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“The child has his own laws of development, and if we want to help him grow, it is a question of following these, and not of imposing ourselves upon him.” – Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, p. 162 Around the age of two, the child begins to make great effort physically, mentally, and spiritually. He is doing more than imitating adults. By his actions, he is building the person he is to become. When we intervene, or disrupt, his actions, we are directly interfering with his development. Montessori says that “if his cycle of activity be interrupted, the results are a deviation of personality, aimlessness, and loss of interest.” (Montessori, p. 160) Studying the Works of Montessori - The Absorbent Mind, Chapter 15: Development and Imitation For example, children, says Montessori, need to walk. Walking develops their leg muscles and coordination. It is instinctual to walk and explore both new and familiar places. Unlike adults, children don’t take walks to get places; they walk for th...

Therefore, it is clear that we must not carry the child about, but let him walk, and if his hand wishes to work, we must provide him with things on which he can exercise an intelligent activity. —Maria Montessori The Absorbent Mind, p. 155 The Absorbent Mind, Chapter 14: Intelligence and the Hand Newborns are weighed, measured, and compared against developmental milestones. While not all children develop at exactly the same rate, there are general guidelines and norms for development. Growth and mobility, such as when a child rolls over, sits, crawls, stands, and walks, are all duly recorded and noted for discrepancies in development. These are the exciting milestones of mobility. Montessori tells us that while these are important, it is the work of the hand that is “in direct connection with man’s soul.” (Montessori, 1964) Mobility requires balance. Controlling one’s balance is a difficult skill that takes months of practice and years of refinement, with the main purpose being to tran...

“To have a vision of the cosmic plan, in which every form of life depends on directed movements which have effects beyond their conscious aim, is to understand the child’s work and be able to guide it better.” – Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind , p. 147. “It is high time that movement came to be regarded from a new point of view in educational theory.” (Montessori, p. 136) Those words are as true today as they were when Maria Montessori first said them. What parent doesn’t dread the parent conference where they know that will hear “Johnny cannot sit in his seat”? What new teacher, who after dreaming of neat rows of desks filled with silent, attentive students, doesn’t find himself at a loss when he learns that the children know multiple ways of sitting in chairs and that the simple act of opening a textbook can cause a whole class to start talking? In her article “What schools can do to help boys succeed,” Christina Hoff Sommers states that many people feel children need to sit sti...