Original subtitles

♪

When my daughter was born,

struck with such sudden love,

I spent hours watching her

and trying to unlock the mystery of this new life.

♪

I also wondered how to respond

to this extraordinary inner energy.

[baby squeals]

By observing her,

I found the toys that captivated her most.

♪

I thought up the most rewarding activities.

♪

But at six months,

she refused to listen to me.

She pursued her own interests.

♪

That was my first lesson.

Instead of guiding her,

I respected her spontaneity.

♪

And it worked.

At just one year old,

with no help whatsoever,

she managed to stand on her own.

♪

How great to be independent.

Then, she managed to walk-- well, almost.

♪

She set off to conquer the world.

♪

Exploring it at her own pace

and with her own goals.

♪

I discovered how seriously

she took these activities.

♪

She made a tireless effort

to tackle mysterious challenges.

The hardest, most ambitious projects

seem to motivate her most.

♪

This was one experiment too many.

My family screamed at this scene

and said I was crazy.

[birdsong]

Get down?

Is that what she wants?

[Ana vocalizes]

This scene really disturbed me.

Is the danger for a child

to let them do things themselves

or to think in their stead?

♪

I found these simple questions

were central to a revolutionary

educational method,

that of Maria Montessori.

It all began in 1907

in a slum district of Rome,

when she opened a children's house

for 50 girls and boys age 3 to 6.

♪

With the eye of a psychiatrist

and anthropologist,

she observed the children's spontaneous activity.

Astonished by what she saw,

she devised an educational program,

then worked tirelessly to improve and promote it.

One hundred years after her pioneering work,

her vision of education is as inspirational,

and schools upholding her approach

open every day all over the world.

Which discoveries astonished her?

How does she see children?

What is her message for we parents and educators?

♪

♪

[indistinct chatter of children]

I spent a year visiting Montessori schools

all over France.

My daughter started at our local village school,

and I set up my camera

in the northern French town of Roubaix,

in Christian Maréchal's kindergarten class,

a class I chose for its faithfulness

to the great woman's method.

[indistinct chatter]

My first impression is one of constant activity,

real freedom of movement,

yet also a calm in the classroom.

My observations are based on Montessori's humanism

and voice.

"The child's way of doing things

has been for us an inexhaustible

fountain of revelations.

We're faced with a being we should not consider

a powerless being anymore.

Their dignity will arise before our eyes

as we consider them as the constructor

of their own intelligence,

the being who, guided by the inner teacher,

works tirelessly and joyfully

on constructing that marvel, a human being."

"Children observe the things around them passionately

but are particularly attracted

by the actions of adults.

They want to understand and imitate them.

In this way, as they grow up,

they become not just an adult

but an adult of their environment."

Seeing the children exert themselves,

make big movements,

repeat the same gestures over and over,

I think of her main warning:

Beware. A child is not a miniature adult.

"When an adult knows how to do something,

they always try to do it with a minimum of effort,

to save time,

to get someone to replace them.

The opposite is true of the child.

They act to develop their capabilities."

"The developing child must constantly be on the move,

acting, looking, thinking, reasoning.

They must be active all the time."

"The child has a natural irresistible tendency

towards work.

When I observed this phenomenon,

I was surprised and incredulous,

and it led me to think, to doubt,

and to ponder for a long time

until I was convinced."

"The tendency to work is tied up

with the child's nature

and therefore with human nature."

"We've learned another intriguing fact.

Children find it very hard to concentrate

on spoken words,

but they have no difficulty concentrating

on objects they handle.

A beautiful toy, an attractive picture,

a wonderful story

can without doubt rouse the child's interest.

But if the child may simply look or listen,

their interest will be superficial and fleeting."

"The skill of a human's hand is bound up

with the development of their mind,

and in the light of history,

with the development of civilization."

"The human hand expresses our thoughts,

and we have left traces of our handiwork

almost since we appeared on earth."

Some children,

like four-year-old Géraud,

spend time every day exploring the classroom,

for the joy of strolling,

but also to learn by watching the others.

"Envy is unknown to little children.

They're not abashed by an older child

knowing more than they do,

because they sense that their turn will come

when they are bigger.

There is love and admiration,

a true comradeship."

In this class of 28 2 1/2- to 6-year-olds,

I gradually discover each child's personality.

Every day, I see touching little scenes,

a multitude of beneficial socialization experiences.

I understand why Maria Montessori

continually defended the principle

of large, mixed-age groups.

"The higher levels of perfection of a class

come through social life.

The charm of social life is in the number

of different types that one meets."

"If we watch children without interfering,

we see something apparently very strange.

They do not help one another as we do.

They give help only when it is necessary.

This is very illuminating,

because it means they intuitively respect

their essential need not to be helped unnecessarily."

I see on a daily basis how hard it is

for us adults to not stand in for children,

not advise them,

and not help them do things more quickly or better,

because our intentions are often good.

[bells tinkle]

"The child cares little about what others know.

They want to learn on their own,

experience the world themselves,

and perceive it by their own efforts.

We must let them do this,

because their life will depend on their ability

to act independently."

By reading Maria Montessori

and observing these children for days on end,

I find answers to my questions.

If we want to respect a child,

it now seems obvious to me we must encourage independence.

Otherwise, we delay their development

and sap their confidence.

We create dependence.

Is that our wish as adults?

Letting them experiment and discover their ability

is proof of our confidence and love.

I'm always surprised by the reaction of children

to difficulties.

They're determined to succeed at all costs.

Not only do they accept challenges,

but they redouble their efforts.

They are capable of apparently difficult things.

I can see that most of the time,

we underestimate them.

"Rhythm is an intrinsic characteristic

of an individual, like the shape of their body."

"The individual can't change it

without suffering."

Louis, who is three and a half,

is fascinated by these letters.

Like all children around age four,

he is going through a period

of sensitivity to written language.

It means he can learn effortlessly

and with determination.

So it is a sensitive period for learning to read.

If he learns later,

without this natural enthusiasm,

it will be harder.

"The child does not learn to speak as we do

a foreign language.

The adult has no choice but to learn its grammar

by heart

and never fully masters it."

"Whereas the child, until the age of seven,

spontaneously absorbs the logical construction

of language

and the tiny differences in intonation."

"There exists in the small child

an unconscious mental state of a creative nature,

which we've called the absorbent mind.

This absorbent mind does not construct

with a voluntary effort

but does so according to the guidance

of inner sensitivities,

which we call sensitive periods,

as the sensitivity is transient,

lasting only until nature has done its work."

I gradually came to understand

the importance of these sensitive periods.

They are essential.

They invite us to change education paradigms,

to start with a child's reality

and not a program to be completed.

I observe that some children,

after months of passivity,

start working all of a sudden and learn very quickly.

We must have faith in every child,

whatever their pace of development.

Géraud has ample time to choose his work.

Which will excite him most?

"The acts arousing in the child

not only interest but even enthusiasm

are those which require of them the greatest exactness.

The harder it is,

the more enthusiastic they are."

"No teacher could procure such phenomena of attention

by any artifices.

They evidently have an internal origin.

The power of concentration shown by little children

from three to four years old

is only found in people of genius."

By observing and thinking about spontaneous concentration,

Maria Montessori laid the foundations

of her educational method.

"Movement is the key to keeping the child's attention.

It cannot focus on one thing,

as there are so many,

or on words,

but rather on movement, which engages them

and their whole personality."

Maria Montessori saw in the ability to concentrate,

a century before neuroscientists proved it,

the cornerstone of all learning,

and more generally, of self-realization.

Through her observations and experiments,

she discovered that

to arouse and develop concentration,

children must be given the freedom to choose activities,

and to repeat them as many times as they wish.

"Knowledge attained is a point of departure

for the child.

They then begin to enjoy the repetition of the exercise,

and they repeat what they've learned

an indefinite number of times,

with obvious satisfaction."

"Just as to quench thirst

it's not sufficient to sip water

but to drink one's fill,

the child must be able to fully satisfy

their inner needs."

"So it's regrettable what is done

in many schools today

when the teacher says to a pupil,

'No, not you, you know this already.'"

For a child, concentration is a conquest.

When I was filming,

I tried not to disturb it.

I failed.

Géraud, who will not be put off by a child,

by an adult, or by playtime,

spends 20 minutes cutting out,

thus satisfying his natural need of perfection.

Will Charlie,

who is intensively motivated by her work,

manage to stay focused?

Disturbing a child during their conquest

of concentration

can often cause them to abandon their task.

"My particular method creates the conditions

favorable to the emergence in the child

of spontaneous phenomena."

Whereas most often we try to provoke in them

phenomena desired by the adult,

we have concentrated our efforts

on the study of these conditions.

[chatter]

Judging by my observations,

these children are happy.

And in this climate of freedom,

they learn a lot.

As for me, I wonder about the adults' place

in this self-learning process.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

The first step in the integral resolution

of the problem of education must not be made by the child,

but by the adult educator.

♪

She must divest herself of preconceptions

and change her moral attitudes.

Not impose her activity, but stimulate that of the child.

Know how to be passive so the child is active.

♪

Instead of the proud dignity

of one who claims to be infallible,

she must assume the vesture of humility.

Another step follows this one.

We must prepare an environment adapted to the child's life,

one that is free of obstacles.

♪

We've called this environment the Children's House.

They must be beautiful and pleasant in every detail,

for beauty invites activity as well as work.

♪

It contains not only didactic materials specially designed

for the intellectual development of the child,

but also everything necessary

for the life of this miniature family.

♪

Every object invites activity and work

on real life tasks with a real goal.

♪

The material is limited and tidy

because to stimulate interest and concentration,

there should be nothing distracting or superfluous.

♪

[chatter]

[chatter]

How delightful to see,

after all Christian's daily preparation,

the children set about their tasks.

[chatter]

Without it being necessary to promise rewards

or threaten punishment.

Maria Montessori often stressed this point.

Subject to the delusion

of the most absurd procedures of ordinary education,

I'd believe that to foster in the child

a spirt of work and peace,

it was necessary to flatter their basest sentiments,

such as gluttony, vanity, or self-love,

by means of some exterior reward.

So I was astonished when I learned

that the child who is allowed to educate themselves

loses these lower instincts.

In our system, the educator truly becomes

what a mother should be,

the guardian and protector of emerging life.

She's always ready to answer and assist when necessary.

She lets the life develop freely within the limits of the good.

Her task is to give the child the chance to develop

their inner forces and become master of themselves.

♪

♪

[chatter]

The educator must distinguish

useful, productive activities from those that waste energy.

[hushing]

It's often said that the child must submit

to the adult's will in order to develop their own.

But by making them submissive and demanding obedience,

we hinder the development of their will.

Our aim is to cultivate the will and not to break it.

[chatter]

The educator's main task is to ensure the child

can stabilize the wandering, passing attention

by which they seem to belong less to themselves

than to the objects they're drawn to.

So the difficulty does not lie in finding material

that can rouse their attention,

but material that can maintain it.

Only then can they progress

and reveal the astounding results

that we've obtained.

The Montessori Method revolves around

this essential point,

the conquest of concentration.

[bell chimes]

The lesson is a call to attention.

It presents the use of an object which,

if it meets the inner needs of the child

and is something that will satisfy them,

will rouse the child to prolonged activity

and they will want to repeat it.

[bell chimes]

[bell chimes]

[bell chimes]

[bell chimes]

For the child striving to become an adult,

what is really interesting and exciting

is overcoming a difficulty,

achieving a victory.

The use of materials must lead to the satisfaction

of having made progress.

[bells chiming]

The development of human potential

must be the aim of education.

When children learn by watching their peers,

or an older child teaches a younger child,

the educator must refrain from interfering,

satisfied and certain that her discretion

is the key to greater success.

The exact and intimate lesson

given to each child separately

is the teacher's offering to the depths of the child's soul.

To help the soul which is coming to life

and will live by virtue of its own ethos.

[chatter]

The need to be the center of our attention, of our love,

is in the soul of the child.

When we bring something new to a child,

we must devote ourselves exclusively to them.

They know that for these few minutes

that they alone exist and nobody else.

Once they've been shown an exercise properly,

the child needs no further lessons or instructions.

They continue their work according to their judgment,

adapting it from time to time to circumstances,

just as we adults do.

The real signs of children's activities

are not easy to find.

Ssss.

We must believe in the good that lies hidden in the child

and prepare ourselves to recognize it

with loving concern.

Only in this fashion will we assess the child correctly.

Christian and I have thought a lot about the materials

that stimulate children,

and more generally about their spontaneous acts.

It has become for me, too,

a continual source of amazement and wonder.

[child singing]

Charlie is at real ease in her Children's House.

She's very active and sometimes takes material

she doesn't know how to use.

Where is Charlie looking for the answer?

She needs more time to understand that here

she's not working to give the educator the right answer,

but for herself to develop her own potential.

If the lesson is not understood by the child,

the educator should not let them know they've made a mistake.

This might arrest for a long time

this mysterious impulse to act,

which constitutes the whole basis for progress.

[energetic playing]

♪

It's obvious that for an activity to arise,

there must be material,

and material that awakens interest.

♪

For example, there are frames

to help the child learn how to button, lace, and knot.

♪

A sink in which they can wash their hands.

All of these exercises which are graded by difficulty

are practical life exercises.

They help the child to develop motor coordination

and promote concentration.

♪

Our sensorial material provides a kind of guide,

for it classifies the impressions

that each sense can receive.

♪

Colors, notes, noises, forms, and sizes,

weights, odors.

This material helps the mind organize itself.

This would happen anyway,

but with less precision.

[children shouting]

♪

The practical life and sensorial exercises

are preparation for the basics:

writing, reading, and maths.

♪

Every exercise in our method has an aim in itself,

as well as an indirect aim to hone the child's abilities

as preparation for the future.

♪

All these interlinked materials give our method cohesion.

♪

Everything we use in our schools

is the result of experience,

not in one country but around the world,

and the choices were made by the children themselves.

♪

In the traditional school,

the correction of mistakes

is often humiliating and discouraging.

Copying is not allowed

and helping a weaker peer is considered wrong.

[chatter]

The pupil who helps a friend is considered guilty,

as is the friend who accepts their help.

This does not aid human cohesion.

It leads instead to a decline in moral values.

The important thing is not that the child

should handle the material well

but that the material has attracted their attention.

They correct themselves by repeating the exercise

or through the control of error inherent to our material.

If the teacher interferes to correct

or even congratulate them,

the child's interest ends

and the enchantment of correcting themselves

is broken.

The material replaces the educator's verbal teaching.

It reveals the errors to the child using it

and so provides self-directed learning.

By using this material daily, the child gains self-confidence.

They became aware of their potential.

They could say, "I'm not perfect,

I'm not strong, but I can do this.

I know my strengths.

I also know I can make mistakes and correct myself,

so I know my path."

In this series of sensorial objects

designed to train the eye to perceive dimensions,

the control of error is not mechanical

like the stacking, but mental.

The child detects the error and all the more easily

as the single-color objects are only distinguishable by size.

[wood clacks]

With this material, the child learns

to work alone on their development.

The adult becomes aware of new, mysterious sensations

within themselves and stands on the sidelines.

They acquire a kind of humility when they notice,

"This child can do so much without my assistance,

without my urging them."

What else can they do but observe them?

For the child to grow,

the adult's authority must diminish.

Observation must be the point of departure

and what drives the educator's reflection.

Christian believes observation is an excellent way

to stand back and think about his automatic reflexes,

and he uses it mainly as a precious tool

to monitor each child's development.

Only through observation can Christian detect

the children's sensitive periods.

Seeing Géraud's newfound interest in language activities,

Christian knows he must quickly respond to his enthusiasm

and present him suitable activities.

By grasping this impetus,

in just two months' time,

Géraud will be ready to start reading.

[pronouncing letter]

♪

♪

[match striking]

♪

♪

[blowing]

♪

What's the greatest sign of success for an educator?

To be able to say,

"The children are now working as if I don't exist.

I felt the opposite before.

I felt I was the one teaching,

the one delivering the program."

But with these manifestations of their spirit,

the greatest merit of the educator's contribution

is that she has helped the life to achieve its creation,

and that is real satisfaction.

The teacher of children up to six years

knows she has helped humanity

in an essential period of development.

[speaking foreign language]

[pleased exclamation]

♪

♪

[laughing]

[shouting]

[shouting]

[cheering and applause]

♪

♪

A year has gone by.

Another has begun.

Camera in hand, I'm just as enthralled.

I'm delighted to see old faces.

I'm touched by these newcomers

as they discover the school where they'll spend many years.

[child crying]

[sobbing]

[crying]

The work of the child in their formative years

is like that of an immigrant arriving in a new country

they know nothing about, not even the language.

They must make a huge effort to adapt

to become actively involved in this country's life.

No one can do the job of adapting for them.

They have to observe, understand, remember,

make judgments, and learn the language

through laborious exercises and lengthy experience.

[exhaling]

[clapping]

[laughter]

What about the child, this immigrant who arrives

still weak, whose organism is not yet fully developed

in a very complex world

in which they must adapt in no time at all?

Whether born in the Stone Age, the Middle Ages,

or the modern technological world,

the process is the same.

They will always absorb what their environment provides.

They will accept everything easily,

otherwise no civilization would ever advance.

[children shouting]

Nothing is as important for the child

as feeding their hungry intelligence

and opening vast fields of knowledge

to their eager exploration.

[rattling]

[rattling]

If we set about this task without any method,

we're bound to fail.

But the child has revealed a secret to us

by which the problem can be resolved.

The child must learn by their own individual activity,

being given a freedom to take what they need

and not be questioned in their choice.

[low-pitched ring]

[high-pitched ring]

Nature determined the needs of man in course of development.

The child indicates them

by their spontaneous manifestations,

by their progress,

by their tranquility and happiness,

by the intensity of their efforts,

and the constancy of their free choices.

[ringing]

[Christian whispering]

Alix spent her first morning standing by the window

watching her mother walk away.

No one disturbed her.

Like Robin, Pierre, Adèle, and Antoine,

she started working at her own pace.

I see emerging in each child what fascinated me last year,

this tension, this enthusiasm for their tasks,

this joy in doing and observing,

this inner freedom,

the most precious asset for the future.

It's important today that preconceived ideas

about education be abandoned and replaced

with the scientific recognition of the child's nature

and the social proclamation of his rights.

Each error made in their education

is not only harmful to the child,

it has far-reaching repercussions on society

and civilization's progress.

There is no Montessori Method,

the great educator said,

or technique to be applied.

The classroom is a laboratory

where one should merely observe

and try hard not to interfere,

break concentration,

or put up obstacles,

where nothing should hinder the incredible momentum

in a child's self-construction.

The child, in the joy of reasoning,

following their instincts, exploring,

works on their own enthusiastically

in unfettered concentration,

without fear of disturbance or criticism.

This is how they construct their personality.

There are other people besides me today

who say that the most important part of life is not university

but the first period,

the period that extends from birth to six years.

This period where not only intelligence is formed,

the great instrument of man,

but also all the psychic faculties.

[bells ringing in a scale]

[bell rings]

When children are accustomed from earliest childhood

to considering those around them as a source of help

in exploring the world,

they're not tempted to adopt a wary or hostile attitude

towards people of different races or different religions.

Later on, children raised this way

will be of great help in the construction

of a peaceful society.

During these years of fatherhood and filming,

I've grown up as much as my daughter.

I've seen the incredible strength and possibilities

of children when they're not hindered.

I have learned to control my desire to interfere

and to just trust.

But this path is a daily challenge.

I invite everyone to rise to it.

Around me, I see violence toward children,

inequality and conflict between people,

the excesses of modern life,

and the destruction of our planet.

Maria Montessori clearly saw,

in the bloody chaos of the first half of the 20th century,

the revolutionary scope of the educational gesture.

I believe her message is more relevant

and necessary than ever.

The work for this film confirmed my intuition.

I should not ignore the questions raised

by a ladder or swing scene.

The prejudice concealed an unknown continent

and essential revelations for my daughter's development

and my future struggles.

Maria Montessori always said that the child can do

a great deal more for us than we can do for them.

I saw before me the figure of the child.

I didn't see a helpless little creature

lying with folded arms and outstretched body

in their weakness,

but the child who stands before us

with their arms held open, beckoning humanity to follow.

And I made a promise, a vow even,

to become a follower of the child as my guide.

♪

[ringing]

♪

♪

[bubbles blowing]

♪

♪

[bell ringing]

♪

[shouting]

♪

♪