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    The Absorbent Mind

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    karl symonds
    The document discusses Maria Montessori's concept of the "absorbent mind" which is the sponge-like capacity of young children up to age 6 to effortlessly absorb language, culture, and knowledge from their environment. It compares the absorbent mind to a camera that captures every detail, unlike the adult "reasoning mind" which consciously works to learn and remember. By understanding the power of the absorbent mind, early childhood programs can introduce engaging activities to provide children a broad foundation for building their identity and personality.

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    The Absorbent Mind

    Uploaded by

    karl symonds
    754 views1 page
    The document discusses Maria Montessori's concept of the "absorbent mind" which is the sponge-like capacity of young children up to age 6 to effortlessly absorb language, culture, and knowledge from their environment. It compares the absorbent mind to a camera that captures every detail, unlike the adult "reasoning mind" which consciously works to learn and remember. By understanding the power of the absorbent mind, early childhood programs can introduce engaging activities to provide children a broad foundation for building their identity and personality.

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    Dive Deeper with our Professional Development Courses for Montessori Teachers

    Original Title

    THE ABSORBENT MIND

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    The document discusses Maria Montessori's concept of the "absorbent mind" which is the sponge-like capacity of young children up to age 6 to effortlessly absorb language, culture, and knowledge from their environment. It compares the absorbent mind to a camera that captures every detail, unlike the adult "reasoning mind" which consciously works to learn and remember. By understanding the power of the absorbent mind, early childhood programs can introduce engaging activities to provide children a broad foundation for building their identity and personality.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    754 views1 page

    The Absorbent Mind

    Uploaded by

    karl symonds
    The document discusses Maria Montessori's concept of the "absorbent mind" which is the sponge-like capacity of young children up to age 6 to effortlessly absorb language, culture, and knowledge from their environment. It compares the absorbent mind to a camera that captures every detail, unlike the adult "reasoning mind" which consciously works to learn and remember. By understanding the power of the absorbent mind, early childhood programs can introduce engaging activities to provide children a broad foundation for building their identity and personality.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 1

    THE ABSORBENT MIND

    The absorbent mind is one of the most important ideas in early childhood education.
    Maria Montessori presented this fundamental concept to the world more than a hundred years ago from her
    initial observations of children. The absorbent mind makes our adult lives possible.

    The absorbent mind is the sponge-like capacity to absorb from the environment what is necessary to create an
    individual from his or her specific culture. It is the quality of the child’s mind up to the age of about six, when
    there is a transition to the reasoning mind we have as adults.

    Every little child learns to speak his mother tongue. And no one teaches him the vocabulary, the grammar, or
    the syntax. It happens every day in every country at just about the same time. It’s a rather amazing feat! If you
    have tried to learn a foreign language later in your life, you know it is not so easy. Yet every little child does it
    effortlessly. How? Through the absorbent mind. If the child is in an environment where she hears the language,
    she will speak it. As the child absorbs words and their meaning along with the context and the emotions behind
    the words, she begins to construct the ability to communicate.

    Children absorb not only their language, but the traits of their families and communities. They learn how and
    what we eat, and how to behave in certain situations. Some of it is consciously taught, but a great deal of it is
    simply absorbed through this powerful child mind. Children absorb through a process Montessori called
    “mental chemistry,” and actually build themselves and their identity through what they absorb.

    To compare the absorbent mind with the reasoning mind, let’s compare a photograph with a drawing.

    Both of these images are of a cup. In the photograph, every detail is captured exactly as it is: the color, the
    texture, the angle, the background. It is fixed and it remains as it was at the moment the picture was taken. In
    the drawing, the detail is as much or as little as the artist chooses. It may be the artist’s idea of the cup rather
    than any specific cup, and it may or may not include background.

    The absorbent mind is more like the camera. What the child takes in during the absorbent mind period is taken
    in effortlessly and remains as the foundation of his or her personality. What the child takes in later in the
    reasoning mind is taken in through conscious work and memory, and is not so foundational to the personality.

    Montessori’s understanding of the power of the absorbent mind in the first six years of life is a great gift. It
    teaches us that we can prepare a rich environment for the young child and, as he simply lives in the
    environment, he absorbs from it and learns. In the Montessori early childhood program for ages 2½ through 6,
    we introduce the children to all manner of interesting activities, including language, mathematics, the sciences,
    music, art, and geometry.

    Through the power of the absorbent mind, we can give our children a broad and deep foundation, when it is
    completely effortless for them to learn. Through the amazing “mental chemistry” of the absorbent mind, the
    child build his or her identity with wide interests. The child learns through self-chosen, engaging activity and
    builds a solid base habit of thoughtful concentration and structured learning.

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