…in not interfering comes with practice, but it never comes very easily.” –Montessori

Before a guide touches a student’s work, they wait until they have observed the child’s efforts to solve their own conundrum. As teachers who love children and want to see them succeed, watching their initial struggles can be challenging. We want to help! We want to go touch their work and fix it for them! But doing so would rob the child of an opportunity to establish independence and to build their esteem. And, as I tell new teachers, when your hands touch the work, you are doing the learning and not the child. Yes, things are sometimes difficult. But children learn they are capable! And, if the problem or work frustrates them beyond their current level of understanding or patience, they can always ask a teacher or an older friend for assistance. Often, when we point out just a few points of interest they might have forgotten from the initial presentation, the child’s memory clicks and they no longer require our assistance.