THE ABSORBENT MIND In the first plane of development, the child. between the ages of birth to six years, learns everything from his environment simply by living in it and without any help. He does so with ease and after the work he feels refreshed rather than tired. Furthermore the child never loses or forgets whatever he learns, as it becomes part of his personality. Why is this learning different for the child from birth through six years as compared with other ages This is because the child, at tivip stage possesses a special type of mind which works quite differently as compared to the adult mind. This special mind of the child enables hin to absorb impressions from the environment through his senses, simply by living in it. He absorbs the life going on about him and becomes one with it. This process starts as soon as the child comes into this world. Dr. Montessori calls this special type of mind “the absorbent mind". The absorbent mind exists in the first plane of development i.e. from zero to six years of age. The adult: mind operates differently as compared to this ‘absorbent mind’. The functions of an adult mind is to think, to reason, to know, to remember; the absorbing of impressions is not considered to be the function of an intelligent adult mind. Why has Dr. Montessori given this name to the mind of the child at this age ? If we, carefully, observe and compare the newborn with a six year old, we find that at six years, the baby has acquired many functions. The babyhas none of the functions established at the time of birth. He is born vith just a potential, a possibility, for acting like @ human being. At the end of six years the child has equipped himself with a language, with the attitudes, habits and customs of his group and constructed even the movements i.c. he is his own individual self. By helping the child in the formation of a human being, the absorbent mind enables him to adapt to, and become a member of, his cultural group. To accomplish this huge task, of adaption to the environment into which the child is ‘born, a mind definitely different from an adult is needed. If adults try to achieve what a child accomplishes from birth through to six years, they may not be able to do so in a life time. There are many examples where adults who have to adapt to a different culture, find it very difficult, feel frustrated and disturbed, e.g. immigrants to any country « Adults use their minds to’ acquire knowledge which does not necessarily become part of their personality, but the child absorbs knowledge directly into his psychic life simply by living. Dr. Montessori explains this with en example : She says, “Impressions pour into us and we store them in our minds, but, we remain apart from them, just as a vase keeps scparate from the water it contains. Instead, the child undergoes transformation. Impressions do not merely enter his mind, they form it; theyincarnate themselves in him. The child creates his own ‘mental muscles', using for this, what he finds in the world around him. We have, named this mentality "the absorbent mind". (1) The absorbent mind absorbs impressions from the environment without discrimination, which means it is not selective. It absorbs impressions from anything and everything which is available in the environment. Dr. Montessori has given an example of a sponge as an analogy. If we put a sponge in water, the water is absorbed by it without selection. It does not happen that if the water is dirty or of a different colour, the sponge rejects it and does not absorb. Whatever kind of water the sponge is put in, it absorbs it. In the same way, the absorbent mind of the child will absorb impressions from whatever he finds in the environment. The child's absorbent mind will absorb language or languages which are spoken in the environment, the culture of the group in which he is born, even the feelings and movements of people around him. Dr. Montessori says that the child "observes everything in sight and experience shows that he absorbs it all equally" She further says, "There are some insects which look like leaves and others which look like stalks, and to seem completely one with them, they pass their lives on leaves and stalke which they resemble so perfectly. Something like this happens to the child. The child's impressions are so profound that a biological or psycho-chemical change takes placeby which his mind ends by. resembling the environment itself". (1) This absorption is unlimited and starts from the time of birth. The absorbent mind, in this process, does not leave oul anything and Laken tn everything. Taking the example of learning a language, we see that the adult not possessing the absorbent mind finds it quite tedious to learn any new language. Even if he does so, after a lot of hard work, he canhot reach that level or perfection; the child does so with much greater ease and would achieve perfection’ in it. He would not miss out any detail; the sounds, the grammatical construction, pronunciation, intonation, the idiom etc. Dr. Montessori has compared the absorbent mind to a camera. With just a click, a camera takes a complete picture without missing out even a tiny detail, whereas the mind of the adult works like that of an individual who wants to paint a picture. This individual cannot do what the camera did with a click. He will take time to make that picture, and will have to work hard; even then, he may not be able to put in everything that was there. As the first plane of development is divided into two sub-phases, we find that-the mode of operation of the absorbent mind also differs in the two sub-phases. During the first half of the first plane of development, that is, from birth to three years, the absorbent mind absorbsimpressions from the environment without even knowing it or being aware of it. It is during this time that the child creates all his mental faculties. He learns everything through absorption and without knowing that he is doing so. Through his own activities, his memory, twill’ and consciousness will be created gradually. As the child does all this without conscious design, Dr., Montessori calls it “the unsconscious absorbent mind". She uses the term unconscious in a’different meaning as compared to other psychologists, especially Freud. Quoting Dr. Montessori's own words, “at the age of three, life seemsto begin again; for now, consciousness shines forth in all its fullness and glory. Between these two periods, the unconscious period and the one that follows it of conscious development, there seems to be & well-marked boundary. In the first, there is no possibility of conscious memory. Only with the advent of consciousness do we have’ unity of the personality and therefore the power to remember. Before three, functions were created; after three, they develop" (i). We see that the child of three years is always playing with something using his hands. This play has a very profound effect on his life. Through his hands, he works and brings to his awareness what his ‘unconscious absorbent mind' had earlier absorbed. Through this process he constructs his mind step by step, till he is able to build his memory, the power to understand, and the ability to think (cognitive skills). Sometimes the young child goes on absorbing, anddoes not show any change in hig behaviour. We are unable to find out what is going on in his mind. But after a porfod comon an outburst, un explowton of aome kind, in a certain activity, e.g. he may say his first word or he mey take his first independent step. Then we realise how much he has absorbed. Sometimes the very young child appears to be doing nothing, yet he goes on absorbing. We have to be careful not to overlook this, as, many times, we tend to confuse a young child's motor incompetence with conceptual incompetence. In the second sub-phase of the first plane of Gevelopment, i.e. from three to six years, the child requires awareness of his activities. Therefore, Dr. Montessori calls it the period of the conscious absorbent mind. The mind's power to absorb tirelessly is still there, but absorption is now helped by active experience. From the age of three through six years, the child begins a period of great constructiveness as he is able to interact with his environment deliberately and consciously. All the essential faculties previously created, are able to show themselves. Now, absorption is no longer a matter of only the senses, but the hand also takes part. Hands become the instrument of the mind. Dr. Montessori calls them "a prehensile organ of the mind. Working with his hands, the child is able to understand more, and acte with more understanding. The more he uses his hands the more aware he becomes of his environment. Atthis age, he is found to be continuously busy happily doing something with his hands. Through the personality he created during the first three years of life, now emerges the idea of self. The young children refer to themselves by their names as though referring to someone else, and are not very aware or conscious of their indentity. With his own movement and activities of his hands, a realisation comes that he possesses some power, and is able to manipulate objects in the environment. Gradually he comes to see himself as an individual, With growing awareness of his capabilities, ne is able to refer to himeelf as "I". He ts able to exercise lis ‘will’ and is able to choose his own activities, which further strengthens his 'will'. lle also develops a conscious memory where he can recall his experiences. Whatever happened before three years is very difficult to recall. Three to six years is also the time when, with the help of the absorbent ‘mind, the child is able to expand, enrich and perfect’ whatever ‘functions’ he created earlier. During the period from birth to six years, the absorbent mind helps the child to become an individual of the particular cultural group where he is born, and helps him in his adaptation. The child is not born with anypre-established behaviour; he absorbs the practices of his social group and incorporates them into his life. He has to absorb them from, outside himself. With this process of adaptation, he is ‘able to live with others in happiness, acquiring an equilibrium which gives a sense of security, a feeling of belonging to this group. He is able to cope with his environment as an individual. In the process of adaptation, during the period of the absorbent mind, the child is aided by certain tendencies and special sensitivities. The most important tendencies which help the child are : gregariousness, communication, exploration; order, work, repetition, perfection and independence. During this period, the child also has special sensitivities for language, movement, order, social behaviour and refinement of the senses. The tendencies and sensitivities provide a direction for the absorbent mind by providing help in the construction of his personality in relation to the environment: With this direction the child is able to classify (orientation) and distinguish the objects and activities in his environment, selecting from it what is necessary for the building of his own mental faculties. It is with the aid of these ‘inner directives’ that the absorbent mind is able to take in or absorb and construct: a personality oriented to his environment, “adapted to his time, place and culture". The adult nas a huge responsibility as he has tohelp the child "to help himself to become himself The adult must understand "the absorbent mind" and its characteristics and prepare a suitable environment for this period, since it is through interaction with the environment that Lhe child is able to realise his potential, Tho cnvivonmont ahould provide opportunitiog for rich and real experiences. One must understand that by 'rich' it is not meant that a lot of expensive toys should be provided. Dr. Montessori is of the opinion that “in those countries where the toymaking industry is less advanced, children have different tastes. They are calmer, more sensible and happy, and they are able to take part in the activities going on about them” (1). The adult should never decide on his own what is good for the child. If "We try to form their growing intellects and characters by our own standards, we shall succeed only in destroying self-discipline". The best thing to do is to observe the child and let him reveal his individual needs and provide for them. Keeping the general characteristics of the absorbent mind, environment has to be prepared both at home and at children's house. The first three years which ts the period of the ‘unconscious absorbent mind’, the child remains mostly with the family. Therefore, he needs family lifewhich provides him security and love. Security at this stage means both physical and emotional. This is the time he will lay the foundations of his attitude to lire. . The family will provide him with the guides of the particular society in whichhe is born; its way of life, its habits, religion, customs and’ ideals and its language. The child has an inner desire to copy the society and that chance to copy is provided by the family. ' Around three years the child needs en environment in which his tendencies can’ continue to operate using whatever he has collected in the three. previous years. The store of impressions he collected ‘in those years now needs to be classified and organised and also symbolised through language. Generally the child would need :- 1) Freedom to move and explore. In the beginning this would mean removing obstacles (playpen, cot and clothes etc), and providing with safe space. There should be some objects to stimulate his exploratory activities. These activities have to be provided according to the changing needs of the child. Providing some materials for sensory stimulation is very necessary, as with the training andsharpening of enses, the child can be helped to enlarge his field of perception, thue providing a solid ground for intellectual growth. The intellect develops through experience with concrete objects of the environment. 2 The child needs to communicate and learn the language. Therefore, he should have opportunities of listening to good language conversation of people and also to be involved in conversations. The adult must realise that it is the child's task work at the construction of himself, the adult has to prepare the environment. The adult's committment should be an on-going one, requiring a continual and continued study of the child. The adult must realise that the child is laying the foundations of his personality and this will remain with him for life. Adults must not make the mistake of ignoring this great gift to human-beings, ‘the absorbent mind’. Education, therefore, should begin when life begins and not at five or six years, when the child loses the gift of the absorbent mind..