A Joyful Education

See Part I for a discussion of the First Plane of Development.

One of Dr. Maria Montessori’s best known pedagogical directives is “Follow the child.” This call is meant to encourage teachers and adults to look to children for inspiration and instruction on their needs, interests, and development. But this directive is not as clear as it may sound. Even as children carry inherent wisdom, they are still children, with incomplete information, narrow perspectives, and immature impulses. To truly follow them in the fullest sense of the phrase would be detrimental—even catastrophic—to them. Dr. Montessori herself writes: Therefore he [the child] must be allowed to act freely on his own initiative in this free environment. This statement must not be misunderstood, however: liberty is not to be free to do anything one likes (Maria Montessori, Citizen of the World: Key Montessori Readings ). She never intended for children to be “free to do anything one likes.” This is not true freedom, and this is not what following the child means. Dr. Montessori believed in centering children’s true needs in education and family life. She was the first to thoroughly observe children and then devise an educational and developmental curriculum based on these observations. To this end, her approach was revolutionary at a time when children were “seen but not heard,” and expected to submit to adults’ agendas and intellectual ideas—which were usually cultivated in isolation from an understanding of children’s actual needs. Our society has evolved in the decades since this phrase was introduced. Now, children are centered in families and cultural conversations. Parents revolve their schedules around their children’s activities, and children have a voice in their family’s conversations. Much of this is a positive development. But it also introduces the question of exactly what Dr. Montessori meant when she told us to follow children. The answer looks a little different at each of the Planes of Development (0–6 years, 6–12 years, 12–18 years, and 18–24 years*). But they are all underscored by the same perspective: Provide the boundaries your children need in order to choose productive ways of being, and then observe your children deeply for their interests and for what they are telling you with their behavior. While it may seem counterintuitive to “following the child,” establishing guidance and boundaries is a prerequisite for being able to see your child’s true nature and needs. Children need an understanding of the limits of their world in order to feel safe enough to be who they are and grow into who they are meant to be. * For our purposes, we will discuss 18 months through age 14 years most thoroughly because those are the years children attend our school. Part I covers the First Plane of Development.