principles of Montessori pedagogy while
at the same time being compliant with the
guidelines. They seemed to be incompatible
in many ways! As I prepared our policies
and procedures, I found myself leaning
on Dr. Montessori again. This time for courage.
She was always so brave and handled
all the adversities in her life with so much
strength. She truly was mighty, fighting all
odds for the child. I knew I had to do it, too.
On the first day back, we thought
we would give the children a lot of time
on the playground. We were told that
nothing heals better than the outdoors.
They played in the sandpit, made some
pies in the mud kitchen, planted new
seeds, and watered the Peace Garden. The
teachers played “Simon Says,” hopscotch,
and other games that they remembered
from their childhood.
That was nice for a while, but soon
after, they asked to come inside the
classroom and work. They gravitated
toward Practical Life, and we felt the familiarity
of the materials provided them
with comfort and joy. The classroom had
been rearranged to meet social distancing
requirements, and many of the materials
had been put away. It did not matter to
them in the least. They took what they knew
to do from the shelves and proceeded to
work with them. It was truly a miracle that
we were witnessing. They engaged with
the materials in a purposeful manner and
showed deep concentration when working
with them – all signs of true normalization.
Soon after, they started to look for
specific materials. For example, one boy
asked for a particular reading box. On
checking his records, we were amazed to
find that this was where he had stopped
before we went into lockdown. He was keen
and eager to get back on track and worked
with numerous reading materials that day.
Without anyone telling him, he started to
set targets for himself. It was as though he
���� ©MONTESSORI LEADERSHIP | WWW.MONTESSORI.ORG/IMC | VOLUME 22 ISSUE 3 • 2020
Zoom lessons during lockdown
/IMC
