Observing  Children  

“Suggestions and Remarks upon Observing Children”

From Dr Montessori’s 1921 London Training Course

It would seem as though to know how to observe was very simple and did not need any explanation.
Perhaps you think it will be sufficient to be in a classroom in a school and to look and see what happens! But
to observe is not as simple as that.

Any methodical observation which one wishes to make requires preparation. Observation is one of those
many things of which we frequently speak, and of which we form an inexact or false idea. It should be
sufficient to consider what occurs in all the sciences that depend upon observation. The observers in the
various sciences must have a special preparation. For instance, one who looks through a microscope does
not see what exists there unless his eye is prepared. It is not sufficient to have the instrument and to know
how to focus it. It is also necessary to have the eye prepared to recognize the objects. Thus we might say
in this case that a sensorial preparation is necessary. When Fabre describes his observations of insects, he
really gives us a description of his long and patient preparation for observation. He also describes the
virtues and attributes necessary to acquire in order to be able to observe. He must forget himself, and he
must be at the service of the insects. He must rise in the morning at the hour when the insects begin to
move. He tells us that he was very fond of smoking. Yet he puts away his pipe, for fear that the smell of
the smoke might affect their manifestations.

Then, should there not also be a preparation in order to observe the child? Perhaps the scarcity of
observations made upon children is due to the lack of preparation for such observations.

For this reason, I should like, before you begin your observation, to give you some of the principle and
fundamental points that illustrate what I have just said.

These points, with which I begin, are not in relation to that which you have to observe, but in relation to the
observer himself. Obviously, those who observe children must not disturb them; because the purpose of
the observation is to see what the children are doing independent of our presence. The observer should
remain absolutely silent and motionless. You will say that this is extremely easy to accomplish and that
everyone knows how to do that, but that is not the case. Many times you will be tempted to show your
admiration or your annoyance. You will be tempted to communicate your impressions to your neighbour.
Thus we find ourselves faced by a real exercise, an exercise which we may call an exercise of conscious
immobility, directed by our willpower.

This will also be one of the most valuable exercises to prepare students as educators in this method;
because the first thing the teacher has to learn is to master herself, and to remain motionless beside the
child.

  Dr.  Maria  Montessori  

  London  Training  Course,  1921  
  Portions  of  this  lecture  and  related  lectures  can  be  found  in  AMI  Communications  2008/2  
  Prepared  here  by  Montessori  Northwest,  Portland,  Oregon  
    1  
     Observing  Children  

While you are observing the children, try to imagine that you are in the position of the teacher who is
directing the class, and try to examine yourself introspectively.

Try to think how many times, under certain conditions, you would have been tempted to go to the
assistance of a child, or would have stepped forward to prevent something happening, which to you
appeared harmful. How often would you think, “Oh, the teacher has not noticed that.” How many
impulses would you have to step forward, were you free? Also, try to notice how many times you would
have the impulse to tell your neighbour to notice something which seems interesting to you. You might
try to count all those inner impulses. Thus you will be able to measure the distance which lies between you
as you are now and the time when you will be a perfect observer. This quiescence is something which is
extremely difficult for some people and much easier for others. It is so difficult for some people that we
have to allow for some preparatory exercises to induce immobility. Even these exercises are not always
sufficient. We suggested to some teachers that they should tie themselves with a cord to a stationary
article of furniture!

We are so accustomed to abandoning ourselves to our own impulses. We are so convinced that our actions
are always useful to others. We are so certain that we can do well that which others do badly; so sure that
we can perfect that which is imperfect. Because in the world these impulses are considered good
impulses, we have never performed exercises in order to control them.

No doubt, from one point of view, these feelings are good, because they show a desire to help others. But
on the other hand, they also spring from pride. In relation to the child, they are feelings which come from
the difference which exists between the child’s development and our own. That which we see the child
doing with great effort, we can do easily. Therefore, we have the impulse to do the thing ourselves instead
of letting the child do it. We do it so much more quickly and efficiently. When we see the child struggling
so hard to do a thing which is so difficult for him and would be so easy for us, we have the impulse to help
him.

Consider what would have happened had Fabre felt these good impulses towards the insects. Let us
imagine Fabre watching an insect carrying a large ball that it had made, to the summit of the little mount.
The insect allows the ball to roll down and is obliged to begin its journey all over again. What would have
been the result had Fabre tried to solve this difficulty by picking up the ball and helping the insect? It is
true he would have removed the effort from the insect, but he would have destroyed a science.

If we wish to observe the child, we must observe. If we see that he is working with great effort and
difficulty, and if we see that it takes him a long time to do what we could do very easily; then we are
observing. That is the observation. If there is a difficulty which is perfectly apparent to us, but which the
child does not see, we leave him thus. That is our observation.

I suggested to some teachers that they should wear a belt with beads attached. Then every time they have
an impulse to interfere, they would draw a bead along. This is very useful, because when we have an

  Dr.  Maria  Montessori  

  London  Training  Course,  1921  
  Portions  of  this  lecture  and  related  lectures  can  be  found  in  AMI  Communications  2008/2  
  Prepared  here  by  Montessori  Northwest,  Portland,  Oregon  
    2  
     Observing  Children  

impulse we must act, and the re-action with the bead is a help. From day to day, one would make
observations upon oneself in this way, until one came to the point of not having to draw any more beads.
We should then find that we had acquired a great calm and sense of repose. Perhaps we should have
become transformed within. At any rate, we should have learned the following: that almost all these
impulses to action are unnecessary.

We shall find that by means of effort, the child yet succeeds in the end although he takes a long time and
does the thing with difficulty. He finally perceives the error which at first he did not see. If we had acted,
we should not have been able to observe all this. It is evident that the child would have lacked the
opportunity to accomplish that work by means of his own force.

Perhaps at first this will give you a feeling of discouragement. You may feel that if you do not conquer
yourself, you will be useless and perhaps an obstacle in the way of the child. In this moment of
discouragement, it will be a great consolation to us to discover that the child has within himself far greater
powers than that we had imagined. Perhaps from that moment, an intense interest in the child will be born
in us.

A small and humble exercise of control may develop a great power of meditation, a meditation upon the
misunderstanding that exists today between the child and the adult. The adult intends to help the child,
but is, instead, a hindrance only placing obstacles in his way. He acts from love, but from error he is only
harming the beloved. Thus we begin to have the first vision of this liberation of the soul of the child. This
liberation can only be attained by the adult being willing to pay the price, which is to refrain from
substituting himself for the child.

There is another principle of observation which we may call physiological. That is, when you are observing
one child, you must not cease from observing all the children. We know that the vision is exact and
directed towards one point. At the same time we have a vast field of vision. It is not easy to bring our
attention to all those things which we see indirectly. When one is looking at one person in a group, one
must not let the whole consciousness become absorbed by that one person.

At the same time that all these things enter into our field of vision, they must be followed consciously by
an act of will. This is an exercise of our will which must be repeated many times.
You can imagine a teacher having to run from one child to the other, observing first one and then the next.
Instead we must prepare a person who will be calm, serene but strong, a person who knows how to
dominate by her observation everything that occurs. This is observation. She must know how to look and
how to master her own impulses. She must know how to wait. She must be a person having a high grade of
virtue, eg: patience.

All great observers are fundamentally people having great patience. Here, as in all other cases where
observation is necessary, if this does not exist very strongly and we are not prepared, the phenomenon for
which we wait will not take place. If we were prepared in early childhood for something which developed

  Dr.  Maria  Montessori  

  London  Training  Course,  1921  
  Portions  of  this  lecture  and  related  lectures  can  be  found  in  AMI  Communications  2008/2  
  Prepared  here  by  Montessori  Northwest,  Portland,  Oregon  
    3  
     Observing  Children  

this attribute, we should naturally be patient and have control of ourselves. We should be stronger than we
are now. We should not suffer from that which is so noticeable today, boredom or tiredness of observing.
As you know, boredom is a form of fatigue. The person who observes patiently, without feeling bored, has
acquired an inner strength which must have been acquired through exercise. Thus one of the first
exercises will be to attend a class of children, to be silent and motionless, to try not to let yourself be
carried away by the actions of one child, and to try to see the whole class. Naturally, in order to observe,
we must have something which is worth observing. We must know what it is that has value as an object of
observation.

You must also realize that something which is obviously interesting does not need a great deal of
preparation in order to observe it. We have to be prepared to observe phenomena which are not obviously
interesting. Otherwise, what would happen to those observers, who are waiting, let us say, for an egg to
hatch? Or who wait for a physiological phenomenon, not knowing exactly when it will take place? We are
entering into a noble field, because we are following in the first steps of the path which leads to science
and is the beginning of that which will make us scientists.

I will now say a few words upon the principal things to be observed. I have already said that Seguin gives
particular importance to a special form of movement in deficient children, and that is a movement having
an intelligent purpose. So you see it is not the movement, not even an orderly movement instead of a
disorderly movement, it is a movement which has an intelligent purpose; an action which has a purpose;
that is the important and fundamental point. This type of action, which would be a climax with the
deficient child, is a commonplace and daily action with the psychically normal child; and this daily
occurrence is not merely movement or even orderly movement, but useful action.

We all know that normal child needs to move; that continual and irresistible mobility is a characteristic of
childhood. For this reason we say the child needs to run, to jump, to roll about on the grass, but these are
not interesting movements. The interesting movement is that which is performing an action with a
purpose. It is the movement of the child as an intelligent being. The difference between these two kinds
of movement is not intrinsic, but depends upon us, the adults. The child cannot move with an intelligent
purpose if he has not the means provided for the accomplishment of intelligent action. He has not the
means of carrying out an intelligent action for two reasons; the first is that he lives in an unsuitable
environment which is not adapted to him and does not offer him the means; and the second is that the
adult impedes the child from accomplishing any action with a definite purpose. So, when the adult
observing, sees the child moving without an intelligent purpose, he at once concludes that the child needs
movement of this vague kind. And if adults can persuade themselves that they prevent the child from
performing movement of an intelligent kind, we shall see them in an ecstasy before any movement of the

  Dr.  Maria  Montessori  

  London  Training  Course,  1921  
  Portions  of  this  lecture  and  related  lectures  can  be  found  in  AMI  Communications  2008/2  
  Prepared  here  by  Montessori  Northwest,  Portland,  Oregon  
    4  
     Observing  Children  

child; and we shall see the child moving in a disorderly manner, with the adults gazing at them, thinking
“Oh, they need to move.”

Thus, we must observe the purpose of these movements, and all those actions, which have an intelligent
purpose, merit observation and must be respected. Even if they are accomplished with effort and
difficulty on the part of the children, we must simply observe and try to cultivate within ourselves interest
in the observation.

You will realise that we have prepared an environment where the means are given whereby the child may
accomplish these actions having an intelligent purpose, there begins to spring up and intelligent activity
which does not need the guidance of the teacher; and it is possible to have a school where the children
moving in this intelligent way perfect themselves. This process of perfection is worthy of deep
consideration; it is not simply a psychic fact, as we generally consider it; the child’s need of definite activity
has a physiological anatomical basis.

We know that the child is not born completely developed in all his parts; for instance, the nervous fibres
have not yet acquired that part which completes them, and that is the part which involves the nervous
filaments. It is with these particular exercises that this anatomical and physiological development is
completed, and thus it is a real help to the inner growth of the body of the child.

We all know that at this period the bones are not completely formed, and for this reason we are persuaded
that exercise is necessary in order to help the bones to develop.

We must consider also another kind of exercise which helps to develop parts of the child’s body which are
far more important than the bones, i.e. the fibres of the very nerves themselves; and this development
cannot be given by casual and mechanical exercises. It is the intelligent movement repeated and perfected
which brings about this development, which is also a hygienic need of the child. We must penetrate more
deeply into this idea of the hygiene of the child. The practical ideas which have today of the hygiene of the
child are not only incomplete but they are too coarse, they relate almost entirely to the vegetative life.
We must form a concept of these intelligent exercises which are not only casual and help the skeleton, but
which are necessary for the growth of the intimate life of the child; and then little by little, we can make
for ourselves this picture as we observe the school

These children who are forming themselves are really creating their bodies as well as their consciousness;
the very nervous system itself is forming within them, and they are seeking in the environment the
nourishment which they need in order to develop this important part of themselves as though they were
little chickens pecking at that which they need in order to nourish themselves; and we are like the hens
who take them to the necessary food.

And when we have done this we have done all. We must not disturb the children who are nourishing
themselves; we must simply stand by and await the work of nature.

  Dr.  Maria  Montessori  

  London  Training  Course,  1921  
  Portions  of  this  lecture  and  related  lectures  can  be  found  in  AMI  Communications  2008/2  
  Prepared  here  by  Montessori  Northwest,  Portland,  Oregon  
    5  
     Observing  Children  

Observation requires careful and individual preparation on the part of the observer. Preparation is
necessary in order to render him capable of observing and of understanding that which he observes. It is
also necessary to follow certain rules during the observation in order that the object which is being
observed – in this case, the child – will be free to manifest the phenomena which we wish to observe.

In order that the children may manifest their actions feely, they must be in such a condition as to be
practically unconscious of the fact that they are being watched. For this reason the observer must be able
to maintain absolute immobility. From immobility comes the silence which we have practiced collectively.
During the period devoted to observation the observer finds a splendid opportunity to practice this
immobility and silence. It is also to the advantage of those who are observing, because if this were not
carried out, in a very short time there would be nothing worth observing. I impress upon you to remember
this, to maintain perfect immobility during the observation. The observer should maintain perfect
immobility of the soul, so as not to take part in any manifestations in the actions of the children. There
must be no manifestations of enthusiasm, pleasure, or joy on the part of the observer.

Portions of this lecture and related lectures can be found in AMI Communications 2008/2

  Dr.  Maria  Montessori  

  London  Training  Course,  1921  
  Portions  of  this  lecture  and  related  lectures  can  be  found  in  AMI  Communications  2008/2  
  Prepared  here  by  Montessori  Northwest,  Portland,  Oregon  
    6