One of the greatest mistakes of our day is to think of movement by itself, as something apart from the higher functions... Mental development must be connected with movement and be dependent on it. It is vital that educational theory and practice should become informed by this idea. Maria Montessori

by Kevin Clark, Head of School

In 1963, a scientific experiment with kittens took place. Working with ten pairs of kittens, scientists put one kitten from each pair in a "carriage" of sorts, and they tethered the other kitten to the carriage as the leader. The lead kitten used his whole body to explore a room while the kitten in the carriage could use only its eyes to explore the room as the rest of its body was incapacitated by the carriage. When not exploring the room, the kittens were kept in dark rooms, where they could see nothing. (It was 1963 and the rules for ethical experimentation were extremely different then.)

From this experiment, the scientists were able to demonstrate a strong relationship between physical movement and learning. When the kittens' eyesight was tested, the lead kittens reacted appropriately to "looming objects" and "sudden drop-offs" while the passive kittens did not. Both kittens had the same visual experience, but the kittens that moved their bodies while in the room developed cognitively and increased their abilities in a way that the passive kittens did not... even though they both had the same visual experience.

Another experiment involved putting Velcro mittens on babies who were not yet mobile. (Before they were able to crawl.) Babies with the mittens are able to interact with objects more successfully than babies without them. As a result, the babies whose hands weren't covered showed more interest in objects that they had touched, were more likely to visually track objects that were hidden, and more easily identified object boundaries (i.e., where things started and ended).

In another study, infants between 7-8 months, but differentiated by "crawling" and "not yet crawling" groups, developed differently on a cognitive level. Crawling infants developed object permanence and appropriate fear responses. For example, a crawling infant placed on Plexiglas over a "cliff" reacted appropriately while non-crawling infants exhibited no fear.

Conclusion? When developing humans move, they develop such cognitive traits as perception of distance, spatial layout, pointing, seeking and appropriate fear responses. They follow gazes, engage in new movement more and increase the density of their neural connections. Brains of infants fire neurons when objects are within grasp. The brain thrives on movement!

In the body of research on brain development and education, there are subsections of studies on the effect of movement on... memory, judgment, social/cognitive processing, and spatial representation. So much of the research demonstrates that movement positively correlates to learning and brain development.

So, why all this talk about movement and cognition in our school's newsletter? Because long before these experiments were conducted, Maria Montessori – a trained scientist – came to this same conclusion (along with many other conclusions) about how children should learn. As a result, movement is a hallmark of Montessori education. Considering the lack of movement in a more traditional setting (chairs, desks, lectures, etc.), the movement that abounds in Montessori classrooms facilitates children's cognitive development every minute of every day.

From the sensorial materials to the practical life activities to all of the work on the shelves, from grammar directions to the pink tower, from the sandpaper letters to the use of work rugs....the entire Montessori pedagogy incorporates movement into the curriculum.

A passing observation of a Montessori classroom may not hammer this point home, but an extended observation will. For example, Primary children learn about length with a material called the Red Rods. These are ten rods made of wood (red, of course), each of which is ten centimeters shorter or longer than the next. The children pick up one rod at a time and carry it close to their body across the room to their work space where they lay them in order. Walking with the rods and carrying them in their hand (each rod feels ten centimeters longer!) reinforces their learning through movement. Such a tactile experience allows for comparisons of long and short and indirectly prepares for number work before the child will be able to represent these things passively with pencil and paper.

More examples of the power of movement in learning: our children learn about land and water formations by using beakers and eye droppers to move water around islands, lakes, isthmuses, and straits. Our children act out grammatical structures by giving and receiving orders with varying tenses and modalities. Before classroom meetings, children might walk on the line or sing/dance to prepare themselves for a group interaction.

At Aidan our children's cognitive development is dependent upon movement, and movement was one of Maria Montessori's cornerstones for the classroom environment. Celebrate the wonders of everyday, simple, and complex movement as a keystone of their education for life.