Turning Corners

I have always looked forward to the first transition of the school year.  The time when the class segues from the work of establishing routines to the comparatively smooth process of practicing them. It feels like turning a corner, setting the stage for children’s normalization.

Ah… normalization. The term often spoken about in hushed tones, as if talking about a mythical creature.  Or sometimes in exasperation, as in, “I can’t do THAT. My class isn’t normalized.”  What are we really aspiring to?  

Sometimes we talk about normalization as if it is the time when classroom management issues fade.  The time when children are following routines and meeting expectations on a regular basis.  While those might be manifest in a classroom of normalized children, setting that an end-goal is a case of the tail wagging the dog.  Normalization is more about the child than the classroom.  Let’s remember what the experts have told us.

Wise Women on Normalization

Dr. Montessori identified four characteristics of the normalized child:

• Love of work
• Concentration
• Spontaneous self-discipline
• Sociability (social sentiments of help and sympathy for others)

In The Absorbent Mind, Dr. Montessori described the effect of normalization this way: “(Normalized children’s) work brought about concentration rather than fatigue, adding to the child’s mental capacities and leading to self-mastery.”

Addressing new teachers, AMS founder Nancy Rambush described the first days of the school year as being characterized by “maximum social dishevelment.”  She spoke of normalization as being “a good day – a good day followed by a not-so-good day.  When more of the days are good than are not-so-good, the class is normalized.”

I appreciate both perspectives. Maria Montessori’s observation-based description of the normalized child eloquently speaks of the destination, while Nancy Rambush’s pragmatic description speaks of the often-circuitous path. They complement one another beautifully!

Whence Cometh Normalization?

Normalization arises from within the child.  It is not something we create for the child.   Deeply acknowledging this immutable truth is tremendously important.  It keeps our focus on creating optimal conditions to nurture the development of normalization, rather than on designing the right set of rules or the perfect work plan to legislate it into being.  And so, we turn our focus to creating an environment that brings out the characteristics associated with normalization in each child.

The first two blogs of the year, Piecing Together Community and Sowing Seeds, talked about a few simple steps that we can take in the earliest days of the year to foster sociability,  These steps help create the sense of authentically belonging to a special community of people.  

The other three characteristics of normalization are inextricably bound together.  Love of work leads to concentration, which, with increased ability and purpose, results in self-discipline and perseverance. Of those three, the one we can most intentionally foster is Love of Work. 

Love of Work

Let’s be clear.  Dr. Montessori is not suggesting that every child will be naturally drawn to every work.  She is saying that learning is a natural process; children want to learn.  The cognitive neuroscience community agrees, telling us that the human brain is wired to seek growth opportunities and novelty.

How can we promote children’s love of work?  We might find ideas in a variety of strategies:

• minimizing or eliminating rote work
• encouraging collaboration
• promoting relevance Practical Life work in the classroom.
• renewing a focus on materials
• maximizing children’s choices
• making space in the day for personal interest work
• providing opportunities for children can celebrate one another’s accomplishments.

Increasing children’s love of work might also be found in increasing our own awe, contentment and joy!

Concentration

How can the love of work to lead to concentration? We tend to think that concentration will increase if we make children work more quietly or make more rules about what children can and cannot spend their time on. In reality, these things do little to improve children’s concentration. True concentration is fostered when children:

• understand the power and relevance of what they are learning
• have meaningful follow-up opportunities that engage their creativity and imagination
• have opportunities for collaborative work and for peer-peer teaching.

Of course, we also want to determine if there are any impediments to concentration. Does your environment invite focus or are there sensorial or social distractions?  Having a conversation with your children (particularly the most distractible) about what would be helpful for them can produce interesting answers!  It isn’t always about noise levels.

Self-Discipline

Whenever children love work to the point of concentration, self-discipline and perseverance are likely to follow. If it is not, what is interfering? Is it a lack of empathy for others on the path to normalization?  Concerns about social acceptance?  Academic pressures?  Factors outside the classroom?

Prioritizing creating an inclusive community of students and on fostering children’s love of work will pay dividends, especially at this time of year.  It focuses our efforts on things that we have the ability to impact, things that are of significance in the normalization of children.

Prompt for children:

Dr. Maria Montessori cared about what children learn, but perhaps even more, she cared about how they learn. She observed that with teaching methods that lead children to discover things rather than methods that make them memorize things, children happily learn new things.

Today’s reflection is about two things that Dr. Montessori said are part of being happy learners. Let’s see how we are doing in our classroom.

• Love of work – That doesn’t mean that every student will LOVE every work in the classroom. We are each drawn to some materials more than others. It does mean that when students are working with a material that they understand, they find pleasure or joy in the activity. They enjoy the work and the feeling of accomplishment and of growing skills and knowledge.

What works give you contentment or joy while you are doing them? What works do you look forward to? Why do these particular works give you joy?

• Concentration – Dr. Montessori said that when children love a work, they are drawn into it, so it is easier to concentrate.
  What works help you feel most focused? Are they the same works that give you joy? Are they mostly bigger works, mostly smaller works, mostly more challenging works, mostly works that use your hands, mostly works related to one curricular area, or is there some other pattern?

Prompt for guides:

Where do you see love of work in the classroom?

• Do your children authentically believe that learning is cool?
• Do they see purpose to learning?
• Are they internally motivated to do their best?
• What small steps can you take to help children find their love of learning?

PS: If your children journaled on last week’s topic of describing their ideal school and what they would love to teach others, you now have a sneak peek into what each student’s passion might be. If you haven’t already done so, now is a great time to make a note of each child’s response – it will be a great conversation starter for your first parent conferences!

Photo by Karolina Kołodziejczak on Unsplash

“The secret of joy in work is contained in one word – excellence.   To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.”

– Pearl S. Buck, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Good Earth.