Practical life & grace and courtesy

1914. A child being welcomed to school by a teacher at The BlackFriars School, Sydney, NSW.

Grace and Courtesy is another component of Practical life and we have reintroduced greeting and farewelling each other at the door with a hand shake. The Montessori Grace and Courtesy was established by Dr Montessori herself and occurs in Montessori environments all over the world. It is a way of demonstrating the way to act in society, that children will encounter throughout their lives. It is also a way of showing the child the respect that is such an important part of the Montessori pedagogy.

A handshake acknowledges the child as individually important, it establishes a ritual in coming to school and relationship building, and it sends a meessage to the child that our care and support of them is unconditional. No matter the mistakes they make today or the successes they experience, we respect and care about them.