The Montessori Painting.

Dr. Montessori was struck when she heard a little child request wisely, “ Help me to help myself ” outside a Montessori environment classroom in London in 1920’s. It was summing up the message she was trying to convey the adults. Rather than the child asking for Help ! This special measure of help requested by the child was for him to help himself. This is what is so fascinating about the art of Montessori. It is the eye of an artist, the touch of an artist and the vision of an artist that is required to be able to picture, what is not yet there and to bring it forth into being. Eric Gill expressed, “ The artist is not a special kind of man, but every man is a special kind of artist ”. And it is this call for us as this special kind of Artist, as our duty is to help bring into being something that is not yet there, is its fullness and that needs as an artist’s touch for it to come to full fruition. Dr. Montessori says, “The adult must recognise that he and she must take second place, endeavour all they can to understand the child, and to support and help him in the development of his life. This should be the aim of a mother, a father, and a teacher.” This sound as if Dr. Montessori wished to restructure the family, to put the child in dominance and thereby the parents and the teacher in a subservient state. This was not so, Dr. Montessori viewed the family unit as the buildings of the society and that without the stability of this family unit, the society would crumble, as we see this happening all around us today and this is why we need to help the child and strengthen the family. Dr Montessori, explained that she had not invented anything as the Montessori Method, instead she said, “ Let us think of it in terms of aid to life, so it is aid to life with which the artist in us has to focus, the life of a human being, a child whose task, Dr. Montessori said, the formation of man, oriented to his environment, time, place and culture. This was when she heard the child’s wise request, and made her confirm the fundamental approach for the development of the human being, in which we must take the significant part, if human society is to survive intact in the coming years.

Parent Artist.

Keeping in mind, a painting requires strokes by an artist for its beauty to come alive. We also need to remember that we cannot make the child become anything whatsoever. The child make himself. The making of the painting is in the eye, touch and vision of the artist. There is an immense responsibility of standing back patiently and observing to wait to be willing to serve the child, while keeping in mind that we cannot move for the child, he has to make his own movement of legs, body and hands; we cannot speak for the child, he has to make his language; we cannot be independent for the child, he has to make his own independence. This unique human being is the result from the moment of conception, the germinal cell becomes endowed with the immense capacity of power to carry out a plan, who has never been there before. What a great thing is this to think about ! None knows, what exactly the child become, where the plan works, where his potential will take him, what his destiny will be. The Secret of Childhood remain a secret by nature. That’s why Dr. Montessori asked us, “to help me help myself become myself.” And it is the development of this new human being that is entrusted to us.Dr. Montessori’ s new vision of looking at the potential of the human being was such that we should look at the child to reflect upon what he or she actually is, to understand the fact that this child has a great task to accomplish, to construct himself, as a man or woman, able to to take unique place in society of his nation, and perhaps the world.