Beyond Knowing

Why Montessori education prepares children to understand, think independently and act with purpose

There was once a pathway that seemed fairly secure in our society. Get good grades, take your GCSEs and A levels, go to university, earn a degree and then maybe a master’s or PhD and you would get a job.

For a growing number of young people, that is no longer the case. Qualifications still matter of course and university degrees can be a great continuation along a path towards increasing your experience, knowledge, and understanding but they do not guarantee the future they once promised. Employers increasingly look beyond qualifications. They want people who are interesting, adaptable and curious. People who can communicate, work with others, solve problems and respond to the world as it is now.

For a long time, people who were good at receiving information, retaining it and reproducing it were seen as ‘intelligent’ and so the most likely to succeed. But that was never the whole truth. The world we now live in is finally exposing the limitations of that idea.

The phrase “It is not about how intelligent you are, but how you are intelligent” has never felt more relevant.

The internet and the rapid development of intelligent technologies, despite their very real environmental costs, have changed the value or opinion of Intelligence. Knowledge that was once accessible only to a smaller number of people is now available to many almost instantly. This has helped to level the playing field for those whose strengths were never best demonstrated through memorising and reproducing information.

The quote which many people attribute to Einstein, although I think it was a quote from a movie about Einstein, rings true too in the context of the knowledge base we have access to online. “Any fool can know. The point is to understand”

What matters increasingly is what we do with knowledge and how we understand. The questions we ask, the connections we make and the ideas we put into action.

This brings me to entrepreneurship.

We often think of an entrepreneur as someone who starts a business or makes money. Making money can certainly be one result, but the word has a wider meaning. It comes from the French entreprendre which means to undertake or take something on.

Entrepreneurship is the capacity to recognise an opportunity, take initiative, bring together what is needed and turn an idea into action. It can happen in a business, but it can also happen in a school, a community, a social project or our everyday lives.

Maria Montessori wrote: “At each age one must seek for the opportunity for the greatest effort, and the greatest social experience one can reach actively.”

— Maria Montessori, Citizen of the World, p. 24

That , for me, is about the true meaning of entrepreneurship which is recognising opportunities and actively engaging with them.

Montessori also wrote: “The future generation must not only know how to do what we can teach them, they must be able to go a step further.”

— Maria Montessori, The 1946 London Lectures, p. 140

Montessori’s writing talks about much of what we would now call entrepreneurship. It is not just about making money, it’s about recognising possibilities and taking responsibility. It’s also about creating something of value and participating in society to make the world better.

When we recognise an opportunity, take initiative and put our ideas into action, we also begin to find a sense of purpose.

Choosing Montessori education for your child (or choosing to make it your work) gives us that sense of purpose because Montessori is founded on a developmental and relational understanding of human life.

As a Montessori community, we recognise that each plane of development honours what has come before and prepares the child or young person for what comes next. The Children’s House prepares for Elementary, the Elementary prepares for Adolescence and Adolescence prepares young people for the fourth plane, from 18 to 24, and for their place in adult society. In that way, we’re not only helping children succeed at the stage of life they are currently in. We are supporting their natural development of the whole human being.

The employment situation facing young people today, together with the rapid development of new technologies, has become a catalyst for a much wider public conversation about the purpose of schools. What are schools actually for? What qualities will young people need? What does it mean to prepare someone for a future?

I believe we are standing at an important threshold. Maria Montessori’s scientific research, practical work and lifelong commitment to understanding human development may be more relevant to society now than ever before and that sense of purpose runs through my own working life.

The other day, a relative who retired a few years ago was staying with my family. As I was preparing to go to work he pointed out with some glee, that he no longer had to go to work and it made me think. Working at a Montessori school gives me a real sense of purpose, and I look forward to coming to work. I would like everyone across our organisation to share that feeling, that we are part of a combined effort to serve our community and continue Maria Montessori’s work.

That doesn’t mean every day will be easy, or that we always agree. Purpose isn’t what we might describe as comfort. It’s more of a feeling that our work matters and that, together, we are contributing to something larger than ourselves.

We can pursue that shared sense of purpose with AMI’s vision in mind:

“The Association Montessori Internationale understands, articulates and aids the natural development of human beings throughout their lives, enabling them to contribute positively to society, leading to a more harmonious, peaceful and sustainable world through education.”

Our task as adults is not only to pass on what we already know but it is also to prepare children and young people to recognise possibilities and take initiative, contribute to society, and go a step further. To be entreprenueurs in the true meaning of the word and to have purpose.