Going Out
Note: This essay was one of many that I wrote from lecture as part of my AMI elementary training between 2014 -2016.
“To go out of the classroom, to go to the outside world, which includes everything, is obviously to open an immense door to instruction.” – Dr. Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence.
Introduction
It is exactly through this immense door to instruction, out of the classroom and into the natural world and the cultural community that Dr. Montessori proposes in her concept of Going Out. Going Out is integral to Cosmic Education. It relates directly to Human Tendencies and to second-plane characteristics. When children interact with and within the broader community they can see how society works. They observe the various components of society. They can see what opportunities exist for their own future inclusion in that society. Going Out is linked to the human pursuit for independence and it provides opportunities for the development of responsibility.
We must be very clear that Going Out is quite different from a field trip. It is important that Elementary teachers understand the importance, implications, and benefits of a Going Out program. It falls upon the Elementary teacher’s shoulders to advocate for this essential element with administrators and parents. It is the teacher who puts the various components of the program into place. It is the teacher who prepares the children and the environment so successful excursions can happen. The teacher needs to be sincerely convinced that Going Out is as vital to second-plane experience as are the Great Stories, the materials, charts, and timelines. Cosmic Education is not possible within the confines of four classroom walls. We will not be providing an authentic Montessori experience at the Elementary level if Going Out is not integrated into the life of the classroom.
Experience from the First Plane of Development
We know that during the years from birth to age six the child is involved in a personal construction of self. Sensorial explorations and experiences are necessary for the child as she gathers factual information. The child uses this information to classify, order, and to understand the limited attributes of the physical world. The Casa dei Bambini offers an environment that meets the needs of this young child. It provides order and experience through materialized abstractions, opportunities for repetition, and opportunities for expansion of vocabulary that assist in the creation of mental order.
The special materials allow the child to take in clear and precise impressions. It is at this stage that the child is offered keys to the world. These keys enable the child eventually to relate the qualities objects and experiences to situations beyond the classroom. The child is assisted by Sensitive Periods for order and for language. These propel the child in her conquest of the world. Language crystallizes the sensorial impressions and the experiences that have been received. The child’s sensorial exploration also leads to the discovery and acquisition of writing and reading. It leads to basic understanding of the decimal system and arithmetical operations.
Dr. Montessori points out that other learning occurs because these young children are interested in the facts of social life. She said, “Besides these facts that are merely scholastic there are others connected to social behavior.” Children take an interest in the care of their environment and of their persons. They have a special sensitivity to grace, courtesy, and beauty. Dr. Montessori has also said, “It is not only a sentiment, they like to learn all the courtesies of social life.” Because children at this age are interested in facts, all the exercises of Practical Life, not just those of Grace and Courtesy, should be grounded in the reality of the wider culture to which the child belongs.
“Successive levels of education must correspond to the successive personalities of the child.” – Dr. Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence
The formation of the individual does not take place in a vacuum. The child is a member of the family and she is a member of the small society of the Children’s House. She participates in the customs, rituals, foods, and language of these social situations. The young child has been afforded some freedoms but has also encountered some boundaries. We see the young child has a foundation in many different aspects of society. Her exposure to and participation in these small societies to which she belongs, will enable the understanding of a larger society when she transitions to the next stage of development.
By attending to the unique developmental needs of the first-plane child we offer the strongest possible foundation upon which to build the experiences that will be encountered in the Elementary years. These experiences include those of Cosmic Education and of Going Out.
Experience In the Second Plane of Development
The younger child who had been interested in the ‘what’ of the physical and social world has a founding in the world of truth and reality. This grounding is needed so the child can construct a basic and realistic understanding of the world. Dr. Montessori pointed out to us, and we see it evidenced every day, that the second-plane child has a different “psychic attitude.” The new psychological characteristics must be addressed and must be affirmed if development is to continue unimpeded. The all-consuming questions are now, ‘how’ and ‘why.’ These questions provoke explanation beyond what is and what can be known with the senses to what can be experienced through imagination and understood with reason.
“At this stage the child no longer requires an environment on the same model as the previous…He requires to go out into the world to make wider contacts with both nature and human society.” – Dr. Montessori, Four Planes of Educations
The child has achieved a certain proficiency at manipulating facts and is now reaching to find out the reasons behind and beyond them. At the second plane of development the reasoning mind and the imagination work together to create for the child what cannot be eye-witnessed. Intellectual exploration takes the place of sensorial exploration. Mental order takes precedence over physical order.
We certainly acknowledge that the construction of self continues throughout life but in the second plane the focus shifts to construction of an individual able to responsibly participate in a society. Direct observation and interaction within the wider society will help the child recognize how it works and identify what its various components are. The child needs to witness the industry, cooperation, and other interactions within the larger natural and cultural environments.
Second-plane children are emerging social beings. They are drawn by their unique characteristics into a wider field of exploration. They have loosened the bonds of family, outgrown the keys and limits of the Children’s House, and they are intensely curious about the world and its workings. Because of their characteristics, Elementary-aged children find security and stimulation in working and exploring together. They are practicing society by creating their own with each other. They want to find their places within the classroom society and they want to find out what the larger society is all about. They eventually want to find a place for themselves within the broader context.
The Elementary classroom is a social environment. The children express compassion, awareness, confidence, and skill. They have responsibilities to themselves and to each other but this is not enough to satisfy them. Going Out depends on classroom experience - intellectual and social - and it extends the classroom experience.
The presentations that the children receive and the freedoms and responsibilities of the Elementary community set the stage for their participation in society. The Elementary experience is incomplete if the children are not given the opportunity to go out on the stage and become part of the production.
Going Out in the Context of Cosmic Education
Going Out is part of the grand plan of Cosmic Education. Children are charged up and curious because our presentations delight and inspire them. They possess minds that are capable of abstraction, reason, and imagination, at the ready to fuel the fires of the intellect.
Information in our stories and our lessons is limited. Resource materials in the classroom and in the school are limited. These limits necessitate the children’s search for other sources beyond the classroom. They are designed so the children’s musings and questions will take them into the wider environment. It takes practice to learn how to give just the right amount – just enough to intrigue and inspire. If we give too much, the children have no work to do.
We need to keep in mind the importance of learning from personal effort and experience. We also need to keep in mind their true desire to participate in a wider society. Dr. Montessori acknowledged that second-plane children require, “…to go out into the world to make wider contacts with both nature and human society.” There is no better time than at the second plane, when children are intellectually and physically so strong and capable. Curiosity has been piqued. The children strive to find answers to their questions, to test their hypothesis, and to validate their theories. Their learning becomes meaningful through these investments of effort and energy. They do not seek information only for its own sake – they relish the very quest for it.
Going Out is not only a way for the children to find and collect information; it also meets their needs in terms of their expanding social development. When Elementary children have interactions with people in the broader community, they come into contact with certain customs that they may not be exposed to in the home or school environment. To interact appropriately they must learn what is expected of them in these contacts with society. Grace and Courtesy cannot disappear at the second plane. They have a social context and importance.
The child’s experiences of Cosmic Education reveal that every particle of creation makes a contribution. When the children Go Out they observe that people also work together, they communicate with each other, there is a give and take in interactions. This ensures that work goes smoothly. The children observe that no work is trivial. They learn the importance of trash collectors as well as the work of college professors. They witness that both the janitor and the architect of their school have contributed to the environment. We do not want them to take for granted any of the different kinds of work that human beings engage in. We do not want them to take their own work for granted, or the work of other children in the classroom.
The children’s experiences outside the classroom can inform the social experiences inside the classroom. Going Out exposes the children to fundamentals of life and community.
In her book From Childhood to Adolescence, Dr. Montessori makes the point, “Knowledge and social experience must be acquired at one and the same time.” Elsewhere she says, “It is difficult to make social relations real if one only uses the imagination; practical experience is necessary.”
The children are exposed to the concepts of order, law, and pattern from their very first hearing of the first Great Story. These concepts are revisited throughout the children’s Elementary experience. There is universal order and elemental order. The lives of plants and animals are regulated by intrinsic patterns. There is order and pattern in mathematical constructions. There is order and pattern in linguistic constructions. When the children Go Out they witness pattern and order and law in a new way. They witness their importance in real situations. The children gain a respect for the value of these concepts as they maintain harmony. Going Out relates directly to the Human Tendencies of exploration, orientation, and communication. We put the children in touch with the greatness of the Universe and its inhabitants thus appealing to characteristics of admiration and compassion.
Great Stories and other stories are inspiring but not comprehensive so the children are spurred to further exploration and other activity. We intentionally limit classroom resources, therefore, the children must journey beyond our four walls to soothe burning curiosity. It is easy to provide the answer or give the book for instant gratification but when we do this we deprive the children of that exertion of effort that yields that satisfaction.
Cosmic Education is not a strict curricular approach; rather, it is a way of putting the Universe into a meaningful perspective. It provides a way to link the child who is a member of a particular society in a particular time and a particular place to others within that society, time, and place. It also links the child to all of human kind, beyond the boundaries of place and time to a global view. Going Out supports this universal vision, allowing the children to explore according to interest. Going Out provides opportunities for purposeful activity directly related in some way to the children’s social and intellectual work.
Going Out and its Relationship to Freedom & Responsibility
Elementary children are offered more freedoms and they exhibit greater independence. Corresponding responsibilities balance the freedoms that are exercised. Independence is not just realized in the child’s physical abilities but also in mental abilities. When children Go Out they must think for themselves. They must plan and organize.
When they are on the outing certain decisions may be made independently of the adult. Children have already had many freedoms and many opportunities to develop self-discipline in the Casa. The same freedoms that are enjoyed by the younger children are also offered to Elementary children. The essential point is one of balance. Every freedom has a corresponding responsibility. Children may choose their own activities but if they are wasteful of their time they have not shown responsibility for their choice. The children are free to choose with whom they want to work. If they are not respectful of all the members of the classroom they must be given more time to develop this responsibility before they Go Out into the broader society. We want to know that the children have the tools to have successful interactions when they leave the classroom. They need to be prepared. The classroom community is a training ground in which the children practice and hone their social skills as well as their intellectual skills.
Freedom and responsibility have a direct relationship with and they are part of Cosmic Education. Human beings are the only species with the ultimate freedom of choice. They are capable of directing their wills and behaviors. Some choices have reverberating consequences. Going Out puts the children in touch with other human beings, with creations that are the results of the mind and spirit of human beings, and with the abundance of the creations of nature. Going Out also exposes the children to errors of judgment that have been made in the past. The vision of Cosmic Education and the Going Out experiences of the children help prepare them to make thoughtful decisions based on careful analysis
Preparation for Going Out
The preparation for Going Out begins the moment the 6-year olds enter the Elementary community. The children begin to experience some different responsibilities. One responsibility is to the society of the classroom. Our hope is that the children recognize that the order of the classroom and the guidelines that they follow to maintain that order contribute to the harmony of their small community. They will be able to recognize the importance of law, order, and harmony in the larger community as well. When the children show responsibility to the order of the class they are indicating they are ready and capable of responsibility to a larger order, outside the class. For example, using a crosswalk. In our country, people drive on the right side of the road. What would happen if people decided to drive on either side of the road?
Elementary children are drawn to group work and interactions among members of a group provide valuable firsthand experience. They learn that cooperation, respect, and considerate communication are necessary for successful ventures. Their in-house experiences open their eyes to what works outside the classroom. When we observe that they can be respectful of others within their classroom society we can trust that they will demonstrate the same behavior when they leave the classroom.
Something else that contributes to children’s readiness for Going Out is their care of the environment. When they demonstrate responsibility to the materials, plants and animals, and each other we have another indication that they are ready to Go Out. How the children comport themselves in the classroom is another indication of their readiness. We notice they start to carry themselves with a certain control – with a dignity. We see that they can control their impulses and politely wait for their turns.
These observations reveal that the children have developed self-control. When they have self-control they are ready to Go Out. Self-control extends to the children’s following of the rules of the classroom. It is evidenced in responsible work choices and using work periods to their fullest advantage.
We do not expect they will reach these responsibilities without the teacher’s clear guidance. We teachers must let them know what the expectations are. We must give them opportunities to make good choices and we must give them opportunities to learn for themselves the consequences of errors in judgment.
Practical Life Skills
Going Out is part of the Elementary child’s Practical Life. Practical Life exercises in Primary have a relationship to movement, meaningful activity, and sequence and order. So too are the activities of Going Out related to these ends. The children themselves make the arrangements for Going Out. Therefore, they need to think through all of the necessary steps. Of course, we give them guidance but we do not want to tell them exactly what they need. We ask questions that will lead them to cover the necessary components. When do you want to do this? How long will it take? How mush does it cost? How will you get there? Who is available to accompany you? We guide them in thinking through the different steps that will lead to a successful excursion.
This is another occasion in which we can employ humor to bring the children’s attention to certain situations. For example, before they go to a symphony or play, we will let them know other people will be there and will be sitting around them. We can work out a scenario where we’re sitting in chairs, jumping up and down on the seats, talking to each other, singing along, and loudly unwrapping hard candies. How do you think other audience members would respond to that? What do you think you need to do so that you enjoy the experience and others do too?
The teacher also prepares the children for skills they may need. For example, if they are with a docent who is giving information at a nature center or museum we want them to learn how to take notes by writing short phrases and key words. They can collaborate on these later, after they have left the venue. We may need to give a few lessons in sketching so as they’re at the botanical garden they can make a sketch of an interesting leaf or scene. Another very important skill is telephone etiquette. They need to plan in advance what they want to say on the phone. They need to practice identifying themselves and their school and the purpose of their call. They may need to take notes during the telephone call. They also need to learn to deal with adults who are not used to children handling their own arrangements – it is not a common situation.
Double Prepared Environment
The Prepared Environment for Elementary children is a double environment. The teacher will assist the children with the social and practical skills they need before they go out and the teacher also needs to learn what opportunities exist in the local community. We want to be able to guide the children to available resources when they have demonstrated a special interest in something. We want to have a collection of brochures and information from local venues: museums, parks, botanical gardens, and historical centers.
We prepare our environments in such a way that the children have opportunities for Going Out. Because we have many children with many interests at any given time, not all children Go Out at the same time – that would be a field trip! A Going Out is related to genuine interest. Only those who have been inspired to pursue a certain topic will be involved in the Going Out. Goings Out involve small groups of interested children – not children who become interested when the excursion planning begins.
Types of Goings Out
Going Out is as different from a field trip as Cosmic Education is different from traditional education. There is a place for field trips, but they should be very rare and not the only occasions for the children to leave the classroom. Think of those once in a lifetime exhibits: when the treasures of ancient Egypt are displayed at your local museum, for example. A field trip to the arboretum will not appeal to all the children in the classroom. The children become unfocused and unruly, and the adult’s job becomes that of a wrangler. Going Out should spring from the children’s classroom experiences and work. They have active imaginations and reasoning, functioning intellects. If the teacher has been diligent with stories and presentations they will be prompted to find out more for themselves. If we have practiced that fine art of limitation, then the children want access to other sources beyond the classroom, to appease their appetites for more.
Dr. Montessori said, “We have provided schools and material; they are not enough; he requires to explore the physical world and society.”
Children, having exhausted classroom materials, discover they must go further afield to satisfy their interest. Other examples besides visiting a museum or professor might be to inspect the roots of an overturned tree in the neighborhood, to examine architectural features of buildings in their city, or to clock the current of a stream at different locations along its course. This is why we limit classroom materials. It is why we limit our information. We can put the children in touch with people and natural phenomena of their world.
There are other reasons for making contact with others in the broader community and these are connected with the Practical Life of the classroom. Those who are caring for the fish may need to purchase a new filter for the aquarium. The children who are building a birdhouse need to go to the lumber store or the hardware store for the things they need. The ones who are planning a Chinese luncheon need to go to a grocery store or ethnic foods store for ingredients. As tempting as it is, we do not buy all classroom items in bulk because it will necessitate the children to Go Out and make purchases as needed. It’s also lovely when they develop relationships with local merchants, librarians, and townspeople. These types of excursions provide direct and meaningful interactions with outside society.
Big Work
Another type of Going Out has a different type of relationship with a child’s growing sense of compassion. They become aware of the needs of others, both near and far. Dr. Montessori wrote, “We cannot give principles by teaching them, but by prolonged social experience.”
Elementary children come to realize that others may have needs they can fulfill. There may be services they can render to others: the displaced, the hungry, the lonely, the infirmed or to the local or global environment.
According to Dr. Montessori, “The acts of courtesy which he has been taught with a view to his making contacts with others must now be brought to a new level. The question of aid to the weak, the aged, the sick, for example, now arises.”
Children might fundraise for victims of a local natural disaster. They may organize a neighborhood cleanup. They may decide to play Bingo with senior citizens. Perhaps they embark on a national letter-writing campaign for peace. Perhaps they will help in the infant or toddler communities.
The characteristic of Big Work implies more than creating a diorama or a 300-page report. It extends to participating in something meaningful and larger than oneself. These types of Goings Out allow for these types of Big Work – of investing mind, heart, and hands for a greater good.
Concluding
Going Out is purposeful activity prompted by the children’s needs for deeper understanding, for fulfilling a practical matter, or for providing a service. Many benefits result. They go beyond the gathering of information. The children’s observation skills become more refined. They become more independent and responsible. The children are put in contact with the society of which they will ultimately become members. The children are exposed to service and appreciation – to different ways law and order are implemented – and to the integrity of work.
In Dr. Montessori’s words, “For the ‘valorisation’ of the child’s personality there must be a very definite basis in social experience.” Valorization comes from the Latin, valere, to be of worth.
It is no wonder that Dr. Montessori also said, “The foot is noble. To walk is noble. Thanks to the feet, the child who already walks can expect of the outdoors certain answers to his secret questions.”
