Role Of Montessori Directress

Role Of Montessori Directress

A Montessori teacher or directress is the most important person for a child in a school. She is a counselor, a facilitator and a guide. All the learning for a child are due to the teacher’s faithfulness towards her duties. A teacher must not act as if the knowledge flows through her /him. She must think and act like a co-operative artist taking in view the activity learner’s mind. The activities are not for her.

It is good general observation that students are not encouraged to comprehend or explore the lessons themselves. They are going to prepared material to cram to pass the exams. Mostly the students are not equipped to find their own solutions. In Montessori methodology the directress, the child and the prepared environment are like three sides of a triangle. The directress is the guardian of the prepared environment, with an understanding of invaluable nature and immense responsibility. She is responsible for facilitation and provision of appropriate learning environment.

She is the soul of the environment to which she brings the child in contact. The main task of the teacher is to help the child in adopting the environment and make him feel comfortable. She must bring forth the skills and qualities of a child are essential for his overall environment. Once he attains these qualities he becomes a world-force.

Generally, a teacher is found delivering a lecture in schools to a group of students. But a Montessori teacher’s role is quite different. She prepares the appropriate learning materials to meet the needs and interests of each child in the class they work with one or two children at a time, advising, presenting a new lesson, or making an observation. The learning is for the children and not for the teachers. Every child is a distinct individual due to their various interest, progress, growth and preferred learning style.

The most important quality of the directress in to have faith in the child, in herself as well as the methods she must be preferred as following;

1)Intellectual preparation,

2)Spiritual preparation,

3)psychic and physical preparation,

The chief characteristics of a Montessori teacher are as following;

1)To prepare the environment.

2)Passive role playing.

3)Profound respect for the dignity of the child.

She must have a deep sense of individuality of every child as a human being. In order to become dynamic link between the child and the prepared environment ,she must have the following qualities;

a)Knowledge   (b)Patience   (c)Observation   (d)Sympathy and love for the child   (e)Clarity in her work.

The science of being a Montessori teacher consists of knowing in advance about the sensitive development periods of a child. A directress must undergo a threefold preparation program before coming in contact with the child.

1)Intellectual preparation;  The teacher must know her work right-out and must keep in touch with the environment. She should know what is happening around the world. She must have

sufficient knowledge of science, geography, mathematics, history, music ,art work etc. She should be tactful with all the children according to their potentials of work with all children as long as needed. She should have patience as some children take to grasp the instructions. However, there must be no favoritism or preference in the prepared environment. Children should be kept at par with each other. The directress must analyze her own presentations and she must work accordingly. The art of teaching in the prepared environment is divided between the directress and the material.

Dr.Montessori sums up the position of directress by saying;

                                             “Teach the child not by correcting but by directing his energies

                                                Towards the purposeful end.”

2)Spiritual Preparation:   Spiritual preparation consists of the environment and the directress within herself using her intellect and psychic qualities. She must study the following;

1)The general functions of the prepared environment.

2)The nature and purpose of every piece of the Montessori material in her environment.

3)The ages of the children to whom the material correspond and sharpen their senses hold great values for their enlightenment.

4)She should never condemn any child because of her/his weaknesses.

3)Psychic and physical presentation:   She should attract the child towards herself. She should be attractive and pleasant in her appearance. She should be tidy and clean, fresh, well-dressed, dignified, calm and happy person. She should be full of knowledge, very passionate and complete symbol of the education to the child. Since the normalized child is very happy, cheerful with healthy mind, so he/she always response to cheerfulness. She must be in harmony with all means. She should avoid touching the child unnecessarily as they are sensitive  and do not like it.If a child need personal attention than she should not deny it. She must study her own defects, weaknesses and try to correct them.

Dr.Montessori says,

                                             “First remove the beam from your own eyes, then you will

                                               See clearly how to remove the speak from the child’s eye,”

She should purify her own heart and render it burning with love, kindness and understanding towards the children. She should be humble, poetic and gentle in behavior. She must talk logically and should be careful about her language. Her accent should be correct and her voice must be appealing and soft. Her movements should be coordinated. She should have full faith in the system, herself and the child. She must understand the delicate achievements of the children. She should serve children as if she is serving the spirit and the soul which has to unfold itself into a force.

Observation: She must observe the progress of every child carefully. She must take care of all their needs in their growing up needs and progress. Instead of keeping a track of all these developments she must act like an active link between children and the prepared environment. This place is for constant experimentation and modification of environment to meet the needs, interests and notifying the result for the child.

Lessons: The lessons are brief and the goal is to bring the children in a state of mind, so that they will come back on their own for further work with the materials. The lessons should be simple and they should work on their own. She should,

a) observe the child when he explores the material.

b) going to the child to know his consent about working with the material.

c)taking the material to the work place with the help of the child.

d)setting up rules for the material handling.

e)going a short and live demonstration of what is to be done.

f)leaving the child on his own to work.

The presentation by the teachers is precise. Demonstration is an initial exploratory procedure; encouraging the children to continue to explore on their own further. The children should become self-disciplined. Maximum interruption  by the adults should be done. The children progress with their own pace. They gradually proceed in each learning step. Initially the lessons give a brief introduction, after repetition over many days, weeks or months mastery is attained. Interest leads them to explore variations and extend the inherited within the designs of the materials at many levels over the coming years.

Primary aims: Each child be taken as a person not on the daily lesson plans. They must be nurture and inspire. They should lead a child to questioning and let the think themselves, explore, investigate and discover. The ultimate objective is to help them to learn how to learn independently, retaining the curiosity, creativity and intelligence with which they are born. Montessori teachers do not simply present lessons, they facilitate, coach and guide.