“The question of adaptation to the environment is a fundamental one. It is important that everyone be as well adapted to the environment as possible. The behaviour of people who are not adapted to the environment will be flawed. If they are not adapted to society they will disturb the environment.” Maria Montessori, The 1946 London Lectures.
Human beings must orient to adapt to their environment. Orientation is a universal human tendency. I memorized it on a list during my teacher training, and I know it to be true as a classroom teacher. Children need time and space to orient. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But this past week, I learned it personally on a family trip to New York City. The city feels so vast, and I was so disoriented every time I reached the street from the subway. My senses sometimes felt bombarded with new, novel experiences, and I realized early on in the trip that I needed to give myself the extra time to orient. I oriented quickly to the subway stop by our rental, but I constantly re-oriented throughout the trip. If I tried to start walking, I ended up frustrated. I needed a moment to figure out which direction to walk in. By the middle of the trip, I passed the navigation reins to my fifteen year old.
At the AMI refresher last month, the trainer challenged my thinking about orientation. She talked about preparing an adaptive environment because the children in our environment are constantly growing and need constant opportunities to orient. I have always focused on orientation at the beginning of the year, but as the year goes on, I realize I leave less time and space for orientation because, well, shouldn’t they know better by now?
So, there I was, on the verge of tears, on a street in Manhattan, with my only help coming from Google Maps, which gave me directions as if I instinctively know which way was west. Is this how the children sometimes feel in my classroom? Is this how they feel when they return from breaks, and I expect to pick up where we left off? Is this how they feel when they hit a growth spurt and suddenly find themselves unable to move as gracefully as they could the day before?
So here is a reminder: cultivate an environment that supports orientation beyond the beginning of the year. Remember that children are constantly growing. And if you’re like me, don’t be so quick to make the assumption that they “know better.”