It seems like yesterday, but 43 years have come and gone and it still amazes me as a teacher how the Montessori Silence Game impacts the spirit of a child. How they begin to focus on the hidden forces of the spirit within them, and how it helps children develop a higher level of self-control, calmness, and adds to the normalization within a Montessori classroom.
Maria Montessori wrote in her book The Secret of Childhood, “One day I had the idea of using silence to test the children’s keenness of hearing, so I thought of calling them by name, in a low whisper. This exercise in patient waiting demanded a patience that I thought impossible.”
As a graduate of both Western Kentucky State College and American Montessori Teaching Training Institute along with a Master’s degree in Theology, I know that nothing is impossible with God. The Bible verse Mark 10:27 reads “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
The Montessori preschool exercises in Practical Life, especially grace, courtesy, and social awareness lessons are indirect preparation for the Silence Game. A child must learn to control and perfect their movement. They quietly push a chair under the table carefully, quietly walking around a work rug on the floor, they pour rice carefully without the sound of rice falling on the table, or they grasp small stones and place them quietly into another container.
The Bible says on listening quietly in Corinthians 2:9-10 “But as it is written, eye hath not seen nor ear hear, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His spirit for the spirit searcheth all things yea, the deep things of God.”
Some additional games the children play to perfect their ability to be still and quietly listen are passing a bell around a circle without it ringing and listening to the rain.