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“… the first thing his education demands is the provision of an environment in which he can develop the powers given him by nature. This does not mean just to amuse him and let him do what he likes. But it does mean that we have to adjust our minds to doing a work of collaboration with nature, to being obedient to one of her laws, the law which decrees that development comes from environmental experience. —Maria Montessori The Advanced Montessori Method, p. 89. Children in the second plane of development (ages 6–12) are in a period when they are fascinated by knowledge understanding, and moral understanding, or what Montessori referred to as “culture.” (Grazzini) Their independence matures from “I can do it myself,” which predominates the first plane, to “I can think for myself.” Being able to think for oneself is the very basis of developing one’s own personal moral code of conduct. As the elementary-age child learns to think for himself, he seeks to understand the natural world aro...

The next period goes from six to twelve. It is a period of growth unaccompanied by other change. The child is calm and happy. Mentally, he is in a state of health, strength and assured stability. —Maria Montessori The Absorbent Mind, p. 18. During the second plane, children move from being egocentric to being social beings. They are self-confident and ready to see what the world has in store for them. According to Montessori, this is the intellectual period. The children’s thirst for knowledge transcends workbooks and tests. They need to know the secrets of the universe, and they will become engrossed in research and topics until they have satisfied that need. The intensity of their focus and concentration far surpasses the things and objects that appealed to them before. Help me discover it myself In the first plane, when children ask “why,” they want to know facts. Or, as Paula Polk Lillard says, although they say “why,” young children really want to know “what.” (Lillard, 1996) The...

It is at six years that one may note the beginning of an orientation toward moral questions toward the judgment of acts. The preoccupation belongs to an interior sensitivity, the conscience. —Maria Montessori From Childhood to Adolescence, p. 12. If the first plane of development can be called the “play-age” (Montessori, The Formation of Man ), then the second plane of development may be classified as the “age of rules.” In fact, Montessori tells us that “A second side of education at this age concerns the child’s exploration of the moral field.” (Montessori, To Educate the Human Potential , p. 4.) It is during this time that children consciously consider, explore, and question universal morality. This is also the age when children learn about and internalize universal principles of right and wrong. As elementary-age children begin to pull away from their family’s identity and start to develop their own identity, they also move toward their own understanding of right and wrong. In ord...

Instead of dividing schools into nursery, primary, secondary, and university, we should divide education in planes and each of these should correspond to the phase the developing individual goes through. —Maria Montessori The Four Planes of Education, p. 1. Dr. Montessori believed that growth, development, and learning happen in waves. She determined that children go through four distinct periods of development, which she called the planes of development. The four planes occur from birth–6 years old, 6–12 years old, 12–18 years old, and 18–24 years old. In each plane, children and youth are drawn to different skills and activities, and Dr Montessori believed that they can make enormous progress if they have opportunities to explore and practice these skills. The first plane is a time of monumental growth and development as the baby grows and learns to move, balance, develop coordination, learn to speak, and exercise her own will. All exploration is done through sensory experiences ...

Montessori’s first plane of development begins at birth and extends through the first full six years of life. It is a time of immense physical growth, monumental brain development, increased physical coordination, body awareness, and movement, development of independence, and tremendous growth of language. The young child works constantly to create himself, finding his way in a complex social structure, developing his will, establishing his independence, and making his thoughts and desires known. All of this intense development is done joyfully through play and sensorial exploration. Through observation, Montessori found that even very young infants make an amazing effort and are able to concentrate greatly during sensitive periods of development. Sensitive periods, or windows of opportunity, are times when a child develops one specific area of interest to the exclusion of others, according to his individual needs. Sensitive periods begin and end abruptly, and are unique to each child....

Follow the child, they will show you what they need to do, what they need to develop in themselves and what area they need to be challenged in. The aim of the children who persevere in their work with an object is certainly not to ‘learn’; they are drawn to it by the needs of their inner life, which must be recognized and developed by its means. —Maria Montessori In Montessori, we believe that the child is drawn to certain activities and that he instinctively knows what he needs. A child may try an activity and struggle with it initially. But he may return to it a little later with more success and then repeat it many times before mastering it. All of which may happen naturally without the interference of a teacher. Following The Child — Observing and Guiding Learning Montessori’s phrase “follow the child” does not mean you let the child do whatever she wants. Rather, it is an acknowledgment that the child has her own pattern. The key to understanding this idea is observation. As Monte...