When teacher-education is done right, a bond is formed between the presenter and the group of adult learners. If both parties are open, engaged, attentive, and respectful, the dialogues are more meaningful, the practice sessions are more energized, and it’s common for everyone to experience a “flow experience”, a concept developed by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who studied how Montessori education can be structured to achieve it. I’ve found, in these decades of teacher-education, that the same is true for quality training course. “Where did the afternoon go?” This trusted relationship continues after the course is over, when these adult learners have questions once they are in their first months of teaching. If passion has been sparked and that flame nurtured, it remains. Last week, an email from Via, in Bandung, was in my inbox. What does it mean that the first stage of Montessori Development and the third stage are the same?
There are several similarities between children birth – 6 and 12 – 18. First, consider that the child in the First Plane is orienting themselves to this new world and environment in which they find themselves. They are learning new skills, certainly, but also observe them cognizant of being an individual, identifying themselves as part of a family, defining their relationship with their caregivers, and discovering their role. They are, at birth, nascent human beings. A teenager, on the cusp of puberty at the Third Plane of Development is also orienting themselves to a new world, the world and environment of adulthood. They are learning new skills, certainly, but they are now cognizant of becoming an adult, seeing their changing identification within their family, defining a new relationship with parents, thinking about who they are, what music they like, what books they enjoy, how they feel about larger societal issues. They are, at 12 years old, nascent adults.
How do we see these manifest in their behavior? There are similarities here as well, especially noticeable if you’ve had the opportunity to parent or teach children in both planes. Children in the first plane are highly egocentric; they are the center of their world. “What do I want right now?” “What do I need right now?” The child in the third plane is similarly motivated. “Everyone will be staring at me” “No one understands me”. Children in the first plane, especially in the second subplane, have a complex relationship with their caregivers. Observe the five-year old on the playground who runs to their father to get picked up only to immediately wiggle away to climb up the slide. Observe the 15 year old who wants to be independent. “Why can’t I go to the concert at the arena? You never let me do anything, I’m suffocating in this house!” but the next minute wants to curl up on the couch with mom or dad and watch old cartoons.
What’s fascinating to consider is that Dr. Montessori made these assertions well before science and medicine had access to brain studies. And yet, we know now that the first and third planes are both times of tremendous brain and neural growth. It’s common knowledge that from birth to six is the greatest growth, but less so that the second period of greatest growth is from twelve to eighteen years of age. First and Third represent growth. Second and Fourth represent consolidation.
Follow the Child 