The Gift of Independence—The Culture Born Within Our Montessori Classroom

A young child is watering a plant in the environment when suddenly the pot overflows and water cascades down the shelf onto the floor.

The young child immediately looks around the room, unsure how to stop the flow of water.

Although our adult instinct is to rush over and help, to intervene before the water spills, we recognise how this interference will deny the children of a valuable life experience. A logical consequence that needs to play out.

The guide trusts in the unfolding and the lesson about to take place. In a matter of seconds, an older friend is there with a mop. Children from all corners of the room leave their reading drawers, maps, Lego, and projects. "I can help. Get a towel. I have one. Make it safe!" can be heard as more children join to help dry the shelves and the floor.

As guides, we stand back with full hearts.

We witness love, compassion, and care for others and the community. We see young eyes full of self-worth and a sense of fulfilment that can only be gained through helping another being.

The child now has a new sense of belonging, resilience and understanding that our classroom family is there to assist, keep others safe and hold each other responsible for their actions. A lesson that could not be eventualised by an adult stepping in and "fixing" the mess.

We observe an understanding that this is a process, a learning, that can only come if the child is able to feel moments of discomfort, of things going wrong.

For this is life, and this lesson will repeat itself many times, and our gift to the child is for them to experience it and to grow from it.