MARIA
MONTESSORI, MD
(1870-1952)
Scientific
observation has established that education is
not what the teacher gives; education is a
natural process spontaneously carried out by the
human individual, and is acquired not by
listening to words but by experiences upon the
environment. The task of the teacher becomes
that of preparing a series of motives of
cultural activity, spread over a specially
prepared environment, and then refraining from
obtrusive interference. Human teachers can only
help the great work that is being done, as
servants help the master. Doing so, they will be
witnesses to the unfolding of the human soul and
to the rising of a New Man who will not be a
victim of events, but will have the clarity of
vision to direct and shape the future of human
society. - Maria
Montessori, Education for a New
World
THE
WOMAN & HER METHOD
Just
who was this woman who began an educational
revolution that changed the way we think
about children more than anyone before or
since?
Maria Montessori,
born in 1870, was the first woman in Italy to
receive a medical degree. She worked in the
fields of psychiatry, education and
anthropology. She believed that each child is
born with a unique potential to be revealed,
rather than as a "blank slate" waiting to be
written upon. Her main contributions to the work
of those of us raising and educating children
are in these areas:
THE
EARLY YEARS
Maria Montessori was
always a little ahead of her time. At age
thirteen, against the wishes of her father but
with the support of her mother, she began to
attend a boys' technical school. After seven
years of engineering she began premed and, in
1896 became a physician. In her work at the
University of Rome psychiatric clinic Dr.
Montessori developed an interest in the
treatment of special needs children and, for
several years, she worked, wrote, and spoke on
their behalf.
In 1907 she was given
the opportunity to study "normal" children,
taking charge of fifty poor children of the
dirty, desolate streets of the San Lorenzo slum
on the outskirts of Rome. The news of the
unprecedented success of her work in this Casa
dei Bambini "House of Children" soon spread
around the world, people coming from far and
wide to see the children for themselves. Dr.
Montessori was as astonished as anyone at the
realized potential of these children:
Supposing I
said there was a planet without schools or
teachers, study was unknown, and yet the
inhabitants - doing nothing but living and
walking about - came to know all things, to
carry in their minds the whole of learning:
would you not think I was romancing? Well, just
this, which seems so fanciful as to be nothing
but the invention of a fertile imagination,
is a reality. It is the child's way of learning.
This is the path he follows. He learns
everything without knowing he is learning it,
and in doing so passes little from the
unconscious to the conscious, treading always in
the paths of joy and love.
FROM EUROPE TO THE UNITED
STATES
Invited to the USA by
Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison,
and others, Dr. Montessori spoke at
Carnegie Hall in 1915. She was invited to set up
a classroom at the Panama-Pacific
Exposition in San Francisco, where
spectators watched twenty-one children,
all new to this Montessori method, behind
a glass wall for four months. The only two
gold medals awarded for education went to this
class, and the education of young children was
altered forever.
INDIA
and THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
During World War II
Dr. Montessori was forced into exile from Italy
because of her antifascist views and lived
and worked in India. It was here that she
developed her work Education for Peace, and
developed many of the ideas taught in her
training courses today. She was twice
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
THE ELEMENTARY MONTESSORI
PROGRAM
In Rome Dr.
Montessori developed the Montessori program for
the elementary years for the child from 6-12.
She began, as elementary classes do today, with
the required curriculum of Italy of her time.
She adapted the traditional teacher-taught
subjects in the arts and science so that the
children could use materials to guide their
open-ended research and to follow their
individual interests, working to a much higher
level than was previously (and is presently!)
thought possible for children of this age. The
elementary child, when allowed to work
independently instead of being taught in groups
led by a teacher, and in classes with a mixed
age group of 6-12- year-old students inspiring
and teaching each other, masters academic
subjects usually not taught until middle or high
school.
THE MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL
PROGRAM
Montessori had many
ideas for the child at this age. For information
on this age level see: Montessori
12-18
THE MONTESSORI ASSISTANTS TO INFANCY
PROGRAM
In the 1940's,
inspired by the amazing potential of children
realized in the early years, Dr. Montessori
stated that age three was too late to begin to
support the work and development of children. In
1947 the Montessori Assistants to Infancy
program was begun in Rome. This was a 3-year,
full-time program which is still taught today in
several countries. For an overview of Montessori
work at this age, see: Montessori
0-3
TODAY
Since her death
an interest in Dr. Montessori's methods have
continued to spread throughout the world. Her
message to those who emulated her was always to
turn one's attention to the child, to "follow
the child". It is because of this basic
tenet, and the observation guidelines left by
her, that Dr. Montessori's ideas will never
become obsolete.
Many people, hearing
of the high academic level reached by students
in this system of education, miss the point and
think that Montessori math manipulative (as an
example) is all there is to the Montessori
method. It is easy to acquire materials and to
take short courses to learn to use them, but the
real value of Montessori takes long and thorough
training for the adult.
The potential of the
child is not just mental, but is revealed only
when the complete "Montessori method" is
understood and followed. The child's choice,
practical work, care of others and the
environment, and above all the high levels of
concentration reached when work is respected and
not interrupted, reveal a human being that is
superior not only academically, but emotionally
and spiritually, a child who cares deeply about
other people and the world, and who works to
discover a unique and individual way to
contribute. This is the essence of real
"Montessori" work today.
