“Work is the natural function of man, the means to his higher achievements and spiritual development; but it must be work undertaken willingly, not forced labour.“ (Montessori, 1998)
The work of the child is that invisible string that supports the self-construction of the personality. The child in the first plane moves from the unconscious creator (0-3) to conscious worker (3-6) for building the young person of the third plane whom work is important because it allows the potential to be developed, conscious collaborative work to transform their environment. It is the same individual, but is not the same personality. Everything is about work, not any work, but the right kind of work at the right moment.
“The child’s spontaneous work for development is undertaken with concentration and what Montessori calls maximum effort: the greatest possible effort, as befits a work of creation. Working with concentration means the individual is completely focused and totally, deeply engaged: every fibre of his being is involved in the work. Certainly in the case of children, concentrated work is only possible when the activity undertaken is simultaneously both mental and physical: the work of the hand must be guided by the mind; mental work, effort, learning, must be accompanied by the use of the hand.” (Krumins Grazzini, 2005)
We need to look at every plane of development as rebirth. We can think about the sensor-motor development in the first plane as a preparation for the creative imagination. We observe the maximum effort for carrying a backpack or making the laundry. And as there are more concrete experiences the child develops a better imagination during the second plane. That as a part of the mental independence for unfolding the own potential during the second plane is a building block for the adolescent to realise the own potential.
The child achieves independence in each plane. There are different kinds of independence in different planes. The drive for functional independence in the first plane is observed in climbing and touching, dish washing, scrubbing a table, repetition of word, caring a watering can, chair or backpack. The potential for development of mental and moral in the second plane can be observed in planning a going out, great work. The need for social and economic in the third plane is what we observe in production and exchange, joy in fixing things and gardening. The intellectual and spiritual independence in the forth plane by supporting different causes and enlarging the scale and means of collaboration. We know that entering a new plane of development is always meant to new acquisitions. New plane brings new sensitivities, new needs and new characteristics. The common is how the energy manifest herself by purposeful work.
The trust in the environment is one of the basic trusts the child develops after the birth, in the first part of the first plane of development. Patience, love, care, interest from the adults, the child gets the first impressions from the environment and knows this is a good place. We observe that in the communication of the adults with the young children, the way how they redirect their activity and giving reminders for rules with a sense of love and care. During the first part of the adolescence (12-15), the young person is entering the adult world. It is the birth of the social young adult. This is a period of change and makes the adolescent very fragile and un-secure as the child between 0 and 3. They need a trusted prepared environment for building positive experiences during the birth of the social being. During this plane the adult is created, the adult for new generations. They need physical work to strength the coordination and physical skills. If we take a closer look to the emotional state – we recognise that there are strong and, sometimes, extreme emotions. It might be because sometimes they feel neither child, neither adult; or behave like an adult or like a child. That’s why we say that they need to have a sense of love, acceptance, empathy and even a kind of protection.
We can think about the sensor-motor development in the first plane as a preparation for the creative imagination. We observe the maximum effort for carrying a backpack or making the laundry. And as there are more concrete experiences the child develops a better imagination during the second plane. That as a part of the mental independence for unfolding the own potential during the second plane is a building block for the adolescent to realise the own potential.
The child achieves independence in each plane. There are different kinds of independence in different planes. The drive for functional independence in the first plane is observed in climbing and touching, dish washing, scrubbing a table, repetition of word, caring a watering can, chair or backpack. The potential for development of mental and moral in the second plane can be observed in planning a going out, great work. The need for social and economic in the third plane is what we observe in production and exchange, joy in fixing things and gardening. The intellectual and spiritual independence in the forth plane by supporting different causes and enlarging the scale and means of collaboration. We know that entering a new plane of development is always meant to new acquisitions. New plane brings new sensitivities, new needs and new characteristics. The common is how the energy manifest herself by purposeful work.
The trust in the environment is one of the basic trusts the child develops after the birth, in the first part of the first plane of development. Patience, love, care, interest from the adults, the child gets the first impressions from the environment and knows this is a good place. We observe that in the communication of the adults with the young children, the way how they redirect their activity and giving reminders for rules with a sense of love and care. During the first part of the adolescence (12-15), the young person is entering the adult world. It is the birth of the social young adult. This is a period of change and makes the adolescent very fragile and un-secure as the child between 0 and 3. They need a trusted prepared environment for building positive experiences during the birth of the social being. During this plane the adult is created, the adult for new generations. They need physical work to strength the coordination and physical skills. If we take a closer look to the emotional state – we recognise that there are strong and, sometimes, extreme emotions. It might be because sometimes they feel neither child, neither adult; or behave like an adult or like a child. That’s why we say that they need to have a sense of love, acceptance, empathy and even a kind of protection.
We can observe that the child in the first plane needs time to process information before acting. The children need time in the communication, wait until you see recognition. An example is the observed time between instruction and act, the way how a child observes through a window of before him. The adolescents learn in a different way. The physical environment is as just as important as for the other planes of development. They are interested in academics if they know why is it, because it should concern them. When the adult works with adolescent, they become interested in theory as it is related to their practical work. Regardless the age, the adult needs to be honest, to respect the child and tell the truth. In that way the young children and the young adult develop the second basic trust – the trust in self. It has to begin with the birth. In order to develop this basic trust in themselves they need to have experiences: I can do things. There is a sense of accomplishment. It can be a child caring a heavy bag, mopping the floor, flowers arrangement, work with a broom, cleaning the kitchen area, making a pizza. In the same way the adolescents need experiences from which they can grow – “I can do” sense. Getting up, preparing a breakfast, do the things by yourself. We can observe that it gives them the sense of pride.
As the children work to build themselves during the first plane of development, the practical life is very important. They prepare food, but it is not the purpose for doing it for others, they do it for their adaptation for their time and place. The adaptation is the reason children are doing everything – doing human things that belong to their time and place. Children need active experience in the environment and we can not just tell them. For example – the development of motor coordination, refinement of movement, stretching arms to put the pink cube on top, walking on a line, repetition in bringing the cubes and work with puzzle maps. In a similar way the young person is doing an adult work. It has to be work that refreshes, that makes you aware about your strengths and weaknesses, about social responsibility connected to your own life, that helps you understand that we can not succeed before all succeed. Work is for the adolescent production and change is strongly related to the need to develop an economic independence. They produce things – food and money.
In both planes of development the work is important. The adolescents’ work allows the potential to be developed. There is conscious collaborative work to transform their environment. The work is like a study to follow their individual interest. There is work as production for economic independence. As the work in the first plane supports the self-construction and normalisation, the work with the hands is highly important, for adolescent too. An example if the artwork, making bracelets, clay work. For the adolescents the same activation on a larger scale of complexity are a kind of manifestation of their potential, supports the normal development and calms down the emotions, specific for this age. Side by side work gives the idea to an adolescent what I can become.
So, another aspect is related to the self-expression and contribution to the community by offering something from yourself to others. For the young child that is observed when they create with the means of art, help another child, take care for the environment. To the adolescents we provide literature seminars – poetry, drama. We recognise that a talk about situations or characters in the book help them to know and express themselves.
The prepared environment in 0-3 gives the limits and within it there is a freedom. The child between 3 and 6 develops the will and ability to self-control. The discipline is active. For the adolescents we give the framework of what we are regard and within this framework they have freedom. Here, it is not just the personal freedom, but to balance of their personal needs with their social organisation.
The children of the first plane are fascinated by other small human beings. They are interested in others because they imitate them in order to grow and acquire the language and culture of their time and place. They do not cut bananas, peel an egg of make a fresh juice for the group, they do it for themselves. The important thing is: give them in a nice way about following the rules of life. Adolescent are social and they are learning what it means to contribute the community. They see that everyone in their group is an opportunity. A place and work for every human gift. Everyone should contribute with his uniqueness and to have an opportunity to learn. Here comes the collective wisdom. We can observe the eagerness of the children to communicate and share their thoughts when they present their work after a Work and study theme. When they work together they have a chat and even though the topics of their talk is very different ,obviously they need to communicate.
For both ages there is a big enthusiasm for doing a pizza together. There is a cooperative work and some basics for distributing the job responsibilities. The incident with the broken bowl could be an example for rising empathy and the way how some children helped, the demonstrated self-control and re-creation of the order, attention to the detail. The tendency for gregariousness is sensible. They communicate and correct each other and make it visible for the teacher declaring it. They love the order. The need to be recognised that they know the rules or do a service for the community is here, also. We can sense the need to belong to the group.
The order of things, time and rules in the environments is essential. If someone is not following the rules, they complain. The routines are followed by all the children and if someone is going to miss something the others remind him. During the cleaning time at the end of the morning work cycle there are a few children who skip or pretend that they do their jobs. In the classroom rhythm there are evidences for the tendency for work – the children are busy in doing something. The concentration is like a manifestation of both the tendency for work and gregariousness. There is a lot of work for self-expression and work with hands – drawings, showing their designs, singing, making own books.
The exactness and the drive for self-perfection is visible in some activities – the yarn and cardboard, leaf artwork, repetitive work, putting in order the cards and letters, arrangement of the materials on the mat. The tendency for imagination appears in different activities they do – from the exploration of motor coordination of the very young child through jumping or making a collage (4 years old) to creating masks for a local festival, creating own costumes for a drama play and making a fabric bread baskets by the adolescents. There is a lot of exploration of the immediate environment and drive for discovering something new.
“it would be most interesting to systematically trace the manifestations of this vital instinct through the various planes of development. For, as Dr Montessori tells us, development is not linear but unfolds in stages or planes according to the age, which means according to the ruling interests. Everything must change in correspondence to these deep interests which spring from within the developing individual: the environment must change, what the environment contains must change, the role of the adults must change. In essence what this means is change in the kind of work undertaken by the developing individual: from, for example, the work of observation undertaken by the tiny baby through to the participation in adult work by the adolescent.” (Krumins Grazzini, 2005)
Reference:
Montessori, Mario, (1198) Keys to the World of the Child AMI Communications 1998/4
Krumins Grazzini, Baiba (2005) Work: A vital instinct, AMI Communications, 2005.
