18 THE MONTE SSORI METHOD A FAD? 611 



the school, even while he is beginning to find himself, he may take part 

 in the activities of practical life. Besides practise in ordinary courtesy, 

 cleaning the room, setting the table, serving a meal, and washing the 

 dishes, the children learn how to button, lace, hook and clasp various 

 articles of dress by means of a unique apparatus. To the opposite sides of 

 light embroidery frames are attached strips of dress material, linen and 

 leather, which are fastened together at the center. Through constant 

 practise with these materials the child learns to dress himself and trains 

 a variety of useful muscular coordinations. Similar exercises in the 

 activities of ordinary life have for some time been a part of the practise 

 of progressive kindergartens and other modern schools. It may well be 

 that Montessori has suggested several new features in this direction, but 

 we must not suppose that the idea is absolutely novel or that we can 

 follow these devices literally without further consideration. There is 

 always danger that the Montessorians, like the Froebelians, may forget 

 that "the letter killeth, but the spirit maketh alive." His more con- 

 servative disciples, in their efforts to preserve all the prescriptions of the 

 master, have often forgotten that Froebel's system was adapted to con- 

 ditions three quarters of a century ago in the simple and peculiar en- 

 vironment of a small German village. Let the Montessorians take warn- 

 ing and elaborate their principles in a practise that will be applicable to 

 the complexities and independence characteristic of the twentieth cen- 

 tury in the United States. 



(2) The sense training is the feature most stressed by Montessori 

 herself. Even her remarkable achievements in teaching writing seem to 

 have been forced upon her by the parents of her pupils, who insisted upon 

 the acquisition of something useful by their children. Like Myra 

 Kelley's boy of the Ghetto, they believed the children had not time " to 

 fool with their arms and legs." But with Montessori the sense training 

 is the very essence of her work. She sees in it the biologico-psychological 

 foundation of her system. If this position be maintained, Montessori 

 would logically be regarded as a Simon-pure disciple of Seguin. Her 

 apparatus is strikingly like that used for half a century in American 

 schools for defectives. Even the " three periods " of Seguin find a place 

 throughout her method. For example, she proceeds with the pupil in 

 her training for touch : 



(a) "Smooth, rough; smooth, rough." 



(6 ) " What is this ? " " Smooth." " What is this ? " " Rough." 



(c) " Give me the smooth." " Give me the rough." 



Moreover, while such sense exercises are doubtlessly of great value in 

 training defective children, the assumption of their usefulness in the 

 education of normal children seems to be based upon a psychology, 

 which, to say the least, has been rudely shaken. Apparently in this 



