The Absorbent Mind

by Maria Montessori

A small child in our house wanted to copy his sister of three, who was learning her first steps in dancing. The teacher had wanted to know how to teach so young a child to dance ballet, etc. We said: “Never mind, you try it; what does it matter whether she learns or not; you will receive your salary.” Knowing that we were working to help the child, she agreed to try. Immediately the one and a half year old, said: “Me, too!” The teacher said: “Absolutely impossible,” and when we said: “Try it,” she said it was derogatory to her dignity as a teacher of ballet to teach a baby of one and a half years. We suggested she put her dignity in her pocket, so at last she came to the house, somewhat disgruntled, threw her hat on the sofa and began to play a march. The little one was immediately furious, and shrieked and would not move. The teacher said: “You see, you can’t teach one so small,” But the child was not distressed about the dancing; he was having a discussion with the hat, addressing it with fury. He did not use the name of the hat itself, nor that of the teacher; he just used two words which he repeated with concentrated fury: “Hat-rack! Hall!” meaning: “This hat must not be here on the sofa, but on the hat-rack in the hall!” He had forgotten the dance and the pleasures of life, he had his duty to perform of changing disorder into order before anything else. When the hat was on the hat-rack, his fury went and he was ready to dance. Till then the fundamental need for order ...