History
(Article written by Pat Davis, M.Ed., AMS)
The Montessori method is named after a real person. Maria Montessori was born in Italy in 1870 and was a pioneer in many ways.
1870-1896 Early Life and Studies - Montessori studied engineering specifically with math as a major component of those studies, subjects in that time that were reserved for men. Coming from a family of supportive mother and a conservative father, Maria Montessori became the first woman in Italy to receive a medical degree - this was accomplished in 1896.
1896-1906 Period of Indirect Preparation - During this time Maria had many varied experiences and positions. She later related this to her philosophy of education in that the child should be offered opportunities that lead to new skills and other experiences. Montessori was on the staff of Orthrophrenic Psychiatric Hospital for "mentally deficient" children. She studied Itard and Seguin who had researched how people learn. She also studied anthropology, psychology and philosophy.
1906-1910 Discovery of the Child - Montessori was in charge of setting up day cares in the slums of Rome. The children in the San Lorenzo slum were developmentally "deprived." They had not had any direct experiences linked to their sensitive periods of development. They were "normal" children except for their deprivations due to two working parents, lack of understanding, and being left alone all day. By careful observations, Montessori realized that children related to and reacted with their environment. In the classrooms, she began to put out materials and observed the children. Many of these materials developed daily living skills (practical life skills such as personal hygiene, food preparation, cleaning the environment ) and enhanced the child's senses (sensorial materials).
1910-1929 Development and Expansion of the Montessori Movement - Montessori and her staff observed that children in different settings reacted to the environment in a similar way. Montessori expanded her centers all over Italy and began training programs for the adults in the environments. The Montessori elementary program was developed during this period.
1929-1939 Consolidation of Ideas and Practice - In 1929, Maria established Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) to support her training programs and the development of new materials for classrooms. In 1936 AMI was permanently established in Holland.
1939-1946 Articulation of Philosophy - This was a time of upheaval but also a period of deep development for Montessori. She was asked by Mussolini to train the children of Italy in his doctrine and when she refused, she left her homeland. She moved to Spain and Holland and eventually moved to India where she remained during W.W.II. She realized what war did to the children and began to develop her philosophy for the spiritual view of life.
1946-1952 Developed the Cause of the Child - Her Education for Peace was developed during this time. She viewed the child as the hope of mankind, the builder of culture and took great care to articulate this philosophy to others. Maria Montessori died in 1952 but her son Mario took over her work. In 1960 the American Montessori Society (AMS) was established in the United States.
1952 to present Growth of Montessori Educational Philosophy - The Montessori philosophy continues to grow and thrive throughout the United States and the world. There are many organizations that support the Montessori philosophy - often a point of confusion for the parent searching for a program for their child (see future articles of What to Look for in Montessori).
For more information on Maria Montessori and her life's work, please refer to these books.
Rita Kramer, "Maria Montessori : A Biography", 1976.
E.M. Standing, "Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work", 1957.
Barbara O'Connor, "Mammolina : A Story About Maria Montessori", (Creative Minds Biography)
Philosophy
(Article written by Pat Davis, M.Ed., AMS)
Maria Montessori was a true pioneer. Maria lived from 1870 to 1952 (see - Montessori History for more information). Montessori had a particular view of learning. The Montessori philosophy therefore depends on three proponents, each having equal value - the child, the aware adult and the prepared environment.
A). The child is the base. Montessori felt that each child was unique and the child's mind and process of learning varied throughout the stages of the child's development.
Birth to age 6 - The child constructs themselves and absorbs their environment The child's personality is laid down.
Ages 6 to 12 - The child constructs his/her social self. The child begins to socialize with the world, to absorb their culture through interacting, observing and through the use of imagination, and begins to develop a sense of morality.
Ages 12 to 18 - The child continues to construct the moral self. They begin to participate in society and to search for and establish their place in it. The teenager requires protection during this time of great changes and therefore, intellectual pursuits often take second seat to social development.
Ages 18 to 24 - The young adult is preparing themselves for his/her place on earth. They are sustaining and expanding their culture, developing leadership abilities with the goal of becoming responsible, contributing members of society.
B). The aware adult, whether a parent or teacher, acts as an observer, protects the child's right to learn, models desired behavior, prepares the environment, and also accommodates the needs of the child. In the classroom setting, the adult is neither simply the central authority nor "imparter of knowledge". When presenting a lesson, the adult's role is to model the learning activity. This is done in a slow, concise way, modeling care and respect. Different modalities of learning are considered when a lesson is given. That is, when the adult speaks, they are not demonstrating, and when they are modeling, there is little language. In this way the child's attention can be focused more on what is said or on what is done. The child is then invited to do the task. Most of the Montessori materials are self correcting so that the child can "learn as they go."
C). The prepared environment is one that encourages exploration and movement (especially for the young child) and will allow "freedom within limits." The child is shown how to respect the environment, how to make choices and is allowed to develop the abilities of concentration, coordination, and a sense of order and independence. Montessori realized that children first needed concrete objects to hold and manipulate. Subsequent materials would then gradually lead the child to abstraction. The furniture in Montessori classrooms fit the child's size. An example -- tiny, light tables and chairs are available for even the youngest Montessori toddler students. Materials for the child's use are complete, attractive and available for the child's choosing. Teacher materials, storage areas and even teachers' desks are ideally out of sight and inaccessible to the child.
Maria Montessori wrote many books during her time. Some that come recommended are; "The Discovery of the Child," "The Absorbent Mind," and "The Secret of Childhood." Many of these can be found in local libraries.
There are also many books written by other authors about Montessori and her philosophy.
Recommendations, in no particular order, include the following:
Lynne Lawrence, "Montessori Read and Write; A Parents' Guide to Literacy for Children"
Aline D. Wolf, "Peaceful Children. Peaceful World : The Challenge of Maria Montessori"
J.G. Bennett, Mario Montessori, "The Spiritual Hunger of the Modern Child"
Elizabeth Hainstock, "Teaching Montessori in the Home - The Preschool Years"
Elizabeth Hainstock, "Teaching Montessori in the Home - The School Years"
Heidi Spietz, "Modern Montessori at Home: A Teaching Guide for Parents of Children 6 through 9 Years of Age"
Heidi Spietz, "Modern Montessori at Home II: A Teaching Guide for Parents of Children 10 through 12 Years of Age"
Susan Stephenson, Michael Olaf's Essential Montessori:
A Guide and Catalogue for Montessori Education from Birth, at Home and at School"
Helen Yankee, "Montessori Math - the Basics"
Timothy Seldin and Donna Raymond, "Geography and History for the Young Child"
An Appreciation
(Article written by E. Mortimer Standing, excerpted from the Westminster Cathedral Chronicle, June, 1952)
The century in which we live has sometimes been called "The Century of the Child"; and certain it is there has never been another epoch in which there have arisen so many movements centered in the child and its welfare. No one has better represented this movement than the great Italian educationalist - Dr. Maria Montessori - whose death was announced last month.
Many others have loved children, worked for them, and with them; but no one has so completely understood the soul of the child in its depth and greatness, in its immense potentialities, and in the mysterious laws of its development.
What Wordsworth said of the child - 'Oh thou whose exterior semblance does belie thy soul's immensity' - was the foundation of her work. It was the child himself, his soul, his person, which she cared about, not just 'Education' in the narrow sense of the word. Because children are living, immortal souls they are entitled to as much reverence and respect - as persons - as adults. In fact, Montessori's whole life's work might be summed up as a defense of him whom she used to call Il cittadino dimenticato ('The Forgotten Citizen') and for the establishment of his rights.
Alone amongst the long line of great European educators - Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Herbart, etc. - she maintained that the one really essential preparation for a would-be teacher is a moral and spiritual one. No one, she said, is fit to direct the child's development who has not striven to purge herself of those two sins, to which teachers are most prone, - Pride and Anger.
Most people think of Dr. Montessori as the founder of the educational method which bears her name, but her real significance lies deeper. She will go down in history as one who discovered and revealed to the world qualities in childhood different from and higher than those usually attributed to children. By giving freedom (in a biological sense) to children in a specially prepared environment, rich in motives of activities, she was able to show to an astonished world children of 41/2-51/2 years who learned to read and write spontaneously; who chose to work rather than play or eat sweets; who loved order and silence; who displayed long-sustained and quite spontaneous intellectual concentration; who developed a real social life in which mutual helpfulness took the place of competition; who, though able to carry on their life with astonishing independence of adult help, were nevertheless extraordinarily docile and obedient, and finally children in whom liberty, far from producing chaos, resulted in a hitherto unknown collective discipline.
Dr. Montessori was par excellence the great interpreter of the child: and though she herself has passed on from the scene of her labors her work will still go on. Indeed, it will last as long as children are born into this world to grow up in it with loving hearts, eager searching minds, and eyes wide open with wonder.
An Appreciation of Montessori
(Forward by Buckminster Fuller, from Education for Human Development, Mario Montessori)
All children are born geniuses.
9999 out of every 10,000 are swiftly, inadvertently, 'de-geniused' by grown-ups.
This happens because humans are born naked, helpless, and -- though superbly equipped cerebrally -- utterly lacking in experience, therefore utterly ignorant. Their delicate sensing equipment is, as yet, untried. Born with built-in hunger, thirst, curiosity, the procreative urge, they can only learn what humanity has learned by trial and error -- by billions upon billions of errors. Yet humanity is also endowed with self-deceiving pride. All those witnessing the errors of others proclaim that they (the witnesses) could have prevented the errors had they only been consulted. "People should not make mistakes" they mistakenly say. Motivated entirely by love, but also by fear for the futures of the children they love, parents act as though they know all the answers and curtail the spontaneous exploratory acts of their children, lest the children make "mistakes'. But genius does its own thinking; it has confidence in its own exploratory findings, in its own intuitions, in the knowledge gained from its own mistakes. Nature has her own gestation rates for evolutionary development. The actions of parents represent the checks and balances of nature's gestation control. Humanity can evolve healthily only at a given rate. Maria Montessori was fortunately permitted to maintain, sustain, and cultivate her innate genius. Her genius invoked her awareness of the genius inherent in all children. Her intuition and initiative inspired her to discover ways of safeguarding this genius while allaying fears of parents. But the way was not always easy. Hers was the difficult frontiering task of genius.
