I would never have expected to find great spiritual inspiration in a Montessori text, but I was surprised today by an observation which I found fascinating — an insight into the process of spiritual growth and development.

Montessori on Physical Growth and Development

I’ve been reading The Montessori Method, which is a collection of Maria Montessori’s own writings about her “Children’s Houses” and how they do things.  In one particular chapter, she discusses the importance of the sensory training.  For the youngest children in Montessori schools, this sensory training is the primary focus.

Through a particular set of didactic materials — manipulatives or toys, essentially — the children learn to use all of their senses quite precisely and accurately, to differentiate between varying weights, colors, sizes, etc.)  Montessori says that

The education of the senses must be of the greatest pedagogical interest….The development of the senses indeed precedes that of superior intellectual activity and the child between three and seven years is in the period of formation….This sense training will prepare the ordered foundation upon which he may build up a clear and strong mentality.

A page or so later, she goes on to describe the basic concept of this sensory training, and the proper progression from sensory to theoretical.

We have always started from ideas, and have proceeded thence to motor activities; thus, for example, the method of education has always been to teach intellectually, and then to have the child follow the principles he has been taught.  In general, when we are teaching, we talk about the subject which interests us, and then we try to lead the scholar, when he has understood, to perform some kind of work with the object itself; but often the scholar who has understood the idea finds great difficulty in the execution of the work which we give him, because we have left out of his education a factor of the utmost importance, namely, the perfecting of the senses.  I may, perhaps, illustrate this statement with a few examples. We ask the cook to buy only ‘fresh fish.’  She understands the idea, and tries to follow it in her marketing, but, if the cook has not been trained to recognize through sight and smell the signs which indicate freshness in the fish, she will not know how to follow the order we have given her.

Such a lack will show itself much more plainly in culinary operations.  A cook may be trained in book matters, and may know exactly the recipes and the length of time advised in her cook book; she may be able to perform all the manipulations necessary to give the desired appearance to the dishes, but when it is a question of deciding from the odor of the dish the exact moment of its being properly cooked, or with the eye, or the taste, the time at which she must put in some given condiment, then she will make a mistake if her senses have not been sufficiently prepared.

She can only gain such ability through long practice, and such practice on the part of the cook is nothing else than a belated education of the senses — an education which often can never be properly attained by the adult.  That is one reason why it is so difficult to find good cooks.

Something of the same kind is true of the physician, the student of medicine who studies theoretically the character of the pulse, and sits down by the bed of the patient with the best will in the world to read the pulse, but, if his fingers do not know how to read the sensations his studies will have been in vain.  Before he can become a doctor, he must gain a capacity for discriminating between sense stimuli.

While many homeschoolers will recognize here the idea of progressing from concrete to abstract, rather than the other way around, something more specific jumped out at me, largely as a consequence of the wording she chose.  This idea of “training” or “preparing” the senses, of developing a capacity for discrimination, is not new!

The Bible (God!) on Spiritual Growth and Development

Hebrews 5:14 says

But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

(Some translations render it “trained,” rather than “exercised.”  Apparently, the idea is that of being trained through exercise — that is, through use, or practice.)  Although I knew this verse, I hadn’t ever broken it down to the specific individual phrases.

In relation to spiritual things, Hebrews is saying the exact same thing Montessori is saying:  until the senses are trained, the “superior intellectual” teaching is too much.

[Tweet “Our spiritual senses must be trained before ‘superior intellectual’ study is of any use.”]

This is why it is beneficial to train our toddlers in obedience, even if they don’t fully understand the “theory” behind it yet.  It is enough that they are trained to recognize “good” and “evil.”  This ability to discriminate between good and evil prepares them to accept deeper, more abstract teaching later.

I wonder, though, if examining the Montessori method, and how this educational philosophy plays out in the natural, academic world, might give us some insight in how to better train those adult Christians who still lack the ability to discern good and evil. Are we skipping important foundations in the spiritual growth and development of those who did not grow up in the faith?

What might this progression look like in the life of a physical adult who is a baby Christian?

What about those believers who grew up in Christian families, but surrounded by worldly thinking rather than a biblical worldview?

What insights can Maria Montessori’s sensory training offer us?