The Most Important Thing I Learned From My Montessori Training

The instructional portion of my Montessori training lasted nine months, divided into three quarters.  I am someone who is not shy about asking questions, and this experience was no exception.  I asked many very enthusiastic questions.  Our instructor was a woman with a lifetime of Montessori classroom experience who had shifted to teacher training.  She stood tall at about 5’3” and at first impression seemed a bit stern, but her smile was frequent and kind and all of us grew to respect her quickly.

So you can imagine my frustration when her answer to every single one of my questions was the same.  (I might be exaggerating, but not by much.)  She would calmly smile, shake her head just a little, and say, “Ms. Elisa, you are thinking like an adult.  A young child would not think like that.  You need to think like a child.”

Every question.

I did not ask any questions second quarter.

Do not misunderstand me.  My silence was not the result of anger, resentment, or offense.  Quite the opposite.  I recognized that I needed to change my approach because either I trusted her expertise or I didn’t, and the truth is, I did.  So, I took a step back and just focused on listening and absorbing.

At the same time I was doing my training, I was doing my 12-month student teaching.  Teaching in a classroom is very different than homeschooling for a number of probably obvious reasons.  The ability to compare development of a larger group of peers provides a lot of perspective that you simply don’t get when only working with your own children.  Managing the dynamic of the room is also very different.  After ten years in the classroom I think that the most effective teachers are the ones that can manage the students most effectively, thus allowing teaching and learning to occur – and in order to manage children, you need to be able to anticipate, understand, and plan in a way that is more proactive than reactive.  You need to be able to think like a child.

What does that mean, exactly?  It comes down to brain development and life experience.  A young child’s brain is simply not capable of certain functions.  I cannot tell you the number of times I have tried to have a comforting conversation with a 4-year-old child about the fact that just because another child doesn’t want to play with them right at that moment doesn’t mean they’re not friends anymore.  It fails every time – they just aren’t developmentally capable of understanding that social concept.  Or when you introduce the idea that a symbol has a corresponding sound to a three-year-old – this is literally the first time they have been exposed to such an idea.  Wow!

I am happy to say that third quarter I returned to asking questions.  And although the answers still began with a smile, they no longer included that gentle reprimand I had come to dread.  Of course, being able to think like a student is a skill that would benefit all teachers, but it is of special importance for a Montessori teacher who must constantly create, adjust, and maintain the dynamic environment of a Montessori classroom.  Whether you call it student-centered or following the child, if you want your students’ learning experience to benefit them the most, as a teacher you need to be able to view it from their perspective during planning, implementation, and evaluation.

That is a universal reality that changes the teacher/student relationship and experience.