Reality & Nature in the Montessori Classroom | Components of a Montessori Classroom
/“The first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as it is possible, to render the growing child independent of the adult.”
Children are concrete learners. Everything about a Montessori education strives to embrace this.
While we often think children crave fantasy, a Montessori approach leans more toward reality-based education. This is reflected in the books read, the materials in the classroom, the environment, and the philosophy as a whole.
A Mini Model of a Vast World
A Montessori education is designed to prepare students for life. It acknowledges the blink-of-an-eye that is childhood and respectfully guides them on the early path of what is the rest of their life.
Through carefully thought-out materials, environment, and social dynamics, a Montessori classroom should be a representation of real life, society, and the world as a whole. This intuitive approach to education and life preparation contrasts greatly with traditional approaches to education:
Reality-Based Work and Education
Reality is embraced in a Montessori environment through the selection and use of materials.
Materials, furniture, and works in a Montessori classroom are made of real material. They aim to incorporate as much natural material as possible as opposed to plastic. This serves the purpose of doing good for the environment as well as children’s health. It also connects students to nature and quality materials.
But possibly the greatest purpose of reality-based work is to demonstrate respect and involvement to the child. She is recognized to be a human worthy of respect. She contributes to the needs of herself, her community, and her environment.
This is demonstrated through the work available to her. In a Montessori classroom environment, she is invited to:
🌎 use appliances to cook or bake (with supervision or assistance)
🌎 serve her own snacks and meals
🌎 get her own water
🌎 use the same dishes/material available to adults (glass dishes, real silverware, etc.)
🌎 independently use the restroom
🌎 clean up after herself and others
🌎 select her own work and schedule (within limits)
🌎 care for the materials, animals, peers, plants, etc. in her environment/classroom
Many of these options require modifications for the child to be independently successful. But this is the work of a Montessori approach. Through making these works accessible to young children, they are able to build confidence in the same activities they see their adults doing daily.
Integrated Nature
We live in a perfect bubble of time right now. As adults, we remember a time with relatively limited technology and electronics. We also have the opportunity to now benefit from very advanced technology.
This space gap has allowed time for us as a society to not only experience the benefits of all technology offers, but also to learn the drawbacks it’s introduced.
Now more than ever, Maria Montessori’s wisdom regarding nature in education should be heeded.
In The Montessori Method, she said, “[Man] still belongs to nature, and, especially when he is a child, he must needs draw from it the forces necessary to the development of the body and of the spirit.”
It’s this working with, encountering, and observation of nature that is written on the DNA of humans.
Through experiencing reality and nature, children learn about the world and themselves.