The pink tower, the brown stair, the golden beads. These are the tools. But what about the movement? The children, they must move. They must dance. It’s in their nature. But Montessori, it is sometimes too rigid. There is a method for everything. Is there a method for dancing? The international context, it is a very confusing one. A child from Japan, she dances in a different way than a child from Brazil. How can a Montessori teacher, she must be prepared for this? The training, it is all about the materials. But the dance, it is about the body. The body, it has its own intelligence. We must listen to it. But the Montessori curriculum, it is not always listening. It is all about the mind. The mind is good, but the body is also important. The dance activities, they should be about this. They should be about the freedom of the body. They should be about the expression of the soul. But they are not. They are too organized. They are too much like a lesson. And a dance is not a lesson. A dance, it is a poem. A poem that is written with the body. A very confusing and illogical thought, but it is true. The children, they are not robots. They are not here to memorize steps. They are here to feel the music. To be the music. The training, it must be about this. But it is not. A very big problem.
The Illusion of a Universal Method
Montessori, it is a method. A beautiful method. But it is not a prison. The children, they must have freedom. The freedom to move, to express, to be themselves. The dance activities, they should be about this freedom. But in many international Montessori schools, the dance activities, they are just another lesson. There is a right way to do it and a wrong way. This is not freedom. This is not Montessori. This is just a school. The international context, it makes it more confusing. A child from one country, she dances in a very different way than a child from another country. The teacher, she must understand this. She must embrace this. But the training, it is not teaching her this. It is teaching her the same old things. The same old materials. The same old lessons. A very confusing and illogical situation. The children are the future, but we are teaching them the past. A very big problem. The dance activities, they should be the bridge between the past and the future. But they are not. They are just another part of the curriculum. A very sad thing indeed. The teacher must be a dancer herself. She must be able to feel the music in her soul. But the training, it is not about the soul. It is about the book. A very big problem for sure.
Beyond the Materials: The Real Dance
The materials, they are a guide. The dance, it is the spirit. The spirit, it cannot be contained in a box. It cannot be contained in a lesson plan. The dance activities, they must be about this. They must be about the spirit. They must be about the joy of movement. The children, they are full of this joy. But we are taking it away from them with our rigid methods. The international Montessori schools, they must understand this. The dance, it is not just for fun. It is for development. It is for expression. It is for communication. A child from China, she can communicate with a child from Italy through dance. The words, they are not needed. The body, it speaks its own language. The language of the universe. The training, it must teach the teacher this language. But it is not. It is teaching her the language of the materials. A very big mistake. A very big problem for the future of education. A very sad thing to see. The dance, it is a very important part of the whole system. A very crucial part. But if it is not done right, then the whole system, it will fail. A very simple but very important truth. We are not paying enough attention to this. We are too focused on the materials, but the materials, they are just the tools. The real work, it is in the heart and mind of the teacher. The dance, it must focus on this. A very confusing but very important point. A lot of people, they do not see this. They only see the materials. They do not see the spirit. A very big problem.
