Otello had taught himself the right and he had made the right his happy choice.
The old way of helping Otello, of helping your child to right action and self-education, was to command. Yesterday, we said:
“You must do this because I tell you to; this is right because I say that it is.”
Dr. Montessori gives us a new, a better way of educating little children. Before we present her didactic materials to a child, before—even—he leaves his cradle and his mother’s arms, we will give the child his birthright of freedom; physical freedom, mental freedom, moral freedom. The place of the mother in education, Dr. Montessori tells us, is that of the “watcher on the mountain top.” She observes every action of the child, helps him to see the difference between right and wrong, but she leaves him free, that he may train his own will, make his own choice, educate himself.
How can we help our children to the goodness that little Otello has found? What had he missed at home that was supplied to him in the Children’s House?
The root that is denied space by its earth mother to stretch and pull and reach does not grow into a tall, straight tree. The bud, shut off from its birthright of sunshine and moisture, does not unfold into perfect flowering. The child who is choked at home by an artificial environment and chained by the commands of his parents will develop into a crooked, blasted man. Dr. Montessori told me that her first word to American mothers is this:—
“Free your children.”
Every child is born with an unlimited capacity for good. His impulse is to do the good thing, but we so hedge him about with objects which he must not touch and places which he must not explore and inaccuracies of speech which confuse his understanding, that he rebels. With the force of a giant, the baby uses his will to break our will. This is right; he was born as free as air, and we act as his jailers. Presently, his thwarted will finds other outlets, and we are confronted with a little Otello.
We have thought that to “break” a child’s will was the first step toward giving him self-control. We say to a child:
“Don’t be capricious!”