Montessori saw movement as a harmonising factor in the child’s development. Explain how the underpinning ethos of the prepared environment facilitates balance between the mental and physical energies of the child.
Montessori saw movement as a harmonising factor in the child’s development. Explain how the underpinning ethos of the prepared environment facilitates balance between the mental and physical energies of the child.
For a child to be in balance s/he has to develop her/his physical and mental energies. In this essay I will look at how movement effects the development of the child and how the prepared environment can support the child in harmonising intelligence and movement.
In the development of humans there is a role for the brain, the senses and the muscles. The senses feed the brain with information about the environment. The brain controls the muscles and tells the muscles what to do, while muscles execute movements. Through movement we express ourselves and establish a relationship with the environment. Montessori called this the ‘system of relationship’. (Montessori, 2007a) Without movement no expression - like writing or body language - is possible.
Our mental life and development depend on our senses, e.g. language can develop because of our hearing and we can observe and understand because we can see. However the brain and the senses have to co-ordinate otherwise no development can take place. Interestingly, the infant is more or less immobile until the co-ordination of the brain and the senses starts. When the brain and the senses start to work together the child becomes mobile and starts to learn from her/his environment. Movement becomes a sign of the development of the mind.
There is no co-ordination of the brain, the senses and the muscles at birth. Muscles are present, but not developed when the child is born therefore s/he needs physical exercises to develop her/his muscles. There are lots of possibilities for development of the...