De-normalizing Montessori's Normalization
In October 2025, Caroline Robbins, a public school Montessori teacher in Milwaukee, wrote an article published by the periodical Provocations titled “De-normalizing ‘Normalization.’” Montessori’s term “normalization” is criticized because Robbins thinks people bring to it a Eurocentric and gendered definition of what is acceptable in school. She thinks it is too narrow and does not include the identities “shaped by gender, culture socioeconomic status or disability status.”
Let’s stop right here for a moment to define our terms. What did Montessori mean by “normalization” that Robbins attacks as narrow? Normalization is the result that takes place in Montessori classrooms around the world, in which young children, who typically have short attention spans, learn to focus their intelligence, concentrate their energies for long periods of time and take tremendous satisfaction from their work. Consequently, a normal child is one who develops self-discipline, focus and a love of work through meaningful activities in a prepared environment. And, as Montessori said, “Normalization comes about through ‘concentration’ on a piece of work.”
Robbins gives us no definition nor an explanation of “Eurocentric,” as if everyone agrees that it is bad. Europeans created the Enlightenment and western civilization that everyone enjoys today. A little gratitude instead of scorn or self-hatred would be nice.
To continue, Robbins thinks there is a slippery slope between normalization and compliance, and “the term suggests the assumptions of a dominant, normative culture.” Clinging to “a Montessorian identity can limit us with a narrow vision of what education must be.” Robbins does not think children should be corrected for distracting others, being too loud, or wasting their time by not working or wandering.
What does Robbins mean by a Montessori “identity?” Is it to be well-mannered, thoughtful, and able to concentrate on something you want to accomplish in life? Sounds good! But for egalitarians, such good qualities are unfair because some children don’t have them. How do good qualities limit the vision of what education must be? Does she think that, therefore, no child should be good? She doesn’t explain.
There is nothing wrong with a dominant, normative culture. Without one, there is anarchy. Normalization, which entails learning how to focus one’s mind, is not limiting. It enables the child to learn and develop self-control and self-confidence. Correction of negative behaviors does limit children, as it should. It limits them from doing something that hurts others or themselves. As for the fear of compliance in Montessori, normalization entails intellectual independence, which requires compliance in certain contexts. Children need to cooperate with the ground rules of the classroom or there is chaos. And this is what is found to be objectionable?
Robbins tells us that she has become more accepting of “human messiness” and is shifting away from feeling that she must leave her problems out of the classroom and present a calm demeanor, as per her Montessori training. “I have also been acknowledging how perfectionism is entrenched in white supremacist culture.” She says her “aim as a Montessorian is less to create a normalized classroom, and more to show that it’s ‘normal’ to be whole beings.” What is meant by “whole beings?” Is it imperfect beings, dysfunctional beings, messy, disruptive, whining, entitled beings?She admits that she isn’t going to work toward self-improvement nor help the children learn to normalize. Furthermore, there is no contradiction between normalization and being “whole beings.” It is precisely normalization that enables one to become whole and integrated. But that’s not what she means when she uses the term.
Robbins ends the article with:
Let’s problematize this notion of normalization. Let’s de-normalize it. If anything, let’s normalize that different identities and ways of being are welcome in Montessori spaces, and in other alternative pedagogies. Just as there are many nuances to our work as educators, I offer that there are many ways to Montessori, and there are many “normals.” What is normal, anyway?
I disagree. Not all ways of being are welcome in school. Bullying behavior, stealing, and hitting are not welcome. Disrupting others is not acceptable. She asks what is normal. A Montessori teacher should know what Montessori said about being normal: “…the normal child is one who is precociously intelligent, who has learned to overcome himself and live in peace, and who prefers a disciplined task to futile idleness.” “One of the most remarkable characteristics of a ‘normal’ child is his self-confidence and sureness in action.” “…normalized children show the strongest attraction toward good.” Normalization by this definition is the entire goal of Montessori, and of parents who choose Montessori schools.
Montessori education is a highly specialized, fully integrated methodology. Notice that she wants to welcome “other alternative pedagogies” into the Montessori classroom. If that is done, Montessori is no longer Montessori. Throwing out a main tenet of Montessori is not a “way to Montessori.” If a teacher doesn’t want to teach Montessori, there are plenty of other schools, if that’s the goal. Or is the goal to destroy something beautiful from the inside?
As I’ve outlined in my book, Save Montessori, social justice warriors are openly trying to destroy the Montessori Method step by step, inch by inch. If there is no normal, then anything goes, except anything that might help the child develop into a happy and well-adjusted human. All cultures are equal, even with the ones that use violence to settle disputes. Any child who disrupts another child, why, it’s just his culture, or his neuro-divergent disability, so don’t say anything. Without normality, there are no standards, no order, and then, no nothing. Just confusion, unruliness, savagery, and stupidity. This is anti-Montessori, and not what parents pay for when they send their children to a Montessori school.
Normality results in a healthy psychology of peace and productivity. Attempts to destroy a child’s sense of normalcy or to destroy the recognition of what is normal are in direct conflict with Montessori’s pedagogy. Abolishing “normal” cannot be tolerated or Montessori will crumble into the dust piles of history, as will the rest of our culture.
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Originally published in the American Thinker.
