What Has Surprised you Most?

Discovering a globe artichoke flower in the garden

“When the children show her their real natures’ she understands, perhaps for the first time, what love really is. And this revelation transforms her also.” Maria Montessori

“What has most surprised you about working with children this age?” It was a simple question but not one I had ever been asked before – I actually felt something shift inside me, as I paused and then began to respond “It’s how much they are capable of, if we only trust them, prepare an environment and then get out of the way of their learning process.”

Many years ago, before I started this work, if someone had told me I could be working with a community of one and two year old children who can independently prepare morning tea for their group, cut with scissors, sew, hang upside down on the monkey bars, lead a group story or music time, open and close buttons, buckles and zips – and that's just to start with – I might have been a little incredulous!

Working with children under three and truly observing them, trying to understand “what is it they are trying to achieve or construct in themselves?” has the power to bring about a transformation in an adult.

Dr Montessori wrote about this transformation of the teacher in The Absorbent Mind – particularly in the chapter aptly entitled “The Teacher’s Preparation” – and I find myself often revisiting her work, as I reflect on how much I am learning from the children and their capacity to create love.

As I reread Montessori’s work I am reminded that “teacher preparation” is not a destination but a journey. Through work in the environments we so carefully prepare – which includes ourselves - the children continue revealing their natures to us and like Montessori said…

“I have seen the child as he ought to be, and found him better than I could have ever supposed”

Aroha Nui

Carli

Toddler planting a seed in a pot