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DR. MONTESSORI GIVING A LESSON IN TOUCHING GEOMETRICAL INSETS

THE

MONTESSORI METHOD

SCIENTIFIC PEDAGOGY AS APPLIED TO CHILD EDUCATION IN "THE CHILDREN'S HOUSES" WITH ADDITIONS AND REVISIONS BY THE AUTHOR

BY MARIA MONTESSORI

TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY ANNE E. GEORGE WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PROFESSOR HENRY W. HOLMES OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY

SECOND EDITION / NEW YORK / FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY / MCMXII

FASC April, 1912

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION

In February, 1911, Professor Henry W. Holmes, of the Division of Education at Harvard University, did me the honour to suggest that an English translation be made of my Italian volume, "Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica applicato all' educazione infantile nelle Case dei Bambini." This suggestion represented one of the greatest events in the history of my educational work. To-day, that to which I then looked forward as an unusual privilege has become an accomplished fact.

The Italian edition of "Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica" had no preface, because the book itself I consider nothing more than the preface to a more comprehensive work, the aim and extent of which it only indicates. For the educational method for children from three to six years set forth here is but the earnest of a work that, developing the same principle and method, shall cover in a like manner the successive stages of education. Moreover, the method which obtains in the Casa dei Bambini offers, it seems to me, an experimental field for the study of man, and promises, perhaps, the development of a science that shall disclose other secrets of nature.

In the period that has elapsed between the publication of the Italian and American editions, I have had, with my pupils, the opportunity to simplify and render more exact certain practical details of the method, and to gather additional observations concerning discipline. The results attest the vitality of the method, and the necessity for an [Page viii] extended scientific collaboration in the near future, and are embodied in two new chapters written for the American edition. I know that my method has been widely spoken of in America, thanks to Mr. S. S. McClure, who has presented it through the pages of his well-known magazine. Indeed, many Americans have already come to Rome for the purpose of observing personally the practical application of the method in my little schools. If, encouraged by this movement, I may express a hope for the future, it is that my work in Rome shall become the centre of an efficient and helpful collaboration.

To the Harvard professors who have made my work known in America and to McClure's Magazine, a mere acknowledgement of what I owe them is a barren response; but it is my hope that the method itself, in its effect upon the children of America, may prove an adequate expression of my gratitude.

MARIA MONTESSORI

ROME, 1912.

	PAGE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	V
PREFACE	VII
INTRODUCTION	XVII
CHAPTER I A CRITICAL CONSIDERATION OF THE NEW PEDAGOGY IN ITS RELATION TO MODERN SCIENCE
Influence of Modern Science upon Pedagogy	1
Italy's part in the development of Scientific Pedagogy	4
Difference between scientific technique and the scientific spirit	7
Direction of the preparation should be toward the spirit rather than toward the mechanism	9
The master to study man in the awakening of his intellectual life	12
Attitude of the teacher in the light of another example	13
The school must permit the free natural manifestations of the child if in the school Scientific Pedagogy is to be born	15
Stationary desks and chairs proof that the principle of slavery still informs the school	16
Conquest of liberty, what the school needs	19
What may happen to the spirit	20
Prizes and punishments, the bench of the soul	21
All human victories, all human progress, stand upon the inner force	24
CHAPTER II HISTORY OF METHODS
Necessity of establishing the method peculiar to Scientific Pedagogy	28
Origin of educational system in use in the "Children's Houses"	31
Practical application of the methods of Itard and Séguin in the Orthophrenic School at Rome	32
Origin of the methods for the education of deficients	33
Application of the methods in Germany and France	35
Séguin's first didactic material was spiritual	37
Methods for deficients applied to the education of normal children	42
Social and pedagogical importance of the "Children's Houses"	44
CHAPTER III INAUGURAL ADDRESS DELIVERED ON THE OCCASION O F THE OPENING OF ONE OF THE "CHILDREN'S HOUSES"
The Quarter of San Lorenzo before and since the establishment of the "Children's Houses"	48
Evil of subletting the most cruel form of usury	60
The problem of life more profound than that of the Intellectual elevation of the poor	52
Isolation of the masses of the poor, unknown to past centuries	53
Work of the Roman Association of Good Building and the moral importance of their reforms	56
The "Children's House" earned by the parents through their care of the building	60
Pedagogical organization of the "Children's House"	62
The "Children's House" the first step toward the socialization of the house	65
The communised house in its relation to the home and to the spiritual evolution of women	66
Rules and regulations of the "Children's Houses"	70
CHAPTER IV PEDAGOGICAL METHODS USED IN THE "CHILDREN'S HOUSES"
Child psychology can be established only through the method of external observation	72
Anthropological consideration	73
Anthropological notes	77
Environment and schoolroom furnishings	80
CHAPTER V DISCIPLINE
Discipline through liberty	86
Independence	95
Abolition of prizes and external forms of punishment	101
Biological concept of liberty in pedagogy	104
CHAPTER VI HOW THE LESSON SHOULD BE GIVEN
Characteristics of the individual lessons	107
Method of observation the fundamental guide	108
Difference between the scientific and unscientific methods illustrated	109
First task of educators to stimulate life, leaving it then free to develop	115
CHAPTER VII EXERCISES OF PRACTICAL LIFE
Suggested schedule for the "Children's Houses"	119
The child must be prepared for the forms of social life and his attention attracted to these forms	121
Cleanlinss, order, poise, conversation	122
CHAPTER VIII REFECTION­THE CHILD'S DIET
Diet must be adapted to the child's physical nature	125
Foods and their preparation	126
Drinks	132
Distribution of meals	133
CHAPTER IX MUSCULAR EDUCATION­GYMNASTICS
Generally accepted idea of gymnastics is inadequate	137
The special gymnastics necessary for little children	138
Other pieces of gymnastic apparatus	141
Free gymnastics	144
Educational gymnastics	144
Respiratory gymnastics, and labial, dental, and lingual gymnastics	147
CHAPTER NATURE IN EDUCATION­AGRICULTURAL LABOUR; CULTURE OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS
The savage of the Aveyron	149
Itard's educative drama repeated in the education of little children	153
Gardening and horticulture basis of a method for education of children	155
The child initiated into observation of the phenomena of life and into foresight by way of auto-education	156
Children are initiated into the virtue of patience and into confident expectation, and are inspired with a feeling for nature	159
The child follows the natural way of development of the human race	160
CHAPTER XI MANUAL LABOUR­THE POTTER'S ART, AND BUILDING
Difference between manual labour and manual gymnastics	162
The School of Educative Art	163
Archæological, historical, and artistic importance of the vase	164
Manufacture of diminutive bricks and construction of diminutive walls and houses	165
CHAPTER XII EDUCATION OF THE SENSES
Aim of education to develop the energies	168
Difference in the reaction between deficient and normal children in the presentation of didactic material made up of graded stimuli	169
Education of the senses has as its aim the refinement of the differential perception of stimuli by means of repeated exercises	173
Three periods of Séguin	177
CHAPTER XIII EDUCATION OF THE SENSES AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE DIDACTIC MATERIAL: GENERAL SENSIBILITY: THE TACTILE, THERMIC, BARIC AND STEREOGNOSTIC SENSES
Education of the tactile, thermic and baric senses	185
Education of the stereognostic sense	188
Education of the senses of taste and smell	190
Education of the sense of vision	191
Exercises with the three series of cards	199
Education of the chromatic sense	200
Exercise for the discrimination of sounds	203
Musical education	206
Tests for acuteness of hearing	209
A lesson in silence	212
CHAPTER XIV GENERAL NOTES ON THE EDUCATION OF THE SENSES
Aim in education biological and social	215
Education of the senses makes men observers and prepares them directly for practical life	218
CHAPTER XV INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION
Sense exercises a species of auto-education	224
Importance of an exact nomenclature, and how to teach it	225
Spontaneous progress of the child the greatest triumph of Scientific Pedagogy	228
Games of the blind	231
Application of the visual sense to the observation of environment	232
Method of using didactic material: dimensions, form, design	233
Free plastic work	241
Geometric analysis of figures	243
Exercises in the chromatic sense	244
CHAPTER XVI METHOD FOR THE TEACHING OF READING AND WRITING
Spontaneous development of graphic language: Séguin and Itard	246
Necessity of a special education that shall fit man for objective observation and direct logical thought	252
Results of objective observation and logical thought	253
Not necessary to begin teaching writing with vertical strokes	257
Spontaneous drawing of normal children	258
Use of Froebel mats in teaching children sewing	260
Children should be taught how before they are made to execute a task	261
Two diverse forms of movement made in writing	262
Experiments made with normal children	267
Origin of alphabets in present use	269
CHAPTER XVII DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD AND DIDACTIC MATERIAL USED
Exercise tending to develop the muscular mechanism necessary in holding and using the instrument in writing	271
Didactic material for writing	271
Exercise tending to establish the visual-muscular imageof the alphabetic signs, and to establish the muscular memory of the movements necessary to writing	275
Exercises for the composition of words	281
Reading, the interpretation of an idea from written signs	296
Games for the reading of words	299
Games for the reading of phrases	303
Point education has reached in the "Children's Houses"	307
CHAPTER XVIII LANGUAGE IN CHILDHOOD
Physiological importance of graphic language	310
Two periods in the development of language	312
Analysis of speech necessary	319
Defects of language due to education	322
CHAPTER XIX TEACHING OF NUMERATION: INTRODUCTION TO ARITHMETIC
Numbers as represented by graphic signs	328
Exercises for the memory of numbers	330
Addition and subtraction from one to twenty: multiplication and division	332
Lessons on decimals: arithmetic calculations beyond ten	335
CHAPTER XX SEQUENCE OF EXERCISES
Sequence and grades in the presentation of material and in the exercises	338
First grade	338
Second grade	339
Third grade	342
Fourth grade	343
Fifth grade	345
CHAPTER XXI GENERAL REVIEW OF DISCIPLINE
Discipline better than in ordinary schools	346
First dawning of discipline comes through work	350
Orderly action is the true rest for muscles intended by nature for action	354
The exercise that develops life consists in the repetition, not in the mere grasp of the idea	358
Aim of repetition that the child shall refine his senses through the exercise of attention, of comparison, of judgment	360
Obedience is naturally sacrifice	363
Obedience develops will-power and the capacity to perform the act it becomes necessary to obey	367
CHAPTER XXII CONCLUSIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
The teacher has become the director of spontaneous work in the "Children's Houses"	371
The problems of religious education should be solved by positive pedagogy	372
Spiritual influence of the "Children's Houses"	376

 

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