Role and Nature of the Prepared Environment
Starting from
birth, a child develops both psychically and physically. These two proceeds
parallel in general, for instance the first physical event in a child’s life,
birth, is the first step of becoming independent from his mother. This step is
followed by crawling, supplementary food, walking and weaning. These are the
natural milestones that an adult has almost no influence on them; they are
already programmed in the child’s psyche. The role of parents or adults living
with the child starts preparing a child-like environment starting from birth,
for helping to handle the birth terror, for the comfort of the child, for the
adaptation and for unfolding his character. One should take into account all
dimensions of a human being, such as physical, psychological, mental and
social, in preparing an environment. So, an environment is not a place in that
the child just lives and grows up unintentionally, but it is a total
surrounding of objects prepared deliberately in order to support all
developmental stages and sensitive periods of the child. “Nature first makes
the instruments, and then develops them by means of functions, through
experiences upon the environment (The Absorbent Mind, p.140)”.
An environment
has two dimensions: physical and psychological environment. The physical
environment includes anything in the house from the light to the materials,
from the order to the furniture. “The fundamental principles: The furniture
must be light and arranged in such a fashion that the child can easily move it,
and the pictures must be hung at a level that permits the child can look at
them comfortably. We must apply these principles to all surrounding objects,
starting from the rugs and ending with the vases, dishes and other such things.
The child must be able to use everything that he comes across in the house and
he must be able to do the ordinary tasks of everyday life – sweep, vacuum the
rugs, wash and dress himself (The Child in the Family, p. 71)”. In short, we
should always keep in mind that house is not merely belong to adults, there is
a human being other than us, and their needs, abilities, powers and point of
view are completely different then us. And, since they are endowed with a
special faculty of absorbent mind, we should be much more careful in preparing
the environment, and always adapt it through the needs of the developmental
stage in which the child exists. We should choose and place any item with a
purpose behind it. For example, when the child is newborn, the room should be
designed as low light, soft sound, safe, colors should be calm and parents
should speak to him with a soft voice. As time passes, you can place a colorful
mobile on the top, low level pictures on the wall and he should lay inclined so
that he can watch around. When he starts moving on his own, his bed should not
be so high that he cannot go down, on the contrary, the bed should on the floor
so he can walk down whenever he wants without any help. And also, furniture
should be child-size and low shelves to get the materials easily. And, a sample
of nature should always take place in our houses. Plants of different needs,
such as shadow like, water resistant, with flower, provide lots of experiences
for the child.
As the child
grows up, he gains new powers to be independent. The child always needs this
independence to conquer environment according to his needs and refine his
faculties. “When the child has acquired his independence, it is by exercising
this independence that he will develop (The Absorbent Mind, p. 140)”. The child
who has been laying down on a bed for several months is crawling or walking
around now, he always wants to touch, even taste, anything around, which means
a lot of dirt, untidiness and many broken items. And unfortunately, this is the
only way of developing his powers. This situation absolutely contradicts with
the order and the comfort of the adults. Here the question arises: Should an
adult support such a freedom, or not? Actually, without freedom, the child
cannot benefit from the environment. “The first problem of education is to
furnish the child with an environment which will permit him to develop the
functions that nature has given to him. This is not a question of merely
pleasing a child, of allowing him to do as he likes. It is a question of cooperation
with a command of nature, with one of her laws which decrees that development
should take place by means of experiences upon the environment. It is only
freedom and by experiences upon the environment that man can develop (The
absorbent Mind, p. 142)”. The child
should be free in every aspect, in choosing activity, where to play and with
whom to play. As the child gains experiences more and more on the environment,
he becomes independent, which is one of the goals of Montessori Method. In Montessori
based schools, child’s independence is encouraged in every aspect from the
daily entry to the school to the daily departure from the school. Adults are
not allowed to enter the school other than scheduled time; they have to leave
the children at the gate. The child is on his own since that moment; he finds
his own class, places personal items on his cupboard, prepares materials for
the upcoming activity, meets his own needs, such as drinking water, washing
hands, cleans the rubbish and leaves the school. The independence of the child
is not restricted just these facts; any material and detail has a purpose
behind it and targets developing independence. For instance, in teaching a
motor activity, adult shows a presentation; next invites the child so that he can
repeat it again and again for self-perfection. To achieve this, children needs
time in order to work in his pace. Besides, a Montessori based environment has
different dimensions, practical, sensorial, language, mathematics and culture
areas.
Practical life
area refers to situations that a child normally encounters in his life. The
child is provided with opportunities of caring of himself and the environment,
e.g. dressing, dusting, learning some basic templates such as excusing for
something. Sensorial area, works on the improvement of senses by using senses
in a refined manner which clarifies the mind. It accomplishes this by
materialized abstraction, which means only one feature is focused on a material
and all others are equalized. If a child is working on colors, he works with
color tablets all are of the same size, made of the same material, etc. Another
fundamental area is the language area, consisting of three sub-areas of oral,
written and reading areas. Children gain the knowledge of vocabulary in the
oral phase, meanwhile, they develop hands and fine motor skills in writing
phase and after writing, reading comes. In mathematics area, working subjects
aligned from easy to complex. It starts from counting, continues with decimal
system, tens, operations and fractions. And one of the most important issues
that Maria Montessori focusses on is the culture. Culture is covered as
geography, history, music, botany, religions, customs and traditions.
To sum up, a
prepared environment comprises of a lot purposes in each item. Every single detail
serves for the psychic and physical developmental needs of the child. If we aim
at keep pace with the nature, we should follow the child and provide a living
environment accordingly.
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