1,203
24
Essay, 11 pages (2500 words)

Human needs and tendencies essay

The Cosmic Responsibility: An Essay on Human Needs, Task and Tendencies Dr. Montessori’s educational aims are to help the development of the child; and to help him adapt himself to (a) the physical conditions of his environment; (b) to the social requirements dictated by the way of life of the group of people among whom he lived – the society.

For adaptation thus considered stability plays a great role because it represents the basis from which to start from towards the realization of the individual’s aspiration. Some of the fundamental and unchanging facts that may help us in our task of educating concern “ the child” himself. Therefore, it is important that we study his needs, functions and his possible tendency to further understand the child, identify the manner of assistance we can give them and to fulfil the aim of giving these children the picture of mankind in the world. These basic aspects of man are invariable no matter what situation is. No matter what the ideologies of the moment, certain facts remain constant.

He may be normal or with disability but his basic needs remains the same. “ base yourself upon the fundamental facts that do not change no matter what the ideology is at any special historical moment or how often ideologies change and by doing so sway men to pursue different channels. ” – Maria Montessori Human Needs According to the book Creative Development in the Child: A Montessori Approach(p. 288) by Rukmini Ramachandran, “ A man does not come to the Earth merely to eat and enjoy himself! Like all other forms of life, he comes with his hands to do his work. He must (a) nourish his himself, (b)reproduce his kind and (c)find the best living conditions for himself and his family.

” It is a mere summary of the Needs of Man and how mankind fits in with the rest of life as identified by Montessori. Man survived for generations through exploration driven by his needs. God gave to man as condition for further development that first of all it should keep alive. Only then when they have satisfied this rule shall they become spiritual. Human Tendencies and Montessori Education by Mario Montessori p.

22) Becoming an Effective Classroom Manager: A Resource for Teachers Maslow suggests that humans have needs and qualities that serve as motivators of behaviour. His scheme suggests that lower-level needs must be satisfied to a reasonable degree before the more advanced need levels emerge as behavioural motivators. When there is a large hiatus between the learner’s needs and the objectives of the teacher, then discipline problems may develop. An application of Maslow’s teachings would point out the fact that a hungry child will not be motivated towards learning long division because his or her mind is on food and a growling stomach. This is the fulfilment of the need of the man to nourish himself for the first plank would be physiologic needs.

It is also considered as the Fundamental Needs of Man – the need to keep his body alive. The second plank of the pyramid is the need for security and safety. This need is referring to the human need to find the best living conditions for him and his family. It is revealed to humanity that every part of this planet there is a human being who lives in a certain condition which is completely different from what an individual is used to. Those who live in Antarctica compared to those who live in the desserts of Saudi Arabia are examples of this adaptation. Man’s needs to control his body temperature or protect his inadequate body must be satisfied before he can fulfil another need which is naturally of less priority.

Once children fulfil their physical, security, and safety needs, they have the need for love and belonging. They feel that they have fulfilled this need when they are accepted by others, given attention and affection. This is what was referred by Montessori as the need for gregariousness. After love and belonging comes the need for respect and self-esteem this need is satisfied by having successful accomplishments, by gaining influence and status in groups and by receiving recognition.

Duke agrees with Maslow that learning is unlikely to occur until a child feels accepted and respected by the teacher and at least some classmates. Measures of Force Involved in Maslow’s Needs Heirarchy energy exerted in changing one’s attitude and practices which falsely support the view that all students are equally ready learning; analyzing students for their needs deficiencies and; developing, locating, and implementing methods and materials used in satisfying “ maintenance” of needs. Tendencies All other animals in varying degrees have prefabricated psyche. They have instinct that makes them appear to act intelligently.

While man has complex immense variety of potentialities based on essential elements; one of them was brains, hands free to do whatever he wanted and significantly the reedom of spirit. The latter given by God to set man free from his psychic bonds that limited other animals. Hence, ‘ human tendencies’ coined by psychologists, certain aspect of man that do not change – it is Universal. It is these factors that make the child adapted to any society, no matter what its pattern of behaviour.

What may change is what is given to the mind. These tendencies can be helped and hindered towards the fulfilment of their tasks. These tendencies are hereditary. The child possesses them in potentiality at birth, and makes use of them to build an individual suited to his time. These tendencies assume different aspect aided by sensitive periods, if able to work simultaneously; he will find a secure and permanent foundation.

Though present to all human being, there would be difference in expression of these tendencies. It can be due to needs which may be smaller or larger in magnitude, level of the intellect of the child, conditions in the environment, and occurrence of related sensitive period. There are no progressive or regressive tendencies. However, if a tendency is not supportive in a positive manner by the conditions of the environment, it can result as a regressive expression (negative in appearance).

Types of Tendencies: Order and Orientation – during the earlier ages, it is very important that man orient himself with his surroundings to trace his way back to his habitat. Order guides him in his manner of living life every day. There must be some point of reference which gives sense of security to our sanity. Nature gives small children an intrinsic sensibility to order, as built up by an inner sense which is a sense not of distinction between things but of the relationship between things, so that it perceives an environment as a whole with interdependent parts. Only in such an environment, known as a whole, is it possible for the child to orient himself and to act with purpose; without it he would have no basis on which to build his perception of relationship. Nature has given man a compass to orient him in the world.

Obedience comes naturally to the child when the desire to learn is aroused through orderly activity in an orderly environment. The guidance of nature enforces its program and its time-table by a formidable discipline in which health and sickness, life and death play their part. It is necessary that at an early age the child should acquire the elements of orientation in the environment in which his spirit must go forward to further conquests. Replacing everything in its proper place and the command of the school hour and the necessity of planning one’s action in accordance with it, help the child keep order. These are absolute orders, independent of the command of the teacher.

An inner order is created (immediate obedience to a person) and an external order (obedience to law). The child’s sensibility to order has two simultaneous aspects; the outer, which concerns relations between the parts of his environment and the inner which gives him a sense of the parts if his body, their movement and position. (p. 54 Creative devt in a child vol II) Exploration a tendency that embodies one of the most powerful urges of Man and helps him find whatever he requires to satisfy his needs. This exploration as testified by present-day civilization has not been in one direction proven by the existence of humanity. Man has explored everything in his environment.

Always driven by his needs. If earlier Man made it simpler for us to explore how to find food; what the Man of the present-days has to do is to discover how to make his food. Now that the whole world unfolds in front of us with use of technology a curious man can quickly search for anything he wishes to know. He can Google up an interesting recipe from the opposite side of the Earth.

He imitates from what he sees in cooking shows or Youtube. Coordination comes in perfecting the recipe or in a much higher level making fusions of cuisine (ex. East meets West). Abstraction is one of the natural tendencies of Man and being natural to him, it is to be found also in children. He has a reasoning intelligence which enables him to make use of abstraction.

It is Man’s tendency to analyze things. It begins to form when child enters into childhood. Driven by intellect, all things from his environment which he comes to know by name – he gives further meaning. He goes deep into the object’s superficial aspect and asks how they came to be and why do they exist.

Creative Imagination with things that a Man physically lacks, he started to think of ways he can live in a world where he must survive. With the gift of intelligence that could abstract and reason he created in his mind something that was previously non-existent. He imagined creatively or more likely scientifically, systematic and through series of trial made something through innovation making something completely insignificant into an indispensable item. Work has built up civilisation and which has transformed the earth is at the very basis of life and is a fundamental part of it. So much so, that it is, as we say, even in the child. Work has existed in the nature of man as an instinct even from birth itself.

And this life of the child which is, we might say, the embryonic life of spiritual man, attracts our attention and gives us certain explanations. The study of society will be held to be a study of the life of the child which shows us in an embryonic stage this profound tendency of humanity and the mechanism by which society is built up. (Maria Montessori© AMI, 2005) Having idea and having hands he used them to give reality to his imagination. But hands are not lifeless instruments. Like the rest of man they have to learn. So the mind must first control and develop them.

Man may do something to achieve a certain aim, but might find the result different from what he expected. There will be an unending satisfaction for a Man’s spirit. The spirit which is known to be greater than the body. It might be satisfied for a while but when the mind produces a new idea, the body will strive to create a workable reality of his imagination. Man would involve himself to WORK in an activity to attain a certain goal. Towards its goal, he will find himself manipulating materials from his environment and through repetition he gains together with this his experience.

With experimentation, through ‘ control of error’ he will proceed towards self-perfection. For the development and growth of intelligence the child must be allowed spontaneous activity to work with his hands and to be provided with a control of error. ” Dr. Montessori Mathematical Mind (calculation) man’s tendency towards efficiency.

It came about due to the necessity of exactness because otherwise what he made will not fulfill his purpose. A lot of daily activity in our lives must be made with precision of movement. Stepping into the shower, brushing of teeth, pouring water, transferring food into your plate, riding a bus, crossing the street, sitting in a chair, standing, writing, etc. If these simple things we can’t do with efficiency as adults, then there must be something wrong in our brains.

That is why during the development of movement exactness is necessary in order to enable the child to control himself consciously. As adults, this implies REPETITION OF EXERCISES towards self-perfection. If we achieve a degree of perfection, it is when our spirits are satisfied. The degree may be lower or higher than others, what’s important is one’s progress to perfection. Self-perfection or self-control to achieve victory over the environment, Man has to conquer himself at the same time.

That is, to control himself to such a degree that he could feel he was master of himself. A still greater advantage derived from the child is the survival of language, customs and religions and their modifications. Due to the Absorbent Mind, the power children have of taking in unconsciously the spiritual attributes. No matter what the character of each person, a spiritual territory will govern them for it contains religion, customs and habit of the group. They will not leave the group. Children will always want to be like their adults.

They want to have the same ideals. Group orientation or Communication the group comes together for ritual ceremonies and the child is there. He grows witnessing all. That means that both environment and society are seeds sown in the fertile soil of the child’s sentiment. And unconsciously, without noticing it, he becomes one of the group.

Being together and wanting to communicate, they could try to make each other understood by sign language but as the child develops his language they work out a certain agreement where they can both understand each other. Our spirits are enabled to communicate through certain agreement which others might refer to as jargons. Gregariousness safety lay in being together. The sense to belong to a group bound by spirituality.

This eventually, makes a Man dependent on this group rather than the physical group where he belongs to. This group with their own ritual, customs, and morality becomes a guide for the behavior of the people. Spiritual Being – man has a mysterious guide which we call religion. In each group that we consider, we see a tendency towards spiritual life. When man works with spiritual energies, he evolves and transforms himself. (p.

290 Creative devt in a child vol II). “ The small child is a spiritual being. He is the perpetuator of all that is spiritual. He is the link in the long chain of history that ensures human evolution.

” Dr. Montessori Culture – when a man travels, he might adapt and be happy about it for a while but after the first novelty had worn off, he would feel unhappy and would long for his own village. Because through the cultural techniques of his people and their special behavior, he had built within himself a psyche suited to his special surroundings. Taking him away from that environment, his spiritual foundations of the mastery he has built over himself would come to be lacking. It is where he find security, where he finds happiness.

Children do not stop to consider whether they are logical or absurd. As long as anything is accepted by the great majority of the group as something important, the child feels ‘ I want it’. Man perpetuates a sort of instinct, suited to each group. Human Responsibility NEEDS – TENDENCIES – ACHIEVEMENT (fulfilment of task which will then contribute to the society) Cosmic Theory is similar to the ECOSYSTEM wherein a living thing is a part of a system that are interdependent with each ther.

Discussed by Montessori, plants and animals have an etched function to them termed as unconscious ________ or instinct. Man by itself compared to all creatures in Earth is nothing but a “ NAKED APE”. Man had been given freedom of spirit. With his needs satisfied and tasks completed he is ready to participate in a larger scheme called society. The need to reproduce is not merely a basic need of an individual but a need of the whole of humanity and is considered a responsibility to society and civilisation.

we believe that civilization is to a large extent being constantly created anew, since each individual who makes a fresh entry into human society repeats this sacrifice of instinctual satisfaction for the benefit of the whole community”. Freud The previous statement is what makes Montessori Method unique. It helps a child work through his natural tendencies Conclusion: Supposedly that the Fundamental Needs of a child is provided at home; it is very important for us to provide an environment that will awaken these tendencies and help a child develop himself according to his purpose in the cosmic organization. cosystem [? ko sist? m, eko sist? m](plural ecosystems) n organisms and their environment: a localized group of interdependent organisms together with the environment that they inhabit and depend on tendency [tend? nssi] (plural tendencies) n 1. general inclination: a way in which somebody or something is likely to react, behave, or happen 2.

movement towards something: a gradual, but steady progress, development, or shift of opinion in a particular direction Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Thank's for Your Vote!
Human needs and tendencies essay. Page 1
Human needs and tendencies essay. Page 2
Human needs and tendencies essay. Page 3
Human needs and tendencies essay. Page 4
Human needs and tendencies essay. Page 5
Human needs and tendencies essay. Page 6
Human needs and tendencies essay. Page 7
Human needs and tendencies essay. Page 8
Human needs and tendencies essay. Page 9

This work, titled "Human needs and tendencies essay" was written and willingly shared by a fellow student. This sample can be utilized as a research and reference resource to aid in the writing of your own work. Any use of the work that does not include an appropriate citation is banned.

If you are the owner of this work and don’t want it to be published on AssignBuster, request its removal.

Request Removal
Cite this Essay

References

AssignBuster. (2022) 'Human needs and tendencies essay'. 15 January.

Reference

AssignBuster. (2022, January 15). Human needs and tendencies essay. Retrieved from https://assignbuster.com/human-needs-and-tendencies-essay/

References

AssignBuster. 2022. "Human needs and tendencies essay." January 15, 2022. https://assignbuster.com/human-needs-and-tendencies-essay/.

1. AssignBuster. "Human needs and tendencies essay." January 15, 2022. https://assignbuster.com/human-needs-and-tendencies-essay/.


Bibliography


AssignBuster. "Human needs and tendencies essay." January 15, 2022. https://assignbuster.com/human-needs-and-tendencies-essay/.

Work Cited

"Human needs and tendencies essay." AssignBuster, 15 Jan. 2022, assignbuster.com/human-needs-and-tendencies-essay/.

Get in Touch

Please, let us know if you have any ideas on improving Human needs and tendencies essay, or our service. We will be happy to hear what you think: [email protected]