Ramirez 1

Signature Assignment
Jeff Ramirez
ECD 400
Mrs. Sarah Chun
8/1/17
Ramirez 2

Introduction

Play is a very important part of child development and it also is very important to

a childs social development. Play can also lead to learning in other curriculum such as

the arts, music, and sports. If they are exploring and thinking and experimenting and

trying new ideas, then creativity has a chance to blossom, says MaryAnn Kohl, an arts

educator and author of numerous books about childrens art education.(PBS.com) Play

can really help children with their fine motor skill development by doing activities such

as catch or hide and seek. The fact that play is so important and helps with learning

should be reason enough to make sure our kids receive enough time, both in the early

years but also in the later years. There are many different theorist that help prove this

observation, but the one I think shows it the most was Maria Montessori and her idea that

child learn predominately through play and interaction.

Play and Learning

Montessoris idea behind her teaching was actually quite different from what had

been happening and even what is going on now, today in schools. She believed that

children needed to experience many different things while learning to really grow up

right. She believed there were three parts to this method: the learner, the prepared

environment, and the trained adult. The learners are the students and that they dont learn

by being talked to, but rather through interacting with their environment. Montessori also

believes that the students had two types of energy, physical and mental. She said that the

physical is the energy of the body being used for motion while the mental energy is used

for thought and will and she believed if they were not led so that these two energies

combine, then the learning may be stagnant or slow. She believed that a link between the
Ramirez 3

two happened when a child is absorbed in work, which she called normalization. The

prepared environment is the used to help the child grow both mentally and socially. They

have lots of materials that help this and they are even allowed to be outside and may even

use gardening to learn. Children are usually in class together spanning three year age

groups, so 3-6 for example, so that they learn from each other. The final part is the

trained adult is the teacher but they are not that in a normal sense. In Montessori

classrooms the adults are passive compared to the active student, where most schools are

the opposite with the children being passive. (Montessori: Her Life and Legacy)

A lot of people ask how this method can work to teach children if they are left to

do whatever they please in these classrooms. As it has been stated Montessori believed

they learn by doing, but this is a bit harder to understand or take for face value. She felt

that children or more motivated to learn about a topic of their own choosing rather than

being forced to learn by a teacher. This may seem hard to grasp but if we really think

about how kids learn, we can see how this theory works. Working in a classroom, I

personally have seen that students are engaged with what is being taught so it is easy to

see how if the preschool students are learning by doing what they want, it makes sense

that they will learn better. (FAQ about Montessori)

Why Play is Important

After reading about Montessori and watching a video about her I really feel that

this plan and idea is a very sound one and provides a rich learning environment for its

students. I think that Montessori learning is very closely related to what Dewey thought

and taught who I learned about during my research. They both believed that children

learned through experience; however she seems to have gone a step further. She
Ramirez 4

developed entire schools based on this idea where students dont have a standard teaching

curriculum. Dewey does do this a bit with his schools, but he still kept the normal

teaching and added more trade type options. Montessori also doesnt have normal

teachers where Dewey did. However, both of these theorists seemed to agree on a lot of

things as they did work together sometimes it seemed according to the movie. They both

agreed that children learn much more efficiently through experiences rather than just

lecturing. (Intro to Montessori)

These are very important ideas that will help prove how monumental play is to the

learning process. Not only will children need play just to socialize with others, but it will

help build norms and ideas that will shape the child. Montessoris method not only helps

keep kids engaged, but also allows them access to other things besides basic classes and

play. Many schools under the Montessori Method include gardening and access to

instruments so that students receive access to the arts. This has been proven to build up

cognitive development, fine motor skills, and social interaction. With the arts such as

band, which is being removed in schools more and more, it has been proven that it builds

these fine motor skills as well as language development. When children play with clay or

drawing we see them develop visual learning skills that they can use to know how to use

these materials and others like them. (PBS.com)

Parents need to be aware that children learn a lot more from graphic sources now

than in the past, says Dr. Kerry Freedman, Head of Art and Design Education at

Northern Illinois University. Children need to know more about the world than just what

they can learn through text and numbers. Art education teaches students how to interpret,

criticize, and use visual information, and how to make choices based on it.(PBS.com)
Ramirez 5

Conclusion

In conclusion I would like to reiterate how important play is for child learning and

development. Without play our children will not reach the developmental level that they

need to do well in school as well as being socially behind in their growth. When children

are not at the level of social or cognitive development they need in school, they may fall

behind or fail to reach milestones at the right time. This can be seen in a lot of the Hand

and Hand videos we watched this term. To quickly summarize the videos, children can

fail to play for many reasons including them being ignored, rejected, or plainly unable to

engage in play.( Hand in Hand Videos) These kids will then fall behind and fail to

connect to their peers. We all need to recognize how important play is for children and

their needs that arise from it, thus we should never try to reduce their play time, take

away programs such as sports or band, and stifle their play mentalities.
Ramirez 6

References

1. Frequently Asked Questions about Montessori. (n.d.). Retrieved July 13, 2017,

from https://amshq.org/Montessori-Education/FAQs

2. Introduction to Montessori Method. (n.d.). Retrieved July 13, 2017, from

https://amshq.org/Montessori-Education/Introduction-to-Montessori

3. History of Montessori Education and the Movement. (n.d.). Retrieved July 13,

2017, from https://amshq.org/Montessori-Education/History-of-Montessori-

Education

4. Davidson, F. (Producer), Davidson, J. (Director), & Haines, A. (Writer).

(2004). Maria Montessori: Her Life and Legacy [Video file]. San Luis Obispo,

CA: Davidson Films, Inc. Retrieved July 13, 2017, from

mms://streaming.fresno.edu/kopriva/Maria_Montessori.wmv

5. Van Hoorn, J., Monighan Nourot, P., Scales, B. and Rodriquez Alward, K.
(2011). Play at the center of the curriculum (6th Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Education, Inc.

6. The Importance of Art in Child Development. (2012, May 25). Retrieved

August 01, 2017, from http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/music-arts/the-

importance-of-art-in-child-development/