Developing the ability to think in a flexible way, and to adapt to one’s surroundings, was something Maria Montessori valued greatly: “The person who is developing freely and naturally arrives at a spiritual equilibrium, in which he is master of his actions, just as one who has acquired physical poise can move freely. When he is master of himself he is also flexible in his attitude towards others, and capable of adaptation to the wishes and requirements of others, and of ‘give and take.’ ”

At WSMS, we:

• engage children in imaginative play; this helps them understand that multiple perspectives and options can exist in any one situation.
• encourage children to think for themselves, and to question what they learn. We do not test them, or train them to regurgitate answers given by adults.
• live by the attitude that many answers can be good, or “right.” When we provide them with learning experiences where the correct answer depends on the circumstances, children stretch their mental muscles and begin to become flexible in their thinking.

WSMS teachers:

• foster flexible thinking by asking children at the end of a lesson or project, “Is there another way to do this?”
• remain open to different answers and different ways of thinking from children, and listen patiently as they explain their reasoning.
• present new topics to groups of children who are of different ages and at different developmental stages. Because of the multi-age and multi-stage classroom groupings, teachers are always adapting their presentations, and so children constantly see new ways of thinking and learning in action.

This example illustrates how we help children begin to be flexible thinkers:
When we read stories with children at WSMS, we often discuss alternate endings to those stories. Take, for example, the story of “The Three Little Pigs.” Teachers and students talk together about ways this story could have been different. What if the pigs had built their houses out of different materials? What materials could those have been? How else could the pigs and wolf have resolved their differences? Talking through these questions helps children understand, early on, the concept of cause and effect, and the implications of different actions. We also discuss the fact that there are multiple perspectives in every story, and that a story told from another character’s standpoint might sound very different from the original. The children often write their own versions of these stories, putting this flexible thinking into action.

“ ‘More than one way’ is a phrase that we use a lot in the classroom. Is there more than one way to do this project? More than one way to solve this problem? More than one way to think about this situation? This phrase becomes a way of life for the children, and as a result they are incredibly flexible in their thinking. They enjoy looking at things from different perspectives, and working with each other to tackle problems in new ways every time.”
—WSMS Teacher