Nurturing the Inquisitive Mind in the Upper Elementary

By Sarah Fary, Upper Elementary Teacher

I have felt a quiet joy suffusing the upper elementary classroom in these first weeks back to school.  Children greet me with firm handshakes and open gazes.  Returning students eagerly continue work they began last year - an illustrated catalogue of all known marsupial species, a personal challenge to correctly calculate the cube of a trinomial using the Trinomial Cube, a play about the Greek gods and goddesses.  New arrivals to the classroom are deeply engaged as well.  An early “great lesson” about the beginnings of the universe and the formation of the earth has led several children to further explorations of nebulae, galaxies, and celestial bodies.  A lesson about atoms and their parts inspired an interest in the elements and their properties.  A head of purple cabbage brought from home was crushed in a mortar and pestle and its juice turned many colors through chemical reactions with vinegar and baking soda.  Children are integrating their knowledge of geometric definitions into the complex work of geometric construction - how can we draw a line segment congruent to another line segment without measuring?

The Trinomial Cube is introduced in the Primary classroom as a puzzle.
But in the elementary classrooms, children use the same material
to do algebra, calculating the cube of a trinomial.

In her book The Absorbent Mind, Maria Montessori says that “education is not something the teacher does, but a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.”  What a bold and shocking statement! Yet this is the revolutionary truth at the heart of Montessori philosophy and education.  At times it can be a struggle for me to remember that I, as an adult, do not ultimately control the child’s learning and progress - they themselves do.  Through my relationship with the child within the environment I have meticulously prepared and the skills they have built in through their years in the Primary and Lower Elementary classroom , they tend to their own education.

Each year, however, I find it easier to have faith in Maria Montessori’s call to “follow the child”.  These children are busily and joyfully engaged in work they have chosen.  Often they conceive of projects beyond the scope of anything I have presented to them, and it is precisely this freedom which allows them to become fully engaged.  This curiosity goes deeper and leads to more detailed exploration than any adult-imposed assignment possibly could.  Children constantly ask me new and glorious questions I have never heard before, such as the one posed yesterday by a fifth year student: “Why are there only a certain number of electrons in an atomic shell?  Why do they get full?”  My answer is always the same.  “I don’t know!  But you could find out.”