Carol Palmer- Pūriri Head Teacher
In Pūriri class we are currently experiencing a surge in the uptake of handwork – knitting, felting, spinning, sewing, weaving, sculpting…creating! This work is a sure sign of a strong Montessori learning environment. Children are naturally drawn to handwork as it meets so many of their needs.
Handwork takes commitment, both to master and to complete a project. Children in modern society can become so used to quick-fixes and instant gratification that they lose the ability or motivation to strive for anything longer term. Knitting a scarf can take months, particularly if the child goes through all the steps of washing and spinning the wool, and knitting it on knitting needles that they have made themselves. These projects teach children that we can achieve great things, if we take them one step at a time.
Handwork is therapeutic, it creates a space in time when the hands are engaged but the mind is free to process and unwind – it naturally slows down to meet the rhythm of the craft, and its natural balance is restored. In a culture where children are becoming increasingly stressed and anxious it is more important than ever that we offer them an outlet for their tension.
In a world where children are used to working with electronic devices – connecting with plastic, metal and glass and using finger tips and thumbs to tap and swipe – there is, more than ever, a need to develop the hand.
When we sew, we must hold our fabric in place and manipulate our needle to come out in the precise spot needed to make small, neat stitches. Then we must pull the thread hard enough to draw it tight, but not so hard that the fabric bunches up, or the needle becomes unthreaded. There are few other activities offered to children, which build their fine motor skills in such a detailed and comprehensive way.
Any serious knitter will tell you how much maths is involved in resizing patterns and any coder can tell you how closely the binary combinations of knit and purl relate to coding. When we make clay pots, we explore the pottery that our ancestors used, how it was designed and fired and what this tells us about our history. When we carve wood we learn to respect strict safety rules and when we weave baskets we have to think about the strength of our construction and its suitability to our intended purpose.
So whilst we are doing a lot of handwork, we are preparing our hands for writing with our spinning, engaging the mathematical brain with our knitting and practising engineering as we make our tools. We are engaging the scientific brain as we discover the effect of pH on the colour of dye and building stamina as we commit to completing long term projects. We are learning mindfulness techniques and, as a side bonus, we are producing beautiful objects.
Handwork is a hugely important part of Montessori learning – it connects to everything and connects us to each other as well as giving a genuine sense of job satisfaction.
