A little pattern with a well-known maxim that sums up the essence of the Montessori method.
“We can sum this up in two sentences; the first actually said by a child to his teacher: ‘Help me to do it by myself’. The other is one we gave: ‘Every useless help is an obstacle to development.”
Maria Montessori - Citizen of the World
I do love my day job too, the children are amazing, and I am learning as much from them, as I hope they learn from me. Studying the pedagogy behind the Montessori method has been both interesting and eye opening, I was familiar with it from before, but had never studied it in its entirety. I do agree that some aspects of it are maybe a little ‘antiquated’ and we are still in the process of exploring how to merge the fundamental principles into our modern, and digital world. But the core of the method will never go out of date, and that is to respect the child, his natural tendencies, and to gently guide him to independence by letting him figure it out, and learn through his own initiative and discovery. This is something I believe is the key to a happy and successful future, to know how to learn, how to research, how to do things on your own.
‘Help me to help myself!’ is the concept of showing how to do an activity or a skill, then letting the child try it out for himself, and not over-helping or rescuing him prematurely.
The pattern is available as an instant download here: Help me to help...
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