31 Aug The Spiritual Preparation of the Teacher
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Before a Montessori teacher can guide, they need to do an inner preparedness to carry out the best way to serve the child. Just like Maria Montessori teaches us to reach inward to extract the most beautiful potential of a child, a teacher too has to reach within their “self” to bring out everything positive, kind, compassionate and pure. This is no mean feat. Initially, a new Montessori teacher is concerned with mainly making sure the environment is in good order and that the presentations are perfect. This is the normal practice of a brand new teacher/guide. They are learning how to manage a classroom to the best of their ability and are the caretakers of their children’s physical and intellectual needs. Indeed there are lessons to be learned in the initial years of being a Montessori teacher. There is also a slow transformation taking place– and deep seated knowledge is being attained of one’s true self. With time, the teacher grows into serving not only the child, but also the spirit (The Absorbent Mind, p281).
When a teacher tries to place all judgements, interferences, biases, anger and baggage away, their lens becomes focused and clear. Then the teacher starts to understand and see the child’s heart. As a result, the secret code to unlocking the child’s heart and thus potential begins. The beauty of being a Montessorian is that true love, we learn, is the way of making a difference in a child’s life and likewise, when a child touches a teacher’s heart for the first time, they too can awaken the spirit of a teacher. This love exchange is the impetus of Montessori teaching. Like the sun awakens the plant, the growth of the plant opens up itself to the sky. Maria Montessori writes in the Absorbent Mind, “ When the children show their real natures, she understands perhaps for the first time, what love really is. And this revelation transforms her also. It is a thing that touches the heart, and little by little it changes people.” (The Absorbent Mind, p282).
Montessori describes this love as a “higher love”– tagged like the Steve Winwood song 🙂
She says it’s like a love that is “no longer personal or material. The difference of the level has truly been set not by the teacher but by the child. It is the teacher who feels she has been lifted to a height she never knew before. The child has made her grow till she is brought within his sphere.” (Absorbent Mind, p283) The teacher is not interested in authority over the child and the child is comfortable and joyfully revealing their true essence and growing the way they were destined to. And the true test of a successful Montessori teacher is when they are able to say, “The children are working as if I did not exist.” In my understanding, this is when children have attained their “flow state”.
This transformation of the teacher becomes deeper and deeper as the years progress. It almost becomes a part of your personality and way of life. The classroom becomes your sanctuary as well as the child’s.
We learn so much by being Montessori guides. We learn mindfulness. So do the children. We learn to conquer our inner demons and weaknesses. Although we are human, it is our duty to be our best selves at all times. We learn as Montessorians how to conduct ourselves with humanity as a whole. We learn to “hold back” the urge to constantly state our critiques of others because we can foresee the harm or pain we can inflict with a thoughtless word. I love the sage words of J. Krishnamurti, “When there is love there is consideration, not only to children but for every human being.” (Education and the Significance of Life, p48)
Being a Montessori guide can be an exhausting and still exhilarating practice. A flame is passed to a Montessori teacher at graduation as a symbol of the light that now burns inside us. As teachers we rekindle a huge flame inside of us and pass it along to every child whenever we enter the classroom. It is this light that enables the flame of the child to burn for a lifetime.