FAQ

The Four Planes of Development or the Constructive Rhythm of life is nothing other than an overall vision of Montessori’s developmental psychology.

In a manuscript written by Montessori about this chart, she says that scientific studies and meticulous testing carried out in all parts of the world, with children of different races and different socioeconomic conditions, have shown scientists that development does not proceed in a linear or constant fashion. On the contrary, it proceeds or occurs in periods or cycles or planes, such as we see represented on her
Geometric Image of the Rhythm of Development.

Along the tope we find the horizontal line that is the line of life, indicating the chronological age of the individual. Along this same line we find distinct periods of development marked out for the years from birth to twenty-four, with a rhythm of six years for each. It is this skip counting by sixes that gives the rhythm of development or, as Dr. Montessori calls it, the constructive rhythm of life, starting at zero, the moment of birth, we immediately find a great flame enveloping the 0; the flame symbolizes the vital center or the vital charge of psychic life.

Coming out from zero, there is an oblique line, which is the line of progression: it represents the progression of particular sensitivities and the related characteristics. This line of progression does not continue indefinitely and reaches its maximum around three years of age. From this point on the line of progression changes direction and becomes a line of regression, then it becomes to an end when it meets the line of life, around six years of age.

The two lines of progression and regression together with the line of life, determine a triangular area which represents a plane of development, in this case, the first plane of development. Dr. Montessori calls the left side of the triangle the opening of a stage of life, in other words, opens up to a set of particular experiences and consequently to the related acquisitions or conquests. The right side of the triangle represents the closing of a stage of life, in preparation for the opening of a new stage of development with its new sensitivities and characteristics.

In this same way, four planes of development are determined, for planes that Montessori identifies as infancy, childhood, adolescence and maturity. What is really illustrated and emphasized by the use of these triangles is the vital role of the sensitive periods or sensitivities. The sensitives pertinent to a particular phase appear, increase, reach a maximum, and then decline; new sensitivities appear, reach maximum and decline to give way to yet another new sensitivities and so on. It is these sensitivities, that guide development and determine its rhythm.

The pattern of color – red, blue, red, blue – simultaneously convey two ideas: one plane is utterly different from another, one plane in some essential way, resembles another. These ideas are reinforced in other ways: the use of thick outlines as opposed to thin ones, the fact that some planes are divided into two equal sub-planes while others remain undivided. The divided triangle in red, with their thick outlines stand for the creative periods or developing life: infancy and adolescence. The undivided triangles in blue stand for the calm phases of uniform growth; childhood and maturity.

In my opinion, The Four Planes of Development is the holistic framework upon which Montessori built her vision of developmental psychology. This theory encompasses human development from birth until maturity at age 24. We could describe them as holistic because it considers all aspects of a child’s development—academic, spiritual, moral, and emotional. Dr. Montessori recognized that human development is not perfectly linear. In fact, learning occurs in cycles. There are peaks and valleys to it, and we can see that represented in her chart.

When we look at the planes, we can see the horizontal line of life, which indicates the age of the child. The lines that form the triangles are the lines of progression and retrogression. Montessori asserted that development is intense at the beginning of a plane, peaks, and then tapers down to the next plane, in preparation for the beginning of a new stage of development. “There comes a time when one psychic personality ends, and other begins.” The Absorbent Mind

The First Plane of Development 0-6 years

The plane of Infancy is the one of fundamental importance for the formation of the individual. Dr. Montessori clearly divides infancy into two sub-planes. The unconscious creator. The nature of the work of development during the first sub-plane of infancy, during the first three years of life 0-3.

The Spiritual Embryo. The infant from zero to three is identified as an spiritual embryo. “At birth, the infant seems to be a nothing, in the sense that he has no psychic qualities no pre- established powers of movement. Every baby; says Dr. Montessori, has the same appearance, he is
motionless, empty, insignificant, yet this infant has within himself potentialities which determine his development, there exists within this inert being a global power of a human creative essence, which drives him to form a man of his time, a man of this civilization”

Montessori goes on:
It follows that the new-born child has to do a piece of formative work which corresponds in the physical sphere. Before he is there, it is a period of life different from that which he led in the womb. Yet still unlike that of the man he is to become. This post-natal work is a constructive activity which is carried on in what may be called the formative period and it makes the baby into a kind of Spiritual Embryo. Man seems to have two embryonic periods. One is prenatal like that of the animals, the other is post-natal and only man has this. The human species and only the human species has a double embryonic life. Thus, during the first three years of life, a part of life which is forgotten by the very individual who
experienced it, the basic human powers are created (Absorbent Mind).

Dr. Montessori explains as follows:

In this psycho-embryonic period various powers develop separately and independently of one another, for example, language, arm movements, leg movements etc. Certain sensory powers also take shape. And this is what reminds us of the pre-natal period. When the physical organs are developing each on its own account and regardless of the others. For, in the psycho-embryonic period, the functions are developing separately and it is not surprising that we cannot remember this period, for there is still no unity in the personality, the unity can only come when the parts are completed (Absorbent Mind). “The child has a different relation to his environment from ours … the child absorbs it. The things he sees are not just remembered: they form part of his soul. He incarnates in himself all in the world about him that his eyes see and his ear hear”

Dr. Maria Montessori
 

The Conscious Worker.

The nature of the work of development changes during the second sub-Plane of infancy, during the years from three to six. At the age of three, “life seems to begin again, for now consciousness appear full and clearly. And what this child or infant wants to do is to master his environment, finding therein the means for his development. But what is it exactly that he has to develop? All those functions, all those powers which where being created before the age of three, he now has to develop through conscious experiences and through the exercising of his will. Dr. Montessori points out that there are two tendencies at work within this older infant. One is the extension of consciousness by abilities performed on the environment, the other is for the perfecting and enrichment of those powers already formed thus, the period from three to
six is one of constructive perfectionment by means of activity (Absorbent Mind). The child’s hands, guided by his intelligence, begin to do jobs of a definitely human type. This child is always busy doing something with his hands, and for this reason the years from three to six have been
called “The blessed age of play”. That play however is really work, the child’s work for his own development. Thus Montessori calls the infant from three to six the Conscious Worker.

Montessori, however, has more to say: The individual human being is a unity, but thus unity has to be built and consolidated through active experiences directed at the environment and provoked by nature. All the separate embryonic developments which occurred from 0-3 years must in the end function together and become integrated so as to serve the individual personality. This is what is happening during the period from 3-6 when the hands are working, guided by the mind. If external circumstances prevent this integration from taking place then the energies continue to drive the partial formations which develop in a disorganized way and deviate way from their proper goal. The hand moves aimlessly, the mind wanders far from reality, language takes pleasure in itself, the body moves clumsily, and these separate energies, finding nothing to satisfy them, five rise to innumerable combinations of wrong and deviated development, sources of conflicts and disturbances. Such deviations cannot be attributed to the personality itself, they have to be understood as the result of a failure to organize the personality (Absorbent Mind).

But then, as Montessori points out, when the environment offers motives from constructive activity, all the energies concentrate together, and the deviations disappear. Only then, when the child has the possibility, the freedom to develop normally will we see the true personality of the child. It is this process of transformation from deviated to normal development that Montessori calls normalization, and it is normalization that must be our concern for the second sub plane of infancy. During and as result of the process of normalization, the child develops character quite spontaneously. Montessori in fact also identifies the period from three to six years of age as the embryonic period for the formation of character
(Absorbent Mind). In my opinion, at this stage, the child has, as Montessori put it, an absorbent mind. From birth until age 3 the child is, without any effort, soaking up everything about his world like a little sponge; this is the unconscious, absorbent mind. When a child is born, she comes into the world full of promise and potential. The possibilities for who she will become and what her life will be are endless. We have no way of knowing what her potential is and to what extent it will be realized. This is arguably the most important time of a child’s development, since he is creating his self. His personality, quirks, likes, dislikes—the foundation for all of these is laid during this time. And as if that wasn’t difficult enough, the child also has to organize himself physically. It’s during this time that a child learns to move, eat, crawl, walk, etc. When you think of it this way, can you blame young children for being egocentric?

Finally, in the second half of the first plane (ages 3 to 6), this absorption becomes conscious. During both of these times, the enormous task of learning is made more manageable through the sensitive periods. Sensitive periods are windows of time in which the child is driven internally to master a certain skill and, if he is allowed, he will develop this skill more easily and naturally than during any other time in his life. Humans go through sensitive periods for order, spoken language, written language, math, movement, and many more. By the end of the first plane of development, these sensitive periods should be completed, and the child will be ready for the second plane, which will build on what he has
practiced during the first. All that we parents and educators can do is to help the child along on her difficult journey of constructing herself. This is an enormous task! Our work as adults does not consist in teaching, but in helping the infant mind in it’s work of development.
 

Dr. Maria Montessori

”The child is endowed with unknown powers, which can guide us to a radiant future. If what is a new world, then education must take as its aim the development of these hidden possibilities”

Dr. Maria Montessori