MONTESSORI METHOD 



3916 



MONTESSORI METHOD 



time of building speculation, and then becom- 

 ing unoccupied, had fallen into disrepair. They 

 had finally become the homes of the poorest of 

 the poor, and because they had been designed 

 for better-class families, all the evils of sublet- 

 ting and lack of privacy had set in. The so- 

 ciety bought up these buildings, modified them 

 to give sufficient light and air, divided up the 

 apartments by partition walls, and relet them 

 to the poor at reasonable rents. The society 

 provided the inmates with certain advantages, 

 such as a communal wash-house, baths, and 

 sewing-room, and also laid out the courtyards 

 with trees, flower beds and grassplots. The ex- 

 periment was found to be a profitable one for 

 the company in addition to the benefit derived 

 by the tenants. 



In return for this, the inmates were required 

 to keep their homes clean and im order, and to 

 respect the walls, stairs and courtyards of the 

 building. It was found necessary, however, to 

 provide some supervision during the day for the 

 children under school age of the families in the 

 tenement, since these, being still little vandals, 

 and being left uncontrolled during the working- 

 day of their parents, threatened to offset all the 

 good which had been accomplished in securing 

 the cooperation of their elders in the care of the 

 building. 



A large room was therefore set aside in each 

 tenement for the supervision of these infants 

 during the day, and this part of the scheme, 

 under the fortunate title "Casa dei Bambini," 

 or "Children's House," Dr. Montessori was in- 

 vited to organize. Needless to say, she accepted 

 the commission gladly. The first "Children's 

 House" was opened in the Quarter of San Lo- 

 renzo, in January, 1907. A second followed 

 shortly in the same Quarter, and then a third 

 in a better-class district of Rome. But after 

 working in these daily for two years, and suc- 

 ceeding in evolving her "method" for little chil- 

 dren, Dr. Montessori unfortunately had little 

 more influence in these buildings. Schools using 

 her methods, however, soon sprang up under 

 many different authorities in Rome and in other 

 parts of Italy, and in the seven years which 

 have passed since their commencement, Dr. 

 Montessori has been able to verify and perfect 

 her methods under many diverse conditions, 

 both for rich children and for poor. 



The schools which thus came into existence 

 were shortly to become world famous. Some 

 articles describing them appeared in McClure's 

 Magazine, which attracted widespread interest. 

 These were followed by others, and shortly af- 



terwards by a book by Dr. Montessori herself, 

 translated into English from the original Ital- 

 ian. This book, under the title The Montessori 

 Method, was highly successful; easily the most 

 popular work on education of late years, it rap- 

 idly achieved a circulation such as few books 

 in any sphere have recently enjoyed. In Eng- 

 land it was also widely read, and translations 

 before long appeared in all the principal Euro- 

 pean languages, and also in Chinese and Japa- 

 nese. 



The new principles advocated naturally 

 aroused much discussion in the educational 

 world, and in a short time a considerable 

 bibliography dealing with the method sprang 

 up. Numbers of Montessori schools have been 

 started in the United States of America, many 

 also in England, and others in France, Germany 

 and Switzerland; the latter country has trans- 

 formed into Montessori schools its orphan asy- 

 lums and infant schools in certain cantons. 



The "School Within the Home." Before pro- 

 ceeding to a description of Dr. Montessori's 

 methods, a word may be said about a charac- 

 teristic feature of her first schools, namely, that 

 they were situated in the same building as the 

 homes of the children. Under such conditions 

 the children do not have to "go out" to school, 

 and the feeling of strangeness and separation 

 from home is avoided. The child when he 

 eventually goes to the state school already 

 knows what school is. In addition to this, the 

 mother working at home is constantly near her 

 little ones; from the window she can see her 

 child playing in the garden, or be ready to run 

 to his assistance at the sound of his cry. This 

 greatly adds to the child's contentment at 

 school, and forms a valuable condition of a 

 school environment for children of this age. 



A greater advantage, however, is a social one, 

 the effect which the school has upon the adult 

 members of the community in which it is situ- 

 ated. In the reformed tenements, in which a 

 higher standard of life had been made possible, 

 this was little short of miraculous. 



The neighborhood in which Dr. Montessori 

 began her work was one, perhaps, hardly to be 

 equaled elsewhere in the world in poverty and 

 wretchedness, with their inevitable accompani- 

 ment of crime and vice. In the overcrowded 

 houses, families lived in conditions of appall- 

 ing depravity and squalor, several families 

 sometimes occupying the same room, sleeping 

 crowded together with little light or ventila- 

 tion, and the children often witnessing disgust- 

 ing scenes of violence and sensuality. 



