Preparing the Environment
One of the tenets of Montessori pedagogy is the "prepared environment". This means that the person in charge of the environment (in a school the guide, in a home the caregiver) has prepared it ahead of the arrival of the child so that when they arrive it offers them pathways to explore, learn and grow that do not require direct adult mediation.
I spend a lot of offline time, when no students are present, preparing the environment. So that it's ready. So that when they get there, they can get to work and it literally does not require me. This preparation has so many facets. Setting up the tables in such a way as to encourage sharing work and collaborating. Making sure the materials are present and organized in a way that makes sense and can be put away by them. Are there enough rubber bands, enough paper, enough pairs of scissors? Enough, but not too many (never one for each learner, except maybe graphite pencils) -- again to encourage sharing and collaboration. Too much of any material leads to a disregard for it. It's not that materials should be scarce. It's that they are precious, and their use should be intended and intentional. Tools and materials must be clean, in good working order and - here's the most evanescent of the environment preparation tenets - inviting and pleasingly arranged.
I put an alligator skull on the shelf. I tilt it. I take it away. I put it next to the cow skull. Remove it. Look at the shelf again. Think about what the specimens are for and how they are used. Put the alligator skull back. Take three steps away from the shelf. Crouch to kid height. Look. Yes. That is inviting. Pleasing. Beckons the imagination. Now, I look at the next shelf. I have thirty six more shelves to do.
It takes time. Energy. Thoughtfulness. And because it is invisible, behind the curtain, no one knows it happens. But it is essential.
Yesterday as I was working on the room a friend and colleague arrived and asked to look around. In a moment, a person she was meeting at school arrived. A person who had never been in our school or in a Montessori elementary environment. Like many as they arrive (I see this often on tours) he stepped into the room and his eyes lit up. "Oh this is nice," he said. Yes. It is intentionally so. His eyes roamed the room, fell on a book on a display stand: Powers of Ten. (It's a fabulous book, based on this movie:).
Once his eyes hit the book, he walked over and began to babble excitedly. He had seen the video and was explaining how incredible it was, how eye-opening, how cool. I invited him to look at the book, to pick it up and touch it. He spent a quiet minute leafing through the book, sharing it with the friend.
When the environment is prepared, it inspires, enlightens, invites. Montessori talked about it as seducing the child, and that has some unfortunate connotations that she would not intend, but the effect is real, and it doesn't only work on children.
I love this part of the work. I was prepared for it by the many years I spent writing, I think. It is solitary and requires all my best brain cells in top form, but it is both essential and invisible.
