By Tania Gaffney – Rata Teacher & Deputy Principal Primary

After reading Krista’s column a fortnight ago about the Sensitive Periods, I thought I would follow with the Human Tendencies, since after the 1st plane of development (i.e. Preschool) we do not talk of Sensitive Periods any more, rather how we are catering to the Human Tendencies of the 2nd plane child.

Human tendencies are innate characteristics that every human has from birth throughout life which they use to meet their own needs. They do not follow any sequence, rather they work with each other in an interconnected way. They are as follows:

– Tendency to Order, e.g. following a sequence, understanding cause and effect, following a train of thought or an argument.

– Tendency to Orient, e.g. adapting to new situations.

– Tendency to Work or Manipulate, e.g. putting ideas into action, manipulating equipment.

– Tendency to Repeat, e.g. repeating a skill/s to build competency.

– Tendency to be Exact or Perfect, e.g. getting something to match the idea in your head.

– Tendency to Explore, e.g. the urge to investigate, to broaden our knowledge or horizons.

– Tendency to Abstraction, e.g. beginning with the concrete form which leads to being able to play with an idea without the concrete form.

– Tendency to Communicate, e.g. sharing, cooperating and collaborating with others.

When a Montessori teacher thinks about their class they ask themselves, “How are we allowing for the human tendencies to be lived out by the tamariki?”  Communication is an example. When I was young, we each had our own desk which the teacher generally arranged individually or occasionally in pairs but always with the idea of restricting the flow of communication and movement.  Consequently, we did everything in our power to communicate covertly with each other by whispering or passing notes.  Our ākonga have the freedom to move about and communicate with each other in class. This leads to children helping each other, collaborating on projects or chatting over morning tea.

What about the Tendency to order?  The 6-12 mind is quite different from the 0-6 mind where for the young child, the tendency to order is more about the external environment.  At the older level there is always creative disorder during work time, but everything still has a home and the environment should still be as beautiful as the 3-6 class.  The order that is being developed here is more in the mind of the 6-12 year old, e.g. learning about the order of the universe, the world and society and how they work.

It might be interesting for you to watch your tamariki and see how they are trying to fulfil their human needs through these tendencies and ask yourself, ”Is there something I need to do to help my child communicate with me or adapt to some new situation?”

By Krista Kerr – Preschool Head Teacher

Dr. Montessori began to wonder how and why it was that children at a certain age were universally drawn towards the same things in their environment. She discovered it is because human beings have special times in their early lives termed sensitive periods. A sensitive period is a particular moment in a person’s development in which they have an intense reaction or heightened response towards a particular part of their environment for a set period of time. Dr. Montessori likened this specific focus of the child to a torch in the dark; the beam of light focusing on one direct point.

These sensitive periods assist the child in their construction and occur at particular times in a child’s life during the first six years in order to help with his/her development, providing an unconscious pull towards specific parts of the environment. Montessori observed six sensitive periods – language, movement, order, refinement of the senses, small objects, and social behaviour.

The sensitive period for order begins between birth and one year of age. This also underpins all the other sensitive periods, as without order a child will not be able to absorb language, fine detail and other human characteristics. When we have a sense of order of the world we live in, knowledge of routines, objects and people in our environment, we feel safe and secure. However when a child is born, they have no such knowledge and no past experiences to base anything on. So, as Dr. Montessori puts it, the “young child has a vital need for order” (1972). As they are learning what everything is in this new world, it can be distressing if things are suddenly changed in some way, whether physical changes within the environment or intangible changes, such as changing the way you do things or changing the daily routine.  This sense of disorder is often the cause for the phrase “the terrible twos”. At this age, the child likes knowing what to expect and takes great pleasure in doing things ‘the right way’. A variation to this can cause frustration and not being articulate enough to voice this frustration, leaves the child resorting to tears and/or anger.

The environment and support needed for this sensitive period is for there to be external order. Everything in the environment should have a specific place, the adult’s behaviour should be consistent and the routine should remain as unchanged as possible. This is handy to remember as we all start to get into ‘back to school’ routines. Ideally, for the younger tamariki especially, the more you can keep the morning routine the same, the more likely they are to arrive at school happy, on time and ready to come into the akomanga (classroom). Tamariki will know what to expect each morning and will feel safe and secure and be able to settle into their day of exploring. Setting up these routines now will help lead to a wonderful year ahead.

By Carol Palmer – Tawhai Teacher, Primary

As the end of the year draws nigh, attentions in the primary classes are all turned the climatic experiences of the year – school camp for the 9 -12s and EOTC week for the 6 – 9s.  It would be easy to think of this as a way to make the last few weeks of term go quickly, or perhaps a reward for the year’s hard work, but the value of these events is far more than either of these things.  In Montessori education we talk about the dual environment where the classroom is only a starting place for the child’s discoveries and the wider world is freely accessible to them for their research.  We encourage children to ‘go out’, both because we want them to see that there is so much more to learn about in the world than that which is contained within their classroom, and also as the primary child has an ingrained need to explore the world beyond their immediate environment.

When we go on camp we disconnect from technology and bring living back to a basic level.  Last year children built their own shelters and slept in them overnight, the year before they made fires – without the use of matches – and cooked bread from scratch over them.  In doing things like this the children learn that with a few basic techniques they really can be independent and could, if necessary, take responsibility for their own survival.  It is a great and empowering realisation for the child that, as Dr Montessori said, “… it can go through life, carrying on its back all it may need.”

In the same vein our 6-9 students have EOTC (Education outside the Classroom) week currently and are utilising environments such as the Marine Life Centre, Wellington Zoo and shared bush walks with Montessori students from Berhampore school to expand their learning.

Dr Montessori, who was a friend of Lord Baden-Powell and a supporter of his scout movement, was a huge advocate of encouraging the child to “put their pack on their back’ and get out into the world.  Where Dr Montessori said that the child is asking us to ‘help it to do it by itself’, Baden-Powell instructed his boys to ‘Be Prepared’ – both ideas being designed to propagate confidence and independence.

The fast approaching summer holidays is the ideal time for children to explore their growing independence and interest in their environment. Here in New Zealand, we are fortunate to have such great opportunities to explore nature with the easy accessibility of bush walks, beaches and rivers to explore. There are several scout, kea and cub groups in the area and geocaching is an example of another innovative way to get out and about.

Geocaching sees you participating in a ‘sort of’ global treasure hunting community who leave ‘caches’ for each other to find.  The possibility of something secret hiding somewhere along the way is an enormous motivator which leads to all kinds of adventures of its own – the Palmer family highly recommends it – have a great summer!

By Kerry Pratchett – Rewarewa Head Teacher

I have spent the last two years going backwards and forwards to what my family call my ‘Sydney Apartment’ to do my 3 – 6 training. The last 3 weeks were spent reviewing the theory of the Montessori approach with exams at the end.

Dr Montessori had many strange terms that she used and one of these terms was ‘normalisation’.  This term is strongly linked to self-discipline. She observed that tamariki (children) are constructing themselves and in order to do this they are driven to ‘work’.

In her writings, Dr Montessori speaks about tamariki needing to have the freedom to do purposeful work.  I am sure that you are aware that in the preschool environment the tamariki undertake a variety of purposeful work – they prepare their own morning tea, wash laundry, clean windows, set tables and much more.  It was observed that when the tamariki are involved in this type of purposeful work their concentration is built up and ‘deviations’ are left behind.

We support the tamariki in the 3 – 6 environment by allowing them freedom within limits.  For example, they are able to work with a material provided they have had a lesson on how to use it, or they can choose to work anywhere they like so long as they do not distract others.

With each of these freedoms however, there are limits or consequences and responsibilities just as there are at home.  To illustrate, a child can prepare morning tea but must also clean up after him/herself.  Through this journey towards self-discipline and normalisation the child’s will develops meaning that they are able to obey themselves; they are no longer under the command of their internal drivers.

Some examples of a developed will at play are listed below:

– When the child expresses patience.

– When he persists with something for a long time.

– When she corrects her own mistakes through the material’s control of error.

– When the child does not need praise as this is an attitude of the mind.

– When he carries a glass of water on the line so carefully as not the spill anything.

– When she restrains herself from being disorderly in her movement.

– When a child overcomes his/her anger and uses the appropriate emotions.

With a developed will the child is granted an even greater amount of freedom and trust within the environment.  The child now has control over their mind, muscles and nerves.  They are normalised!  Dr Montessori stated that “A unique type of child appears, “a new child”; but really it is the child’s true personality allowed to construct its personality normally”. (Secret of Childhood, p. 185).

By Rose Langridge – English and History Teacher, High School

History is about analyzing the past. It is never finished. The way we remember things over time changes and the things that are really important to us are not always important to the people around us. Ᾱkonga (students) navigate their way through a full history and do not just engage with the good. We include many voices in the narrative of history and we discuss which voices dominate and which voices are left out. Ᾱkonga learn to find empathy for people from the past and also how to critically evaluate the world the way it was in the past.

In senior social studies the emphasis is on now and the future. How can we change the world and solve its ‘wicked’ problems? A ‘wicked’ problem is a social or cultural problem that is either difficult or impossible to solve. There is no template to follow when tackling a wicked problem, although history may provide a guide. In the words of Mark Sheehan a senior lecturer at Victoria University, “knowing about the past is the business of informed citizens”.

Maria Montessori spoke in the same way with the world in turmoil in 1948. She saw the importance of adolescents understanding the government and said that, “It is necessary that the human personality should be prepared for the unforeseen, not only for the conditions that can be anticipated by prudence and foresight … but should develop at the same time the power of adapting itself quickly and easily”. This is the aim of the social sciences, to guide the adolescent and give them the tools to adapt to the world around them.

Most social problems such as political instability, poverty, disease and famine are wicked because they cannot be ‘fixed’. These wicked problems can be seen as happening somewhere else. Whilst the ākonga at Wā Ora are in the lucky position to help others, there are wicked problems that they will face as they leave school – climate change, global youth unemployment, growing social inequality and battling multinational and voter suppression, just to name a few.

And this is also important in the workforce. Managers around the world, when quizzed, said the main thing they were looking for in a prospective employee was someone who can solve unstructured problems with strong interpersonal skills.

We can help ākonga learn how to be designers of change. Though they may not fix the problems, they can indeed mitigate the negative consequences of these problems. In a time when the pursuit of happiness is such a fundamental part of people’s expectations of the world, learning about the problems of the world and engaging in how to help should be a fundamental part of education. We need to empower ākonga to ask difficult questions and to find ways to develop skills to become social change makers.

Reprinted with permission of Wendy Calise, Countryside Montessori School, USA

So, I am looking for new shoes.

Here is what I want:

Black -Two inches high – Wedge heels -With a strap – Leather – Open toe – Dressy

And I want them by Friday.

Answer: No Problem!

We expect what we purchase to be tailored to our particular specifications. There is almost nothing we can’t find, nothing we can’t ask, and nothing we can’t get delivered. In this day and age, why can’t school deliver my order like every other business does?

Let’s consider some actual parent requests:

• More homework / Less homework
• Strict Enforcement of Policy / More Flexibility
• An Exception for My Child / More Accountability for Another Family’s Student
• More Attention to Testing / Greater Focus on Real Learning
• More Technology/ More Hands On Learning
• More Options for Parent Education/ Fewer Requirements for Attendance at
• Meetings
• More Performances / Fewer Performances
• Give a Student a Bigger Part in Performance…
• Change the Songs in the Choral Program…
• Classes Three Days a Week…
• Print Instead of Cursive…
• More Book Groups…
• More Math…
• Expel Another Family’s Student…

Every time a school agrees to move the goal post for you, you can bet they are moving the goal post for other families as well. And oftentimes the “yes” to another family will come at the expense of your child.

Every time your school faculty and staff deny a request, they are upholding a core value of the school. They are preserving the model of education that you have decided is the very best.

The schools with the greatest integrity and deepest commitment to their work hold fast to their rules, policies and mission; even when it is unpopular in the moment or with a particular family.

This is a critical but very nuanced message. Wā Ora has a clear methodology, a strong mission and a community of families who share a common vision regarding education. The students at Wā Ora are guided by the professional staff that you met during your interview process, not by the beliefs or dictates of other parents.

The clearer a school is about its policies, the more it sticks to its principles and the higher its expectations for families, the greater the quality of the educational experience for the students.

So, what do shopping for schools and shoes have in common?

At a good school, not much.

By Tania Gaffney – Deputy Principal, Primary and Rata Teacher

This newsletter article picks up where my last one left off, sharing some tips about what you can do at home to help nurture tamariki.

This is a very simple tip perhaps for older children and teens who have electronic devices. When children are in bed, place all their electronic devices are in the kitchen to charge.  This reduces the temptation for them to be up playing games or checking messages at all hours of the night and missing out on sleep that is so vital for their functioning the next day.  Studies have been done showing just how much sleep is being lost by children because of their screen use and it can be as much as 2 or 3 hours a night. There have also been studies showing that those who have screen time right before bed take longer to fall asleep, so it might be a good idea to turn the TV off and put all the devices in the kitchen well before bedtime to help with the winding down process of getting children (and us also!) ready for bed.

Another simple idea (in theory, often harder in practice!) is to give children the gift of time.  Try not to have your children’s lives so crammed full of things to do/places to go/people to see, that they never have any down time (and, in this context, ‘down time’ does not mean screen time).  Children need time to be bored.  When a child says ‘I’m bored’ we can often try and jump in there and fix it with technology, but if we always do this, we aren’t giving them the chance to listen to their own promptings. They need time to run and play, build huts in the yard/lounge/bedroom and read – but not all the time, as reading all the time can be just as isolating as being on a screen. They need time to potter about the house/yard just doing nothing much, to make something with that empty box from the recycling, observe or draw that bird or insect in the backyard.  These, and anything else they think of, are activities that you don’t need to be involved with.  You don’t always need to be there suggesting as this often means the children will rely on you for the ideas. I enjoy this quote from Nancy H. Blakey, a writer and educator, who said,

“Pre-empt the time spent on television and organized activities and have them spend it instead on claiming their imaginations. For in the end, that is all we have. If a thing cannot be imagined first – a cake, a relationship, a cure for AIDS – it cannot be. Life is bound by what we can envision. I cannot plant imagination into my children. I can, however, provide an environment where their creativity is not just another mess to clean up but welcome evidence of grappling successfully with boredom. It is possible for boredo m to deliver us to our best selves, the ones that long for risk and illumination and unspeakable beauty. If we sit still long enough, we may hear the call behind boredom. With practice, we may have the imagination to rise up from the emptiness and answer.”

We can’t expect children who never have time of their own to organise, to turn into adults who can organise their days.

By Joel Batson – Tōtara Teacher, Primary

Two years ago I left a job teaching in the New Zealand public school system to teach here at Wā Ora.

Back then, the pull to work in Montessori was heightened by the knowledge I had already gained through my wife and I sending our son along to Wā Ora to be in Pohutukawa class.  I could see that the way Montessori did things was different to mainstream and that those differences aligned with some of the things I had always thought could be done better.

Since then, as a part of my ongoing Montessori training, I have been fortunate to be able to see Montessori environments in action in a number of different settings, both in New Zealand and Australia, at different levels and in different stages of development.

Through these experiences and through working alongside the great team at Wā Ora, my convictions about how Montessori works and what it’s all about really seem to have grown and deepened.

So as I reflect, I find that a Montessori education is truly supposed to function as an “aid to life” (Maria Montessori) and seeks to see and develop the potential in each and every child that walks through the doors.

I see that a Montessori education strives to take care of the whole child.  And yes it really does try to look at the child holistically, meeting the child where they are at and figuring out what their next steps are – physically, emotionally, socially and academically.  The child is then encouraged to consider the spiritual side of themselves; to contemplate the part they have to play in the universe.

I also see that a Montessori education looks to create community.  It is about the child and all those invested in that child’s life and well-being working together to achieve the best possible outcomes for that child.  And that outcome really is a joyful child that is excited about learning and able to think creatively for him or herself.  I see that this excitement for learning can only really occur if it is also modelled by the others in the environment, both children and adults.

In my musings over the past few years I am pleased to find that Maria Montessori in many ways was actually in just the right place as a scientist to stumble upon what could easily be called ‘common sense’.

You do not need to be in a strictly ‘Montessori’ environment to achieve the above outcomes.  Other people in other times and places have taught children in such ways.  But, through the Montessori Method we are privileged to have a proven scientific way, supported by more and more modern research, of making sure that these things can and will happen for as wide a range of children as possible.

by David Starshaw, Mathematics Teacher – High School

 “Where do you work?”
“Oh, I’m a High School teacher.”
“Really? Where do you teach?”
“I teach in Naenae at Wā Ora Montessori School.”
“Wait, Montessori? I thought that was for preschoolers?”
And so on…
I’ve had this conversation χ+1 times where χ is as many times as I can remember. Inevitably, the conversation will then turn to: “So, what’s different about your school?” And this is an enjoyable conversation for me.
I like answering this question because I get to share why I like teaching in a Montessori environment and the listener consistently answers “It just makes sense!” Especially if I’m talking to another teacher. I’m never short for conversation on training days if I mention I work in a Montessori High School.
What makes sense about a Montessori High School, specifically the 12-15 program? We teach them according to their developmental needs. Adolescents have passed the second plane of ‘cosmic education’ where they collect facts, interests and form practice societies. They are in the third plane of preparing for real society and learning to be adults.
How do we do this? We have community meeting once a week where any student can bring up a topic to discuss, agree with one student, disagree with another and be heard by 50 of their peers and teachers. We support students to look after their own needs during long work cycles. Been working on a document for the last two hours? Feeling yourself fading? Take a walk, grab some food, do what you need to do to come back fresh. We expect students to empathise with each other. Through restorative practices, students explore harm done to themselves, others and the wider community. They take steps that they decide are necessary to repair the harm and decide what needs to happen for them to feel restored to one another.
Did you notice that none of the above are ‘academic’? Academic learning happens too. They still learn to factorise quadratics, they can compare a homozygous and heterozygous genotype and can tell you how to “save the bees!” But more so than any other time in their development, their academic interests are diminished and compete with their social interests. “How do I look right now?” “Am I in the right or wrong here?” “Will people laugh if I say that? Or is it too far?”

We match our teaching to what they need to know. And what adolescents need to know is how to become adults that contribute to society, understanding that they have influence in their own lives and in others’, and that they have valuable skills which they can use to gain financial independence. It takes three years for them to ‘get it’. And it’s wonderful when they do.

If we think about the technological revolution in our lives today, we can see that famous people such as Sergey Brin and Larry Page (inventors of google search engine), Will Wrights (inventor of The Sims, Simcity and Super Mario) and Jeff Bezos (the founder of Amazon) are just a few who have had a profound impact on us though their creativity. You may be wondering why I chose these individuals on my list here. To my astonishment, all of them have been Montessori children!

Wow! Isn’t that a big undertaking of a Montessori classroom – to prepare individuals who can create life changing things? Indeed it is!

So how do we support creativity in our classroom when we often don’t see any children’s work on the walls or bulletin boards? This is sometimes a huge question asked of us as educators.

To answer this, I compared two definitions of creativity. According to Dr Montessori, “What is called creation is in reality a composition, a construction raised upon a primitive material of the mind, which must be collected from the environment by means of the senses.” (Spontaneous Activity in Education, pg. 245). And according to the Oxford dictionary, creativity is defined as “the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness”.

Both the definitions support the use of ideas to construct and create. In Montessori preschool, children collect sensorial impressions. The precise materials allow children the opportunity to refine and accurately classify and abstract their impressions. The creativity at this age is in using the observation and applying it to identify the known. In primary, however, the children use their imagination to augment things in their work. Every key lesson offers the opportunity to explore and investigate a topic further and all follow up work opens the doors to creation by virtue of using the imagination.

Teaching in a primary class often surprises me with the unique “big work” that the children create in all the classes at Wā Ora. I see these on the deck or outdoors, from making volcano models to making a garden shed; from caring for the animals to sharing community lunches; be it a creation of a simple word problem in math or making the cube of 9 to the power of tens; or researching the causes of extinction of whales or finding the effects of global warming. Our children keep going until they have satisfied themselves, challenged themselves, solved problems, created models, timelines or mathematical solutions of whatever it is that has intrigued and captured their interest.

It is natural that the future leaders of the world who will make a difference for others by creating new and innovative solutions to the issues of tomorrow will be found in no other than a Montessori environment where they can “be more!”