I have been thinking
about the child’s work and trying to decide if playing the video games is work
for the child. I've never played--as an adult it would be work for me. As an
adult I want to win; I want to get to the end with the highest score. Isn't that the whole reason for playing any game—to win?
It’s so easy to assume
that the child or young person has the same goal—to win. If the child or young
person watches and listens to the adult playing games they quickly learn to
take on the same pattern of playing; ie, they must win. Winning at the games; winning
at financial efforts; winning at tests; these are natural goals that bring
happiness for the adult. The adult’s work is to produce the maximum amount of
something externally, materially, with the least effort. The child or young
person watches the adult, listens to the adult, and soon learns the same
values, the same behaviors--this is what makes the adult happy—this is what the
adult expects of the child.
Maria Montessori tells
us that children and young persons’ work is to grow physically and to construct
their own personality and acquire their culture, naturally. How can we
meaningfully expect our young to ‘grow-up’ if we don’t respect them to work by
their own natural instinct--which is not necessarily to win but to transform
and internalize their environment?
Adults have reached the
norm of their species while a child is a being in a constant state of
transformation. A child has a different rhythm of life which needs to be
respected, not speeded up. More about this paradox next week. (comment below or email connie@montessoritheory.com)
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