Early Childhood Digest: AMI refresher recap part 1
It's going to take two parts to share everything!
“One of the greatest missions of Montessori education is to light up human beings; to ignite and amplify their radiance. We need to keep this in mind—as teachers, we are participating in the evocation of the spiritual radiance of children.” Brian Swimme
Last week, I was lucky to attend the AMI primary refresher course in Dallas. It was a fantastic weekend, and I learned so much. The theme of the primary refresher was nonviolence in the Casa, which was given by AMI primary trainer Uma Ramani. This two-day refresher reminded me of the framework of Nonviolent Communication. "Nonviolent Communication is based on the principle of Ahimsa — the natural state of compassion when no violence is present in the heart." ~ Marshall Rosenberg, founder of NVC. The refresher revolved around Montessori practices and nonviolence.
The first day of the workshop focused on creating the conditions of freedom in a 3-6 environment. This included an understanding that conditions of freedom change as the child grows. Children in a primary classroom can span from 2 1/2 to 7, meaning Montessori guides must observe the child's continual physical and psychological changes and adapt to those changes. Some of the physical changes we observe are developing capability and a change in the rhythm and pace of activity as children grown and become more efficient (if you’re a Montessori teacher, think about the pace of a three-year-old slowly and effortfully packing up their lunchbox versus a six-year-old shoving everything inside so they can get to the next thing they want to do). Some psychological changes include receding sensitive periods and a growing capacity to reason, predict, and plan (again, think of a three-year-old working through a peer conflict versus a five-or-six-year old working through a peer conflict). I often think of children orienting to the environment at the beginning of the year. However, I was reminded that with these constant changes, children continuously orient themselves to our environments. Just think how you would need to orient to moving through your own home if your arms and legs were constantly growing. The children in our classroom are continuously orienting their developing bodies and minds to our environment. We must prepare an adaptive environment to support the ever-changing children in our care.