There have been a fair number of discussion threads on Montessori social media sites lately about the late arrival of normalization this year. Many are wondering if normalization (as we have known it in pre-pandemic Montessori) will ever return. I believe that it can and will if we are clear about what we are looking for and are intentional in developing it.
Recognizing Normalization
We sometimes get funny ideas about what normalization is. We may think that normalization is when children are attentive during lessons and turn in assigned work on time. Or we think normalization has arrived when we can look around the room and see that all children are simultaneously producing “challenging work”. Sometimes, we equate normalization with quiet or silent classrooms.
If this is our view of normalization, if this is what we are seeking, then the tail is wagging the dog. It is time to reconsider what normalization is and how it happens.
Normalization is…
Normalization is a term that Dr. Montessori borrowed from the field Anthropology, where it means to become a contributing member of society. She chose this term intentionally, to convey that normalization belongs to all children, not just children of privilege. As a constructivist, she said – and this is important – that we do not normalize children; they normalize themselves when given the right environment and appropriate levels of freedom and responsibility. As such, we need to think of the physical, social/emotional, procedural, and academic environments that we create as aids to normalization.
Dr. Montessori didn’t give us a precise sequence of isolated difficulties designed to normalize children. But she did define characteristics of normalization:
- Love of work
- Concentration
- Self-discipline
- Sociability (having feelings of empathy for the group)
She said that normalization is fostered when a child freely chooses a work, completes it independently, and returns it to the shelf. She called this cycle a Normalizing Event. One hundred years later, we now know that Normalizing Events result in the release of endorphins – pleasure chemicals that encourage the child to seek out that experience again and again.
Fostering Love of Work
Modern practitioners (educators and psychologists) use the phrase intrinsic motivation in much the same way that Dr. Montessori used love of work. When we are intrinsically motivated – when we “love work” – we:
- do the work for its own sake – the work is the reward
- find work fulfilling and meaningful
- seek out opportunities to do it again or to do more of the same
- find extrinsic motivators to be neutral or negative reinforcers
In the brilliantly written Love of Learning by Michael and D’Neil Duffy (available through Amazon), the authors condense a great deal of research on fostering intrinsic motivation into a pithy and memorable list of positive influencers. The four factors that they identify as most critical to intrinsic motivation are
- Choice
- Content (“things worth knowing”)
- Collaboration
- Challenge (neither too much nor too little)
Each of these factors could be the subject of its own blog! For today, suffice it to say that if children in our classrooms do not demonstrate love of work, looking at these four aspects of our classroom environment may bear significant fruit!
Fostering Concentration
For most of us, the topic of fostering concentration drives us to one of two thought streams: creating a peaceful/quiet environment OR worrying about our wanderers. Instead of either of these, let’s think about what naturally draws the child into concentration.
There are (at least) two parts of the brain that dramatically impact children’s ability to focus on incoming information. Together, they powerfully screen out the sensorial “noise” and pass the chosen information on to working memory.
- The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is located in the reptilian region of the brain. It is the first place that most incoming signals enter the brain. Its job is to look for novelty and relevance.
- The Hippocampus is in the limbic brain (emotional brain). This is where our background information is stored. When a new idea enters the brain, it triggers wonder and wander – the process of seeking out how this new information relates to existing knowledge. This is the beginning of the learning process.
When a child’s brain sees the novelty of the new content and/or its relevance, the RAS identifies the new information as something worth knowing. The Hippocampus then begins to wonder about the new content and to “wander about” in the stored knowledge to find similar concepts in their memory.
When we present new learning opportunities with contagious excitement and joy, putting it in context of the child’s personal interests and/or in the context of prior learning, the RAS and Hippocampus help pull the child into concentration. This is especially important for our wanderers! When the RAS and Hippocampus are our allies, whatever we do to create a more peaceful work environment will have greater effect on the child’s concentration.
Fostering Self-Discipline
Fostering self-discipline requires creating an appropriate and evolving balance between structure and freedom. No one can learn self-discipline from having so much externally imposed discipline that they can’t fail to comply. We can’t learn how to choose by having no choice. And yet Montessori herself said, “To let the child do as he likes when he has not yet developed any powers of control is to betray the idea of freedom.”
How do we find and maintain that balance? As is the case with most of what we do in our classrooms, the answer is found in observing as both scientist and saint. We interpret our objective observations while presuming children’s positive intent.
What new freedoms can we offer that would be a small step from where we are now? If children were asked to work at assigned spots at the beginning of the year, for example, we can experiment with letting them choose their work location (COVID protocols permitting, of course). We set them up for success at the beginning of a work cycle by discussing how to choose a workspace to promote success. Then, we note our objective observations during the work cycle. And we end the work cycle sharing our own observations and asking children what they noticed that worked well and/or was more challenging.
If a child is about to repeat a choice that didn’t work well on a previous day, we help them process current opportunities in light of past experiences. “How did that work for you last time? What do you hope will make this time work out differently?” If needed, we allow them to err and then process the outcome of their choice. In that way, children build self-discipline muscle rather than just the ability to comply.
Fostering Sociability
Sociability is the ability to have feelings of empathy towards the group. This is always an important element of a Montessori community. It is especially important if our classroom community is comprised of children who come from a collectivist (less individualistic) culture.
- One commonly underutilized vehicle for building empathy is through characters in narratives (fiction or biographical). “How did circumstances in the story make a character feel? How would you feel under those same circumstances? Have you ever felt that same way in your life?”
- Another is taking the time to relate every problem-solving discussion back to the good of the community. Even something as mundane as pencils left on the floor can be discussed in terms of how it might negatively impact others, adding words about the positive effect of having a tidy and well equipped classroom.
My last blog, https://lockhart-learning.com/2021/09/who-are-you-listening-to/ , offers details on this and other ideas about building empathy.
Reflection for adults:
Prior to reading this article, how would I have described normalization?
Which of the four characteristics of normalization (love of work, concentration, self-discipline, and sociability) do my children most embody? Which presents some “low hanging fruit” in our path to normalization?
How can I expand options so that we begin to see work cycles as choice cycles? Can I foster children’s choice in
- lessons that they receive
- options for how to respond to lessons
- when and where they complete work
- interests that they would like to pursue independently
How can I ally myself with children’s subconscious brains to inspire curiosity and awe and to see greater relevance in what they are doing? Are they sufficiently challenged by the work? Is there enough novelty? Do they find it relevant?
Reflection for children:
Make a list of things that you have done (recently and/or a long time ago) that made you feel proud. Choose one thing from that list that you want to do again this week, and make a plan for how to make that happen.
Photo by Vanessa Loring from Pexels
“Normalization is a good day. A good day followed by a not-so-good day. When you have more good days than not-so-good days, you have normalization.”
– Nancy Rambush