MONTESSORI METHOD 



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MONTESSORI METHOD 



words of the lessons, for instance, are precisely 

 determined, the reactions of the children which 

 she must respect are already known. But this 

 can never render her work mechanical. Each 

 case will have different needs; and her action 

 must rather be guided by a fine intuition and 

 delicate sensibility, which raise it to the level 

 of an art. She is the skilled and watchful at- 

 tendant upon Life, serving it devotedly in its 

 entry into the world. And the refinement of 

 her sensibility in observation and interpreta- 

 tion of the child, which forms part of the per- 

 fection of her moral beauty, raises her in dig- 

 nity to that of priestess of humanity, enabling 

 her to lay priceless gifts upon the altar of the 

 new generations. 



The didactic apparatus also owes its origin 

 to scientific study and experiment. It corre- 

 sponds to facts of the child's nature, and, as 

 with all natural facts, it is positive science 

 which puts us in touch with them. The articles 

 composing it must correspond in nature to the 

 child's innate needs and tendencies, and they 

 must also be attractive to him in form. The 

 Montessori didactic apparatus represents a se- 

 lection from a vast number of experiments, 

 objects having been retained or rejected, and 

 modifications made according to the activity of 

 the child in regard to them. The phenomenon 

 of fundamental importance is a profound in- 

 terest and concentration of attention on the 

 part of the child towards one of these articles. 

 This first arrested Dr. Montessori's attention 

 in the case of the cylinders during her first ex- 

 periments with normal children a child, with 

 fixed attention, repeating the exercise an in- 

 numerable number of times. By repeated trials, 

 she was able, little by little, to extend this phe- 

 nomenon to all the other objects of her ap- 

 paratus, every detail of form, dimension and 

 color being determined in reference to this 

 criterion. Seguin had invented material by 

 which the education of deficients was possible. 

 Montessori, coming later, found that many of 

 the same devices, in identical, or modified 

 form, led to auto-education when placed in the 

 hands of normal children. 



The apparatus is an aid to the child in his 

 development, and may be considered, along 

 with the help of the teacher, and the other 

 provisions of his environment, as constituting 

 the psychic nourishment of his growing life. 



An important characteristic which experience 

 must consider in regard to this apparatus 

 is its quantity. At first sight it would appear 

 that to multiply it indefinitely would be the 



best means of serving the child; but in reality 

 a limited quantity is found to give the best 

 results. The apparatus must be sufficient for 

 its purpose, but not excessive. The child's de- 

 velopment is not in exact correspondence with 

 his exercise with the apparatus, but consists 

 also in a spontaneous work of generalization 

 and of abstraction. The child, for instance, 

 generalizes from the apparatus for sense train- 

 ing to his environment. But experience shows 

 that too great a quantity of material retards 

 this spontaneous generalization, the child re- 

 maining torpidly fixed upon the material ob- 

 jects. Similarly a smaller quantity of apparatus 

 is insufficient to lead the child to this point; 

 we see this exemplified in the difficulty which 

 the teacher in the common schools experiences 

 in leading the children to make this generaliza- 

 tion. 



The same holds true for the apparatus for 

 number. At a certain stage the child abstracts, 

 making arithmetical calculations in his head 

 instead of using the material objects. Too 

 great a multiplication of these, however, dis- 

 tracts his attention from this progress, and he 

 forgets the spontaneous abstraction which was 

 born in him. 



The child passes from the frames to dressing 

 in reality; and from touching the sandpaper 

 letters to the infinite applications of writing. 

 Thus the apparatus is not an end, but a means, 

 whose function is to bring about an infinite 

 activity and expansion. Its purpose is to pro- 

 duce this as quickly and as completely as pos- 

 sible, and one of the conditions which it must 

 fulfil to this end is its limitation. 



Observing the Child. A method of education 

 which seeks to leave the child free, correspond- 

 ing to his needs, permits also of his observation 

 from a new point of view. His real nature is 

 revealed to us, in which science may disclose 

 absolute laws. Dr. Montessori, in fact, rather 

 than claiming to have established a new method 

 of education, claims to have established the 

 method for a new science; since the child may 

 be scientifically observed under conditions of 

 freedom in which he is able to attain the nor- 

 mal fulfilment of his life. 



This is essential to the construction of a 

 true infant psychology. Just as infant physi- 

 ology was really known only after the positive 

 sciences had revealed the laws of hygiene, and 

 sprang up as a positive science almost side by 

 side with hygiene itself, so infant psychology 

 will be known only when we can make positive 

 studies of the child under conditions for the 



