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Why Our Montessori Classrooms Are Computer Free

by Maria Kaminstein

Computers have opened up all sorts of educational opportunities in the last twenty years. Any student pursuing research, from first grade through graduate school, needs to have access to the internet, encyclopedias on CD rom, library data bases, and word processing. Most communications in universities and much of that in the professional world take place via e-mail. Knowing how to use a computer is an essential school skill. If that is the case, shouldn't pre-school-age children get a head start by learning computers as soon as they can stop smearing grape jelly on the keyboard? Not necessarily. Our Montessori school has thoughtfully made the decision to leave computers out of the classrooms for a number of sound developmental reasons.

Children need multisensory experience. An essential aspect of early childhood development is the multiple sources of information which young children receive during their daily round of activities. Building various-sized blocks into a sequential tower, for example, involves much more than the visual sense. The child also experiences the heft of a block, the feel of the dimensions in the hand, the sound of disaster when the tower crashes down, the joy of victory when delicately placing the smallest block on top, watching it teeter, then hold. Each part of this experience is teaching a child something different about the material world. The child learns about weight, dimension, rudimentary geometry and gravity, among other pieces of information. A computer game trying to teach a similar sequencing concept involves only the visual sense, with perhaps some auditory feedback - a much less enriching experience for the child.

Children need to move. It is important to remember that learning in early childhood is not simply a matter of accumulating information. The brain is actually being structured during children's first five years, and the types of experiences they have directly affect the brain's patterns of learning and attention. Jane Healy, in her comprehensive and thought-provoking book on brain development, Endangered Minds, discusses research that suggests that movement is very important to future school success:

"'Thought is constructed, not only out of perceiving objects, but also out of physical activities with them.' When a child plays and exercises large muscles or pursues games and hobbies that build fine- motor skills (e.g. constructing models, carpentry, sewing, playing jacks), he or she is strengthening motor synapses that are next-door neighbors to the neurons that manage mental behaviors - including attention." (p.170)

A Montessori classroom offers thousands of activities involving movement, from carefully counting of small beads in Bank Game, to lifting a heavy bucket of water, to walking a balance beam. Every skill is taught with a variety of large and small muscle activities, a far more valuable experience for the children than the small finger movements used in computer games.

Children need activities that promote discovery and experimentation. Even the best computer games for young children involve an element of "guess and test." To do well at the games, children have to learn how the game programmer wants them to respond rather than to the logic of the material being explored or the child's unique responses to information. Computer games do not adapt well to a "what would happen if I did this?" approach. Though the Montessori materials have a base of structure and order, there is plenty of room for children to try out their own ideas. After learning all the basic combinations of the primary colors in the color mixing game, for example, a child may try various combinations and concentrations to see what happens. After building the brown stair and pink tower, a child may try building them upside down, or combine the two materials and build them end to end. A child colors black around the world map he or she has traced, and draws in stars, reflecting recent discussion of the solar system. It is important for children to learn in an environment which does not evaluate every effort as "right" or "wrong," the only two responses which come up on computer games. The kinds of problems which have to be solved by the child in later school life are best approached with the "what if?" attitude than the "what's the right answer?" mentality.

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Children need varied repetition. Children learn from repetition, but they learn best when the repetition takes various forms. Improving at one game for math skills may increase a child's ability at that game, but the learning may not transfer if the math information is required in an unfamiliar setting (i.e. out of the game). To best master material, children need to work on math facts, for example, via a variety of games and materials. I quote Healy again:

If a child spends an inordinate amount of time on video games (or television, or even other types of computer use) instead of playing and experimenting with many different types of skills, the foundations for some kinds of abilities may be sacrificed. These losses may not show up until much later, when more complicated kinds of thinking and learning become necessary." (Endangered Minds p. 206)

A Montessori classroom has at least six different games for teaching addition facts, for example, in addition to a variety of exercises for using the facts after they've been learned. Every area of the classroom is approached with the same kind of depth of experience, so that a child can really use what he or she knows once the material has been mastered.

Children need the thrill of accomplishment that comes from hard work. Computer games are seductive because you can generate incredible effects from the push of a button. All sorts of action occurs with almost no effort on the part of the operator. And if you don't like the results, you can push another button and make the whole screen disappear. The trouble with this is that most really satisfying accomplishments involve some struggle. I am reminded of a boy in my class who was laboriously coloring the map of the United States which he had traced from puzzle pieces. He'd been working on it, off and on, for days, and he sighed, "I wish there was a button I could push, and then it would be finished." I empathized, and suggested that he take a break, but I encouraged him to finish, which he did. The experience did not discourage him, and he kept on working at maps, trying even harder ones than the U.S.A., coloring them beautifully, and with much greater ease as he went on. Eventually, he began to write in the names of states and countries, as well. By the end of his time at Montessori school, map creation was a source of great pride for him. More important than his skill with maps, however, was his experience of working hard and mastering something difficult. The confidence this brings will stay with him far beyond his time in our school. Such an experience is never gained at the push of a button.

Computers have a great deal to offer, but should not be viewed as an educational magic wand, especially during the pre-school years when so many other experiences are much more important, even crucial, to children's growth. Computer games at home can be one of a variety of fun activities available to young children, but should not be one of the main ways they gain information, or even one of their primary play activities. The children are in the Montessori classroom for only a few hours each day, and we want to give them what they need most: hands-on materials which teach them real skills, with lots of sensory in-put, logical feed-back and room for personal creativity. With this behind them, we hope that they will approach their first computer-based research project in elementary school with joy and confidence.

Additional Note: Jane Healy has published a book which deals exclusively with the issues of computers and the learning process, Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds - For Better and Worse. I strongly suggest that parents and teachers read this book as part of an on-going investigation of the role of computers in our childrens' lives.