During the month of July, Iris completed the in person portion of her Montessori Assistance to Infancy coursework, and has now returned to Nia House to share her wisdom with all of us. Please read on for an inspiring and thought provoking excerpt from Iris's writing, on the topic of freedom and choice. Thanks to Iris for sharing your thoughts and your research.
Traditional thought broadly understands freedom as independence from outside control. Dr. Montessori's theory complicates this understanding and defines freedom, or liberty, as a process of gaining independence through experiences. Freedom is not a point of arrival but rather a process that begins at birth and continues throughout our lives. Freedom operates under three main characteristics. First, to gain freedom, an individual must have an awareness of their choices. A child is able to choose, with freedom, between two materials only when they have the knowledge behind the work. For example, the child is able to practice their freedom through decision-making when they understand the difference between a handwashing work versus a plant watering work. Second, freedom operates from reason and within limits. Lastly, freedom with responsibility assists in self-construction. Freedom provides the opportunity for choice, and decision-making simultaneously empowers the decision-maker and creates a responsibility for the choice.
License and liberty are at times used interchangeably, but in reality, the two concepts are entirely different. In contrast to freedom, license is the ability to do whatever one wants whenever one wants. Rather than knowledge and choice, impulse and curiosity guide license with a complete lack of consequence and responsibility. License ultimately aids in the process of self-destruction. Every experience in life holds a set of ground rules and natural consequences; thus, license without limits does not prepare individuals for reality. The Montessori environment can mimic reality and prepare the child by allowing for informed freedom with limits that are consistent.
