Kateryna Markauskas

Intelligence and a hand

And if we look into the dim past, of

which not even bones are left, what
gives us knowledge of the people and
their times ? Their works of art.

Maria Montessori

Doctor Montessori claimed that mind is a foundation of thinking.

Intelligence arises and develops in a child as a natural creative
function. And we consider sensorial impressions as the basis of this
progress.

Sensorial apparatus provides a particular purpose and focus. It includes

using the child's hands, senses, and spontaneous activity. When a young
child sees something new and exciting, he or she will want to touch the
object. Young children will grab a new object and hold it immediately, they
want to feel the reality of the object.
One of the most obvious features which singles out a human from the
other animals actually underlies in the organization of their body. And this is a
hand and it’s ability to serve the mind of a human being. This ability lets the
person to interact with the environment and even transform it. When the child
first thrusts out his hand to touch something — this is the time when he, led
by his inner energy, invades the world. And the task of the adult is not to
protect the things from the child’s hand but to help him to turn the things into
the instruments of the exploring the life and the world. Through these
processes the child reaches the unity between his will and his body. That is
why it is so important to give a child a possibility to choose and do activities
spontaneously and freely. And the child will demonstrate his achievements
which are often going to be beyond his possibilities in our opinion.
«While the function of the feet is biological, if the hand doesn’t have this
biological guide, it must have a psychological connection», — writes Maria
Montessori in the «Absorbent mind». And «even if we do not take a
psychological point of view, we still see that all changes in man’s environment
have been made by the hand of man. Really, it would seem that the purpose
of having intelligence was almost to have hands, because the intelligence of
man had merely built up his spoken language.» It is hard to disagree with this
statement, otherwise what would we know about the past civilizations? How
could we measure their level of development, their progress? Everything
they’ve left for us — was hand made. «Certainly the refined type of
handiwork needed the attention and guidance of the intelligence to carry it
out. So that we can see that the hand has followed the intelligence, spirit and
emotions, and touching all these, has left us the traces of man.»
I can clearly see how each little child goes through the same stages as
the whole humanity did. And it opens for me a miracle of understanding. First,
he moves his hands unconsciously, his body commands to stand up and
move on two feet. Then when his hands are free he begins to acquire
strength, by lifting up things and carrying or moving them. It is amazing to
watch how concentrated children are doing that kind of work, how hard they
try to be accurate. And finally the child who has already gathered a lot of
information by the mean of his «absorbent mind», he starts taking in the
actions of other people.
In Montessori classroom a child of his own volition does a lot of
activities for developing his motor skills. They require a high level of
movement control but have a progressive character, from simple to more and
more difficult and refined. Activities great for strengthening include: work with
sponges (squeezing, painting with them, washing), pouring water from
containers with different spouts, using toys with knobs, dials, latches, and
switches. Later on for the further skill development kids can do sorting small
objects, use their fingers, tweezers or chopsticks to move the objects into the
small containers. The real focus of fine motor skills development happens
within the Practical Life area of the classroom: pouring dry goods, bead
stringing, scissors cutting and sewing and a lot more. And all these great job
a little had needs to do to be able to use at full potential this «organ of that
immense treasure given to man».


Reference list

Montessori, Maria (1949). The Absorbent Mind

Montessori, Maria (1936). The Secret of Childhood