Learning From
Mistakes
“Why Wrong Is Not
Always Bad” by Alina Tugend appeared in Education Week. In it she wrote, “What I’m talking about is
how so many of our children are taught, covertly, or overtly, that mistakes are
something to be avoided at all costs, that there is only one right answer and
if you don’t know it, well, you’re a failure.”
The Montessori Method has a whole different approach to
mistakes or errors. Montessori material
is designed to be self-correcting, that’s one of the advantages of the
Montessori Method.
Materials, or work, are created so that if the student makes
a mistake they will realize it on their own, sometimes only at the end when a
piece is leftover. But the student has
the opportunity to repeat the work and discover their mistake on their own, and
to learn the correct way to do the work.
By discovering their mistake and correcting themselves, they
are learning the underlying principle contained in that work. This is a much more fruitful, holographic and
lasting method of absorbing knowledge.
This makes the student the source of their own learning. They are in charge of uncovering and
discovering the knowledge they seek.
From The Absorbent
Mind by Maria Montessori
“We come to a scientific principle which is also a path to
perfection. We call it “the control of
error.” Whatever is done in school, by
teachers, children or others, there are bound to be mistakes. So we need this rule as a part of school
life: namely, that what matters is not so much correction in itself as that
each individual should become aware of his own errors. Each should have a means of checking, so that
he can tell if he is right or not.”
“One of the first exercises done by our children is that
with a set of cylinders of equal height but varying diameter, which fit into
corresponding sockets in a block of wood.
The child begins fitting them one at a time into their sockets, but
finds when she comes to the end that she has made a mistake. One cylinder is left which is too large for
the only remaining hole, while some of the others fit too loosely. The child looks again and studies them all
more closely. She is now faced with a
problem. There is that cylinder left
over, which shows that she has made a mistake.
It is just this that adds interest to the game and makes her repeat it
time after time.”
“The child might say, “I am not perfect, I am not
omnipotent, but this much I can do and I know it. I also know that I can make mistakes and
correct myself, thus finding my way.” If
in the daily routine of school we always arrange for errors to become
perceptible, this is to place us on a path to perfection.”
Mistakes or errors are part of Montessori.
Embrace your path to perfection.
I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to
Learning
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