July 14, 2008 5:35 PM
Montessori Monday - what about fantasy?
Dear Barbara,Could you please address fantasy in regards to children? Is it best to discourage things like fairies, purple dinosaurs, and the like? Should we only bring "life like" items into our homes for our children and allow them to only read books that are true to life? My daughter is a year and a half old and this already concerns me as the fairies are already here (from friends). This issue worries me as it seems that many from my generation cannot distinguish reality from fantasy and indeed seem to prefer the latter. I have friends from college who are still involved in live action role play, computer games, and anime with no real life on the horizon. How does this happen, and how can I keep my little one safe from such things. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Katy
This is my third attempt to answer this - I keep going off into dissertations about the sad state of children's programming of marketing hype :)
But I'm going to try this time to keep it really simple.
First of all, remember that to think of the world from a child's point of view requires a major paradigm shift. You must put aside all your adult experience and see things through the eyes of a little child.
A little child is like a sponge - the stage Maria Montessori refers to as The Absorbent Mind. He is soaking up everything around him with no effort on your part. This is when the most intense learning takes place and the foundation is built for a lifetime. Children can learn the names of birds and flowers and insects and dinosaurs, of leaf forms and dinosaurs and geometric shapes. Of continents and countries. They can learn foreign languages with greater ease than they ever will later in life.
And what do we give them? A purple dinosaur who tells them they are special.
Maria Montessori would be rolling in her grave.
As she pointed out, the world is such an amazing and wonder-filled place, that we should focus on giving as much of it as we can to the young child - making the most of these absorbent mind years to help them discover everything possible about our natural world.
How is a three or four year old American child reading picture books to understand that though he's never seen one, a camel is real while a fairy is not? That places like the Grand Canyon or the Sahara Desert or Niagara Falls or the Great Wall of China are real while Disneyland is not?
So, my Montessori message today is this: before the age of six, skip the fantasy and fairy realms. Concentrate on what’s real.
Use your child’s developing imagination to bring him an awareness of other countries and cultures. I have a specific plan for that. Those of you who’ve read Mommy, Teach Me! – the section on cultural geography – already are familiar with this. But Monday I’ll share it for everyone for free!
In the meantime, start looking at what is filling your child’s days and start trying – one step at a time – to make it more real.
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Also, tomorrow I will discuss the importance of fairy tales in the development of older children.
In the meantime, I'm interested in hearing what's up with Montessori at your house!
Posted in Montessori Mondays | Permalink
Comments
Barbara, as usual you are right on!
My friend Karen pulled her twins out of public pre-school (head start) after a disturbing incident about leprechauns. To teach the four/five year olds to use their imagination, the teacher told them leprechauns were real.
One of the twins was terrified that a little green man was going to break into their house and steal all her mother's gold jewelry. She had nightmares, stopped eating, and hid all the gold she could find under the bed.
Karen finally got out of her what was wrong and took her into the school to have the teacher explain the difference between "real" and "pretend."
Not only did the teacher REFUSE to reassure the girl that leprechauns weren't real, the principal agreed, saying the she didn't want Karen's daughter to tell the other children these were make believe creatures.
Needless to say the girls were homeschooled starting that day. (And the little girl still has nightmare about leprechauns, four years later.)
Posted by: Anna | July 14, 2008 7:21 PM
If you have kids that are a few years apart how do you keep the fantasy from the younger one? Say I have a 10 year old who loves fairies, but then a 3 year old who shouldn't be exposed to it?
Posted by: Momma | July 15, 2008 4:35 PM
Not just because of Maria Montessori's writings, but I have been cautious in introducing fantasy into my son's life. I've read the stuff against anthropomorphism, but I'm not always against that, as that would keep Beatrix Potter and Tasha Tudor out of our reading habits. Do you think some of Montessori's response to this area was in reaction to Rudolf Steiner's works?
We've only gently added things. He definitely is imaginative and does a lot of pretend play, so we sort through some stories explaining "This really happened" or "This is just a story". There are classic fairy tales we've read to him as he is now older, but only slowly.
TV and movies are harder to sort than books, we've found. They are more visual and more realistic. Books and their illustrations leave room for the imagination, thereby helping him make that connection that it is imaginary.
As I only have sons, we're not into fairies.
While fairies aren't true, there are some intangible things (like angels) that a child can really grasp, better than adults. But some people really believe in fairies, so if I was leaning that way, I would treat them like I would angels.
Posted by: Jenn Miller | July 15, 2008 4:45 PM
Hi Barbara! I discovered you as I was looking for links to Montessori materials. I'm glad I found you! I'm a homeschooling mom of 3 who has followed a student interest-led philosophy from the start. A lot of what I read about Montessori seems to describe what we did all those years. And my kids have flourished. They've been allowed to delve deeply into their interests with no formal curriculum. The great news is the success of my first graduate--he's a National Merit Scholar and just got a full ride scholarship to the University of Chicago!! He wants to keep learning and be a professor or a researcher in the social sciences.
I just started a website with daily quotes about education and learning. A Maria Montessori quote comes up July 17 and I have a link to one of your books. Just thought you'd like to know.
blessings to you and all of yours
Blessings to you and all of yours.
Posted by: Jena | July 15, 2008 5:04 PM
Thought I'd share our Geography center. We love studying world cultures, especially my littlest learners :) Thanks for another delightful post!
Posted by: Meredith Henning | July 16, 2008 5:30 PM
