Tech & Montessori
One recent morning, as I finished my fairly noisy process of preparing coffee, I suddenly noticed how silent my home was. Usually, my twin 16 year olds are jostling with their bags, their lunches or each other as they hurry to finish breakfast and catch the bus to high school. Were they gone already? I walked around the corner and there they were, but they were strikingly still. They sat, hunched slightly, heads bowed, cradling their glowing screens with both hands -- just one finger moving, gracefully sliding across the smooth surface, over and over, until my presence broke the spell. They laughed, we chatted about it briefly and finished our morning routine. And throughout that morning, I wondered: What do my students need from me, their friends, their community and their society to develop most fully in a world where apps can so powerfully arrest our children’s bodies and direct their attention? How do we help them grow strong now and thrive in their futures?
On October 24, many in our PCS community gathered to watch Dr. Delaney Ruston’s ScreenAgers: The Next Chapter, Uncovering Skills for Stress Resilience. Set in King County middle and high schools, the film opens a window onto the social and emotional developmental needs of our children and teens, and the related impacts of digital entertainment and social media.
In her remarks following the film, physician and filmmaker, Dr Ruston, emphasized that her central concern is not the content of our children’s digital experience (though that can raise legitimate concerns) but that incredibly important social, physical, cognitive and emotional skill building cannot happen as much as it should due to the stronger appeal of the digital realm. This new reality is correlated with significant negatively impact on many aspects of our young peoples health and well being, with reduced communication skills, depression, and anxiety topping the list. Dr Ruston’s suggested remedies dovetail quite well with the Montessori approach. She invites us to consciously grow in and model our own emotional and social skills in front of and with our children, to explicitly teach children appropriate new interpersonal skills as they encounter new social and emotional concerns. She noted the particular efficacy of older teens directly teaching younger teens these skills as well. We know, too, how important it is for these older students to be needed by the community, particularly for skills that are newly acquired.
As I listened to discussion among our parents after the viewing, I kept returning to the image of my stilled, absorbed, huddled teens lost in semi-private worlds. Technology gives us so many advantages, but we need to be very conscious of how we support our children as they find their way through its rocky shoals. And, no surprise, I believe that Montessori gives us, their teachers, parents and elders, some great tools to use to help our kids.
Decades of psychological, cognitive and educational research have confirmed Montessori’s observations that all children learn more easily and more deeply when they get to manipulate or create work with their own hands. Montessorians know that our children have hundreds of thousands of years of evolution’s momentum driving their development every day, for every child today. Our study of human development leads us to very deliberate decisions, and in Primary, computers are not used in the classrooms. This extraordinary time between birth and 6 is a time when children delight in and have a special mental capacity to absorb the world and shape their intellects through all of their physical senses, with hands-on exploration and work as the gold standard for engagement.
In our Montessori Elementary and Middle School classrooms, we continue to utilize sophisticated materials to entice and reveal the elegant patterns in mathematics, geometry, grammar, geology, poetry, literature and human community - always inspiring further independent exploration by the students, with opportunities for them to then share what they learn in creative and dynamic ways. We use digital technologies in gradual and deliberate ways to access useful research materials and community resources in order to deepen their academic work. At the same time, we maintain strict limits on developmental work that can be best attained through hands on and face to face engagement.
Beyond the approach to computer use per se, children who grow up in a high fidelity Montessori environment like Pacific Crest absorb other tools that will help them navigate the screen-centered world when they enter it as older teens.
Foremost among these, is the habit of respectful engagement with each other, with their teachers and with both our living and material world. From shaking hands and saying good morning everyday, to Grace and Courtesy lessons on how to interrupt, care for plants, how to apologize or accept a gift, to facilitating community meetings or habitat restoration efforts, coordinating group work roles, to “getting help talking to each other” or helping younger children listen to each other’s feelings, and serving as hosts during whole school ceremonies, our students are getting practice at every level of their education to name their feelings, analyze problems, come up with great solutions and create community.
Secondly, across all ages, our children are directing their own work, everyday, exercising and strengthening their self discipline, in service of goals instead of whims. Self control in service to a higher sense of self is of vital value to our children when they ultimately do engage with these devices that so dramatically impact dopamine cycles in the brain. This knowledge of how to live in this shared world with grace and courtesy, joy and friendship, strength, self-discipline, self-knowledge and honor -- these are the great invisible gifts that our teens/young adults will carry with them into the digital world when they are ready for it.
This topic is so rich, we’ll look for ways to meet and talk about it by level soon. Do also look at this wonderful article written by a computer scientist-turned Montessori teacher. If you as a family are considering introducing digital devices to your children, I strongly recommend that you do not purchase it as a gift, but as a family tool. If you are curious about this topic in particular, chat with your teacher or me. Guided thoughtfully by parents throughout their introductions to digital tools, our children can grow up to truly thrive in our extraordinary new world.
~ Dorrie