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A REVOLUTION IN PEDAGOGY. 



BY MAY^ SMYTH.* 



interesting 



During the past twelve months the 

 whole educational world has been pro- 

 foundly stirred b}' the remarkable 

 achievements of Maria Montessori. This 

 Italian woman doctor is to-day the 

 clearest thinker, the most daring inno- 

 vator, and bv far the most 

 figure in the realm of pedagogy 



The doctrine of self-education has 

 had many apostles, from Plato down- 

 wards, but what others 

 have preached Dotto- 

 ressa ]\Iontessori has 

 practised, and with such 

 striking results that pil- 

 grims flock to Rome 

 from all quarters of the 

 globe to see for them- 

 selves those wonderful 

 schools in which perfect 

 freedom and perfect 

 discipline go hand-in 

 hand. 



Liberty — that is the 

 watchword of the Mon- 

 tessori philosophy. It 

 confers on the child an 

 amount of freedom 

 hitherto undreamt of in 

 our schools, a freedom 

 which reveals his per- 

 sonality, allows him 

 self - expression, and 

 makes of him a separate 

 entity, an individual, 

 not a human automaton 

 responsive in mechani- 

 cal fashion to the bid- 

 ding of his teacher. 



He has liberty to 

 His progress towards self-realisation is 

 not hampered b)- the unwise though 

 well-meant pressure applied bv the old- 

 fashioned type of preceptor. He is like 

 a plant in the hands of a judicious gar- 

 dener, who, after seeing to it that his 

 seedling has the right kind of soil and 

 light, leaves Nature to do the rest. 



*By special arrangement with the World's Work 

 (London). 



DR. MARIA MONTESSORI. 



grow 



and develop. 



The ]^Iontessori teacher provides suit- 

 able channels for the natural activities 

 of the child, and leaves him to work out 

 his own salvation. And step by step the 

 infant mind progresses along the path 

 of self -development, with the teacher 

 always in the background ready to en- 

 courage, to sympathise, but never to in- 

 terfere with the wholesome, natural 

 growth of the individual. Free from 

 external pressure, the 

 child learns the 

 discipline of self-con- 

 trol, a far more 

 wonderful and valu- 

 able form of dis- 

 cipline than that of 

 forced obedience. 



As an outlet for his 

 energies and to assist in 

 the process of self-edu- 

 cation, he is provided 

 with a carefully devised 

 set of "toys," by means 

 of which his senses, par- 

 ticularly that of touch,, 

 receive a valuable train- 

 ing. He learns to dis- 

 tinguish the size, shape, 

 and weight of various 

 objects, to differentiate 

 between the finest 

 shades of any given 

 colour, and even to mas- 

 ter without effort the 

 arts of reading and 

 writing. 



Until some two years 

 very little was known of the 

 new teaching outside Italy itself. 

 But about that time the English 

 Board of Education, wishing to 

 gain first-hand information on the sub- 

 ject, sent out to Rome Mr. Edmond 

 Holmes, their late Chief Inspector, in 

 order that he might see and report on 

 the new system. Mr. Holmes came, saw, 

 and was convinced of its efficacy. 

 Others interested in the cause of educa- 

 tion and anxious that this new vivifying 



ago 



