TOPIC
"Most children are fulfilled and happy because they are allowed to grow in harmony with natures commands". Explain how practical Life Exercises in the home and Montessori school can provide the ideal setting to complement both the psychic and social embryonic development. Discuss this statement.
Children educated through the Montessori Method are fulfilled and happy. The main reason is, the child gets pleasure through work and the Practical Life Exercises, it provides a child with clear meaningful tasks. The practical life activities are a fundamentally important part of the Montessori environment. The activities help the child master the skills that he needs in order to become increasingly independent. He learns activities of daily living. Montessori saw that very young children were frequently frustrated in their attempts to do things for themselves and that what they needed was to have specific exercises, as closely linked to real life as possible, that allowed them to master the tasks that they saw going on around them in everyday life. " ..in point of fact, no other occupations which could be undertaken by the children at this stage could be more important for their whole development - physical, mental, and moral - than these 'exercises of practical life' as they are called". (Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work, Chapter 13, Pg. 213). The child sees washing, cleaning, dressing and other activities like these going on all around him. So, it makes him feel important when he thinks that he is doing the job of an adult.
"Man seems to have two embryonic periods. One is prenatal, like that of the animals; the other is postnatal and only man has this". (The Absorbent Mind, Chapter 7, Pg.62). The child during the postnatal period is referred to as a Spiritual embryo. He unlike animals is born with predetermined instincts of psychic unfolding that dictate his development. This means that from the time he...