It is often said that the math They are good or they are not good. And it is usually closely related to memory that we have from when we were children and, above all, from the teacher we had. If it was a good math teacher Surely they made it easy for you, but if not, it might be difficult for you to understand them. What we surely all agree on is that when it comes to mathematics, a lot depends on how it is taught to you.

That’s what he thinks Paula Lo CelsoMontessori Guide teacher and teacher of our Montessori Moberi courses at the Bodymente School. She is also the author of the book «Pedagogy of the everyday» from the Homo Sapiens Argentina publishing house.

He Montessori method accompanies boys and girls so that they can learn Mathematics easily and fluently through their hands, feeling a true passion for it, which is a very different way from the traditional school method of learning mathematics.

This is what this is about interview. You can also delve deeper into this pioneering and revolutionary pedagogy through our literacy and mathematics courses. And if you want to get to know Paula Lo Celso up close, you can sign up for her free online talk here: «Montessori Mathematics, the method for children to truly learn and understand mathematics» on October 28 at 6:00 p.m. (Spanish time) and convey your doubts. In addition, you can download the free ebook «Why Montessori?».

-To what extent was it true that we were bad at mathematics?

Mathematics has always had “bad press or a bad reputation,” because we mistakenly believed that it was a subject “only” for “intelligent people.” But no one is bad at mathematics because they lack the ability to understand, it is rather that they were taught to us in an abstract way, without us being able to truly understand them.

I began to marvel at mathematics when I trained as a guide in Montessori pedagogy. I had the belief that “I wasn’t capable,” but I realized, and it was almost like an inner healing, that no one had made me love them and had not explained to me the wonders that are hidden behind numbers, operations, shapes or problems.

-What surprised you the most when you learned how mathematics is learned with the Montessori Method?

The most surprising thing about this method is that it allowed me to touch with my hands, in a concrete way, through scientific materials, each operation, materializing that abstract world, which seemed distant and impossible to my mind.

-It must have been very shocking…

It was very stimulating to feel how those 15 years of school beginning to make sense inside me, memorizing with effort something that I didn’t really know what it meant.

I was very surprised that the learning of the complex and the abstract, in Montessori, is done from the simple and concrete, through the hands, thus accompanying the development of the child’s brain.

-Can you explain to our readers what you mean by «through the hands»?

In the Montessori Method, mathematics is not learned by performing operations on paper or by heart, without understanding them, but through manipulative materials, specially designed and designed so that each child can learn progressively, autonomously and self-correctively. And all of this today is supported by neuroscience.

In Montessori, boys and girls learn mathematics with their hands, which are instruments of the brain. They learn by relating to the material… Through sensorially feeling its shapes they understand very complex concepts in a very simple and fluid way.

-Children always want to touch everything, but we keep telling them not to…

It is convenient for them to touch, not to keep their hands still. For Dr. Maria Montessori, hands are a gateway to the brain. She said that “The hand is the instrument of intelligence”and now we know he was absolutely right. The brain dedicates an enormous amount of resources to processing the information that comes through the hands, much more than we could think just by looking at their size in relation to the body.

When children manipulate objects, explore textures, or work with materials, they are not only learning more deeply, they are also literally stimulating and creating the architecture of their brain.

Many decades after Maria Montessori shared her vision, neuroscience has shown that The hands are a main route of entry of information to the brainand its use activates important, highly sensitive brain areas for learning.

In this sense, Montessori materials are perfect, because they invite children to actively experiment with their hands and body.

-Do we learn mathematics more deeply if we do it by hand instead of «by heart»?

Without hesitation. The Montessori Method is very aware that children’s brains are constantly changing and during childhood, this plasticity is especially active, which is why it is essential to provide children with a rich environment to explore this type of practical, experiential and not so much rote learningwhich reinforces neural connections and helps consolidate knowledge more deeply and forever.

-I would like to ask you about reading and writing. That still echoes in some familiar place “the letter with blood enters…” Is it effective to force or force children to learn to read and write? Does it make sense? Or is it more successful to teach in another way?

From my perspective it makes no sense to force learning.

The issue is when adult needs or the times of educational organizations get in the way, which homogenize and standardize learning, little by little leaving aside the individuality and brilliance of each child, who strives to please, belong and not be left out of the standards proposed socially, at a very high cost, which is to go unknown and disconnecting from one’s own desire and love for reading and writing.

It never makes sense to force a child, there are always ways to successfully accompany what we want to show him, but never before without allowing ourselves, observing and knowing. your intereststheir desires, their gifts and their needs. All of this will give us the answer of offering the child what he needs for his development.

I remember an anecdote with a child who did not feel the desire to be presented with the letter material, he already knew them, but he did not want to write with the Montessori material of «The Mobile Alphabet», so I knew that he loved animals and looked and researched books that were related to zoology. One day I invited him asking him if he wanted to write the word chameleonbecause he was fascinated with them, and from there, he did not stop researching, writing and beginning to read what he himself wanted to produce. Here he found the meaning to incorporate that valuable resource into his life.

-Nowadays it seems that children end up hating reading. What would be, in your opinion, the great secrets for every boy or girl to love reading and writing?

Children learn by example, by looking at their environment, if you want your children to read, that they see you reading and enjoying that reading, that at home there is a library where books can be touched, smelled and felt, that at night the children go to sleep with a story or a story, that there are pauses of silence at home where we get together to read on the sofa, that we visit bookstores, libraries, that they are the ones Choose the books and stories you want to discover. Let them not read out of obligation, but for pleasure.

May they find meaning in writing and reading, may we write messages and letters by hand… May they discover that Opening a book or writing a story is opening the heart, soul and mind.

-Little children don’t see us writing by hand or almost touching or reading books… I don’t know if we are good examples to follow…

I always ask myself: what do they see when they see me? Sometimes we want our children to do certain actions that we are not capable of carrying out. Every time we observe something that is happening at home or in the classroom, let us always look towards ourselves, because we are their references and they observe us all the time, even if we do not realize it. What decisions we make, how we treat others, how we eat, how we read, how we take care of ourselves, whether we write or not… The children and children of our class are a permanent opportunity to generate moments of awareness about our own lives.

We can make those moments moments of higher quality, of growth, of pause, of enjoyment and joy. That will help us grow and transform for a fuller and more connected life.

-In this digital world of ours, does it make sense that we recover and protect handwriting as a treasure?

It is a great revolution in these times to continue betting on writing with a pencil or pen, and if it is in cursive (and not in capital letters) much better. Let’s remember what we said about the hand being the instrument of our mind. The hand also directly expresses our feelings. Since the origin of humanity, our brain has developed and become more complex through the direct use of the hand and body movement.

If the hands are inactive, new neural connections are not generated, therefore the full creative capacity of our mind is not developed.

If a child, especially from 0 to 6 years old, is not given the opportunity to use their hand, to experience free play and to grow through the natural exploration of their body in relation to objects, an opportunity is being missed in a unique, vital stage, which will not return, and which must be taken advantage of to generate healthy and harmonious development.

Dr. Maria Montessori developed all her wonderful methodology to give the best response to the way in which the child’s brain learns, in a fluid and simple way.

If you want to continue delving into the Montessori Method, we invite you to learn about our online courses at the Bodymente School.