The Montessori Giant
June 1, 2021
Jesse McCarthy
Have you felt this kind of humiliation?
A short story about giants, by Maria Montessori, with related guidance for parents and teachers on how to better prepare children's surroundings for independence, not dependence
Let us imagine ourselves among a race of giants who differ from us in proportion as we differ from the child and we ourselves are forced to use the giant’s furniture, dishes and possessions. If we want to sit down, we have to climb on to a chair with our hands and feet. If we want to move the chair, we have to climb down the same way and move this great weight. We want to wash our hands but the [sink] is like a big bath tub. When we want to empty the basin, it is too big and too heavy to empty it. It takes two hands to use a hairbrush. Everything is so high that we cannot use anything (without asking for help), doors to open, hooks on which to hang our clothes and other things. We are unable to do things we need to do and we feel the humiliation resulting from our failure to act. We certainly would disdain these giant people and not wish to live with them, if we knew they had prepared nothing so we might act.
Maria Montessori, The California Lectures of 1915
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