The Montessori environment allows children to make many choices, including if they want to work with a partner, by themselves or with a small group. The material can dictate how many people work with the material. For example, the North America map can easily be worked on by one or two children at a time. One of the Montessori finger charts (fact work) is not conducive to work by more than one child. When giving a lesson, the Directress will tell the children their options as far as where the work can be completed and with/without a partner. In this way the Directress is giving parameters to the children.

At every level, from infancy through high school, the children have the ability to interact appropriately. How much the child interacts during work time depends on the individual child as well as the Directress. The Directress sets the tone for the classroom and some have a high tolerance for noise and some have a low tolerance. This is one reason Montessori environments can look different. Some Montessorians are highly encouraging of children working together and others encourage children to work on their own.

Some of the things that happen in a Montessori environment to promote social interactions are:

• Choice by the children (where they sit, with whom they work)
• Community meetings: These are called different things by Directress’, but they are a time for the class to come together and discuss things going on in the classroom. It is often a time for the children to learn how to handle social situations.
• Empowering the students so they can handle social situations and conflict without over-reliance on the adult to intervene.

© Ingrid Weland, Pen to Paper