Reflections on exploration from 2007

There are two different schools of thought regarding the proper use of materials in a Montessori Environment.


One is that materials should be used only after the child is presented with a lesson, and used in an appropriate manner only. Lessons are presented only when a child is developmental ready to successfully work with a material. The other is that a child is allowed to explore materials freely. The teacher presents individual lessons to the level of the child that bring the material down to the level of the child. In this environment, the child never feels thwarted from a material. An example would be a child that chooses the hundred board before true recognition of numbers alone, is presented with a lesson about counting or number recognition because he/she choose the material. {I'm not sure what AMS official position on this practice is, but I know the concept of exploration exists in AMS training centers.}


If a child spends more time exploring the pink cubes or brown prisms and working with them, they are developing a deeper understanding of the materials and a greater sensory perception. They are allowed to repeat and self correct their own usage. They can learn which sizes can be stacked or built on top of others and which formations are unstable. If they are trying to follow pattern cards, they are building visual perception skills, and eye hand coordination. If they are limited to only the patterns that we present, then we are limiting their ability to construct and explore fully.


If the goal of the metal insets is to work on fine motor control and they are exploring the material with fine and controlled lines, and repeating, then why should we stop them because they are not following a prescribed pattern? For example - they traced the square, but then continued to make a house. Isn't this an expansion into creativity? If a child is taking the oval, making an Easter Egg with several different patterns, cutting it out and gluing it to another piece of paper, they are exploring their own creativity, extending the use of the material, and extending their own skills. Why should we stop them? If they are at the stage of combining skills, we should not limit them to just one.


However, the freedom to explore materials should not extend to the use of materials becoming merely imaginative props or toys. When a child takes the pink cubes and brown prisms and builds a fence to surround them there is neither proper exploration or proper use of materials. The child is no longer learning anything appropriately.