Following the Child through Observation in the Montessori Environment
Since the teacher’s task was to free each child to learn, and since each child, responding to the inner laws of his own organism, had different needs and a different developmental timetable, the teacher could not function effectively without an awareness of the infinity of variations in child behavior. Under the Montessori rubric, the teacher incapable of observation could not teach. —Rambusch, 1965 When I first read this, I was struck by the frankness of the message. Rather than putting observation on the back burner and attending to it when we found time, was Rambusch actually suggesting that we observe first? The simple answer is “yes.” Observation in the Montessori Environment: How do we follow the child, if we don’t observe him first? A NAMC student recently asked me for advice on how to encourage a child to work on math activities. She was having trouble helping him, as he refused to even go into the math area. I asked her tell me what she knew about the child’s interests and the...