Knowledge Beyond the Classroom

By Carol Palmer –Tawhai Teacher – Primary

Spend any time hanging around with Montessori types and you will hear us use phrases like ‘sow all the seeds’ or ‘give the children the keys to the universe’.  These are grand ideas which imply that we intend to make huge amounts of knowledge and information available to the children so they can feed their every fascination.  It may seem strange then, that when you look in a Montessori classroom you will only find a few (excellent) books on each topic, just enough to whet the children’s appetites for more, but not actually fulfil them.

This limitation is quite deliberate as a major part of the Montessori Primary programme should take place outside the classroom.    Once children find a subject that interests them and have exhausted the materials immediately available, they will be compelled to ‘go out’ to find more.  This may involve visiting a museum, a geological feature, a local expert, factory, business – anyone or anything that can help them with their research.  And whilst on the surface it may appear that the children (and adults) are going to a lot of effort just to get an answer that could have been provided by Google – the benefits of ‘going out’ are huge.

As adults we take for granted the process we have to go through in order to take a trip somewhere.  For children however, each step in this process is a challenge that requires specific skills: they need to gather their group, locate a source of information, contact the source and arrange a visit, plan questions to ask/information to gather, arrange transportation, budget, draw maps, take notes, conduct themselves with dignity whilst out, overcome unforeseen challenges, return to school and organise their findings to present to the rest of the class.

The learning which occurs from these experiences is huge.  It allows the children to take part in the wider community in a protected way at exactly the time in their life when they need to start pressing geographic and social boundaries and finding their place in society. Each ‘going out’ is an entire course of study on independence, responsibility and good citizenship — to say nothing of the intellectual rewards that children get from such experience.  ‘Going out’ also teaches children that the answers to their questions are not just in one specific place – they are everywhere and they have the power to find them.  This is an essential understanding for moving into the wider world when they no longer have a classroom.

For this reason, the adults who volunteer to accompany children on ‘going out’ expeditions are an enormously valuable part of the school community, as well as being in short supply.  If you feel you could make yourself available to support the Going Out Programme, please contact Tania Gaffney (tania@waora.school.nz) who can provide you training and add you to the contact list. You don’t have to be available all the time, the children are very flexible!