Books: The Montessori Method by Maria Montessori

The Montessori Method by Maria Montessori

If you want to learn a subject, there’s nothing like hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth. Read about The Montessori Method translated from the original manuscript written by Maria Montessori herself.

What’s in it…

CHAPTER I- A CRITICAL CONSIDERATION OF THE NEW PEDAGOGY IN ITS RELATION TO MODERN SCIENCE

• Influence of Modern Science upon Pedagogy 1
• Italy’s part in the development of Scientific Pedagogy 4
• Difference between scientific technique and the scientific spirit 7
• Direction of the preparation should be toward the spirit rather than toward the mechanism 9
• The master to study man in the awakening of his intellectual life 12
• Attitude of the teacher in the light of another example 13
• The school must permit the free natural manifestations of the child if in the school Scientific Pedagogy is to be born 15
• Stationary desks and chairs proof that the principle of slavery still informs the school 16
• Conquest of liberty, what the school needs 19
• What may happen to the spirit 20
• Prizes and punishments, the bench of the soul 21
• All human victories, all human progress, stand upon the inner force 24

CHAPTER II – HISTORY OF METHODS

• Necessity of establishing the method peculiar to Scientific Pedagogy 28
• Origin of educational system in use in the “Children’s Houses” 31
• Practical application of the methods of Itard and Séguin in the Orthophrenic School at Rome 32
• Origin of the methods for the education of deficients 33
• Application of the methods in Germany and France 35
• Séguin’s first didactic material was spiritual 37
• Methods for deficients applied to the education of normal children 42
• Social and pedagogical importance of the “Children’s Houses” 44

CHAPTER III – INAUGURAL ADDRESS DELIVERED ON THE OCCASION O F THE OPENING OF ONE OF THE “CHILDREN’S HOUSES”

• The Quarter of San Lorenzo before and since the establishment of the “Children’s Houses” 48
• Evil of subletting the most cruel form of usury 60
• The problem of life more profound than that of the Intellectual elevation of the poor 52
• Isolation of the masses of the poor, unknown to past centuries 53
• Work of the Roman Association of Good Building and the moral importance of their reforms 56
• The “Children’s House” earned by the parents through their care of the building 60
• Pedagogical organization of the “Children’s House” 62
• The “Children’s House” the first step toward the socialization of the house 65
• The communised house in its relation to the home and to the spiritual evolution of women 66
• Rules and regulations of the “Children’s Houses” 70

CHAPTER IV – PEDAGOGICAL METHODS USED IN THE “CHILDREN’S HOUSES”

• Child psychology can be established only through the method of external observation 72
• Anthropological consideration 73
• Anthropological notes 77
• Environment and schoolroom furnishings 80

CHAPTER V – DISCIPLINE

• Discipline through liberty 86
• Independence 95
• Abolition of prizes and external forms of punishment 101
• Biological concept of liberty in pedagogy 104

CHAPTER VI – HOW THE LESSON SHOULD BE GIVEN

• Characteristics of the individual lessons 107
• Method of observation the fundamental guide 108
• Difference between the scientific and unscientific methods illustrated 109
• First task of educators to stimulate life, leaving it then free to develop 115

CHAPTER VII – EXERCISES OF PRACTICAL LIFE

• Suggested schedule for the “Children’s Houses” 119
• The child must be prepared for the forms of social life and his attention attracted to these forms 121
• Cleanlinss, order, poise, conversation 122

CHAPTER VIII – REFECTION–THE CHILD’S DIET

• Diet must be adapted to the child’s physical nature 125
• Foods and their preparation 126
• Drinks 132
• Distribution of meals 133

CHAPTER IX – MUSCULAR EDUCATION–GYMNASTICS

• Generally accepted idea of gymnastics is inadequate 137
• The special gymnastics necessary for little children 138
• Other pieces of gymnastic apparatus 141
• Free gymnastics 144
• Educational gymnastics 144
• Respiratory gymnastics, and labial, dental, and lingual gymnastics 147

CHAPTER X – NATURE IN EDUCATION–AGRICULTURAL LABOUR; CULTURE OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS

• The savage of the Aveyron 149
• Itard’s educative drama repeated in the education of little children 153
• Gardening and horticulture basis of a method for education of children 155
• The child initiated into observation of the phenomena of life and into foresight by way of auto-education 156
• Children are initiated into the virtue of patience and into confident expectation, and are inspired with a feeling for nature 159
• The child follows the natural way of development of the human race 160

CHAPTER XI – MANUAL LABOUR–THE POTTER’S ART, AND BUILDING

• Difference between manual labour and manual gymnastics 162
• The School of Educative Art 163
• Archæological, historical, and artistic importance of the vase 164
• Manufacture of diminutive bricks and construction of diminutive walls and houses 165

CHAPTER XII – EDUCATION OF THE SENSES

• Aim of education to develop the energies 168
• Difference in the reaction between deficient and normal children in the presentation of didactic material made up of graded stimuli 169
• Education of the senses has as its aim the refinement of the differential perception of stimuli by means of repeated exercises 173
• Three periods of Séguin 177

CHAPTER XIII – EDUCATION OF THE SENSES AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE DIDACTIC MATERIAL: GENERAL SENSIBILITY: THE TACTILE, THERMIC, BARIC AND STEREOGNOSTIC SENSES

• Education of the tactile, thermic and baric senses 185
• Education of the stereognostic sense 188
• Education of the senses of taste and smell 190
• Education of the sense of vision 191
• Exercises with the three series of cards 199
• Education of the chromatic sense 200
• Exercise for the discrimination of sounds 203
• Musical education 206
• Tests for acuteness of hearing 209
• A lesson in silence 212

CHAPTER XIV – GENERAL NOTES ON THE EDUCATION OF THE SENSES

• Aim in education biological and social 215
• Education of the senses makes men observers and prepares them directly for practical life 218

CHAPTER XV – INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION

• Sense exercises a species of auto-education 224
• Importance of an exact nomenclature, and how to teach it 225
• Spontaneous progress of the child the greatest triumph of Scientific Pedagogy 228
• Games of the blind 231
• Application of the visual sense to the observation of environment 232
• Method of using didactic material: dimensions, form, design 233
• Free plastic work 241
• Geometric analysis of figures 243
• Exercises in the chromatic sense 244

CHAPTER XVI – METHOD FOR THE TEACHING OF READING AND WRITING

• Spontaneous development of graphic language: Séguin and Itard 246
• Necessity of a special education that shall fit man for objective observation and direct logical thought 252
• Results of objective observation and logical thought 253
• Not necessary to begin teaching writing with vertical strokes 257
• Spontaneous drawing of normal children 258
• Use of Froebel mats in teaching children sewing 260
• Children should be taught how before they are made to execute a task 261
• Two diverse forms of movement made in writing 262
• Experiments made with normal children 267
• Origin of alphabets in present use 269

CHAPTER XVII – DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD AND DIDACTIC MATERIAL USED

• Exercise tending to develop the muscular mechanism necessary in holding and using the instrument in writing 271
• Didactic material for writing 271
• Exercise tending to establish the visual-muscular imageof the alphabetic signs, and to establish the muscular memory of the movements necessary to writing 275
• Exercises for the composition of words 281
• Reading, the interpretation of an idea from written signs 296
• Games for the reading of words 299
• Games for the reading of phrases 303
• Point education has reached in the “Children’s Houses” 307

CHAPTER XVIII – LANGUAGE IN CHILDHOOD

• Physiological importance of graphic language 310
• Two periods in the development of language 312
• Analysis of speech necessary 319
• Defects of language due to education 322

CHAPTER XIX – TEACHING OF NUMERATION: INTRODUCTION TO ARITHMETIC

• Numbers as represented by graphic signs 328
• Exercises for the memory of numbers 330
• Addition and subtraction from one to twenty: multiplication and division 332
• Lessons on decimals: arithmetic calculations beyond ten 335

CHAPTER XX – SEQUENCE OF EXERCISES

• Sequence and grades in the presentation of material and in the exercises 338
• First grade 338
• Second grade 339
• Third grade 342
• Fourth grade 343
• Fifth grade 345

CHAPTER XXI – GENERAL REVIEW OF DISCIPLINE

• Discipline better than in ordinary schools 346
• First dawning of discipline comes through work 350
• Orderly action is the true rest for muscles intended by nature for action 354
• The exercise that develops life consists in the repetition, not in the mere grasp of the idea 358
• Aim of repetition that the child shall refine his senses through the exercise of attention, of comparison, of judgment 360
• Obedience is naturally sacrifice 363
• Obedience develops will-power and the capacity to perform the act it becomes necessary to obey 367

CHAPTER XXII – CONCLUSIONS AND IMPRESSIONS

• The teacher has become the director of spontaneous work in the “Children’s Houses” 371
• The problems of religious education should be solved by positive pedagogy 372
• Spiritual influence of the “Children’s Houses” 376

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