Beauty in a Child's Environment

Why is it important to talk about beauty? Read on to know more!

• Understanding beauty.

  • Importance of beauty.

  • Beauty and Truth.

  • Purpose in beauty.

    • Beauty in layers.

  • Simplicity & Spirituality in beauty.

• Beauty in pedagogy.

  • Can beauty be effective for learning?

• Beauty in the childs surroundings 

  • In the prepared environment

    • At Home.

    • At the School.

• Aiding the transition phase of the child.

• Aiding in acquisition of language.

• Aiding in freedom of movement.

  • Bringing in some nature into the school.

• In the material at the school.

• Concepts of simplicity and intutiveness in the materials

• Principles of Abstraction in the materials

• Principles of Isolation & Limitation in the materials

• Materials that aid in Independence & higher self esteem

• In the role of the educator.

• Conclusion. 

  • A beautiful environment for a child makes a wonderful world.

• Understand the natural rhythm.

• Aid in a balanced mind.

• Enable better adaptation.

Understanding Beauty 

Everything that is around us is bequeathed to us by nature and it is beautiful.  It is beautiful because it is pre ordained to be that way. Its evolution has been organic, mysterious and has occurred over a long time. Human kind has evolved over time. We have endured and come about as a remarkable and beautiful creation of nature.  

We are unique in our very own way unlike the rest of life on earth that we co-exist with. Human kind alone has consciousness at a higher level. We are a beautiful creation of nature because we can harness our higher level of consciousness, purposefully, and in us and only us alone can we set ourselves free. And there is beauty in that.  

Why is it important to talk about beauty?

Human kind has for ever, expressed beauty through poetries, music, art. Beautiful things grab the human attention and awakens a certain strong desire, to learn something new. The need for visual and physical beauty is quite innate and almost compelling in human beings as we see around us in our daily lives. The need for creation and acceptance of beauty is quite universal in nature. Therefore, it can be said that beautiful aspects of things , around us, come to most peoples attention, much quicker. Beauty then promises to be more of an effective reflection than any other property of things. 

Beauty alone is both a form and a sensory experience (Phaedrus 250d). Beautiful things remind souls of their mystery as no other visible objects do. (By Plato)

Truth in beauty

Beauty, as a property of things, also needs to stem from a place of truth. A place of inner purity. Why do we say that? There needs to be a sense of  true purpose in things we do and create, and it needs to find its origin from a place of honesty, of truth. Such creations, be it music, art, objects, thoughts / philosophies, will be laced in beauty and enveloped with a sense of purpose, which in turn, will yearn to set your soul — free. 

Beauty also has corrupting influences. Human kind, more often than not, is inclined towards exterior beauty. And in our pursuit of outward beauty, we tend to miss out on that inner radiance. The results are mostly shallow and short lived happiness. There needs to be truth, honesty,  in endeavours that we undertake. It's only then that it really works at liberating our souls. Take a moment to think about a scenario. There is such beauty in a small child getting fully messed up, eating a whole mango fruit, still learning how to coordinate his hands and mouth whilst doing so. Eating the fruit originates from a need to satiate hunger and it's an honest process because it fulfils an inner desire that gives such absolute happiness setting the child free in that moment.  

There is beauty all around us.  While we are attracted to outward beauty, we cannot let ourselves be distracted by the superficiality of it. We need to also be able to recognise  inward beauty through the eyes of our soul. It's only in a combination such as this, that we can see the deep purpose and inner purity of creations, be it ours or somebody else’s. The son of Sophroniscus, a sculptor, and Phaenarete, a midwife, - Socrates the philosopher, was considered ugly and overweight by people of his times. But his attention to philosophy gave birth to the fundamentals of western philosophy.  He invented the teaching practice of pedagogy, the Socratic method and contributed to the fields of ethics, epistemology and logic. He was of course  put to death much before his time, by people in power, as they could not understand or appreciate the beauty and wisdom in his thoughts.  There is beauty in tolerance. 

Purposeful beauty

There is a certain attraction to beautiful objects and things. Sometimes the durability of that attraction is long lasting and sometimes short lived. However, the happiness that one derives out of this attraction could be liberating if the purpose eventually is met with. 

Beautiful objects, people, thoughts are desirable. This fact is true in most cases of the human species. Animals on the other hand are different. Their attraction to an object or a person needs instant gratification and the reaction is almost chemical in nature. The scent of good food is very desirable to most hungry animals vis-a-vis one who is not. Humans on the other hand dwell on the higher conscious. There is a spiritual realm that they function in. For the human kind, purposeful beauty may be seen in layers. The initial objective is to attract you to something or someone until the next layer begins to form, which may or may not sustain further depending upon the usefulness.  A child may be desirous of an object because it is made very attractive. The child may spend some time with the object. So the  objective of the outward beauty of the object was to attract , which it did. If the object is not useful to the child, he will not sustain a relationship with it. One can be desirous of an object or a person which may gratify them for the moment but could cause undesirable effects if the need did not stem from a place of usefulness. or did not serve any purpose. The sense of purpose needs to originate from a place of honesty, for it to be gratifying and liberating, even if it presents itself in layers. 

For instance, we have all been contributors to heightened consumerism at some point of time in our lives. We are attracted to beautiful apparels, home decor and gadgets, that may add the necessary glitter to our lives. The attraction however is instant and very desirous. Once the object is attained, the joy, the beauty of it may begin to diminish, if it's not useful and purposeful. The object that is attained becomes a tiny speck in our lives if we are not gratified or liberated with it eventually. On the other hand, purposeful acquisitions accumulated in a certain balance can give a sense of gratification and there is beauty in that vis-a-vis the attractions which are meretricious.

So can beauty exist without purpose? This can be answered with another question. Does looking at a blue sky calm you? Does looking at a field of flowers delight your senses? Does watching a good sport give you an adrenaline rush? If the answer is yes…the purpose of all these experiences, sensorial or otherwise is met with, for that person, in that moment. It's to note that purposeful beauty may occur in layers and reveal itself overtime.

“Why can't you see the beauty of colour in vegetables? And then, there is beauty in the speckless sky. We have been taught to believe that what is beautiful need not be useful and what is useful cannot be beautiful. I want to show that what is useful can also be beautiful”. (By Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Harijan,7-4-1946)

Simplicity & Spirituality in beauty

There is charm in simplicity as the mind is able to centre on the chosen aspects of an object or a person or a thought with greater clarity. Sometimes - the thought is lost in the web of intricacies. A simple concept can be beautiful, forceful and impactful if it's intuitive and purposeful. Spiritual beauty. There can be no real manifestation of beauty outwardly if it's not rooted in inwardly. For the outward beauty to last long, the inner beauty needs to shine through. Spiritual beauty is beauty at a higher consciousness where the heart and soul stay pure.

Beauty in Pedagogy

Can beauty be effective for learning?

The answer is Yes. It is really important to, “not see," beauty as a shallow feature in the field of education. Our school campuses put up a visage of grand architectures, cobbled pathways and well manicured garden. However these must not be the only aspects of beauty in our educational endeavours of enlightening the young minds.  Beauty, on the contrary, must be a central thought, in the field of education.…all aspects of it infact.  The concept of beauty must be looked upon as a powerful tool in imparting knowledge to the vibrant, absorbent and sensitive young minds. 

Unfortunately, truth is also that beauty as a concept also attracts certain paradoxes, for instance, whether beautiful things are meretricious and hence does not attract any further inner contemplation and thus gets concluded as not useful!  It's a fact that more often than not, beauty gets perceived at a superficial level and ends up being shallow and does not last long.  

Having said that, Beauty has some many qualities and one of the noteworthy quality is an interrelation between Beauty and instant desire. There is an initial curiosity that leads to a certain level of contemplation when appreciating a beautiful object or a scenery, a person or even a thought.  

Beauty thus becomes an effective tool for learning because once the initial attraction has occurred due to the desirability quotient, there is a successful transfer of the intended knowledge. And this interaction between the person and the object or concept emerges victorious when the desire, that is visible to the eye, transfers to a certain satisfaction of the soul. The transfer of knowledge has occurred and has touched all aspects of the being. Physically and spiritually. Thus beauty can be durable and quite influential as a tool in pedagogy. 

“The child should live in an environment of beauty” - Maria Montessori. This is a thought that is deep, profound and utterly beautiful. Children demonstrate the powers that they have within them by achieving tremendous developmental progress in the first 3 to 4 years of their lives.  And all the children across the world are endowed with this power by nature herself. 

“ The child is universal.  He has existed in all ages and will continue to be born until the end of time. There is no child of pre-history, of the middle ages, no Victorian of all times, of all races, heir to the tradition, hander-on of history, crucible of culture, pathway to peace. The task of the child is to construct a man , oriented to his environment, adapted to his time, place and culture.” 

(By Maria Montessori , Secrets of Childhood)

Beauty in the childs surroundings

The child is bought into the world after living in his mother's womb for 9 months. Womb - which is the most carefully and beautifully prepared environment by mother nature herself. All the needs of the child have been carefully considered and constructed in the mother's womb to precision. 

The child then enters a man made world called the supra environment. The child encounters the home environment first and then the environment at the school. The child  soon leaves the familiarity of his home environment to be in the School. The School is  a place where the environment has been carefully put together in the most beautiful way possible, so that the child can carry on his work of “growth and development”,  in the most organic way, just as nature ordained it be.  

What does beauty in the prepared environment mean? Sure, the environment would be aesthetically pleasing so as to attract the child physically to the place such as Bright coloured walls, well lit rooms, garden patches, a play area, usable and intuitive materials etc. But beauty as in ,common place notions, does not stop at that alone. This environment is made beautiful by preparing it carefully so that all the diverse needs of the child are met with physically and spiritually.  

Beauty in the prepared environment

At Home

The arrival of the child at home is a joyous affair. There are many culture specific rituals in India and around the world, that take place,  to mark the arrival of a child into the world. It is a momentous occasion. Households prepare themselves much ahead in time, by collecting cradles and toys and clothes and a host of commodities that are, thriving in business, in the market place. But amassing these products thoughtlessly does not make things easy for the child nor the place beautiful. Some instances of purchases such as a lavish cradles, rattle toys, a pacifier etc expensive, may be even aesthetically pleasing (for some), but serve no significant purpose to the development of the child. There is no beauty in a purposeless aesthetic that satisfies nor caters to any of the childs needs. 

Preparing the environment in the most beautiful way at home would mean that the members of the family have duly considered the needs of the baby before considering the changes in the home environment. Low lighting, a low large bed, a window to the world, a garden patch to bring some nature home, accessible and sensible toys made of natural materials will make the child connect with his environment, physically and spiritually, making the environment at home, conducive for growth and development, and thus beautiful. 

At the School

Some changes are good and some not so good. Irrespective, change is the only constant and change is inevitable to human life. All changes bring along with it, transitions that call for an alteration in our thoughts and perspectives.  The more prepared we are for these transitions, the better equipped to cope with the same. The ability to cope with transitions ably is applicable to an adult with tremendous life experiences. However, the child who has just walked out of the security blanket of home is mortified with the changes that the new environment brings upon him when he is brought into at school. The age old adage that says, The child will cry for a few weeks or may be a month but will adjust to set up of a school”, (no matter how not conducive it may be). We need to aid in the childs growth by preparing the environment to suit the childs needs. 

And how can that be made possible? The environment at the School needs to reflect the warmth of the childs home. Sure that it be beautiful and aesthetically pleasing but crucial and intangible aspects like providing emotional security for the child, a deep love for the child and an in-depth understanding of the world from the childs perspective goes a long way in the childs growth and development.  

The school needs to support the childs two special powers that is the Absorbent Mind and the Sensitive Period. The child must be provided with all the aids to use his two great powers to the fullest. The school must support the childs extensive need for movement and language. The childs environment must flourish with rich and expressive language that is seeped in with love and kindness. The child must be encouraged to express his thoughts and must be given ample freedom for the same. 

A common memory of school for most people, for many generations, would surely be children sitting on benches and desks, haplessly staring at black boards, curtailed of any freedom from movement. The teacher at the forefront teaching and directing the children to follow matters of educational relevance, in a monologue (mostly) and continuously for a long duration of time.  

Maria Montessori believed freedom to be at the very centre of education. She  thought that freedom to move was very crucial for physical development which was associated very closely to psychic development of the child. There is no beauty in the soul of the child being caged whilst being subject to education, imparted in an undemocratic fashion.  

The Montessori philosophy for education heralds with it joy, freedom and love for learning. The traditionally rigid classroom structures are discarded for more open spaces with freedom for movement, to walk, to sit, to stand as the child as the child enjoys all the new acquisitions from the environment.  

Beauty in nature - Its relevance in the childs environment

“In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.” (By Ralph Waldo Emerson). 

A 6 year old girl comes running to her aunty in a Montessori class, excited with a new prospect. “I want to name my plant ‘Life’, she says. ” The aunty smiles at her . The 6 year old has been growing a plant in her school garden patch as a part of their zoology experiments. The excitement that the 6 year old felt when she witnessed the growth of her plant was palpable. And she named her plant ‘Life’. The beauty in the deep spiritual connection that the 6 year old experienced is nearly impossible to emulate via reading text books on life of plants. Allowing children ready access to nature, in close proximity, does wonders to their understanding of plant life. Teaching zoology in theory and experiencing it on a daily basis is altogether different. There is beauty in the latter philosophy, as there is an ethos of “learning via doing / experiencing”. Maria Montessori talks about immersion in nature for the child as it helps in better coordination of movement and improves language skills.

Urban lives have become extremely fast paced and stress ridden. Children in educational institutes feel the burden of learning on a regular basis. Over ambitious parents go over board scheduling multitude of extracurricular activities for their children which end up being tiring, as it seldom arises out of the childs deep interests. The childs natural curiosity and organic learning gets massively overlooked.  To add to this, there is a general fear of outdoors from fervent parents that end up keeping the child in doors thus leading to an over reliance on technology for stimulation. This situation has enslaved children into a vicious loop adding to a whole lot of stress. 

Bringing nature into the childs environment does not only mean well manicured garden frills around the educational complex. It would mean that the child learns naturally and organically in nature. “There must be a provision for the child to have contact with nature; to understand and appreciate the order, the harmony and the beauty in nature”. (Maria Montessori)

The child learns about plants and animals and insects in the outdoors. The child is able to care for his environment, grow plants and see the glorious flowers and leaves and be a part of nature’s abundance. Its quite a fundamental fact that being with nature brings a certain calm to ones senses. Children must not be deprived of this beautiful opportunity to bring out their natural curiosity and learning abilities. Unstructured play in the outdoors helps children be one with nature and learn things in the most natural way possible. A lot of creativity and self-contentment gets stimulated by being in the out doors. 

Maria Montessori says “Land is where our roots are. Children must be taught to live in harmony with the Earth”.  The educator of the environment must connect with this thought and be compelled from deep within, to let the children explore the outdoors on a regular basis. Nature as a source of learning is important for the child’s acquisition of knowledge. It has been so in the past and is extremely relevant today. 

Beauty in the material at the school

One of the most striking aspects of a montessorian thinking is the material that it uses as aids to guide children in learning new concepts and eventually help them be self reliant. The materials used are beautiful aesthetically and spiritually. Spiritual because they are intuitive and purposeful. Children use these materials and are filled with wonderment and joy at learning something new. These progressive and self correcting materials are attractive, rightly sized, intuitive and scalable to aid in the childs progression of acquiring knowledge. The categorisation of all these materials in the School reflect life on a whole and are hence immensely workable and a joyous in nature. 

Each of the materials in a Montessori environment was crafted keeping the developmental needs of the child in mind. These materials were well researched and refined by Maria Montessori after keen and careful observations of children in their environments. The materials created by Maria Montessori had certain governing principles such as concepts of Abstraction, Isolation & Limitation etc. She put an abstract intangible quality into a piece of material. And it was put in a manner that a particular quality is isolated for the child to experience. The concept of limitation was “Not too many - not too few”. The idea of limitation was to just offer a key to the child rather than many activities. A practical number of the activity was called for the child. These concepts worked as a key that opened the door to knowledge and possibilities of further explorations. The key is to the world of smell, colours, shapes.

All the materials used in the school have control of error. Maria Montessori created materials so that while the child is working with the material, he gets a prompt feedback on his progress with the work from the material itself. Control of error in materials aid in development of independence. The child who is working with self-correcting materials helps himself by recognise, understanding and correcting the errors he has made.  Having a control of error in the materials liberates the child by boosting his self-esteem and motivation. 

In a Montessori environment the child is free to take any material of his choice to work with. This results in empowered learning, not restricted, “in-a-box” learning. The childs curiosity is fueled with the attractiveness of the materials and the intuitive, purposeful materials aids in adding new dimensions to the childs knowledge, eventually giving him joy at mastering it, and empowering him. The materials in a Montessori environment help the child in coordination of movement, Richness of Language resulting in concentration and freedom and there is beauty in that because learning is connected at a very deep level here.  

Beauty in the role of an educator

“To stimulate life, leaving it free, however, to unfold itself, that is the first duty of the educator. For such a delicate mission, great art is required to suggest the right moment and to limit intervention, lest one should disturb or lead astray rather than help the soul which is coming to life and which will live by virtue of it’s own efforts.” (Maria Montessori, Discovery of child). 

You may ask as to what really fosters spiritual enlightenment, and what obstructs it? The educator in the Montessori environment has within her the enormous capability to expand a childs horizon like no other. She has within her the responsibility of building a better society for tomorrow by mentoring her children of today. She has in her the magical ability to touch lives and build them so strong, that she along with her children contribute in building a better world. 

It's a tall order for the educator in the Montessori environment but she is the centrifugal force that binds the entire Montessori philosophy, in the environment,  with her love, selflessness, patience, kindness and above all the willingness to impart education and be an able guide to her children. A Montessori educator does not really teach a child. She is a mentor who guides the child in his self development. The educator is like a gardener giving all the necessary aids in an environment, conducive for growth.  

“The teacher becomes the keeper and custodian of the environment. She attends to this instead of being distracted by the children's restlessness... All the apparatus is to be kept meticulously in order, beautiful and shining, in perfect condition... This means that the teacher also must be...tidy and clean, calm and dignified...The teacher's first duty is therefore to watch over the environment, and this takes precedence over all the rest. Its influence is indirect, but unless it be well done there will be no effective and permanent results of any kind, physical, intellectual or spiritual.” (By Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind)

For the Montessori educator, the school environment has to be kept like her own home. Hygiene factors, orientation of all the materials etc will be fundamental to her existence in the class.  The educator needs to be free of all prejudices and treat all children equally. There needs to be an inherent trust in the childs ability.  Allowing each child to learn and grow at their own rhythm and pace helps tremendously in the psychic development of the child. 

The educator in a Montessori environment needs to be in harmony with the concept of transforming lives and there is deep spiritual beauty in that thought. 

A Beautiful child makes a wonderful world

A child in the family is not a child of the family but an important unit, that has been laid , in the foundation, of the future society. The child in the family, is the most important creation of nature, as it is this child’s spiritual essence that will define the society of tomorrow. The childs “today” is in our hands, to be nurtured right with utmost care and love. It's our core responsibility to provide this ‘child of today’, an environment wherein he can revel in his full potential of unlimited organic learning.  

Children are like explorers. They are innately curious by nature. In the right environment, satiating this curiosity shepherds them to learning new and eclectic concepts of the world. The child needs to be able to untie his imagination in all areas of education be it Math, Science (which as popularly understood is only driven by logic) and History etc.

The child is given the two incredibly powerful gifts by nature, one of the Absorbent Mind and the other - the Sensitive periods. The educators and parents need to make themselves aware of these great phenomenons that the child is endowed with provide the child with the right environment that would aid beautifully in their growth. 

A Montessori environment understands these special needs that go into the preparation of the childs environment. This aids the child tremendously in their growth. Having said that, the school environment alone cannot bear the huge responsibility of aiding in the self construction of the child. This is a collaborative effort that has to be undertaken by the school environment and the home environment. We as a society need to take this tremendous responsibility of building the child of tomorrow. It's only in a well balanced partnership such as this that there would be a beautiful and conducive environment to bring up a well balanced child. 

Maria Montessori stated that children absorb everything through their senses. A well-prepared environment, is a sensorial surrounding, that radiates beauty, simplicity, and order. It provides well thought out materials and carefully chosen activities which are required for learning. All the materials used in such an environment are carefully chosen to aid in the childs learning. Instead of overtly stimulating a child, Montessori environments keep things simple, spiritual and minimalistic and hence are less distracting. The material in the childs environment, his physical space and the time he spends there, help him go deep, in coordination with his body, concentration and eventually his independence.

A child living in such an environment is well balanced in his personality and shows better social behaviour as an adult which would result in greater adaptation to the society that he was born in.  

There is beauty in the environment of the child, be it at home or in the school,  when the childs emotional, spiritual, physical and cyclical needs are taken care. Such an environment will cater to his natural rhythm. True education starts with wonderment and children are naturally curious. 

With love, kindness & patience… endlessly offered in a childs environment, there is a continuous source of inspiration for the childs innermost work and that being - self construction.

• References

• The story of philosophy by Will Durant. 

  • Chapter references are;

    • The context of Plato

    • Story of Socrates (selfmadescholar.com)

    • Contemporary European philosophers

      • Henri Bergson

        • Mind and Brain

        • Creative Evolution

      • Benedetto Croce

        • The philosophy of the Spirit

        • What is beauty?

• The secret of childhood - By Maria Montessori

• The Absorbent Mind - By Maria Montessori. 

• The Discovery of the child in the family - By Maria Montessori.

• M.K. Gandhi on Truth and Beauty - (www.gandhi-manibhavan.org)

• Plato in Phaedrus (250d)

• historyguide.org

• Comprehensive Lecture Notes (Theory)

  • Montessori Educator

  • Prepared Environment

  • Absorbent Mind

  • Sensitive Period

  • Sensorial / Practical Life