“Language Lies at the Root of That Transformation of the Environment That We Call Civilization.” How Is Language Encouraged in the Montessori Environment Essays

â€Å"Language Lies at the Root of That Transformation of the Environment That We Call Civilization.† How Is Language Encouraged in the Montessori Environment Essays â€Å"Language Lies at the Root of That Transformation of the Environment That We Call Civilization.† How Is Language Encouraged in the Montessori Environment Essay â€Å"Language Lies at the Root of That Transformation of the Environment That We Call Civilization.† How Is Language Encouraged in the Montessori Environment Essay Language is a mean of communication, delivering ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized sounds and signs, thus, being the spoken and written language. It is part of the human tendencies to want to communicate with others and this could underlie the emergence of language. Montessori said, â€Å"To talk is the nature of man. † Humans needed language in order to communicate, and soon, the powers that come with language revealed. The evolution of the human language began when communication was done through pictograms and drawings. It then developed into ideograms when pictures began to turn into symbols. Later, these symbols became words, words involved letters, vowels emerged, one symbol came to represent one sound, and an alphabet was created, and then came the alphabet we now use today. And just as language evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago, it also changes with each generation. Unneeded words are dropped and new words come into use. Language rose and continues to rise with the collective intelligence. This also marked the civilisation of mankind. Language differentiates a community from one another but at the time it also unites and binds human being of different races together through a common language. Content Language is the ability to understand speech and a desire to convey one’s feelings and thoughts. It is through communication that human beings are able to cooperate with each other to solve common problems. It is through communication based on written and oral language in particular that each generation has passed on its accumulating wisdom to the next. â€Å"Language, we may say, grow with human thought†. Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, p109) The learning of language is truly the child’s most remarkable intellectual achievement and is amazingly accomplished rapidly in a very short time span. â€Å"By merely living and without any conscious effort the individual absorbs from the environment even a complex cultural like language† (Elizabeth G. Hainstock, The Essential Montessori, pg. 8 1) Based on Montessori’s observation, the various periods of the child’s life show the same stages in the level reached and this applied to all the children throughout the world, this applied to the acquisition of language in the child. She found out that the child is first interested with humans voice, follow by repeating the same syllable, then words are spoken of more than one syllable, then the whole syntax and grammar seem to be grasped, gender and number, case, tense and mood. The child begins this work in the darkness of the subconscious mind, and here it develops and fixes itself permanently. Though it seems as a mystery, the child takes a lot of practices to connect the physical and psychic abilities. Maria Montessori observed that the sensitive period of language is the longest one which is from birth to age 6: 1. Birth age 1: the child is sensitive to sounds; listening and watching and then started with single syllable, imitating sound and pointing to objects in the attempt to communicate. If the child is taught sign language, he may be able to use signs to communicate at the tender age of 10 months, way before he develops speech. 2. Age 1 age 2: the child is sensitive to words; begins using simple words. He responds to simple then complex commands. Understand about 200 words. 3. Age 2 3 and up: the childs vocabulary increases tremendously (from approximately 300 to 1000 words). . Age 4- this is the sensitive time for writing. 5. Age 4 and a half to 5 the child starts to classify words and reading. 6. Age 5 to 6 sensitive to the study of parts of speech and word usage. At the beginning of the child’s sensitive period to language, he explores his surroundings with his tongue and hands, and through these, the child absorbs the qualities of objects in his environment and seeks to act upon it. He wants to know the name of every object that he sees and touches and mimic words said by the adults around him. Montessori concluded that the tongue which man uses for speaking and the hand, which he employs for work, are intimately connected. This sensibility is transitory and once gone it will never return. The language explosive happens and erupts in the child’s powers of expression and it continues well after the age of two. After two and a half years old, which marks the borderline of man’s mental formation, begins a new period in organizing the language and this continues to develop without explosion, learn many new words and perfects his sentence formation. At six years old, a child has learnt to speak correctly according to the rules of his mother tongue. And all these work is done by no one, but the child himself. Research has been made that in comparison with the adults’ ability to learn, the adults need sixty years of hard work to do it where a child does it in three. Therefore, it is particularly important that the adults give assistant where necessary for the development of language in a child, by exposing him to good grammar sentences and wide vocabularies to feed his absorbent mind during this sensitive period. Though a child works effortlessly in the acquisition of language, however, he does need a suitable environment. So, in cases where the child is not spoken to, like the boy of Aveyron, the child does not develop speech. Maria Montessori pointed out that during the Sensitive Period of language, the child must be exposed to language or it will not develop. Montessori â€Å"considered the job of education not to fill the child with the techniques of reading but to free him or self-expression and communication†. Paula Polk Lillard, A Modern Approach, pg. 123) The mind needs language in order to connect thoughts to the environment. Montessori’s methods make full use of the child’s sensitive period of language by creating an environment that aids this development. In the Montessori environment, the child is constantly exposed to information, through formal lessons, conversations and games; preparing him and thus, making it possible for the child to start creative writin g and reading at a young age. The child can freely express himself thus able to grow up happily and confidently. BIBLIOGRAPHY Gettman, David Basic Montessori St Martin’s Press New York, 1987 Paula Polk Lillard Montessori: A Modern Approach Schocken, 1988 Britton, Lesley Montessori Play Learn Vermilion, 1992 Montessori, Maria The Secret Of Childhood Balantine, 1972 Montessori, Maria, The Discovery Of the Child Clio Press Oxford, 200

Application Deadlines for Top Universities and Colleges

Application Deadlines for Top Universities and Colleges For regular admission, youre going to need to have most applications for highly selective colleges done by January 1st. Less selective colleges often have later deadlines, but applying earlier can improve your chances of getting financial aid and ensure that spaces in specific programs havent filled. When Are College Applications Due? Application deadlines vary significantly from college to college. Typically, the countrys most selective colleges and universities have regular admission deadlines between January 1st and January 15th. Be sure to keep track of the specific deadlines for the schools on your application list, for some will be earlier. The University of California system, for example, has a November 30th deadline. Youll find that less selective schools often have later deadlines- in February in many cases, although some schools have rolling admission and  never really close the application process until no more spaces are available. In the tables below, youll find application deadline information and notification dates for top colleges and universities. Youll see that the deadlines are all within a couple weeks of each other, ranging between January 1st and January 15th (be sure to check each schools admissions website for the most up-to-date information, since application deadlines and notification dates can change from year to year). All information below is from the individual schools websites for the 2018–2019 admissions cycle. Application Deadlines for Top Universities College Application Deadline Notification Date Brown January 1 Late March Columbia January 1 Late March Cornell January 2 Early April Dartmouth January 2 On or before April 1 Duke January 2 By April 1 Harvard January 1 Late March Princeton January 1 Late March Stanford January 2 By April 1 University of Pennsylvania January 5 By April 1 Yale January 2 By April 1 Compare ACT scores for the Ivy League Compare SAT scores for the Ivy League Application Deadlines for Top Liberal Arts Colleges College Application Deadline Notification Date Amherst January 1 On or around April 1 Carleton January 15 By April 1 Grinnell January 15 Late March Haverford January 15 Early April Middlebury January 1 March 24 Pomona January 1 By April 1 Swarthmore January 1 By Mid-March Wellesley January 15 Late March Wesleyan January 1 Late March Williams January 1 By April 1 Compare ACT scores for these schools Compare SAT scores for these schools Reasons to Apply to Colleges Ahead of the Deadline Keep in mind that you will be better off applying well before these application deadlines. Admissions offices get swamped in early January. If you submit your application a month or more ahead of the deadline, the admissions officers will be less harried when reviewing your materials.  Also, keep in mind that youll be demonstrating less-than-ideal organizational skills if your application arrives at the last possible minute. Applying well ahead of the deadline demonstrates that you work ahead of deadlines, and it can also help demonstrate your eagerness, something that plays into  demonstrated interest. Also, if you happen to be missing application materials, youll have plenty of time to take care of such issues. When Will You Receive an Admissions Decision? Decisions for regular admission applicants tend to arrive in mid- to late-March. MIT famously releases their admissions decisions on Pi Day, March 14th. At all schools, students need to decide whether or not they will attend by May 1st. This means youll have at least a month to visit the campuses of schools that have admitted you, and even do an overnight visit to make sure the school is a good match for your personal and academic goals. Its also worth noting that top schools often communicate with their top candidates before the March notification date in the form of a likely letter. These letters essentially tell an applicant that they are very likely to receive good news when decisions are released in March.   What about Early Action and Early Decision? Realize that the above deadlines are for regular admission. Deadlines for Early Action and Early Decision are often in the first half of November with decision dates before the new year. If you have a clear top-choice college, applying through Early Action or Early Decision can significantly improve your chances of being admitted. Keep in mind that Early Decision is binding, so you should use this option only if you are 100 percent sure a school is your top choice. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the pros and cons of applying to college early before doing so.