running the water full blast in the sink), and understand that the longer they ignore the teacher, the longer they can continue with the activity.

These children are at first overwhelmed and confused with the simple directions and information that the teacher gives. As a result they may seem to ignore most things that are said to them, as the style of communication and the type of information is so foreign to them. After a few days, they begin to understand the intent of the teacher, and suddenly respond appropriately when spoken to. This is usually the time when they look at the teacher for a prolonged period of time after some exchange, then calmly respond to the words just spoken. Some of them smile when spoken to at this point, others will sigh, both indicating a satisfaction at participating in a conversation. If their experience has predominantly been that language is used to tell them what to do and when to do it, they will be trilled to learn that language can also be quite interesting. It can provide them with information about other people, it can let them know why things are the way they are, it can help them categorize and name things, and it can allow them to develop a relationship with other people including their teachers and classmates.

Other children have had balanced language development. And they know it can be used for social conversation, explanation of things, as well as vocabulary development. These children will thrive from the beginning, and become especially excited when they realize the depth of the vocabulary development available in the classroom environment. They love the initial vocabulary cards, as all the pictures are in a category, such as clothing, animals, buildings, food and items in the bathroom. While they will know many of these words, they will soon realize that there are words that they do not know, and they will become excited to find out what they are. This excitement is extended to the other areas of the classroom environment like learning the names of the different continents and countries (geography) and the discovery that there are five classes of vertebrates, each with unique characteristics (zoology).  These vocabulary enrichment activities will directly prepare the children to acquire greater language skills.

The Discovery of Protected Work

It is common in other traditional schools for teachers to attempt to teach children to share, so that when they grow up they will not be selfish people.  There are many conflicts with children about sharing, and the reason it is such a difficult concept is because the children are not developmentally ready to share at a young age. Sharing is a behavior that can be taught, however it is a desire that comes from within once the child is satiated and confident that her desires and needs will usually be met. It is amazing how generous the children become if we allow them to satisfy themselves first.  Therefore, one of the first things the new children realize is that there will be no forced sharing. This is such a relief to them, and we can tell when they understand this by not fearing leaving their work to use the toilet or fetch some supplies. When they first come to school, they will generally ask the teacher “....watch my work while I get another rug.” Very soon they would find this unnecessary, and a sense of calm comes over them that aids them in developing complete concentration.

Once the children learn to say “This is my work. when I am finished, I will put it back on the shelf and someone else may do it”, they seem suddenly more independent and sure of themselves. In most cases outside of the school environment, they have not been allowed to keep an activity as long as they still wanted to use it. As a result, they always felt on edge, because the fact that someone else might want their materials could mean that they would need to give them up. This does not allow for concentration to develop fully, as the worry about sharing would always be in their minds. The joy of protected work can be seen in the peace with which a new child uses equipment after he realizes he will not be made to give it up. It can be noted when a new child approaches the teacher and asks, “May I do it again?” For some children repetition is foreign to them. The fact that they can use a material repeatedly at school is a wonderful discovery.

Another aspect of this same concept is the fact that other children may not interfere with the child’s chosen work. It is very exciting for a new child to experience the teacher coming to help him let other children know that their hands cannot be on his materials. The teacher can give the working child the vocabulary to help him resolve these situations on his own in the future by saying “This is my work.  Please do not bother me now.” Very soon the teacher will not need to help the new children with work interference issues. Once again, this concept and skill adds to their developing independence and self confidence.

Planning Time and Making Decisions

Most children have not had the experience of being in an environment where there is a sense of timelessness. This is created by not structuring every moment of the children’s day at school. This is the reason we strive for three hour work period, and why it is our goal to not schedule singing time and story time (for example). But to allow these activities to take place when children need them and come to them if they are interested. As a result the children can make decisions, about what they want to do and begin to learn to plan their day in the classroom.

Most of the children have had the experience that adults tell them what to do from one activity to the next. They have very little opportunity to operate independently within a large block of time. It is no wonder that the new children have a hard time choosing work after their initial choice. This is one of the reasons why the teachers need to provide them with small group language lessons to help bridge the gap between independent and directed work.

We can see the joy decision making brings to the new children when one of them approaches the teacher and says, “I want to paint.” When the teacher responds, “If it is available, you may paint,” the child skips off to find out if it is free. Very soon the new children stop announcing what they want to do, as they figure out that they can simply go get the materials they want without checking in with any of the adults. This brings them great satisfaction and adds to their budding sense of independence.

Real Independence

Unknowingly, many teachers take away opportunities for children to become independent, because they think they are being helpful. The way this is manifested in the new children is that they will bring us things they find on the floor, such as beads and clips. They have not learned that they can take care of these things themselves. There places provided in the classroom where they can put the things they find, hence, they will learn that they are capable of taking care of these things. For example, there can be a basket for items found like barrettes and instructions to return a piece of an exercise they find to the place where they belong on the shelf. The very young children are the ones very concerned with order in the classroom. Within a few days, they know the approximate location of all the materials in the room, whether they have used them or not. It is astounding to watch a new child find a piece of math on the floor and know to which exercise it belongs.

The new children also relish the idea that they are allowed to take care of issues in the classroom that are viewed as problems (and called messes) in other schools or even at home. They love to pick up beads when they spill them, they enjoy cleaning up their wet and dry spills, and they naturally pick up pencils and other items on the floor to put away when they see them. This joy is evidence when a new child is adamant about not wanting help with a large spill. Most of the time, several children will come to the aid of the child who has spilled something, and often the child will send them away, as he wants to take care of it himself. We adults have the tendency to take this for granted, but in fact this is a behavior that is exhibited because the child is allowed to be responsible for himself. In most other conventional schools, he might be scolded or at best, have the adult send him away, while it is cleaned up. This opportunity to be responsible for his work is one of the many gifts the prepared environment (Montessori classroom) gives the new children.

The Discovery of True Consistency

The new children are astonished by the physical consistency in the classroom environment and the behavioral consistency of the teachers. This manifests itself in their delight to see the same materials in the classroom day after day. In the beginning, they will often be sad or mad if they did not get a turn with some piece of equipment. Once they truly understand that they will be able to use the material later, or the next day, they are acceptant of the fact that it was not available to them on that given day.  Another way this surprise is manifested is when a child enters the classroom the second day of school and says, “The beading work is still here! Will it be here every day?” In many non-Montessori environments the activities are changed too often to offer the child a wide variety of stimulation. If the children come to school and enjoy doing an activity, chances are the activity will not be available the next day, so the consistency of the materials always being available is quite exciting to the new children.

In terms of the teachers’ behavior, the children figure out after a day or so that the teachers are reasonable and that the guidelines they set out for the children are the important ones, so the adult’s behavior will usually be predictable. For example, it a child takes a work from another child, you can count on the teacher intervening and giving the work back to the child who took it from the shelf. Frankly, the new children are delighted not to hear the lecture about sharing that they hear in so many other instances outside school. Very quickly they come to understand the role of the teacher is much different that they anticipated and they worry less and less about teacher reactions to specific behaviors, as they can figure out in advance what those reactions will be, and temper their behavior accordingly.

The Joy of a Reality Based Curriculum

It is very difficult for young children to figure out what is real and what is fantasy because of the fact that they are surrounded by fantasy and more confusing realistic images that perform in fantastic ways (television frogs that talk for example). Because of the advances in video technology and computer animation, they may often view realistic images doing things that they cannot in fact do. This makes the Montessori classroom more inviting, because they soon come to realize that everything is real at school. Granted it might be a little difficult getting them interested in some of the materials at first because they do not have automatic buttons to press. The joy of using them comes through manipulation and practice, and rewards come from within instead of the material itself.

In addition, they soon find out that there is a world of knowledge at school, and they will begin to bring their questions that they form from outside school. A new child may come to school and ask, “Is a ball a circle?” An older child will come to school and ask, “Do tigers hunt in herds?” They ask questions about the things they ponder, and they also ask questions about terms they hear outside of school that they want clarified. Once again, this kind of information exchange is taken for granted, but for the child it is a haven of reality, and it is exciting to them to understand that they are doing real work and getting real information.

As we watch the new children settle into the environment, we can appreciate with them the joys of the prepared environment (classroom). In most cases, they have not experienced a place that is truly devoted to the best interests of developing children. Each child in his or her unique way will appreciate the opportunities and limits that the classroom offers. Observing the transformation that takes place in the new children is an uplifting experience, giving us hope for the future and confidence in them, their development and the method that makes the transformation possible.

(Adapted from Point of Interest, The Art and Practice of Montessori Education)

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