Great Expectations: Establishing a Purpose-Driven Classroom

Image by WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay

Ask someone at your favorite coffee shop to describe the purpose of school, and you will most likely hear about teaching academic skills in preparation for the future. Many will mention the importance of socialization. Some may even talk about teaching children to think critically.

Ask a Montessorian the same question, and you will hopefully get a much different answer. Our purpose is to grow the best humans possible – socially, emotionally, physically, and academically.

“… in every child is the seed that will mature into an adult.”
Dr. Maria Montessori, the Theosophist

Montessorians are Constructivists. We believe that brains are built; they are not ready-made receptacles awaiting information. We see each child as the constructor of their knowledge, and the adults and the environment as worthy collaborators in the building process.

This philosophy requires that children play an active role in their education. It is not possible to passively build a brain. Full ownership of learning doesn’t happen automatically. So if we want this to be part of our classroom culture, we need to discuss and model it, especially at the beginning of the year.

Why School?

One way to begin the discussion is to ask children what they see as the purpose of school. Likely, children will give the automatic response that they come to school to learn. Which is true, of course. And what else? What else do children get from coming to school?

When invited to take a bigger-picture view, children may talk about aspects of the social side of school: making, enjoying, and keeping friends. They may bring up recess, or special trips and activities that they don’t get at home. Some benefit from and appreciate school breakfast and lunch. Some value school because it is a safe place in one or many ways.

To each contribution, we say, “Yes! And what else?” This discussion not only broadens children’s view of what school is for but also reveals that we see children as whole, individual people. We think school is about helping each of them be the best human that they can be – quite a different perspective from the old-school traditional view that school is about passing tests and making good grades to get a good job.

**What is Work?**

Perhaps on another day, we might pose the question, “What is work?” If we continue to reply to their answers with, “Yes! And what else?” we might ultimately decide that work has many possible definitions. Here are a few:

Noun – a material on the shelf
Noun – a place where adults go, sometimes to earn money
Verb – an activity to accomplish a goal (physical, intellectual, social, or physical)

Children will be interested to hear that Dr. Montessori was very particular about how adults talk about children’s activity. She was insistent that children’s activity is their work – not their play. She wanted adults to see children as engaging in a noble process by which they build themselves.

Physical work builds strong and resilient bodies.
Social work builds strong and resilient friendships, and the skills needed to work with others.
Academic work builds strong and resilient brains through new skills and ideas.

Cognitive neuroscience (the science of learning) tells us that our brains crave novelty. Whenever we successfully complete a task or master a skill or concept, we get a little dose of the “happy chemical”, dopamine, that rewards our efforts and makes us want to do it again.

Ultimately, we want to lead the discussion to the conclusion that work (the verb) is what we do to learn – – we actively engage in activity to grow ourselves academically, socially, or physically.

**What isn’t Work?**

Sometimes the best way to understand something is to think about what it is not. When we consider antonyms for work, the first response is usually play. This likely arises at least in part from the proverb, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. However, there are a host of unintended associations that can be drawn if we contrast work with play. Most notably, if play is fun then work is not fun. Yikes! A different antonym for work that is far more useful in helping children understand their role in the classroom is rest.

If work is activity that creates learning, then rest is recovering from the work effort so that we can engage in work again (get more dopamine!). Put another way, the direct aim of work is learning. The direct aim of rest is recovery.

Balancing Work and Rest

While both work and rest are important and useful pursuits, we want to work more than we rest. We are most effective when we ensure that

when we rest, we do things that really refresh us.
when we work, we focus our full attention and intention on using the activity to build ourselves up.

To make the concept even more concrete, ask the children for examples of work. They will likely name different materials on the shelves. “Yes, and what else?” If they don’t bring up forms of social or physical work, prompt with alternatives. “Is running a mile work? What about swinging on the monkey bars? Deciding among friends how to collaborate on a job? Writing about your feelings in a journal?”

Similarly, ask about examples of rest. Sleep is the most commonly named form of rest, but it is only one type! Here are a few that might resonate with children:

Physical rest (yoga, stretching, having a snack, sleep)
Mental rest (anything that is fairly automatic: puzzles, knitting or other handwork, walking, meditating – it will be different for different people)
Sensory rest (going somewhere quiet, sitting with closed eyes, wearing headphones, getting outdoors)
Emotional rest (being with people with whom you can be genuine, expressing feelings – to a friend or in a journal – without worrying about people-pleasing)

Works in the classroom that supports rest might include practical life work and works of service to the community, such as sweeping the walk.

Living the Model

Having established useful operational definitions for work and rest, we need to be cautious about our adult language. For example, the once popular pithy “if you play during work-time, you will work during play-time” creates a feeling of dread or animosity towards work. Alternatively, at intervals throughout the day, use a special sound (a wind chime?) as a signal for all children to notice if they are working or resting. Resting is a fine answer, as long as they haven’t been resting since the last time they heard the wind chime and can mentally say what work they are resting from or recharging to do. Using a self-check method like this for the first couple of weeks after the discussion has many benefits.

Keeps the topic alive, in the forefront of memory.
Allows children to self-assess and, if appropriate, modify their choice of activity. It is the second period of the lesson on the difference between work and rest.
Offers structured practice of self-monitoring and inhibitory control – two key skills that contribute to effective executive function.
Conveys adults’ faith and trust in the child. They don’t need us to tell them what needs correction and how to fix it. We trust that they will make good choices.

Additionally, if we intentionally choose to sound the wind chime both when most children are working well AND when some may need a bit of redirection, we create opportunities for children to take pride in their choices, which is incredibly reinforcing! By providing structured opportunities for children to practice executive functioning skills, we empower them to be independent or interdependent members of the community – our ultimate goal!

Journal Reflection for Children:

What are my optimal conditions for true work? What are my go-to forms of rest? How is my work/rest balance now?

Journal Reflection for guides:

What is going well in my classroom? How many things can I list In 3 minutes or less? What about the things that I would change tomorrow if I had a magic wand?

Which list was easier to create? If it was easier to see what was going poorly than what was going well, that is a natural effect of the brain’s 80% negativity bias!

Were the majority of items on your lists procedural? Did your lists contain examples of social interactions and the level of enthusiasm that children brought to their work or was it focused exclusively on who is working and who is not?

Challenge for adults:

For 20 minutes during any open work cycle, observe. Record only what is going well. Start to retrain your brain to notice the positive!

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Regular journaling is a gift you give yourself and ultimately, everyone around you. Need convincing? Have a look at this brilliant (and short) article on how to make this work in your life: https://hbr.org/2023/12/a-simple-way-to-make-better-decisions

Betsy’s Blog