Monday, April 27, 2020

Secret of Childhood free essay sample

The spiritual embryo is a phase in the development of a child that coincides with non-physical development. This can be the development of the child’s intellect, personality, and soul. Dr. Montessori calls it an â€Å"embryo† because it can be compared to the physical development of the embryo within the womb prior to birth. I think that Dr. Montessori believed that environment was more important to the growth and development of a child. An excerpt from page 35: â€Å"There is an interchange between the individual, the spiritual embryo, and its environment. It is through the environment that the individual is molded and brought to perfection. † 2. The ‘sensitive period’ is a term that Dr. Montessori uses to describe certain phases (or periods) within a child’s development when there are heightened sensitivity or focus toward particular aspects of his/her environment or skills that can be observed. The periods include sensitivity to order, language, movement, numbers, manners, etc. We will write a custom essay sample on Secret of Childhood or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I a great example of a sensitive period at work would be during the first part of the school year when we have to focus on normalizing the classroom. The focus during that time would be on order. . The special circumstance was that Dr. Montessori was able to work with non-disabled children in the Casa dei Bambini. Since the children were no longer hindered by physical or mental disabilities, Dr. Montessori was able to experiment with allowing the children to develop freely. The necessary characteristics of the Montessori approach would simply be able children placed in an environment that is properly equipped (with materials) to meet the development needs of those children. 4. Dr. Montessori viewed ‘work’ as the critical path for a child to return to a ‘normal’ state. She believed that the desire to work is an inherent and vital instinct for the child and that they cannot begin to structure their personality without it. 5. Children and adults come into conflict because the child and adult are inherently at different points within the overall development of the individual. Dr. Montessori used the analogy of river. The child is like the calm lake that feeds the river. The adult is the river at point thousands of miles downstream. The two respond to everything in life differently because they have inherently different perspectives, needs, and goals. The deep lake see a lack of rain for a month as a non-issue. A shallow point in the river, thousands of miles downstream, sees a lack of rain for a month as a matter of life or death. 6. I think ‘the secret’ of childhood that Montessori describes is simply that adults need to stop analyzing and worrying about every aspect of a child’s development and forcing the child to develop in a manner that satisfies the sub-conscious demands of the adult. Instead, all adults need to do is to be there to provide guidance and the proper environment to let the child learn, work, and play at their own choosing. Only in doing so, can we truly begin to unlock the potential of the child.