Lately, I have been reflecting on the idea of obedience and I thought it might be helpful for me to review, and for those unfamiliar to learn, about Montessori's 3 levels of obedience. My thoughts about this all started a week ago when I passed a police car sitting on the side of the road waiting to pull over a speeding car. As I passed the police car, I started to think about my level of obedience in following the speed limit. Do I follow the speed limit out of fear of paying a fine, or because it is the law, or because it is the safe and right thing to do? If there were no tickets for speeding would I still obey the law- some of the time, most of the time or always? What motivates obedience in adults as well as children? For some it seems takes a external force, like a speeding ticket, while for others a higher level of obedience is achieved possessing an internal desire to do right. This past year, I have also found myself thinking about obedience and expectations with my two year old (soon to be 3) daughter. I find it to be a tough age in this respect- they appear so capable and yet they have not reached full capability of obedience. Knowing and reviewing the 3 levels of obedience has helped me become a little more patient and realistic in my expectations of obedience and my children. So here they are:
Montessori's 3 levels of Obedience:
Level One (First Stage of Development- I like the term "stage of development" because it is important to remember obedience is a developmental process which is learned through practice with time and built upon the previous stages)
"So what we call the first level of obedience is that in which the child can obey, but not always. It is a period in which obedience and disobedience seem to be combined."( The Absorbent Mind p. 237)
In the first level of obedience, generally a child under three, the child truly is unable to obey unless the requests happens to correspond with what they want to do. At this level, obedience is coming from an outside force not from within the child. At this stage the child will sometimes obey and sometimes will not.
Montessori writes: "Even after 3 , the little child, must have developed certain qualities before he is able to obey. He cannot, all of a sudden, act in conformity with another person's will, nor can he grasp, from one day to the next, the reason for doing what we require of him." (The Absorbent Mind 258)
"How often a beginner in music plays a piece beautifully the first time, but if asked to repeat it the next day he fails miserably. It is not that the will is absent, but that the skill and sureness of the accomplished artist have not yet been formed." (The Absorbent Mind, 260)
Level Two (Second Stage of Development)
"The second level is when the child can always obey, or rather, when there are no longer any obstacles deriving from his lack of control. His powers are now consolidated and can be directed not only by his own will, but by the will of another." (The Absorbent Mind, 260)
At the second level, a child is blindly obeying without thought or question still the result of an outside source not from within. The child can understand another persons wishes and express it in his own behavior. Many times an adult will confuse this for the highest level of obedience but since the child has not yet discovered joy in obedience it is not.
Level Three (Third Stage of Development)
"He responds promptly and with enthusiasm and as he perfects himself in the exercise, he finds happiness in being able to obey. (The Discovery of the Child, 317)
The highest level of obedience. At this level the child has internalized obedience. Montessori calls it "Joyful Obedience" because when the child is asked and when the child can see value in the request the child carries out the request. This highest level of obedience allows the child to make appropriate behavioral choices even when an adult is not present. At this point the child has developed a degree of self respect which enables him to respect the rights of others and their needs, and his own self.
Saturday, August 28
Monday, August 23
Polishing Pennies
We had some fun polishing pennies on our Friday cleaning day. My daughters love to polish mirrors, wood, and silver and now we can add pennies to the list. They often take out their coins to look at them and play with them. We had no trouble finding pennies in need of polishing and the before and after difference is impressive.
I put a little vinegar into a small bowl and some salt and mixed it together. We used an old toothbrush to scrub the mixture onto the pennies (both sides).
Next, the penny was placed on a cloth and rubbed to dry.
They looked almost new, which makes me cringe to think how dirty money actually is. My daughters admired their work and put them back in their piggy banks for another day.
Wednesday, August 18
America's Creativity Crisis
In July (2010) Newsweek printed an article entitled The Creativity Crisis. According to the article, research has found, for the first time, a decline in creativity in our country's youth. Although, I don't find this information too surprising, it is disappointing and worrisome as a parent and educator. Here is a section of the article but click on the link above for it's entirety. "Enriched environments are making kids smarter. With creativity, a reverse trend has just been identified and is being reported for the first time here: American creativity scores are falling. Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William & Mary discovered this in May, after analyzing almost 300,000 Torrance (test) scores of children and adults. Kim found creativity scores had been steadily rising, just like IQ scores, until 1990. Since then, creativity scores have consistently inched downward. “It’s very clear, and the decrease is very significant,” Kim says. It is the scores of younger children in America—from kindergarten through sixth grade—for whom the decline is “most serious.”
The article points out that although it is too early to tell the reason for the decline, most likely it is due to the increase of tv and video use by children and the lack of creativity in our public school curriculum which is more focused on things like standardized testing. As parents or educators of very young children we know children naturally abound in creativity. The question is how do we continue to encourage it, protect it, and allow them to use it? Another interesting quote from the article reads: "Having studied the childhoods of highly creative people for decades, Claremont Graduate University’s Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and University of Northern Iowa’s Gary G. Gute found highly creative adults tended to grow up in families embodying opposites. Parents encouraged uniqueness, yet provided stability. They were highly responsive to kids’ needs, yet challenged kids to develop skills. This resulted in a sort of adaptability: in times of anxiousness, clear rules could reduce chaos—yet when kids were bored, they could seek change, too. In the space between anxiety and boredom was where creativity flourished."
Wanting to know what I can do, I searched around a bit. This is a list of ways I can and others, as parents and educators, help save childhood creativity.
1. (Obviously) Limit tv and video games (I believe 1 and 1/2 hrs a day is the recommended max)
2. Provide toys that are more open ended, toys that encourage imagination.
3. Provide props for role playing (house, doctor's office...)
4. Tell stories. Look through photo albums and relate stories about the pictures.
5. Emphasize process rather than product
6. Encourage exploration
7. Allow for long periods of uninterrupted play inside and out
8. Adapt to your child's ideas
9. Give independence. Don't hover over your child. Creativity is stifled when someone feels they are being watched or critiqued.
10. Accept unusual ideas and suspend judgment.
11. Avoid evaluating statements about their work/play
12. Provide art exploration
13. Use music and make music
14. Cook with your children
(It's not a complete list so feel free to share how you like to encourage creativity in your children.)
Lastly, a little research of my own. The well known testing method used to test creativity is a test designed and used by Paul Torrance known as the Torrance Test (you can read more about it in the article). Part of the testing includes a drawing portion in which the participant turns an incomplete line drawing into a picture. After review of the picture, points are given for original ideas and elaboration, with higher points for conveying emotion, a sense of motion or if it tells a story. Points are taken away for more common images like sharks or hats which tend to be the most popular.
Here are some examples of the test. I drew the one on the top left for my daughter (who is a bit young for this since it is suggested for at least age five and older), but I was just too curious not to. I gave her the paper and asked her to turn it into a picture.
And here is what she drew:
"It is a carrot," she said. I have no idea what I would have made but I never would have thought of a carrot. In my research, I did come across the idea that by providing a starting point like the few lines drawn in this test, creativity is used, exercised and encouraged. It makes sense and this is something I would like to try to do more of with our art exploration.
"Enriched environments are making kids smarter. With creativity, a reverse trend has just been identified and is being reported for the first time here: American creativity scores are falling. Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William & Mary discovered this in May, after analyzing almost 300,000 Torrance (test) scores of children and adults. Kim found creativity scores had been steadily rising, just like IQ scores, until 1990. Since then, creativity scores have consistently inched downward. “It’s very clear, and the decrease is very significant,” Kim says. It is the scores of younger children in America—from kindergarten through sixth grade—for whom the decline is “most serious.”
The article points out that although it is too early to tell the reason for the decline, most likely it is due to the increase of tv and video use by children and the lack of creativity in our public school curriculum which is more focused on things like standardized testing. As parents or educators of very young children we know children naturally abound in creativity. The question is how do we continue to encourage it, protect it, and allow them to use it? Another interesting quote from the article reads: "Having studied the childhoods of highly creative people for decades, Claremont Graduate University’s Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and University of Northern Iowa’s Gary G. Gute found highly creative adults tended to grow up in families embodying opposites. Parents encouraged uniqueness, yet provided stability. They were highly responsive to kids’ needs, yet challenged kids to develop skills. This resulted in a sort of adaptability: in times of anxiousness, clear rules could reduce chaos—yet when kids were bored, they could seek change, too. In the space between anxiety and boredom was where creativity flourished."Wanting to know what I can do, I searched around a bit. This is a list of ways I can and others, as parents and educators, help save childhood creativity.
1. (Obviously) Limit tv and video games (I believe 1 and 1/2 hrs a day is the recommended max)
2. Provide toys that are more open ended, toys that encourage imagination.
3. Provide props for role playing (house, doctor's office...)
4. Tell stories. Look through photo albums and relate stories about the pictures.
5. Emphasize process rather than product
6. Encourage exploration
7. Allow for long periods of uninterrupted play inside and out
8. Adapt to your child's ideas
9. Give independence. Don't hover over your child. Creativity is stifled when someone feels they are being watched or critiqued.
10. Accept unusual ideas and suspend judgment.
11. Avoid evaluating statements about their work/play
12. Provide art exploration
13. Use music and make music
14. Cook with your children
(It's not a complete list so feel free to share how you like to encourage creativity in your children.)
Lastly, a little research of my own. The well known testing method used to test creativity is a test designed and used by Paul Torrance known as the Torrance Test (you can read more about it in the article). Part of the testing includes a drawing portion in which the participant turns an incomplete line drawing into a picture. After review of the picture, points are given for original ideas and elaboration, with higher points for conveying emotion, a sense of motion or if it tells a story. Points are taken away for more common images like sharks or hats which tend to be the most popular.
Here are some examples of the test. I drew the one on the top left for my daughter (who is a bit young for this since it is suggested for at least age five and older), but I was just too curious not to. I gave her the paper and asked her to turn it into a picture.
And here is what she drew:
"It is a carrot," she said. I have no idea what I would have made but I never would have thought of a carrot. In my research, I did come across the idea that by providing a starting point like the few lines drawn in this test, creativity is used, exercised and encouraged. It makes sense and this is something I would like to try to do more of with our art exploration.
Monday, August 16
More Fun With Magnets
Both of my daughters (almost 5 yrs and almost 3 yrs) really enjoyed this magnetic activity and it was so simple to put together. Here is what you need: towel, jar or bottle filled with water, magnet, paper clips and a small bowl.
Demonstrate by holding the magnet flat against the glass (and pointing out that it needs to be held flat), visually find a paper clip at the bottom that you will try to "catch". Starting at the bottom, slide the magnet up the glass. The paper clip slides up too.
Once it reaches the top, very carefully, take it out using fingers and place it in the bowl. (My youngest gets so happy and excited about this part!)
Continue until all the paper clips are out.
And then start again!
Monday, August 9
Craft: Turning Pinecones into Berries
Usually when I am setting up our nature table for a new month, I am thinking about how the upcoming month is reflected in nature. I am remembering what gifts nature had given to us the years before and wonder what gifts might be new to us this year. What we will see, hear, smell, touch, and taste throughout the month? As I changed the nature table from July to August I thought about how enjoyable it is to pick berries on our walks this whole month long. There seem to be wild raspberries and blackberries everywhere we go and my daughters stand for long periods of time going through the bushes and finding them. So, to add to our August nature table, we made our own berries that will last the month long.
We picked through our pine cone basket (used for play) and found some small and medium sized pine cones. After we cut lengths of yarn, I started by wrapping the yarn a few times around each pine cone.
I helped each of them wrap the pine cones with the yarn, sometimes holding the pine cone while they wrapped. At the end, I tucked the yarn under and hot glued felt leaves onto the top.
And now we have berries for our nature table!
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