essence of Montessori: Those adolescent years, The

SECONDARY STORIES

The four basic characteristics that Montessori described as appearing first in the years from 3 to 6 are still a part of the basic human personality from 12 to 18. The ability to concentrate, enjoyment of work, self-discipline/selfregulation, and the desire to be an accepted member of a social group still are essential elements if they have been supported and nurtured during the preceding years. However, if impediments have been placed in the way of the child's natural and positive development, negative behaviors, rooted in a sense of inadequacy and frustration, will have appeared.

Montessori (1948) reminds us that at each stage of normal development the child is different and yet the same-the same in the sense that the universals found in the early years are still present, but different in the ways that the characteristics are manifested at each new age. If the child's development has not been nurtured and respected, the characteristics may be stunted and deformed, hiding the possibilities and potential that may still exist for the adolescent child.

To understand what is normal and possible for this age, we must remind ourselves of the natural transformations that ideally should have occurred.

Change from 6 to 12

An earlier article dealing with the elementary years described the transformation of the child at age 6, when entering the new plane of development from 6 to 12 years (Loeffler, 2002). It is important to remind ourselves of these important changes in orderto increase our understanding of the adolescent who is also entering anew phase. During this earlier transformation, the child was experiencing both physical and psychological transformations: a sudden growth spurt with a change in body proportions, longer legs and a slimming down for most children; the loss of baby teeth; and a coarsening of hair and features replacing the attractive innocence and clarity of the younger child's persona.

The 6-year-old, in addition to these physical changes, was experiencing psychological and emotional changes, as well. A growing imagination allowed an expansion of the perceived world. No longer was the child satisfied with the confinement of the classroom. The larger world of nature and adventure beckoned, and imagination provided an opportunity for mental journeys even within classroom walls through stories and projects about the larger world and universe. Longer periods in the school, away from the familiarity of the home, also were experienced for the first time by some children. This marked the beginning of a separation between parents and children reaching its climax in early adulthood and often painful for both parties involved.

At this age of 6, children, too, began to deal in a new way with the issues of good and evil, right and wrong. Rules assumed a new importance, although the child may have applied them, in this early moral stage, primarily to the behaviors of others, not to himself or herself. It was a time of upheaval and change for the child, sometimes a trying time for parents and other adults in their relationships with these often rude and boisterous changelings.

Introducing the early elementary child to the world that lies beyond the classroom through the Montessori "Great Stories" will have provided fascinating material both for the child's growing perspective of the surrounding world and for a growing understanding of his or her place within it. The story of creation, the story of earth's plants and animals, the story of the coming of humans with their needs and cultures, and finally the stories of the invention of language and number, all these and the ideas and work that flow from them have helped center the child and provide direction and purpose for the age's natural restlessness.

As the child has come to understand his or her own unique place and role in the world and the interrelationships with earth's other inhabitants, a growing sense of community and purpose has begun to develop. If the classroom has been designed to encourage students to find ways of resolving difficulties and issues that arise, a sense of responsibility to the group will have developed and a sense of fairness and morality appears.

It is important to remind ourselves of these positive social and emotional constructs which have been forming during the years from 6 to 12, in order to understand more completely as the child moves into the adolescent period. If impediments have occurred during this developmental period, additional care must be taken to find ways to construct these necessary foundations for individual children. It is never too late to mend these flaws, and positive mentoring by more mature peers will be especially helpful if encouraged in an accepting atmosphere.

Transition in the Third Plane

It is often surprising to adults to see some of the same dissonance in the changing child during the transition into the third plane of development from 12 to 18 that was noted in the earlier transition at age 6. In early puberty, again there are sudden and noticeable physical changes taking place: rapid growth, a loss of the last vestiges of childish facial features, and, most importantly, the emergence of new sexual characteristics that make the youngster's body sometimes seem strange and uncomfortable to its owner.

These sudden changes often lead to emotional stress as the child struggles to find a new identity in an unfamiliar body and in an ever expanding and more complex world. The energy required by these physical changes makes the young adolescent vulnerable to physical ailments, while the emotional stresses arising from the new relationships with the opposite sex add to an inner turmoil. With all the inner conflicts and changes of this age, the adolescent finds it difficult to focus on academic work; and research studies have confirmed that children's intellectual scores on standard measures actually decrease in the early teen years, although rising again as a new balance is reached in early adulthood.

Recognizing these changes, is it any wonder that the parents of an adolescent often feel as though they have a new and alien child living in their family?

I have sometimes mentioned to parents of 6-year-olds, concerned by some of the new behaviors they observe, that these are in a way a preview of adolescence. The changes noted in both periods represent important and necessary transformations in physical and emotional growth that should be recognized as such, rather than seen as difficulties to be overcome.

Whereas the 6-year-old is moving outside the safe and secure world of family and/or Children's House into a community of peers and adults and is given a glimpse into the wider world through stories and research about the world's inhabitants, the 12-year-old is coming to terms with his/her own new identity and the larger world beyond family and school.

For the first time the adolescent sees himself/herself not only as somebody's son or daughter, a brother or sister, a boy or girl, a scout or team member, but rather as a unique individual, attempting to integrate all these separate identities into a single one while moving into the larger community of a culture, with all that this implies.

It is very important that the educational environment for the adolescent embraces a philosophy of recognition and support of this necessary growth and that a curriculum is built to be consonant with this normal process. Montessori's multiage grouping is especially helpful here, since hormones do not always conform to chronological age, and late maturers find it difficult to be the smallest and least developed in a single-age class.

In the book From Childhood to Adolescence, Montessori (1948) describes some of her views on education from 12 to 18. In a chapter on the Erdkinder or Earth School, she suggests that because of the particular needs and interests of the adolescent, several new types of learning should be included. These incorporate work on the land in order to connect the adolescent with the natural world of which he or she is a part and to develop a sense of responsibility toward its resources. This is a natural extension of the cosmic plan first introduced in the years from 6 to 12. A second feature should be an apprentice type of learning where the student can work under a competent mentor to be introduced to the various adult vocations occurring in the particular culture. Montessori suggests that adolescents might spend time on a farm, with much of the work and production done by the students. The farm also might include a small inn, run by the children, where parents could come to visit-a reversal of roles between parents and children and an aid in the often difficult need for separation as the child moves into adulthood.

As Piaget reminds us, as the adolescent becomes a formal, abstract thinker, for the first time he or she can idealize perfection (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958). This idealization coupled with a growing imagination leads to visions of a perfect world, a perfect family. This ability to idealize causes adolescents to blame adults for the world's imperfections, and parents are the most convenient adults to blame. Living on the land, away from daily contact with parents while faced with the responsibilities of daily life under the helpful guidance of sympathetic mentors, can offer students and parents an opportunity for a temporary and necessary trial separation before the more permanent one in early adulthood.

Montessori used a new term, valorization, to describe the process, somewhat similar to the earlier process of normalization, that the adolescent must go through in integrating a new and more mature personal identity with a sense of being capable of succeeding in life through his or her own efforts. Early teens are susceptible to seeking heroes or more perfect adults to counteract what they see as the flaws of those they know best. Consequently, it is very important that mentors understand the delicacy of their own roles in the transition process and not take advantage of teens' vulnerability in their relationships with their own parents or other important adults. Sometimes young teachers, savoring the role of heroic mentor for their own personal needs, make the mistake of assuming an adversarial role with parents and create a "cult" dependence by their students leading to problems for all concerned. Montessori's view of the mentor's role was as a wise and sympathetic adult model, not replacing the parental role but assisting it.

The Contemporary Erdkinder

Montessori was never able to see an Erdkinder come into fruition during her lifetime; but in the past few decades various models have been created as educational environments, primarily for 12- to 15-year-olds. Although Montessori did not describe specific ages except that it should occur in the third plane of development, most of these contemporary models have focused on the first 3-year phase, since this age level has offered the greatest need in the current American culture. Many Montessori schools offer elementary education for ages 6 to 12 years, and parents have urged them to continue providing an appropriate educational environment during the early adolescent years, as well. Where these classes have been successful, a high school program for ages 15 to 18 sometimes has been developed, including one in Houston and one in the Cincinnati public schools.

The modern versions of the Montessori third-plane curricula, while following many of her original suggestions, have made adaptations to fit the contemporary culture. Since few possibilities exist for creating a farm boarding school, more modern versions have been developed to provide some of the same experiences.

School of the Woods in Houston, TX, has developed a Land Lab where students spend regular, week-long periods of time. Over the past 10 years, students have built all the necessary facilities for eating, sleeping, and studying to use while there. Other schools have created small land-based projects on their own school grounds. An interest in conservation has led to reduction in paper usage and to recycling projects. All of these are related to stewardship of the environment, an important manifestation of the characteristic of sociability: assuming personal responsibility for the good of the community.

In addition to the land work, many mini-apprentice programs have been devised, in which students spend short periods of time working with adult mentors in various vocations.

In Ohio, an actual farm school offering both boarding and day school recently has been developed under the supervision of David Kahn, and its progress is being carefully followed by Montessori educators across the country.

Sports, the arts, and modern technology are important components in current middle/high school curricula.

The Claremont Montessori School in Boca Raton, Florida, has two interesting aspects to its program. Students are given a budget at the beginning of the year from which they can make choices as to the sports that are offered and where they can go on trips taken as a community group. If they choose tennis as a sport, they need to determine whether one of the school faculty can be asked to teach it or they will have to hire an outside coach. The same applies to planning their trips. Such things as the cost of transportation, lodging, meals, etc. must be computed by the students to see how much of their annual budget they are willing to invest in order to go to a certain destination.

This school also offers a voluntary music program in which students learn to play handbells and hand chimes under the tutelage of a music professor from a nearby university. All the characteristics Montessori described--concentration, enjoyment of meaningful work, self-discipline, and sociability-are demonstrated in the twice-- a-week practice and the musical performances given by these students.

Other interesting activities included in programs for the third plane of development with which I am familiar include the use of graphic calculators in a school in Michigan. These instruments are not used primarily as tools for calculation, although they accomplish that task, but rather to challenge the adolescent in calling upon higher order thinking skills in solving mathematical problems.

A second activity which seems especially appropriate for adolescents is the introduction of Socratic practice, a way of helping children take possession of their own thinking, which has been introduced in School of the Woods in Houston. All of the programs described here are helpful in addressing the needs of the adolescent.

Development-Based Planning

In planning a program for the middle and high school years, it is important to become very familiar with the normal development that is occurring. When adults anticipate and understand the changes that appear, they can assist the child in moving through this somewhat turbulent period with less dissension and fewer later regrets for all concerned.

If the changes in behavior can be seen not as signs of problems but as evidence of normal development toward maturity, then the responses adults make can aid and not hinder this growth. Recognizing the inner unrest that the child is feeling and finding ways to address these problems and concerns must be the primary goal of the school for this age level. Academic growth will occur when tied to meeting the social and emotional needs that are all consuming in these important years.

Ursula Thrush, an early proponent of the Erdkinder model in the US, died recently, and we shall miss her wise guidance. She started one of the first farm schools, following Montessori's suggestion, in the San Francisco area in the 1970s. Her faith never faltered in the belief that only through an education based on understanding of children's developmental needs and interests will we be successful in creating a peaceful and harmonious world. Certainly the third plane of development provides a major challenge to parents and educators in meeting this goal at this important time in history.

References

Inhelder, B., & Piaget, J. (1958). The growth of logical thinking from childhood to adolescence: An essay on the construction of formal operational structures. New York: Basic.

Loeffler, M.H. (2002, Spring) The essence of Montessori in the elementary years. Montessori I,ife, 14(2), pp. 39-40.

Montessori, M. (1948). From childhood to adolescence. New York: Schocken.

DR. MARGARET H. LOEFFLER is director of the Oklahoma City University Montessori teacher education program and founder/co-director of the Teachers Research Network.

Copyright American Montessori Society Summer 2003
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