Virtue of Work, The

Montessori Life, 2009 by Carey, Kathy

A recent issue of the NewYork Times Magazine contained an interesting article, "The Case for Working with Your Hands/'by Matthew B. Crawford. The author runs a motorcycle repair shop in Richmond, VA, and he is apparently good at what he does. He says, "The slap of worn-out pistons hitting their cylinders can sound a lot like loose valve tappets, so to be a good mechanic you have to be constantly open to the possibility that you may be mistaken. This is a virtue that is at once cognitive and moral/'

I know nothing about motorcycles and often am angered when the roar of their engines activates my car alarm. Nevertheless, Crawford's article struck a chord. He discusses habits of mind in a very physical, visceral way, reminding me of the hours I spent as a child assembling models. There was in this work time to think about how things fit together, to struggle with geometrical concepts while my hands folded or (in correction) unfolded along real planes or real lines, and the value of points, in space or on paper, became apparent.

Crawford, by the way, has a PhD in political philosophy from the University of Chicago and a resume that includes work at Washington think tanks. Commenting on his current work, he says:

Mechanical work has required me to cultivate different intellectual habits. Further, habits of mind have an ethical dimension that we don't often think about Good diagnosis requires attentiveness to the machine, almost a conversation with it, rather than assertiveness, as in the position papers on K Street. . . . Cognitive psychologists speak of "metacognition," which is the activity of stepping back and thinking about your own thinking. It is what you do when you stop for a moment in your pursuit of a solution, and wonder whether your understanding of the problem is adequate. (Crawford, p. 39)

Maria Montessori, in The Secret of Childhood, writes eloquently of the "hand," whose movements she says are most intimately connected with a person's intelligence, a belief readily apparent in the physical structures of her educational philosophy. Think Practical Life, the Sensorial exercises, her multisensory approach to language development, reading and writing, and, of course, her exquisite math materials.

The human hand, so delicate and so complicated, not only allows the mind to reveal itself but it enables the whole being to enter into special relationships with its environment. We might even say that man "takes possession of his environment with his hands." His hands under the guidance of his intellect transform this environment and thus enable him to fulfill his mission in the world. (Montessori, p. 100)

Mario M. Montessori, Jr., Montessori's grandson, writing in Education for Human Development: Understanding Montessor�, addresses the dangers for children of the Industrial Age. Change Industrial Age to Information Age (or any of the descriptive phrases used to describe the era in which we are living) as you read his comments:

If human dignity and joy in living are not to be smothered by the Industrial Age, the true value of work as an aspect of man's creativity and cosmic task must be restored. This is only possible if education takes into consideration the earliest roots of work, the activities related to the inner construction of the personality, and not merely directed toward an external goal. . . . Teaching has a developmental function only if it corresponds to this motivation. (Montessori, Jr., p. 63)

Crawford, Dr. Montessori, and her grandson are all on the same plane. Work forms us as much as we form the work - but without the active involvement of the physical self, the mind (the thinking self) cannot withstand the pressures of daily life to accede to short-term, external satisfactions. Logically one would suspect the reverse would hold true but it does not. Montessori understood that as the body arrives before the mind is formed, so the body must be attended to and then the mind will develop in tandem with the child's nature. Crawford understands, as Montessori did, that the work of the hands builds character, while the lack of physical connections in work may deform character.

Finally, we should heed what I take to be Crawford's warning against thinking we know it all and have all the answers, just because we have academic credentials, years of experience, and followers who extol our abilities. In solving problems, dealing with conflicts, guiding children, and living our lives, is our understanding adequate to the problem? Are we attentive to children, rather than assertive? Do we understand that our work is both cognitive and moral?

References

Crawford, M. B. (May 24, 2009). The case for working with your hands. New York Times Magazine. 36-41.

Montessori, M. (1966). The secret of childhood. Notre Dame, IN: Fides Publishers.

Montessori, M. M. Jr. (1992). Education for human development: Understanding Montessori. Oxford, England: Clio Press.

KATHY CAREY is coeditor of Montessori Life and a teacher educator at Oklahoma City University. Contact her at edmontessorilife@aol.com.