"To stimulate life---leavingit free to develop, to unfold---herein lies the first task of aneducator."
"From the child he willlearn how to perfect himself as an educator."
"Our educational aim withvery young children must be to aid the spontaneous development of the mental,spiritual, and physical personality."
------The Montessori Method
1. Early Life
Everyonein the field of early childhood has heard of Maria Montessori and some of hercontributions and ideas. MariaMontessori was born in 1870,the year of Italy's unification.
Thereis contradictory information about Maria's childhood though it is clear thather mother was strict with her; she was raised as a devout Roman Catholic andwas required to knit for the poor. Thefamily lived in an apartment in Rome, and Maria had a lot of contact with otherchildren.
Inher early years in school, she did not excel but was known for standing up forher own ideas to both children and teachers. She was confident and self-assured. Most girls stopped their education at the age of 12, but Maria continuedon. Her parents wanted her to have a classicaleducation, but Maria went against their wishes and, building on her strongmathematical skills, attended a technical school, planning a career inengineering, a choice unheard of for a woman at the time.
MariaMontessori recognized that the prevalent educational methods of the day, withlock step learning, everyone being kept to the same pace, and predeterminedskills and facts, created a system that suppressed individuality. Girls were separated from boys at recess, sothe girls stayed in a room by themselves while the boys played outside. Maria graduated in 1886 with high academicmarks but critical views on education. She once described education as a system where " the children, likebutterflies mounted on pins, are fastened each to his place, the desk,spreading the useless wings of barren and meaningless knowledge which they haveacquired."
Sheabandoned her engineering goal as she became interested in the biologicalsciences and entertained the idea of becoming a medical doctor. A woman studying medicine in Italy in the1800's! It had never been donebefore. Her friends and family wereshocked with this new direction, but Maria persevered and entered the Universityof Roma in 1890. In 1896 Montessoribecame the first woman in Italy to obtain a Doctor of Medicine. Immediately, her got a job as a surgicalassistant. She did research atpsychiatric clinics and encouraged children in Rome's asylums for the insanewho were simply unable to function in their families or community. Montessori found the validation she neededand came to believe that children were "mentally defective" primarilybecause they had not been taught properly: " I felt that mental deficiency presented chiefly a pedagogical,rather than a medical problem."
In1897, Montessori began a concentrated study of education and read all she couldabout education. She did not agree withRousseau's idea of the corrupt environment and the need to isolate the child;rather, she wanted to use the world to help the child and planned to usesensory education. Montessori organizedmulti-disciplinary teams of teachers and doctors to work with thechildren. Sense education was to be thefoundation for all later cognitive education. Finally people began to listen to her and see her as an expert in thefield of special education.
Wecannot educate anyone until we know him thoroughly."
------Pedagogical Anthropology
2. Children'sHouse
Montessoriwas hired by Edoardo Talamo, director-general of the Roman Association of GoodBuilding, to set up the child care program. She was given a room with one adult and 50 children from 3-7 years ofage. In January 1907 in San Lorenza'stenement, the first Casa dei Bambini (children's House) opened.
Theplan was to hire a person from the tenement to provide a better linkage forfamilies. The school was ownedcommunally by the parents and open from 9:00a.m.-5:00 p.m. in winter and8:00a.m.-6:00p.m. in summer to accommodate parents' working schedules: " The idea of collectiveownership is new and very beautiful and profoundly educational."
Shewanted parents to leave their children with "easyminds" and believed that poor families deserved the same care fortheir children as rich families. Adoctor at the school provided medical services to children who would otherwisehave none. Montessori brought materialsshe had previously developed for "defective"children, adapted them and continued to develop methods for theiruse. She was a research in theclassroom, watching the children's reactions and modifying the approaches.
Whenthe program began , the directress(teacher) handed out materials and collectedthem after the children were finished with them. Later, the children were allowed to selecttheir own activities and put them away when they were done. Low open shelves allowed the children toeasily access materials. Montessori alsointroduced child-sized tables and chairs.
Montessorifound that the children wanted to help clean up and order their environment andthat they were interested in the activities, not in rewards or externalmotivation. Children gained a sense ofmastery through their work with the materials. A sense of order and quiet prevailed in the classroom as children workedon activities by themselves.
Montessori’ssensory materials isolated one attribute(colour, size, shape, etc.) to assistchildren’s learning about properties of materials and more abstractconcepts. For example, a series ofcolour tablets or palettes varying only in shade would encourageseriation(ordering).
Practical life experiences such as buttoning,dusting, and so on were added to the program along withdidactic(self-correcting)materials. Personal hygiene, cleanliness and manners were integral parts of theday.
2.1 Freedom
Freedomfor Montessori had a different meaning---making certain choices within clearlyprescribed limits and in the collective interest. Her program was somewhat child-centredbecause children's nature and needs were starting points. But ultimately the teacher knew best andmaterials had to be used in prescribed ways. Montessori believed that children wasted their efforts and failed toachieve their potential if their environment was not highly organized.
Althoughshe believed in an organized environment, Montessori also believed that theschool must allow children to develop their knowledge and skillsnaturally. She focused on what childrenneeded to fulfill their potential. Punishment was not a part of the program except that the child could bedenied an activity to do. In addition,in the Children’s House pupils were expelled if they were not “amenable todiscipline”( see full quote from the poster cited earlier): “As forpunishments, the soul of the normal man grows perfect through expanding, andpunishment as commonly understood is always a form of repression.”
------The Montessori Method
Rewards were intrinsic to doing a task, and prizes were notgiven to children:
“He who accomplishes a truly human work, he who doessomething really great and victorious, is never spurred to his task by thosetrifling attractions called by the name of “prizes”, nor by the fear of thosepetty ills which we call “punishment”. ------The Montessori Method
2.2 Role of the Directress (Teacher)
The role of the directress was to
prepare the environment ("keeper and custodian"),
observe the child (Montessori once compared the directress toan astronomer gazing at the heavens, recording observations),
show the child how to use the materials correctly throughspecific one-to-one demonstrations (fundamental lessons),
leave the child to use the materials without interference.
The materials and things in the school, rather than thedirectress, would become the real teachers: “Wemay liken the child to a clock, and may say that with the old time way it isvery much as if we were to hold the wheels of the clock quiet and move thehands about the clock face with our fingers. The hands will continue to circle the dialjust so long as we apply, through our fingers, the necessary motor force. Evenso it is with that sort of culture which is limited to the work which teteacher does with the child, The new method, instead, may be compared to theprocess of winding, which sets the entire mechanism in motion…….
Our educational aim with very young children must be to aidthe spontaneous development of the mental, spiritual, and physical personality." ------The Montessori Method
Montessori saw play as a poor substitute for work andbelieved that it underminded the dignity of childhood. She once described the Children’s House as a “hiveof bees humming as they work”.
2.3 The Program Evolves
Montessori's original program in the tenement was intendedfor young poor children but was later extended into programs for older childrenand children from middle and upper incomes. Reading and writing were taughtwith the same sensorial base used in the earlier experiences. For example,sandpaper letters to feel were part of learning the ,alphabet and reading. Shewanted the learning to be easy and natural for the child.
Early in her career, Montessori had devoted followers whoshared her mission. Visitors converged on the Casa dei Bambini. Soon similar schools were set up outside Rome, and in 1909 expanded .outside Italy toSwitzerland. Previously the orphanagesand kindergartens in Switzerland had been modeled on Froebel’s ideas but theyconverted to Montessori’s methods.
Montessori wrote herideas down in her book The MontessoriMethod in which she gave a full description of the method, materials andorganization of the classroom. Shebelieved the goal of education was to be in control of oneself, and this goalwould be achieved through independence, self-discipline, concentration andmotivation. The materials were developed to meet this goal.
The method was instrong contrast to the prevailing method of education full of group lessons androte memorization. In Montessoriprograms, children were free to choose which activity they wanted to do. Boys and girls were treated the same, sharingequally in classroom tasks.
Many leaders inpsychology, education and social services visited Montessori at the Casa deiBambini . Articles by Montessori began to trickle into the United States. The first Montessori school in the U.S. wasin Tarrytown, New York in 1911. Wealthyand cultured children attended it, their families pursuing what they believedto be the best education possible for their children.
3. Enduring Montessori Program Elements
3.1Respect for the Child
Above all ,Montessori believed childhood must be respected and that each child must betreated as an individual. Children mustbe seen as distinctly different from adults. Her demonstration with the adult and child skeletons was an example ofhow she tried to convince others of this principle. She believed that adults often could notseparate their needs and goals from those that were appropriate to a specificchild. If children were respected, theywould grow into adults who would respect others.
Montessori had adeep respect for childhood. In 1951 shepresented a chart showing stages of development and society’s educationalsystem to support these stages. Inbetween the two streams, she drew an X which means “the unknown”. She felt that much of childhood stillremained unknown and must be honoured.
3.2 Sensitive Periodsand Absorbent Mind
Montessori waschildren as having “sensitive periods”, windows of opportunity for growth. Education must respond to these sensitiveperiods if learning was to proceed easily. These sensitive periods involved sensitive to language, to order, and tomoving in the environment. The teacher’srole in knowing the stage was critical here, and observation would be the keyskill used to identify these periods. Montessori felt that once the period passed, the child would never againhave that stage with such intensity. Wemight now call this concept readiness.
The sensitive period for language was frombirth through three years in which children rapidly absorbed, comprehended,reproduced and understood the language of their environment.
Montessori felt that the sensitive period forimagination was between six and 12years of age. This may explain in part why fantasy and socio-dramatic role-play arenot seen in Montessori practice with young children. She felt children could learn “grown up”skills in the practical life area and would be involved in some role-play. The children would also dress up in clothesfrom different geographic locations to imagine living in these climates. Imagination would develop in these morerealistic ways. In her staunch adherence to these beliefs, Montessorioverlooked the fantasy capabilities of young children.
The greatest potential for learning was inearly childhood, from birth to six years of age. It was when child had an “absorbent mind”,ready to acquire a tremendous amount of learning.
3.3 PreparedEnvironment
The “preparedenvironment” was critical for responding to the sensitive periods and absorbentmind. The goal of the preparedenvironment was to make the child independent from the adult in whateversetting, whether it was in the home or classroom. The atmosphere created would enable the childto learn in a peaceful and orderly fashion with surroundings adapted to thechild’s size and interests. Materials were carefully selected and organized forthe children. Child-sized furniture,materials stored in specific and organized ways, low chalkboards, smallindividual floor rugs allowed the child to work independently. Clutter was seen as a distraction for bothchildren and adults. Children couldchoose which activity they wanted to do as long as the teacher demonstrated thecorrect way to use the materials. Thechild took out the activity and had to put it back in exactly the same way itwas found. Typically each classroom hadonly one of each kind of material. Achild had to learn to wait for the activity if another child was using it .
3.4 Didactic Materials/ Auto-education----Children Working onTheir Own
Montessoribelieved that children learned best from the materials and activities theychose. Each of these was self-correctingand graded according to difficulty. Theteacher did not need to be present to tell the child if the answer or solutionwas correct. The materials would “tell”the child as the child interacted with the materials. The materials were labeled “didactic” as theywere designed to teach. Montessoricalled this a “control of error” which allowed the child to increasingly becomean independent worker.
The cylinder block used in Montessori classroomsis an example of a self-correcting material. In it these are holes of varying depths and each hole has a correspondingcylinder that fits it exactly. When allthe cylinders are removed, the child must find the correct hole for eachcylinder: “If he mistakes, placing one ofthe objects in an opening that is too small for it, he takes it away, andproceeds to make trial, seeking the proper opening. If he makes a contrary error, letting thecylinder fall into an opening that is a little too large for it, and thencollects all the successive cylinder in openings just a little too large, hewill find himself at the last with the big cylinder in his hand while only thesmallest opening is empty. The didacticmaterial controls every error. The childproceeds to correct himself.” ------ The Montessori Method
Later the childwould be introduced to a set of ten red cylinders of varying thickness butwithout the pre-set holes.
Another example ofself-correcting materials is the pink tower of graduated cubes, which could bebuilt upright or laid flat, but worked only if the cubes were in the correctsequence. The goal was to put the tencubes from 1 cm3 to 250px3 in a sequence from smallest tobiggest.
Montessorirecognized the power of repetitive behavior in emerging mental ability andintelligence. “ I watched the childintently without disturbing her at first, and began to count how many times sherepeated the exercise; then, seeing that she was continuing for a long time, Ipicked up the little arm chair in which she was seated and placed chair andchild upon table; the little creature hastily caught up her case of insets,laid it across the arms of the chair and gathering the cylinders into her lap,set to work again. Then I called uponthe children to sing; they sang, but the little girl continued undisturbed,repeating her exercise even after the short song had come to an end. I counted forty-four repetitions; when atlast she ceased, it was quite independently of and surrounding stimuli whichmight have distracted her, and she looked around with a satisfied air, almostas if awakening from a refreshing nap.”------SpontaneousActivity in Education
3.5 Mixed Aged Grouping
Childrenwere not age separated, because Montessori believed that children learned fromeach other and could help each other. The older children acted as role models for the younger children. Mixed aged groping also allowed for thebreadth of development within any age grouping and developmental area. Often the teacher stayed with the childrenfor several years providing consistency, continuity and improved learning.
3.6 Self-PacedActivities
Childrencould learn at their own rates. Theywould not be held back from reading if they were ready to acquire the neededskills. The teacher would observe eachchild to determine whether the child more practice with skills or was ready tomove on to a higher level.
4. The Three Areas of Child Involvement
4.1Practical Life
Montessorideveloped activities of daily living which involved simple practical lifeactivities with long-term, complex goals. These were experiences to help a child become a member of the humansociety. Learning about the differentorder in their own lives, self control, independent work habits, coordinationof movement, responsibility, and so on would assist with domestic life. The teacher would develop most of thesematerials but there were some manufactured products such as child-sized brooms,brass to polish, and dressing frames.
Theseactivities had precise and exact methods of execution. For example, dusting would begin with a closelook, at eye level, on the surface of the table. The front half of the table would be thefirst area dusted and then the back half. The dust would be wiped away from the body, using circular movements andgoing from one side to the other. Theedges of the table would be done next and then the legs and finally the table’sunderside. After finishing, the dusterwould be shaken out into a waste basket( or outside in good weather).
Thepractical life activities were divided into four areas:
Care of theenvironment
Pouringsuch things as water and beans
Transferring—sequenceof spooning activities, use of tongs, basters, tweezers, eyedroppers
Cleaningand polishing---wood and metal, from dishes to tables, dusting; clothes washingwould be a more complex task
Rakingleaves; shining leaves on plants
Care of self or theperson
Dressingframes---hardwood frames with cloth attached on the sides; various attachmentsallow the child to practice buttoning, bow tying, lacing, hook and eye joining,safety pinning, snapping, zipping, buckling, shoe buttoning, shoe lacing
Groomingand cleanliness-from hand washing to tooth brushing and nose blowing
Life skills
fastening,cooking sorting bead stringing sewing
grace and courtesy
layingout tablecloth and setting table, walking on a line offering a cup of juice,opening a door quietly, knowing what to say if you bump into someone.
4.2 Sensorial Materials
Thesematerial built on children’s own spontaneous activities to sort and to orderobjects, allowing children to do these tasks in an organized fashion. These materials isolated one quality orattribute at a time, provided sensory stimulation to sharpen skills ofperception and progressed from simple to complex. They allowed children to learn abstractconcepts from concrete materials were consistent in appearance, attractive andmanufactured according to Montessori’s specification. The child’s errors were controlled as thematerials “showed” the mistakes; a tower, for example, would not stand solidlyif it were not assembled properly. Some examples include:
Cylinder blocks---knobbed wood cylinders in graduated sizesthat fit into a frame,
Pink tower---pink cubes in graduated sizes from 1 cm3to 250px3 that were stacked from biggest to smallest,
Colour tablets---painted wood rectangles with plastic handlesfor sorting and seriation,
Fabric box---fabrics of different textures to match,
Pressure cylinders---spring loaded plungers in wood cylindersfor the child to sense the differing resistance.
4.3 Academic( language,writing, reading, mathematics) Materials
Montessori identified four stages of languagework in early childhood:
Oral/auditory level---stories, fingerplays, songs, poems,naming activities
Mechanical level---equipment like sandpaper letters and metalinsets of shapes, double sandpaper letters for phonics, movable alphabetletters
Word reading level---object boxes with common phonetic soundsdictation games
Sentence reading level---definitions, small books,interpretive reading like charades, early grammar, dictionary work.
Themathematics materials focused on addition, subtraction, multiplication anddivision. Activities were based on materials such as number sods, sandpapernumerals, golden beads(small beads representing single, ten, hundred andthousand units), bead frames, cubes for learning powers, and so on.
Allthe academic materials were based on skills learned with Practical Life andSensorial Materials.
4.4 Cultural Materials
Thisarea included the arts, sciences and social sciences.
