I am humbled by the work of the child — the creation of the man or woman that he or she will become. As a Montessori directress, I respect each individual’s path on this journey and attempt to guide without interfering. Each day, I observe the spontaneous unfolding of the children’s lives and watch with awe the irrepressible energies of life.
Maria Montessori called the lessons we give children “keys to the universe.” Each lesson opens the door to wonder for a child who in turn loves her work and loves learning for its own sake.
For one child in my class, the nomenclature cards have been intrinsically rewarding without end. Each set of these language cards includes realistic pictures of a particular category such as clothing, flowers or birds. Identical pictures are matched and labelled with a word that identifies them. At four years old, this student worked with these cards until he could identify more than fifty types of insects and over fifty kinds of birds. Now he is learning to identify birds by their call in addition to knowing them by sight.
Another child has used his keen mathematical mind and opened the door to a fascination and appreciation for numbers. One day, as I gave him a lesson on another way to look at the process of math, he said, “Okay. I know addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.” Then, with hope in his voice, he asked, “Is there any other kind of math?”
Yet another child opened the door to musical composition by playing the Bells. I have given her lessons on how to carefully strike a bell, sing the note and mute a bell. She has also learned to match the notes of two bells and to play the scale. One day, however, this child played an entire song. After she completed it, I said, “Go Tell Aunt Rhody is one of my favorite songs!”
Amazed that she could play a recognizable tune, she tried to play other songs by ear, coming to me after each one asking, “Do you know that one?” Days later, the same child was thrilled to have finally composed her own melody. She played a lovely little tune on the Bells and then asked me, “Do you know that one?” When I said I did not, she giggled and said, “Of course not! I just made it up!” To her delight, she now plays songs that children in the classroom recognize and sing along to as they work.
Keys to the universe turn a light on in the soul of a child. Just as Montessori lessons are only keys to the greater world outside the classroom, I can only offer glimpses into the classroom that illustrate the never-ending positive, joyful work children do. My position is an enviable one. I witness these doors opening in children’s lives on a daily basis over weeks, months and years. I am surrounded by innocence, charm, wonder and engaging candor. I watch as the children’s characters deepen, interests broaden and universe expands.