Montessori on "Discipline" and "Obedience"

Montessori philosophy interprets “discipline” (Montessori,1988) and “obedience” (Montessori, 1988) in a different way than any other philosophy does. This essay intends to discuss and define those two important factors in detail and explains the difference between them.” Discipline” and “obedience” can only be discussed in combination with freedom in a prepared environment. Freedom not only allows the child to progress in his/her own pace, it also fosters the child’s emerging inner discipline. However within this freedom the teacher needs to introduce and support some basic ground rules to maintain a safe and respectful environment where each child is happy and content. (MCI, Philosophy module, 2003)

Montessori believes that a child is disciplined when he/she has control of him/herself and is able to take responsibility for him/her own actions and others surrounding them. Discipline is an active process which develops slowly within a child. Therefore it is not possible to obtain discipline by command.(Montessori,1988) There are 3 important components to attain discipline. First they require the information about the difference between right and wrong. To attain that, the teacher has to set ground rules which the child is not allowed to break. The second component the child requires to find his/her inner discipline, is a prepared environment. The child needs to be able to explore and experiment within this environment. The environment should be maintained by the teacher. The third is to move freely within this environment to perfect their co-ordination skills. Control of movement is engrossed with the development of discipline. (Montessori, 1964) As soon as a child starts working independently, he/she starts to concentrate on a task. The child gets more and more interested in the task and therefore starts repeating it. The concentration spells become longer. This concentration then leads to a calmer and more controlled child. Through achieving self discipline the

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