One of our favorite attributes of Montessori is the emphasis on freedom. Within our environment freedom focuses on numerous things, but we will look at four today. Freedom to choose the work they will do, the freedom to repeat work until it is mastered without respect to time, the freedom to move about the classroom, and the freedom to help others. When compared to a traditional classroom or even to daycare these concepts of freedom are quite radical. It is that radical nature that can also make them a challenge for non-Montessorians to understand and embrace.
The freedom to choose work is perhaps the easiest concept to grasp. It is exactly what it sounds like. Every child can make choices about what work they wish to pursue during the work cycle. The environment is prepared in a way that the child sees a natural progression in the work and will choose easier work initially, but will move on to harder choices over time. This is reinforced by the mixed age classroom where younger children see older children progressively choosing harder work. There is a caveat here. That caveat is that the child can only choose the work once they have received instruction on it from their teacher. This ensures they are given a chance at success and that the successes they have reinforce the free choices they have made.
Once the work is chosen the child is free to attempt the work until they have experienced success. This freedom to repeat results in the development of skills specific to the work. Sometimes the skill is an obvious one such as when a child learns to pour water from a pitcher. But there are other skills that can be built by work that may not be as clear on first glance. For instance, some of the work focuses on developing hand-eye coordination and the repetition of the work exercises that skill much as a child returning to a batting cage would. There is no time limit on this repetition. That grants the child the freedom to succeed without the pressure to move on before work has been mastered. This success is key to reinforcing the child’s desire to learn as well as their love for doing so.
When compared to a traditional classroom, the freedom to move about is perhaps the most obvious difference. You do not need to raise your hand for permission to choose new work. There is no system in place that says you are assigned to a particular table. No child must occupy the same place on a work rug during the course of the day or over the course of many days. Children do not need to sit while working and if they feel a need to move while looking at a book, they are free to do so. As with choosing what to do, there is a caveat. This time the caveat is that the child should respect others and not interfere with others who are working. This respect is a reflection of the maxim that if one wants freedom, they must also give it.
All of the prior freedoms reflect skills that must be mastered to be a member of a free country or simply a productive community. There is an acknowledgement that when we are free to choose our work, the timelines with which we pursue our growth and success and the freedom to move within our world as we see fit that others are doing so as well and may not be at the same place we are. This gives us the freedom to help others who need it (and to ask for help from others when we need it). Montessori emphasizes peace in the classroom, community, country and world. The emphasis on this freedom is at the core of how that peace is achieved.
Like everything else in life of value, freedom begins in the home. We hope that this article helps you understand how your children are exercising freedom at school as well as why it is a key part of Montessori. If you have questions about how it can be better emphasized at home, reach out to your child’s teacher. We are always here to help.
