Total Freedom Leads to Chaos

Montessori

I have been having a lot of discussions on education as I am meeting people and sharing my ideas.  When I mention 'Montessori', most people think its a new idea of letting the child be free in the classroom, let him do whatever he wants and the teachers are very open minded.  This allows me to speak of the very beginning of Early Childhood Education of which Dr. Montessori was one of the founding and defining authors.  I was very happy to tell the story of how Dr. Montessori came up with the new scientific method of educating the young child in which the child's natural desire for learning is nurtured.  And this method is widely used in various ways in all educational institutes through out the world.

Freedom Vs Structure

Dr. Montessori spoke of an environment which is student driven and not merely teacher driven.  Students are the engine of the classroom not the teacher.  I have always tried to understand the fine balance between freedom and structure.  I have been in classrooms that were totally teacher driven and classrooms that were student driven.  It is difficult to find a classroom that is perfect but however a balance between the both can be brought through maintaining a structured environment.  When the child experiences total freedom his life becomes chaotic which is the result of lack of concentration, coordination, order and independence.  This affects the child's ability to form judgements, make decisions and think critically in the long run.  Structure means freedom within limits.  The young child needs structure, structure in daily routine, structure in the classroom, structure in the playground.  This structure is created in a Montessori classroom through a prepared environment which reduces the chance of experiencing chaos.  Experiencing chaos can be good sometimes in order to appreciate structure and order, but not all the time.  The child between the age of 0-3 experiences an immense amount of information entering into his brain but does not have the ability to sort it out or categorize it, this is when the child is a bit chaotic but once the child is three years old, he begins to practice logic and reasoning and is able to categorize information.  Often external order helps the child to have an image of the internal order and structure and thus it is essential that education to be imparted to nurture inner order.