MONTESSORI METHOD 



3923 



MONTESSORI METHOD 



to restrain impulses to move, and they some- 

 times succeed in this in spite of the strongest 

 stimuli. A child, for instance, is seen to re- 

 press a sneeze, or refrain from brushing a fly 

 from his face. 



The children feel the action of a collectivity 

 in this game. The child, with his eyes closed, 

 hears the sound of another's movement, and it 

 is brought home to him in the most striking 

 way that the silence depends upon the coopera- 

 tion of all the children, causing him to increase 

 his own efforts to remain motionless. 



The children who have learned to enjoy the 

 pleasures of silence become sensitive to harsh 

 and unpleasant noises; and also, during the 

 hours of work, try to prevent these, moving 

 carefully to avoid knocking against the furni- 

 ture, and thus adding to the grace of their 

 movements. The repetition of the "Lesson of 

 Silence," in fact, is found to have a marked in- 

 fluence upon the "discipline" of the children in 

 the "Children's House." The mother of several 

 children might well find a similar exercise help- 

 ful occasionally in the home. 



Writing and Reading 



In the teaching of writing and reading, Dr. 

 Montessori "perhaps achieves one of the most 

 striking successes of her method. The children, 

 in this method, prepare themselves for writing 

 without actually writing. The different proc- 

 esses involved in writing are analyzed and pre- 

 pared separately, leading concurrently to a cer- 

 tain maturity, when the child is able to write 

 whole words or even sentences, although writ- 

 ing for the first time. This comes about with- 

 out effort, and is rather a source of pleasure, 

 and, when they finally write, of intense fascina- 

 tion to the children. 



During the period of sense training and exer- 

 cises in practical life, the children do an exer- 

 cise which consists in filling in outline designs 

 with colored chalk. These they draw on paper 

 with the help of metal insets (similar to the 

 geometric insets of wood), which they use as 

 stencils. They then fill in the figure drawn with 

 light, parallel lines. The exercise is followed by 

 more difficult ones, requiring the use of printed 

 designs of gradually-increasing complication. 

 This exercise, which is very fascinating to the 

 children, enables them to gain control of the 

 pencil, and therefore forms a fundamental part 

 of the preparation for writing. 



Writing, however, involves another and more 

 particular process, which consists in tracing the 

 forms of the letters. Preparation for this is 

 given by means of the "sandpaper letters," 

 which consist of large letters of the alphabet 

 (script) cut out in sandpaper and gummed on 

 to smooth cards. The object of these is to en- 

 able the child to pass his finger tips lightly over 

 the letters in the sense of writing; his move- 

 ments are guided by the sandpaper, which fur- 

 nishes a contrast with the smooth surface of 

 the card. The teacher presents the cards to 

 the child, two at a time, teaching him the 

 phonetic sounds which they represent. At the 



same time she has the child "touch" the letters 

 with the tips of the first two fingers of his right 

 hand, directing him to pass them over the let- 

 ter in the sense of writing. Children who have 

 followed the method up to this point have al- 

 ready done exercises in touching rough and 

 smooth surfaces," and in passing their fingers 

 around the contours of geometric figures. The 

 exercise, therefore, presents no new difficulties 

 to them, and is found to prove an attractive 

 one, which they repeat with pleasure. Childrer 

 from four to five years of age take especial de- 

 light in this exercise, after which period it is 

 unusual to find in them the" same persistency 

 It is the repetition of the "touching," in fact 

 which has importance, fixing the form of the 

 letter not only in the child's visual memory 

 but also in his muscular memory, and coordi- 

 nating the movements made in tracing it. 



Having thus learned the sounds of the letters 

 the child begins to compose words with the 

 "movable alphabet." This consists of letters o: 

 the alphabet cut out of thin cardboard, anc 

 kept in two cardboard boxes containing manj 

 copies of the same letter. The teacher pro 

 nounces some word slowly and distinctly, anc 

 the child, whose ear has already been educated 

 is able by repeating it continually to himsel 

 to analyze its sounds and pick the correspond 

 ing letters out of the box. These he arrange: 

 in order upon his table or mat upon the floor 

 performing an operation similar to that of i 

 compositor. The children ask the teacher t< 

 suggest other words, or they themselves thinl 

 of words to write, or are given them by thei 

 companions. 



The child who has thus learned to compos* 

 words and sentences, and has at -the same timi 

 prepared his hand in the processes involved ii 

 writing, arrives one day at the point of beini 

 able to write; and this comes as a great an< 



