Week 3 – ECS 210 Blog Post

“One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child” – Maria Montessori

What does this quote make possible? It allows for the focus of education to be put on the happiness and experience of the child. Instead of an education that focuses on the input of facts into the child’s brain, this quote highlights the importance of the child’s feelings and the things they experience in school. This quote explains how the “correctness of educational procedure” should be tested by the child’s joy of learning and happiness in school. This puts the pressure on the teachers and school boards to ensure that students are happy in school. If schools placed more effort on the happiness of the child, students would enjoy learning far more and would be more likely to be life-long learners.

What does this quote make impossible? This quote shows how the most important thing to achieve for the “correctness” of schooling is the happiness of the child. This quote makes it impossible, or at least minimizes the amount of non-engaging activities that don’t interest students or foster a happy learning environment. This quote makes it impossible for educators to believe that a school or educational procedure is running effectively if the children involved are not happy or excited to be there. This encourages teachers to think outside the box and come up with activities that engage and involve students in order to achieve happy learners.

What does it say about the teacher? I think this quote says that teachers should be valuing the individual and collective interests of their students. If they teach things the students are interested in, or at least the required topics in an interesting way, students will be happy to learn. Most children want to learn at school and if it is done in an interesting way, they will be happy and engaged. Teachers should not be overly focused on having the students regurgitate information; rather they should focus on the growth of the students and the enjoyment they receive from learning.

What does it say about the students? This quote says that students should be happy at school. They should want to go to school and they should be excited to learn. Montessori’s beliefs place a lot of value on students’ enjoyment which is critical to a successful education and creating life-long learners.

How does it relate to your own understanding of curriculum and school? This quote really follows with my beliefs about school as I think it is incredibly necessary that students enjoy themselves at school and enjoy what they are learning. I think this is the main goal of being a teacher and it is something I will strive towards in the classroom. I want to educate students, not only on the required subjects and materials, but I also want to teach them the joys of learning and the benefits it can have. I want to teach students to become life-long learners.