The Absorbent Mind by Maria Montessori

Author:Maria Montessori [Montessori, Maria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781627554947
Publisher: Wilder Publications, Inc.
Published: 2014-03-14T03:00:00+00:00

Chapter XVI

Development And Imitation

In the last chapter we left the child at the age of one and a half years; this age has become a center of interest and is considered of the greatest importance in education. It may seem strange that this period should seem so important, but we must remember that it is the point where the preparation of the upper and the lower limbs coincides. Also it will appear natural if we consider that the child at that epoch is on the eve of the disclosure of his fullness of manhood for at two years he reaches a point of completion with the explosion of language. On the eve of that event, at 1 2/2 years, he is already making efforts to express what is within him. It is an epoch of effort and an epoch of construction.

Once the importance of something has been discovered, everybody at once sets to work. Humanity is generous, but ignorant, so when they learn of something they precipitate themselves, usually with too much enthusiasm, and so also in this instance. Philosophers, psychologists, sociologists and others have centered their interest on the child of 1 ½ to 2 years of age. This is an epoch of development in which special care must be taken not to destroy the tendencies of life. If nature has given us such clear indications that this is the period of maximum effort we must support this effort. This is a general statement, but those who observe become more exact in the details they give. They state that at this epoch the child begins to show an instinct of imitation. This, in itself, is not a new discovery, because at all times people have said that children imitate, but hitherto this was a superficial statement. Now it is realized that the human child must understand before it imitates; this is logical, but it had not occurred to anyone before. The old idea was that we only had to act and the children would follow, there was hardly any further responsibility for the adult. Of course it was also said that we had to set a good example. This sets forth the importance of all adults, especially teachers. They must set a good example if there is to be a good humanity. Mothers also were specially included. The feeling was that children who have bad examples will grow up badly. The adult therefore stressed that he had set a good example for his children to imitate and the real responsibility was thrown on the heads of the children surrounding him, it was their fault if they did not profit by the good example the adults so generously gave to them. The result was unhappiness everywhere, for although children ought to become models of perfection, they were far from it. We wanted a perfect humanity and thought humanity was to be perfect by imitating us, but we were imperfect; what a confusion! Nature has not reasoned like we, she has reasoned another way; she does not bother about perfection in adults.

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