Watching a child makes it obvious that the development of his mind comes through his movements.
­­­­­­­­­­—Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori, the Italian doctor, educator, and founder of the Montessori education method, formulated her theories about child development and her systems for child education by observing disabled children. She continued to watch and work with children of all capacities for the rest of her long life, and wrote over and over again, in books, essays, and speeches, about the role of activity, especially physical activity, in learning. It was a subject on which, she felt, we all had much to learn.

In her last book, The Absorbent Mind, first published in 1949 and still in print, she wrote, "When mental development is under discussion, there are many who say, 'How does movement come into it? We are talking about the mind.' And when we think of intellectual activity, we always imagine people sitting still, motionless. But mental development must be connected with movement and be dependent on it. It is vital that educational theory and practice should be informed by that idea."

Although more and more educators do seem convinced that, as Montessori said, "the task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity," most of those educators receive little assistance from the physical environments in which they, and the children in their charge, work. Concrete school-yards, cramped classrooms, and fixed furniture all communicate exactly the equation that Montessori warned against.

But there is hope, as this chapter testifies. Scientists, researchers, designers, and government policy-makers join educators to offer new evidence that Montessori was right about there being, in her words, an almost mathematical relationship between the surroundings, the activity, and the development of the child.

RESOURCES

www.iea.cc/ergonomics4children
Ergonomics for Children and Educational Environments provides a forum for the international exchange of scientific and technical ergonomics information related to children and educational environments.

www.ergo.human.cornell.edu
The Cornell University Ergonomics Web presents information from the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis at Cornell University. Contains computer-use guidelines for children of America’s schools.