The thank-you card was tucked in the striped bag, the words more valuable than the gift. “Thanks for making me feel confident every time I see the farm (even though I might not have the greenest of thumbs), and making me think, ‘there’s a little bit of me in that garden, in that shed. Thanks for making me feel that I helped.” A Montessori environment is carefully prepared to allow a child to work to their potential, and successfully move through the planes of development from birth to adulthood. During the first two six-year planes (Toddler through Upper Elementary), Montessori used the term “normalization” to describe the child’s acquisition of developmental characteristics such as profound spontaneous concentration, an attachment to reality, the power to choose work independently, and a love of silence, order, and work.
During the third plane of development, however, Montessori spoke of a new goal for this new, older child. “Valorization” describes the process an adolescent must go through in order to integrate a mature identity and the sense of being able to succeed in life by his/her own efforts, or, in other words, become an adult. This manifests itself in qualities such as selflessness (believe it or not), confidence, dignity, initiative, independence, helpfulness, good judgement, and the ability to work with others.
The prepared environment of the Early Adolescent class reflects this goal, one of which is through a component of the curriculum that Montessori named, “Occupations”. These “Junior Classes” operate a series of micro-economies, student-run small businesses with adult guidance. These economies take the form of products, services, workshops, etc… The wider school community supports these efforts through their patronage, while providing a critical learning opportunity for this age- group. The third-plane student learns that they are capable of great things. That they can, through their own efforts and in concert with peers, accomplish a real task, complete a real job, prepare and serve a hot lunch to a 6 year-old (and clean the kitchen afterward), plant and harvest a crop, build a raised bed. They learn what it means to make a good judgement, the consequences of making a bad one, and the restitution or redress that those choices require of them.
The process of valorization is not limited to the farm or the kitchen. The ability to assemble a raised bed parallels the confidence needed to graph a linear equation, to take on a role in Shakespeare, to present yourself at an interview, to construct your own future.
Follow the Child 