Sensory education is the true essence of Montessori education, but what is the most important aspect of it? In this episode, we have explored the heart of sensory education more scientifically than anywhere else.
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Profile
Yati Obara
Editor-in-Chief, Scientific Montessori
Based in Japan, born in 1989. CEO of Motherhand and Co-Director of the nonprofit think tank Polymath Research. Holds an M.Eng. and is an AMI-certified teacher. Focused on Montessori developmental theory and AI. Mother of two.
Hiro Obara
Publisher, Scientific Montessori
Based in Japan, born in 1990. Works as a software developer and a weekend farmer. Father of two.
Sensory organs are receptors of electromagnetic waves.
Yati
Today’s topic is “sensorial education.” We touched on the senses last month, but I’d like to get to the heart of sensorial education, starting with what “senses” even are.
Hiro
In a word, the senses are receptors for electromagnetic waves.
Yati
That probably doesn’t make sense to most listeners, so please explain. This definition is groundbreaking. It doesn’t come up in standard physics explanations.
Hiro
This is a scientific perspective. If you look at the electromagnetic spectrum, human senses are receptors for electromagnetic waves ranging from infrared to ultraviolet. For example, there’s a visible-light region, and you can see that this corresponds to sight.
Yati
Right. That’s consistent with the general understanding, so it’s easy to grasp.
Hiro
Exactly. Electromagnetic waves are, well, waves, vibrations. If something vibrates extremely fast or barely vibrates at all, we can’t see it. We can only see things vibrating at a moderate frequency. The same applies to other senses. With hearing, if something vibrates too fast, the pitch is too high to hear; if it barely vibrates, the pitch is too low. We can’t hear either.
Yati
In the case of sound, it’s vibrations in the air. Generally, hearing is understood as sensing air waves. Here, you’re framing it in terms of electromagnetic waves, sensing the electromagnetic waves emitted by media like air or water that carry sound.
Hiro
Right. And smell works the same way. Tiny particles vibrate. How do we identify smells? It’s like the letters humans use. We use 26 letters of the alphabet to write books and express all kinds of things. Similarly, about 300 scent signals are combined to identify smells.
Yati
So it’s not one-to-one. Like a piano: press C, E, and G keys together and you get a C-major chord. With 300 “keys,” you can create incredibly complex expressions.
Hiro
Exactly. Taste is mostly the same as smell. Then there’s touch, which also includes sensing warmth. Infrared light is invisible, but we feel it as “warmth.” Sit by a campfire, and the coals emit far-infrared radiation that warms you. You can’t see it, but your skin feels it.
Yati
That makes sense.
Hiro
But if it gets too hot, you burn yourself and proteins denature. You can only perceive temperatures in a moderate range. Too cold or too hot, and touch stops working. So all senses are organs for catching moderate electromagnetic waves. And everything maps neatly.
Yati
What a brilliant definition. Genius.
Hiro
Well, the person who said this was Buckminster Fuller. If I’d come up with it myself, I’d be a super-genius. [laughs]
Yati
[laughs] This discussion is unique, so let me summarize Fuller’s idea for listeners to savor. Looking at the electromagnetic spectrum, each sense corresponds to a part of it. Essentially, the ultraviolet to infrared range is crucial for human life, and we perceive waves in that range as our various senses.
Hiro
Right.
Yati
We talk about the “five senses,” but I think it’s really just a question of how to divide up this electromagnetic range. In fact, here we’ve combined smell and taste. Neurobiologists have suggested there may be as many as thirty-three senses, but that might just be finer divisions of the same electromagnetic range. What about non-humans?
Hiro
Same principle, but the range of electromagnetic waves they can perceive differs. Bees and Arctic reindeer can see ultraviolet light. Their visible range is wider than ours. Whales and dolphins communicate using ultrasonic frequencies beyond human hearing. Ultimately, senses lead to communication. Human conversation works the same way: the sounds we produce are within the listener’s audible range. We raise and lower our pitch, finely adjusting vibrations so they can be converted into symbols and exchanged. All living things do this.
Yati
Even plants?
Hiro
Absolutely. Plants use scent. What is scent? It involves liquids and atoms or molecules with double bonds. Plants can’t live without water. They draw it up and release scents. The fragrance of spices and herbs is how plants communicate.
Yati
Do plants have five senses?
Hiro
They have them all. In quantum electrodynamics, the quantum of electromagnetic waves is the photon, and plants receive light. When there’s light, they use chlorophyll for photosynthesis. They open flowers only when light is present and turn toward the light. Sunflowers, for example.
Yati
That’s plant “sight.” There’s fascinating research on hearing: certain plants can hear bee wing-beats and increase the sugar concentration in their nectar.
Hiro
So plants enjoy music, too. They “listen” because the water inside them changes form. Its crystalline structure shifts. As for smell, I mentioned spices. When a plant is damaged, it suddenly releases chemicals, like a gas signal, to warn neighbors.
Yati
And touch? Some plants respond when touched, like the sensitive plant, also called Mimosa pudica, or carnivorous plants. They also respond to temperature.
Hiro
Seeds won’t germinate unless it’s warm enough. If we can organize this theory physically, reduce it to principles, sensorial education becomes possible not just for humans, but for animals, plants, microbes, literally all life.
Yati
Meaning all life needs to develop its senses healthily within an appropriate natural environment. As we discussed last month, humans have damaged the environment and disrupted natural sensorial education. Salmon couldn’t develop their sense of smell and can no longer find their way home.
Hiro
And it’s true for humans themselves. By creating things that fool the senses and spreading them widely, we’re harming the natural environment.
Yati
It really is all fake. For sight, there’s video. For hearing, electronic sounds. For smell, synthetic chemicals mimicking natural scents.
Hiro
You used to work on AI that recreated scents. [laughs]
Yati
I was part of the problem. And for touch, there’s plastic with textures that don’t exist in nature, or appliances that mimic the warmth of a campfire. Everything has a fake version.
Hiro
The World Expo in Osaka just ended, and apparently the exhibits were mostly video.
Yati
That’s a waste. This connects to how we set up sensorial-education environments for ages zero to three: the point is to spend time around real things.
Hiro
Right.
Yati
It’s often overlooked, but spending time in natural environments is crucial. Instructors from abroad in my international course were surprised: in Japan, babies aren’t taken outside until the one-month medical checkup, which is a standard Japanese custom. Overseas, that’s unthinkable. They said, “Isn’t that hard on the mother, too?” I realized it varies by country. I later gave birth at a birth center, and they encouraged sunbathing to help with jaundice. With my first child, I didn’t know, so we stayed indoors, and the jaundice was severe.
Hiro
We didn’t know.
Yati
Abroad, people put babies in bassinets and relax outdoors with friends and relatives. Sitting in the shade, watching leaves sway gently in the breeze, it’s like a natural mobile for the baby. Even newborns can benefit from short periods outside, like in the yard.
Hiro
Within reason.
Yati
Another point I really want to emphasize for ages zero to three: there’s this idea that learning requires “the real thing.” To learn “apple,” you need a real apple, before it’s peeled or cut. You say “apple” and hand it to the baby. The baby touches it, feels it’s round, holds it, senses the weight, smells it, feels the texture, and if they bite it, they experience the crunch. “Oh, so this is what an apple is.” That’s zero to three learning.
Hiro
I see.
Yati
So flashcards alone are out of the question for teaching “apple.” Sometimes Montessori language materials are used where children match an apple card to a toy apple. That’s wrong. If you can bring real objects into the classroom, bring real ones. It depends on the teacher’s judgment. In my international course, examples included herbs, fruits, vegetables, and, interestingly, ingredients for dashi, a Japanese soup stock. Things like kombu, which is dried kelp, bonito flakes, which are dried fish flakes, and dried shiitake mushrooms. Real things, touchable and smellable. One school had various pieces of real clothing. You place real items, and only use figurines for things you truly can’t bring in, like large animals or furniture. If flowers, insects, or fish can be brought in, they should be real. This often gets skipped.
Hiro
It’s not just skipped. The point is that fake materials don’t stimulate electromagnetic sensing. What matters is perceiving the light, sound, and vibrations that real things emit. If you replace them with plastic toys or cards, the sensory system, as an electromagnetic-detection device, isn’t used. It doesn’t get trained.
Yati
At home, you can hand vegetables or fruits to your child before eating and let them touch all they want. Say, “This is a pear,” and hand it over. After they’ve enjoyed it, peel it in front of them, cut it, plate it, stick in a fork, and say, “Here you go.” Then they eat and taste. It’s easy to do at home alongside meals. By about 18 months, kids can use toothpicks to peel grape skins and remove seeds. They can cut bananas or strawberries with a potato cutter or butter knife. They can use an apple slicer on sliced apples.
Hiro
There’s a Japanese children’s book about that.
Yati
Our younger daughter started raiding the fridge around 18 months. She’d munch whole cucumbers. [laughs] Fruit can be expensive, so I hesitated, but since moving to Iwate, our prefecture in northern Japan, we go to farmers’ markets. Kids love them. There’s so much variety. Some markets even have real ponies. Lots of encounters with the real thing. Sensorial education doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s about using real things. Wooden toys are well-made and cute, but they can’t compare to the real thing.
Hiro
Using a real glass cup instead of plastic, like a sturdy brand of child-friendly glass cup, is better.
Yati
Right. By deliberately using things that make noise or can break if handled roughly, children learn to be careful. Something surprising: we’ve been day-camping a lot lately, and when we set the table properly outdoors, with nice placemats, real glass cups and ceramic plates instead of disposable paper ones, the kids act more politely. They pour water carefully for others, saying, “Here you go.” They develop consideration for others.
Hiro
In short, it’s “intentional living.”
Yati
Carrying on from last issue. The theme for zero to three is cherishing daily life.
Hiro
But I also think there’s a tendency to overdo it, like “give them the best of everything.” Personally, I think it’s fine to go without.
Yati
Maria Montessori said something like this. “Physiology teaches us that a simple meal eaten outdoors nourishes the body far more than a sumptuous meal in a stuffy, closed room, because outdoors all bodily functions are stimulated and digestion improves.”
Hiro
The outdoor part really does change everything.
Yati
“Likewise, a simple meal shared with loved ones or congenial company nourishes far more than a lavish banquet endured by a tormented secretary at a difficult employer’s table. The keyword here is ‘freedom.’” So just eating outside is enough?
Hiro
Yeah. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. “Intentional living” can sound like it requires money and time, but making sweeping changes is hard. Keep it casual. Make do with what you have.
Yati
True. Where we default to plastic for efficiency or safety, we could start by experimenting with eco-friendly materials or things we already own.
