Discipline and Obedience from the Montessori Perspective free essay sample

Discipline from a Montessorian perspective is a maturational process, it starts from birth and will be reached by the age of 6 or 7 years. â€Å"Let us always remember that inner discipline is something to come and not something already present. † (Montessori, 1988, p. 240) Discipline develops naturally in a child, through the opportunity to act freely and spontaneously within a favourable environment. It is this favourable environment that nurtures the childs natural drive to independence and to adopt a behaviour that is beneficial to him/her. It helps the child and offers him/herself experiences to develop from within himself/herself the capacity for order, self control. If we look back to when a child is born all his actions are driven solely by a hormic impulse, an inner guide that directs the child towards independence, an urge to satisfy his own human tendencies. The actions are not reliant on the conscious will of the child to do something, but reliant upon a natural development, an unconscious urge which stimulates â€Å"the child to face the outer world and absorb it. We will write a custom essay sample on Discipline and Obedience from the Montessori Perspective or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page (Montessori, 1988, p. 77) This is evident in a young child who does not have the ability to share, or to control his/her natural impulse to snatch from another child that which he/she wants. It can be seen when a child is only able to obey a command when it is in compliance with, or when it meets his/her own needs or wants and is working in parallel with their hormic impulses. We must always allow the child the independence they desire to carry out their task and avoid stepping in when we see they are about to make a mistake. This will only help to delay their development and divert them from their natural path to self discipline. In the favourable environment the child is allowed to act independently and is given a freedom within limits. These limits take the form of ground rules. Ground rules are the parameters of acceptable behaviour, they are not there to limit the behaviour of the child, but to give him/her a freedom within those limits. They need to be established for the sake of the childs emotional well being and physical safety within an environment. They need to be consistent in order for the child to know what is expected of him/her and to nurture a sense of social cohesion and fairness. â€Å"A childs liberty should have as its limits the interests of the group to which he belongs.. we should therefore prevent a child from doing anything which may offend or hurt others. † (Montessori, 1972, p. 49-50) Everything in the favourable environment is child size and accessible. Materials and apparatus are all freely available for the child to choose from, enabling him/her to fulfil a desire, or to satisfy his/her inner motivation to carry out a particular task. Initially the childs actions will be driven by an unconscious urge, an impulse directing them towards an activity that they find interesting or one that is useful to their natural path of development. In the Montessori environment all the exercises are presented in a structured, orderly way and the child, through demonstrations and instruction, is educated in how to use the materials. When he/she is finished with the activity, he/she returns the apparatus back to its allocated place, keeping the order within the environment. All the materials contain a control of error, avoiding the need for a teacher to highlight the childs mistake, allowing him/her the freedom to correct himself/herself, with out the need for adult intervention. He/she is then left and allowed the freedom to carry out his/her task, as many times as he/she wants, for as long as he/she wants without any unnecessary interruptions. With this constant cycle of activity begins a process and through the many repetitions of the exercise the child gradually becomes aware, and conscious of his/her actions that his/her hands are performing. Through this awareness, his/her actions can no longer be considered a product of an inner desire, but have become actions performed with a consciousness and deliberation. â€Å"That which at first was but a vital impulse (horme) has become a deliberate act. The childs first movements where instinctive. Now he acts consciously and voluntarily and with this comes the awakening of the spirit. † (Montessori, 1988, p. 231) From observations made by Maria Montessori we have come to the understanding that discipline is a maturational process and can not be present in a child who has yet to develop his/her own will. Montessori, 1988, p. 234) â€Å".. will is the prior foundation in the order of development and obedience is the later stage resting on this foundation. † So obedience is reliant upon the child being in control of his/her actions and in having the ability to direct himself to a more constructive, beneficial behaviour. We would not expect a child to run before he/she could walk, he/she is physically incapable and we would not scold a baby for failing to carry out a command to run. So it is impossible to expect a child to be obedient with out having developed the means or the will to do so. Eventually, as the child develops further and after gaining much experience through his/her many interactions with the environment, his/her conscious will will begin to govern his/her behaviour and the development of discipline and obedience will begin to take place. With regards to the development of the will, Maria Montessori says, â€Å"Its development is a slow process that evolves through a continuous activity in relationship with the environment. (Montessori, 1988, p. 231). Self discipline is evident in a child when he/she has the ability to control his/her actions and ask for, or wait, for an item they desire, rather than just snatching it from anothers hand. They will also be able to share and negotiate and say no to people in a polite way. The development of obedience takes place in three stages and as we have discussed previously, it is a maturational process that will not be reached before the age of 6 or 7. In the first level from birth to 3 years the child cannot be influenced directly. The child only obeys what he/she is asked for if it complies with their needs at that time, or is something that feeds their hormic impulses or if it satisfies a natural urge. So within a Montessori environment the child is freely able to choose from the apparatus available, but he/she is only presented with an array of choices that are acceptable, useful to the child, and are valued by the teacher. The second level which is reached by the age of 3, is when the child obeys, on the condition that what we ask of them, is within their capabilities. They are now able to process information intelligently and act accordingly. They have developed an amount of self discipline that allows them to comply with those instructions that are not always in keeping with what they want to do. However sometimes they will not obey if they have a genuine reason eg, I am playing with.. , or I am doing The third level of obedience occurs when the childs will power is highly developed and takes place around the age of 6 or 7 years. It is an obedience developed out of respect for the people he/she admires and towards those who will help him/her along the continuous path of development. The child now obeys without questioning. Discipline, will and obedience are all characteristics of a period of development called the Socio Embryonic Stage (3-6 years) (Montessori (1988) believed that a child passes through several stages of development, the Socio Embryonic being one of them) This is a stage of a childs development where we witness the child passing through the sensitive periods for refinement of the senses and socialisation. It is a period relevant to much of what we have been discussing with regards to the development of the will and its relationship to discipline and obedience. The child is now passing from the unconscious absorbent mind to the conscious absorbent mind and will start to categorise the information he gained during his unconscious absorbent mind. By this stage he has developed the conscious will. It is a period of time where the child has developed a conscious will, he is able to control his/her actions and can to look at things from anothers point of view, he is growing out of egocentricity thinking. He/she is at the stage when they can understand social rules and frames and take responsibility for their actions. They are able to co-ordinate body and mind and are aware of the effect their behaviour has on others in their environment. The child has been exposed to various experiences that have helped him/her to follow a natural path of development towards discipline and obedience. The conscious will has been developed through continuous movement and activity and the chance to act independently and freely within the environment, â€Å"Conscious will is a power which develops with use and activity. † (Montessori, 1988, p. 31) We can see how the maturational process has been allowed to develop and the childs will to unfold over a period of time and activity. The childs needs have been met and he/she has arrived at the destination that is will, discipline and obedience. Independence, movement and conscious action are the seeds of discipline and its fruit is obedience. â€Å"The power to obey is the last phase in the development of the will, which in turn has made obedience possible. † (Montessori, 1988, p. 239) .