Student ID No. : Not available
Module : DMT 101 – Montessori Philosophy & Theory
Date of Submission : 11th December 2011
“A child’s different sensibilities enable him to choose, from his complex environment, what is suitable and necessary for his growth. They make the child sensitive to some things but, leave him indifferent to others. When a particular sensitiveness is aroused in a child, it is like a light that shines on some objects but not others. Making of them – his whole world. ”
Secret of Childhood (pg 42, chapter 7)
Define the term “Sensitive Periods” and explain how teacher’s knowledge and understanding of these periods determine his/her preparation and custodianship of a prepared environment.
A child is gifted with two super natural aids to develop him/her self from birth. That is an absorbent mind and sensitive periods. Child would construct himself with the impressions he receives from his environment. Peaceful and harmonious behaviour of a child can be incarnated at very early years. The teacher’s role in the same and how it can be done was discussed in detail by Dr. Maria Montessori.
“It is not enough to know that this child is John, that his father is a carpenter; the teacher must know and experience in her daily life the secret of childhood.” (The Absorbent Mind,
Page 282)
She said that the child possess within himself a pre-determined pattern of psychic unfolding, which is not visible at birth. She called it the spiritual embryo. For this pattern to reveal itself, two conditions must be fulfilled; the proper environment and the freedom to reveal himself. Dr. Montessori discovered that children have a creative intelligence that exists in his unconscious mental stage. From birth to an age of 3 years, children absorb precise skills and abilities through activities. Given the right conditions, children will develop natural spontaneous goodness and love and natural desire to learn and