Montessori Approach (Basic)
Maria Montessori was born in the town of Chiaravalle (province of Ancona, Italy) in 1870. She became the first female physician in Italy upon her graduation from medical school in 1896. Then, she was chosen to represent Italy at two different woman’s conferences, in Berlin in 1896 and in London in 1900.
Her clinical observations led her to analyze how children learn, and she concluded that they build themselves from what they find in their environment. Shifting her focus from the body to the mind, she returned to the university in 1901, this time to study psychology and philosophy. In 1904, she was made a professor of anthropology at the University of Rome.
Maria Montessori is known as a developer of Montessori approach based on a child psychology. It can be established only through the method of external observation. We must renounce all idea of making any record of internal states, which can be revealed only by the introspection of the subject himself. Her intention was to keep in touch with the researches of others, but to make herself independent of them, proceeding to work without preconceptions of any kind. She confirmed that “all methods of experimental psychology may be reduced to one, namely, carefully recorded observation of the subject”. Treating of children must necessarily intervene the study of development. Discipline is another very important part of Montessori approach and it must come through liberty. She calls an individual disciplined when he is master of himself, and can regulate his own conduct when it shall be necessary to follow some rule of life.
Such a concept of active discipline is not easy to comprehend or to apply. But it contains a great educational principle, very different from the old-time absolute and undiscussed coercion to immobility.
What about lessons in school?
In Montessori method the lesson corresponds to an experiment. The more fully the teacher is acquainted with the methods of experimental psychology, the better will she understand how to give the lesson. In the first days of the school the children do not learn the idea of collective order; this idea follows and comes as a result of those disciplinary exercises through which the child learns to discern between good and evil. The lessons are individual, and brevity must be one of their chief characteristics. Another characteristic quality of the lesson in the is its simplicity. It must be stripped of all that is not absolute truth. The teacher must not lose herself in vain words. The carefully chosen words must be the most simple it is possible to find, and must refer to the truth. The third quality of the lesson is its objectivity. The lesson must be presented in such a way that the personality of the teacher shall disappear. There shall remain in evidence only the object to which she wishes to call the attention of the child.
Montessori approach is also based on exercises of practical life such as personal cleanliness, intellectual exercises (objective lessons interrupted by short rest periods;nomenclature, sense exercises), gymnastics (ordinary movements done gracefully, normal position of the body, walking, marching in line, salutations, movements for attention, placing of objects gracefully), free games, directed games (if possible, in the open air), manual work (clay modeling, design, etc.), collective gymnastics and songs, and exercises to develop forethought – caring for the plants and animals.
In order to protect the child’s development, especially in neighborhoods where standards of child hygiene are not yet prevalent in the home, it would be well if a large part of the child’s diet could be entrusted to the Montessori school. It is well known today that the diet must be adapted to the physical nature of the child. The diet of little children must be rich in fats and sugar: the first for reserve matter and the second for plastic tissue. In fact, sugar is a stimulant to tissues in the process of formation. As for the form of preparation, it is well that the alimentary substances should always be minced, because the child has not yet the capacity for completely masticating the food, and his stomach is still incapable of fulfilling the function of mincing food matter. Consequently, soups and meat balls should constitute the ordinary form of dish for the child’s table.
There are many crucial parts of Montessori method that I will try to explain on my own website, and in the other articles. Montessori method as every other method has some positive and negative sides that other
psychologists are researching.
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