學習作品

｜TMIS – Atlanta’s Intern Journal at TMIS EP8｜

【Capability To Finish Things Independently】

The learning goal of the 12-to-18-year-olds in Montessori school is to become an adult who can work independently in society. They contribute to society by working and learn the mutual reliance between the society and themselves in the process. They will gain a sense of self-recognition and self-value and become an independent adult. In fact, every child in Montessori schools is capable of doing work on their own regardless of their age. Thus, it is not that hard to finish works that benefit society without assistance in high school.

For instance, the children participated in planning and discussing the small graduation trip for the third graders. All of the third graders need to cooperate to make the trip a reality.

As for the teaching aids in the classroom, the first graders would organize them according to the original arrangement out of their own intention. There are hammers, the “dangerous tool”, in the classroom, which can be taken freely to help to learn the angles.

When I describe the environment in the Montessori classroom to others or when teachers attending the Montessori training realize it for the first time, they often worry about the dangerous things in the classroom and want to know if the teaching aids would fall.

I witnessed the falling of the teaching aids more than once, including the broken vessel when I first entered the classroom. Nevertheless, aside from the dangerous pieces of broken glass, the teachers often just tell the children to “pick it up” when the teaching aids fall. And it is true. Just pick it up, and everything is fine.

Montessori education guides the children to maintain the environment they live in and to realize their close relationship with it. Perhaps some people would think that there is no need for the high school students to know the real society besides studying and that Montessori or other experimental education methods are unnecessary.

However, if the Montessori education for the 12-to-18-year-olds is real, then it means that the children can actually independently accomplish much more than we imagined. I had met senior high school students who could not do the chores, had not been to the eastern side of Taiwan, and could not find the road by themselves since their mothers wanted them to focus solely on studying and deprived them of their rights to explore the world. It was the adults who took away their rights to foster these capabilities. It is us who make them unable, afraid, and lazy. What a shame! I believe that if teenagers can realize that they are turning into mature figures and trust themselves to make contribution to society, this generation would be totally different.

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