Montessorify

Whatever your opinion of modern schooling, at the beginning of the 1900’s, schools were, let’s just say, for the more privileged class. If you were poor, or had any disability, you were probably cast aside and not thought much about. Most of society put few, if any, resources into teaching or even caring for the poor or disabled, and it was thought that these children were simply not going to be able to learn. Then Maria Montessori came onto the education scene, and made everyone think again about what was possible through changing the learning environment for young children. How did she do it? What critical elements did Montessori change in the early childhood educational environment that shifted the trajectory of her students’ lives, not to mention public opinion on what young children were capable of learning? And what principles can we apply to the educational environments we work in?

Well, fundamentally, this is about push vs. pull learning, which I’ll come back to later, but I think a quick bio of Maria Montessori will illustrate this point perfectly.

After graduating from medical school, a feat in and of itself in the male dominated profession at the time, Montessori decided to put her expertise into the psychology of how children learn, how habits are formed, and how discipline is developed. But as much of an expert as she was, the Italian powers that be (powers that were? I'm not sure of the tense on that one). Anyway, the people in charge, at the time, while they respected her as a lecturer, weren’t exactly confident that Dr. Montessori could make any type of a difference in the real world. So, while they did technically offer her an opportunity to try out her methods, what they gave her was a poor, inner-city group of children in Rome that had no previous educational experiences.

The school she created came to be known as the “Casa de Bambini,” or Children’s House, and a house for children it was.

Here’s where we begin to understand the genius of Montessori you probably know as the “Montessori Method.” She didn’t create the teacher’s house, or even schoolhouse, she created the children’s house; an environment that was set up for children. It wasn’t trying to treat children as miniature adults, like most corners of society at that time, it was simply inviting children to show up and be children. But a funny thing happened when the rigid rules were taken away and development was allowed to happen rather than forced to happen. The children learned discipline, order, and routine better than ever before!

They actually started acting MORE like “miniature adults” by giving them the freedom to act like kids! To interact with aspects of their learning environment when and how they wanted. Montessori noticed that when the environment was accessible and open, kids seemed more interested in sweeping, pretend cooking, and gardening than in the supposed kids toys typically provided. When kids were allowed to learn and develop at their own pace, they learned and developed faster and more fully!

But what was the catalyst here? What principle does the Montessori Method showcase and how can we apply it to what we do as a coach, teacher, or manager? To illustrate that, let’s use something most of us have probably interacted with once or twice or two million times in the past year, Netflix.

It used to be that if you wanted to watch a TV show, you needed to show up in front of your TV on a certain day at a certain time. You know, the stone ages! Then along came Netflix, and gave everyone the freedom to watch what they wanted, when they wanted. It was laughed at at first, but now none of us can imagine ever going back. Can you imagine if this blog post was only available for an hour and you needed to read it at that exact time instead of when you were ready? I don’t think my subscription rate would be very high.

So basically, Netflix set up a movie and TV environment mimicking Maria Montessori’s schoolhouse. Each provided the content and ecosystem, then got out of the way and let the user take the lead. In both cases, instead of PUSHING one specific thing onto the user, Montessori and Netflix allowed users to PULL the content they wanted.

Did they provide guidance? Of course!

Did they make some rules? Definitely!

But, ultimately, instead of pushing, they let people pull, and pull they did.

In Montessori’s case, children became more focused, organized, and disciplined when they were given freedom to learn in an appropriate environment. With Netflix, they reached a wider audience by not dictating when viewers watched, and putting the power in the hands of the people.

Don't get me wrong, I know there are plenty of times where pushing specific knowledge toward someone is not only helpful, but necessary. If one of the engines of the plane I’m piloting falls off, I don’t want my passengers exploring their way to safety. I want to tell them exactly what needs to happen. If I let my toddler have complete free reign of his meals and bedtime, we’d be having pure sugar for dinner and going to bed at 10:30. Rules and direction, SOME pushing, is always going to be needed.

My point within these stories is that we tend to focus on facts and lessons WE DECIDE are important, and then wonder why our students don’t retain the information. But, as the Montessori Method and Netflix have shown us, when we let people decide what’s important to them, they are much more excited to show up to the environment we’ve set up for them. And when people show up, good things tend to happen.

So ask yourself, are you pushing content onto people, or letting them pull the content when they’re ready? Because if you can be the Montessori or Netflix of what you do, the impact on your people is going to be bigger than you ever thought possible.

Until next time, why not go and read another post from Thousand Word Thursdays?

When you’re ready, of course. ;)