Spontaneous Activity in Education - Maria Montessori (best free ebook reader for android TXT) 📗
- Author: Maria Montessori
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Consequently, two successive phases of uninterrupted work are left; one may be called the phase of preparation, the other the phase of serious work. The phase of preparation lasts a very short time, the serious work is of much longer duration; it is noteworthy that the period of rest, with its characteristic air of comfort and serenity, sets in after the maximum effort has spontaneously spent itself. On the other hand, it happens invariably that any external interruption of the effort causes the child to show signs of fatigue (restlessness), or to become inattentive.
In the first curve, the initial work consists of two easy tasks, carried on for a short time, and from these the child passes directly to the serious work. The finale is a spell of rest full of thought; the child ceases to work, but contemplates his finished task for a long time in silence; before preparing to put it away, or, after having contemplated his own work, he goes quietly to watch that of the others.
In the second curve there is a very noticeable parallelism with the line of repose; the child pursues his labors almost uniformly, and the sole difference between the initial work and the serious work is in their different duration. The contemplative period becomes henceforth an obvious "period of internal work," almost a period of "assimilation" or "internal maturation." Observation of the work of others becomes increasingly frequent, as if it were a spontaneous "comparative" study between the child himself and his companions; or as if an active interest in the contemplation of the external surroundings were developing: the period of discovery. We may say that the child studies himself in his own productions and puts himself into communion with his companions and his environment.
At this stage the completion of an entire cycle will exercise an influence more and more far-reaching on the personality of the child. Not only is he spurred on to a work of intimate concentration immediately after his culminating effort; he preserves a permanent attitude of thought, of internal equilibrium, of sustained interest in his environment. He becomes a personality who has reached a higher degree of evolution. This is the period when the child begins to be "master of himself" and enters upon that characteristic phenomenon I have called the "phenomenon of obedience." He can obey, that is, he can control his actions, and therefore can direct them in accordance with the desires of another person. He can break off a piece of work when interrupted, without becoming disorderly or showing symptoms of fatigue. Moreover, work has become his habitual attitude, and the child can no longer bear to be idle. When, for instance, we call some of the children who are in this stage to the lessons for teachers, in which they are to serve as the "subjects of study," they lend themselves with ready docility to that which we ask of them, they submit to the measurements of height, heads, etc., and they perform the exercises we suggest, responding always with interest, and not merely with resignation, as if they were conscious of collaborating with us. But when they have to wait, seated on one side till they are called forward, they cannot sit idle; they work at something. Inactivity has become intolerable to them. Very often, while I am giving the lesson, the children take the lacing or tying frames, or cover the floor with words made with the movable letters; and where this is feasible, some of the children will draw or paint in these moments of waiting.
All these things have now become expressions of intelligent activity, which form part of their psychical organism.
But to ensure the continuance of this attitude and of the development of personality it is essential that some real task should be performed each day; for it is from the completed cycle of an activity, from methodical concentration, that the child develops equilibrium, elasticity, adaptability, and the resulting power to perform the higher actions, such as those which are termed acts of obedience. This makes one think of the method prescribed by the Catholic religion for the preservation of the forces of spiritual life: that is, a period of "spiritual concentration," which opens up the possibility of acquiring "moral powers." It is from methodical "meditation" that moral personality must draw its powers of solidification, without which the "inner man," incoherent and unbalanced, fails to possess itself and dispose of itself for noble ends.
Children have always need of the period of concentration, and serious work from which they derive the capacity for final development.
The following diagram represents a very lofty stage of childish development:
Superior Stage Average typeEven the preparatory work is now of a higher kind: as soon as the child comes into school, he will choose, for instance, the letters of the alphabet, or will write, then (his strenuous work) he will read. For recreation he will choose an intelligent pastime, such as looking at illustrated books.
All his intellectual occupations are of a higher order, as are also his moral attributes (obedience, serenity, perseverance).
Taking the line of quiescence as a level of development, it follows that the level has become higher.
In a superior stage, the line of work tends to become straight, parallel to the line of quiescence.
Meanwhile it has been established that it is possible to determine degrees of development, or averages of internal development, by means of which individual variations may be studied. In the primordial type the characteristics are disorderly conduct, and incapacity to concentrate attention; in such a case there is no real line of work, and the main part of the diagram remains below the line of quiescence. For the type in which the phenomenon of permanent concentration of attention on a task has manifested itself, the average characteristic diagram of normal orderly work of the first degree is now established: i. e. preliminary work followed by a period of restlessness, and then strenuous work followed by a state of repose.
Afterwards we distinguish a second degree, where the average is characterized by the disappearance of the period of unrest, and the strenuous work is brought to a close in contemplation; this is the stage of discoveries, of generalized observation, of obedience; work has become a habit.
This is followed by a general elevation, to be recognized by the choice of higher preliminary work; disciplined behavior has become a habit.
During this progression the diagram of work tends to become straight, and parallel to the line of quiescence.
A Recapitulatory Table of Development Diagrams of average developmentsThe rise in the level of the plane is related to the qualities of more advanced intellectual work; and the straightening of the line is related to qualities of internal construction and of the organization of the personality; qualities which would be considered of a moral order, such as serenity, discipline, self-mastery as manifested in obedience and in the various activities of the child.
When work has become a habit, the intellectual level rises rapidly, and organized order causes good conduct to become a habit. Children then work with order, perseverance, and discipline, persistently and naturally; the permanent, calm, and vivifying work of the physical organism resembles the respiratory rhythm.
The pivot, the medium of this construction of the personality, is working in freedom, in accordance with the natural wants of the inner life; thus freedom in intellectual work is found to be the basis of internal discipline. The great achievement of the "Children's Houses" (Case dei Bambini) is to produce disciplined children.
It is this internal organization which gives them a special "type," or character, the type or character required to continue the free exercise of activities for the conquests of culture in successive stages.
The elementary school period presents itself insensibly as a continuation of the "Children's Houses." In these, behavior is a habit superposed on and fused with the earlier habit of work. Henceforth it will be sufficient to present the material of further culture, and the child, gradually exercising himself upon it, will pass from one intellectual stage of culture to another.
The difference shown in the successive ages arises from an intellectual interest which is no longer merely the impulse to exercise oneself by repetition of the exercises, but is a higher interest directed to the work itself, and tending to complete an external work, or to complete a branch of knowledge as a whole. Thus the child creates and seeks for things organized in themselves; for instance, he desires to compose a design by means of combinations of geometrical figures with the metal insets, and devotes himself to this work with the greatest intensity until he has completed it. Again, we see a child occupied for seven or eight consecutive days with the same work. Another child becomes interested in the potentialities of numbers or in the arithmetical frame, and perseveres with the same work for days, until his knowledge of it has matured.
Upon a basis of interior order produced by internal organization, the mind then builds up its castle with the same leisurely calm with which a living organism grows spontaneously after birth.
We can give but a primary idea at present of the practical possibility of determining average levels of interior development according to age. We shall further require many perfect experiments, in which homogeneous children, completely suitable environment, and trained teachers will afford adequate material for observation. Then students will be able to undertake a scientific work, which will perhaps be characterized by a precision superior even to that with which it is at present possible to measure the body, and give the mathematical averages of growth.
We must consider, however, that the indications available to-day represent a long, systematic toil, and that they rest upon the still greater labor of finding external material means for natural development.
This will give some idea of the difficulty of scientific researches, which many still believe it possible to make by means of arbitrary and superficial tests such as those of Binet and Simon!
The study of the child cannot be accomplished by an "instantaneous" process; his characteristics can only be illustrated cinematographically.
"External means," organized in accordance with the needs of psychical life, are of fundamental importance; for how is it possible to judge of individual differences in the acquisition of internal order, in the ascent to abstraction, in the progressive stages of intellectual development, in the achievement of discipline, without the existence of pre-determined and unvarying external means which, like so many points of support, lead the child in process of formation towards his goal?
In order to determine individual differences logically, there must be a constant work or aim; and this is the external means on which each personality builds itself up. When the external support is the same, and corresponds in general to the psychical needs of a given age, a difference of internal construction is due to the individual himself. On the other hand, if the means were different, the variations in reaction might be attributed to differences in the means.
Finally, it is obvious that in all scientific research, the instrument of measurement must be fixed. But each thing to be measured requires a special instrument, and the constant instrument in psychical measurement should be "the method of education."
A series of formulæ, such as the Binet-Simon tests, can neither measure anything, nor give even an approximate idea of intellectual levels of intelligence according to age; as to the children who respond, whence is their response derived? How far is this due to the intrinsic activity of the individual, and how far to the action
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