Lower School Blog: Exploration - Another of the Human Tendencies

As soon as children find something that interests them, they lose their instability and learn to concentrate.  - Maria Montessori                                      

When, why, how does this happen? As an anthropologist, Maria Montessori observed that all children, regardless of culture, as soon as they are born, follow certain patterns of behavior. These tendencies, as she labeled them, are innate, universal traits operative throughout life, serving as intrinsic powers guiding human development and motivating each individual to fulfill particular universal needs. Our Toddlers and Primary-aged children are hard-wired to use their curiosity to explore everything - and I mean everything - in their surroundings. They are internally motivated to move beyond the familiar and seek the peculiar. 

Perhaps you’ve witnessed a baby staring at a rattle; a 30 month old holding their hand under running water; a Four, zipping and unzipping a jacket; a Six, giggling as a caterpillar walks up their forearm. These moments are examples of exploration, that kind of journey down the unknown path of nature. What is this thing, what’s going on, how does it affect me, how can I affect it? 

And as they stop, and peer at, fondle, shake, roll, and concentrate on the object in hand, turning it over and over, holding it up to the light, feeling its heft, for as long as they personally need to quench their brain’s thirst, they cannot be distracted. It is through these investigations, manipulations, interrogations, analyses, these explorations, that they satisfy their hunger to “make it their own.”

That’s why you take them on outings, shower them with books and toys, give them the space to figure “it” out on their own. That’s why you send them to school. That’s why they (mostly) are excited to be here. Because at Aidan we prepare a rich environment - the Montessori classroom - which allows them the freedom to gratify this natural curiosity. We get out of their way so they can explore new worlds, new thoughts, new feelings - the new person they will become. Step aside and let it happen. 

Denise Merkel

Director of Education

Head of the Lower School