Modeling Montessori Behavior in the Home: Through the Eyes (Ears, and Nose) of a Child

Growing up, I remember my grandmother cautioning “Little pitchers have big ears”. I always wondered why “pictures” needed ears! When I was older, I understood she meant that the children were listening, but I wondered again why she called us pitchers. After all, none of us played baseball. It wasn't until I was an adult when I learned that the adage refers to the large handles or “ears” that are sometimes attached to small vessels, such as a pitcher. Ah ha! At last I understood the connection.

Maria Montessori would have cautioned that children not only hear everything, but they also see, imprint, and even mirror our behaviors. The child is watching the adults around him from birth. Everything we do, everything we say is locked away in her/his memory. In her book, The Child in the Family, (1956) Montessori makes her point very clearly:

The child is sensitive and impressionable to such a degree that the adult ought to monitor everything he says and does, for everything is literally engraved in the child’s mind. (p 40)

As a Montessori teacher, I've been in the uncomfortable position on a few occasions where I have had to call parents to inform them that their child had shared information of a personal and inappropriate nature at school. The response is usually “I don’t know where she heard that!” It is very difficult to be the bearer of this news. It is a delicate situation and not one I relish.

Parents in your Montessori school need to understand how important behavioral modeling is for their children.