Discipline Und Obedience

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The word discipline traditionally means enforcement of rules and orders through force and punishment. ‘It is the practice of training people to obey rules and orders and punishing them if they do not’ (oxford dictionary) . Discipline from Montessori perspective is something growing from within a child. It is the ability to control oneself (self control). Obedience on the other hand according to oxford dictionary means ‘to do what you are told to do’. From Montessori perspective it means ‘a sublimation of the individuals own will.’(The Absorbent mind p. 234) Obedience develops in the child the same way as other aspects of his character. In this essay, I intend to write about the relationship between discipline and obedience from the Montessori perspective and how both these virtues are related in the development of the will. Montessori believed that discipline is being active and can be achieved through purposeful activities. Discipline cannot be achieved by making children to be silent or through rewards and punishments. Rewards and punishments have no place in a Montessori classroom, if children work in order to be rewarded, it would be impossible for the teacher to know where a child’s true interest lies. Fear of punishment on the other hand will only create a temporary discipline which will last only when the teacher is around. Montessori gives an example of an incident of two children, one being punished and the other one rewarded. ‘Another child had received the reward and had given it to the one being punished as if it were something useless and a hindrance to the one who wanted to work’(Montessori, 1966 p.123). This incident and further observations they experienced made them realize the futility of rewards and punishments leading to the abolishment of either punishing or rewarding the children. In the Absorbent Mind, Montessori describes three features that
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