Early Childhood Digest: Normalization
Hi there. It feels like it's been a long time. How on earth is it already April? Wasn’t it February yesterday? In January, I began working with a brand new group of teachers in training. I quickly fell in love with this new cohort and their excitement about Montessori education. I always leave weekly classes excited and inspired. My work in the classroom informs my job as a teacher trainer, and my work as a teacher trainer pushes me in my classroom.
This new cohort is learning about Maria Montessori's developmental theories–things like planes of development and sensitive periods. We have been having a lot of great discussions about what theory looks like in practice. These discussions about Montessori theory always push me toward greater fidelity in my classroom practices. One topic of conversation has been the Montessori concept of normalization. How do you understand normalization? Often, I hear the question: "How long does it take a classroom to normalize?" Or comments like: "We are six weeks into the school year, and my classroom still isn't normalized.' Questions and comments like this aren't just from teachers-in-training. Take a peek at any Montessori educator Facebook page, and you'll see discussions about normalization, what it means theoretically, and what it looks like in practice.
Normalization is a Montessori term that can be hard to describe. Even Montessori practitioners can have a hard time articulating what it means. Often, teachers use it to describe the classroom tone after the children have settled in. Here is how the Bloomsbury Handbook of Montessori Education describes normalization: "This normalization is neither the conformity of the child to some fixed standard or normalcy nor an enforced standardization of children's behavior. Rather, Montessori sees normalization as the restoration of a person's authentic selfhood, free of the repressions and psychological disruptions that come from being inhibited in the exercise of one's life." (pg. 42). Descriptions of normalization continue: "This state describes the experiences of the child whose development needs are adequately met." (pg. 76).