Parent Education Series

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Parent Education Series

• What is Montessori?
• Presented by
• Cindy Laura - Toddler
• Mala Smita - Primary
• Liza Ada - Elementary

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Absorbent Mind

• It is Unconscious. The child does not choose
  what to learn.
• It is Nondiscriminatory. It takes in
  everything.
• It is Global. It takes in everything as a whole.
• It is universal. All the children have this
  power of development.
• It is creative. It creates a human personality.
• It is unaware of goal. The child does not
  realize that he is constructing himself.
• It is Dynamic. The child actively seeks the
  environment.

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Analogy- 1

• Maria Montessori says that we can compare the
  absorbent mind with a sponge. A dry sponge
  doesnt do anything, it will expand only in
  liquid. Whatever the liquid (environment) is the
  sponge (mind) absorbs everything. Same principle
  applies to the childs mind it is like a sponge.
  Whatever is there, the child will absorb it and
  it becomes a part of his psyche. Even if a sponge
  will be squeezed it will never return to its
  original form. The same thing applies to the
  children.

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Analogy - 2

• With the camera, we can take the picture in
  just one click and it is fixed. Once fixed, it
  cannot be changed. Where as for an artist, it
  takes more effort. So, the work of camera
  represents the way the absorbent mind works.

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The Nature of the absorbent mind

• The absorbent mind is full of mystery. It is
  like a sponge. It soaks up knowledge from the
  environment effortlessly. -MM
• The period of 0 to 6 years is the period of
  absorbent mind. Absorbent mind can be subdivided
  in to
• 0 - 3 years Unconscious Absorbent Mind.
• 3 - 6 years Conscious Absorbent Mind.

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Difference between conscious and unconscious
absorbent mind

• Conscious mind has the capacity of memory
• In the first year of life, the child takes in
  the whole environment unconsciously.

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0-3 Unconscious Absorbent Mind

• Absorbs Language, Movement, Order and culture
  from the environment.
• Also, habits, customs, religion and mores of the
  people.
• It can enter in civilization at any epoch and
  take in everything there is in that civilization
  and age.
• It absorbs in totality the environment in which
  he lives.

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3-6Conscious Absorbent Mind

• This period is of conscious absorbent mind. The
  child still continues the process of self
  construction. But in doing so, he is using his
  own will.
• Now the child takes in unconsciously using his
  hand. The hand has now become the instrument of
  the brain.

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Implications for Children

• Regression
• Left free to his own spontaneity
• lead by an inner force
• We do not always see the purpose in the childs
  actions.
• Performance is to self construct himself.

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Role of an Adult

• We cannot reach a mind to teach it directly.
• We cannot help in this mysterious process of
  passing from the unconscious to conscious.
• We can only provide the best conditions. The
  best condition, not the environment.
• What we need to remind us here is that the child
  does not need direction.
• Most of all allow the child to act freely on his
  own initiative, without intervention.

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Maria Montessori

• The immense influence that education can
  exert through children, has the environment for
  its instrument, for the child absorbs his
  environment, take everything from it, and
  incarnates it in himself.