A strongly disciplined person is one who demonstrates that he can control himself. Discipline is always goal-oriented, therefore we understand that having the capacity to be extremely disciplined denotes the existence of a strong will oriented towards a specific purpose. The Montessori Method aims to teach the child how to move (dynamism) and the scene for which he is prepared is not school, but life itself. The discipline that he is stimulated to learn is therefore one which applies to the overall social environment.
In order to make sure that the child will grow up disciplined and with respect for the others and the social environment, he must be taught the difference between good and evil. In addition, Montessori stresses that the teacher must make sure "the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity, as often happens in the case of the old-time discipline. And all this because our aim is to discipline or activity, for work, for good;not for immobility, not for passivity, not for obedience. " (http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/montessori/method/method.html#V ). The child must be able to take independent decisions and be self-confident. At this point, having strong will and being disciplined, he will also obey to the rules of behavior which are socially acceptable and morally valid. The child will obey not because he is compelled to do it, instead his gesture will be one through which he listens to his own beliefs and principles.
And since discipline and will are tightly connected, it is safe to say that these interlinked aspects of development are the foundation for the development of obedience. Onec again it must be underlined that while for the traditional perspective on education obedience is regarded in relationship to "someone," here it is conceived in relation to the rules of behavior.
The child must grow to be independent, that is why no rule must be imposed on him. Instead he must be helped to comprehend on his own, the importance of not depending on anyone for anything....
The core of the Montessori philosophy is that the individual must be disciplined through liberty. It is in this key of interpretation that we must look at the concept of obedience, obedience to the self- after the self has been created in an independent manner which benefits from direct knowledge of the environment.
There are three levels of obedience. The first two can be linked to the spiritual and social embryonic stages of the Absorbent mind. The character of obedience develops from an initial stage in which it is born from hormonic impulse, to a further state in which we become aware of it through consciousness to a final state in which we control it through the mechanisms of conscious will. Montessori believed that children absorb the information regarding the surrounding environment and construct themselves unconsciously with this information. Until the age of three (a period called "of unconscious creation" the child develops his abilities in order to become independent from the adult. In the following phase, that of the conscious work, the child will concentrate his efforts on achieving his goals on his own. The first two levels of obedience are clearly connected to the first two periods of the Absorbent Mind.
Bibliography:
Discipline- Merriam Webster Dictionary online, Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/netdict/discipline?show=0&t=1285512501
Discipline- definition, Retrieved from http://www.lexic.us/definition-of/discipline
Discipline-definition, Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/discipline
Montessori, M.(Everett George, A. translator) (1912) The Montessori method. NY: Frederick A. Stokes, Retrieved from http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/montessori/method/method.html#V
Obedience- Brainyquote, Retrieved from http://www.brainyquote.com/words/ob/obedience195278.html
Shortridge, P.D. The absorbent mind and the sensitive periods, Retrieved from http://www.pdonohueshortridge.com/children/absorbent.html
