Here it is…the moment you’ve all been waiting for…my review of Maria Montessori’s classic text, The Absorbent Mind. My apologies for the long blog post. I couldn’t help it!

The Absorbent Mind by Maria Montessori

Truth be told, I think I’ve been putting off writing this review because the task just seemed overwhelming. How to review a pivotal text in early childhood education in a manner that is thorough but concise, that does it justice without boring you to tears, that adequetly expresses my thoughts about the book while sticking to blog post length requirements?

My solution is this–I will expand on each of the ideas discussed here in individual blog posts with more of my personal reflections and attempts to make theory a reality in our home. Each post will start with a quote from the text and will go from there. There’s just no way I can say everything I want to say in one post. So, look for those posts in the upcoming weeks. I can’t wait to share some of the specifics of this marvelous text with you!

The General Idea

I approached this book with excitement and high hopes. Here it was: my first book written by Maria Montessori herself! And let me say, it did not disappoint.

With this work, Montessori explores the workings of the infant mind from birth to about age 3. A look at a selection of chapter titles gives you some idea of the scope of the book: “Education for Life,” “The Periods of Growth,” “The Child’s Conquest of Independence,” “Intelligence and the Hand,” “From Unconscious Creator to Conscious Worker,” “Character Building is the Child’s Own Achievement,” “Social Development.” The book explains Montessori’s theories of child development and discusses biology, sociology, discipline, learning environment, and mental processes.

There are a couple chapters that deal with her biological theories of human development. As kind of a lay Montessorian, I didn’t find these terribly exciting. If you are just looking for ideas that you can easily apply to your home or classroom, I would probably skip or skim those chapters for now.

Main Ideas that Made Me Want to Shout, “Yes!”

  • If we reduce education to the mere transmission of knowledge, we will have short-changed our children, our society, and ourselves. (see page 4)
  • “The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth” (4).
  • The child “has the power to teach himself” (6). A pinnacle concept in a Montessori education. Later on she elaborates, “children need to work at an interesting occupation: they should not be helped unnecessarily, nor interrupted, once they have begun to do something intelligent” (200).
  • In infancy, “impressions do not merely enter [the child's] mind; they form it” (25). Hence, the notion of the absorbent mind.
  • The teacher’s “one duty is to learn from him on the spot, and to serve him, as best we can” (75). In Montessori theory, the adult is simply a guide who prepares the environment, demonstrates the details of the work (see page 180), and then gives the children the space to teach themselves. They are “never to give more help than is absolutely necessary” (155).
  • The child “can only develop fully by means of experience on his environment” (88). Bring on the tactile and sensory materials!
  • The child is truly a miraculous being, and this should be felt deeply by the educator” (121). That one’s pretty self-explanatory, I think.
  • “Movement helps the development of the mind, and this finds renewed expression in further movement and activity” (142). The work of the hands directly correlates to the work of the mind.
  • “We must be specially careful not to destroy any of life’s natural tendencies” (158). For example, if you toddler wants to walk when you’re outside, get him out of the stroller and let him walk.
  • A carefully prepared environment allows the child to blossom into the child they want to be. (See pages 206-207)
  • “To tell a person he is clever or clumsy, bright, stupid, good or bad, is a form of betrayal. The child must see for himself what he can do, and it is important to give him not only the means of education but also to supply him with indicators which tell him his mistakes” (250). Gone is the punishment or humiliation for making a mistake. Please welcome Control of Error.

And those are just a few of the great moments in this work! If you haven’t read The Absorbent Mind, you’re probably saying, “But what does it all mean?” And if you have read it, you’re probably saying, “But that’s just the half of it!”

Don’t worry. I will attempt to elaborate with the intended individual posts. I will discuss more of Montessori’s explanations and my own interpretations of the text. And I’m looking forward to hearing your feedback along the way–the internet has already connected me with so many helpful and knowledgeable new friends!

Here’s one last quote for the road:

“We know how to find pearls in the shells of oysters, gold in the mountains and coal in the bowels of the earth, but we are unaware of the spiritual germs, the creative nebulae that the child hides in himself when he enters our world to renew mankind” (240).

Great stuff.

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