Montessori and Religion

Montessori was a devout Catholic (she was from Italy at the turn of the last century after all). Although her teachings are not directly grounded in faith, I recently found an interesting article about her views on developing faith in a child. There are quite a few points that I liked and that helped me think more about our own son's faith development.

She argues that from ages 0 - 5 it is crucial that parents and others demonstrate God's love by providing for the child and helping them feel secure (much like Erikson's first stage of development - trust vs. mistrust - although he places that stage in the first year of life). This grounds the child in God's love for them. I like that a lot. She warns against making church seem like school, lessons to be learned, etc. Although as a Catholic she emphasizes the mystery of faith, I would say that this approach also emphasizes the fact that God is relational - he wants to be in relationship with his people. We need to build a foundaiton that teaches children that God loves them through the people he has put in their lives (this is also a key element of the book How People Grow by Cloud and Townsend - a great overview of the book is about 3/4 of the way down this page).

The next stage, ages 6 - 12, is what other theorists call concrete operational (Piaget) or Industry vs. Inferiority (Erikson). Basically, children are beginning to figure out what they are able to do on their own but they are still very literal. This is the time where you often hear kids trying to figure out right and wrong, fair and unfair, etc. Montessori believes that this the best time to start teaching about the moral part of faith. Kids this age have a natural interest in what is good and bad and this is the time to introduce them to what God's word says about that. She argues that doing it at a younger age is teaching them something that they really can't understand. They will follow your rules because they like to please and follow others, but it is not until they are about 6 or so that they can begin to understand more about right and wrong - and sin. I guess that's one reason in faith circles they talk about this being the age of accountability. When kids are old enough to start making choices about their faith and what they will believe.

The final point that she makes, that I like, is about the changes we have seen in celebrating Christmas. Christmas used to be a 12 day celebration and each day you would get a small gift or at least you would wait until the 12th day (when the Magi came on January 6th) to open your presents. This approach allows Christmas to be about Jesus and his birth and the presents to be spread out (many parents talk about their kids being OVERWHELMED by presents) and connected with Christ's birth in a slightly different way. My husband claims that he's told me about this before and I think he has. But I like the idea of celebrating Christmas this way because it helps to focus on the important parts and spreads out the craziness. So, we might give this a try this year. Did I write about the neat Advent ideas I've found? Anyway, that's another discussion.

So there are some thoughts on faith formation in the Montessori way. Now, there is a whole movement called Godly Play (out of the Episcopal church) that teaches the stories of the Bible thorugh Montessori like materials. But that's another story too.