THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21034, 9 December 1933, Page 24

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

ITS PRINCIPLES EXPLAINED * "WORLD-WIDE SPREAD OF MOVEMENT | t " (SPECIALLY WiUTTEX FOR THE lTvliSS.i IBy the PRINCIPAL of tJ.c SACRED 17 HEART GIRLS' COLLEGE.] It is probably ' a compliment to the Montessori system that misconceptions concerning it should be so manifold. Undoubtedly its very success has led to poor imitations which have brought unjust opprobrium on the true system. For instance, because Montessori children are so well and happily employed that there is no need for punishment of any kind, and because selfactivity is an essential part of the training, one case at least has been known of a pseudo-Montessori teacher putting a number of children into a class-room with the intention of allowing them to do and behave as they liked "because that was Montessori method"! During the eight years the local Montessori school has been in operation it has received many visitors ■who came prejudiced by a knowledge of the usual objections—culled invariably from second-hand sources • —and each and every one of these has had to admit the undeniable success, when seen in actual practice, of a method that enables children to make a maximum of progress •with none of the discomforts and hardships once thought indispensable in learning all the subjects of the ordinary school curriculum, together with the elements of music, art, foreign languages, and some other subjects impossible at this stage without its help. It is not so much a means as a method which may be applied indefinitely. As one visitor pertinentlv expressed it, there is as much difference between talking or reading about the Montessori method and seeing children happily occupied in it as there is between talking about a musical instrument and hearing it well played. f: Pleasure in Work the Basic 'T Principle. The Montessori method differs tfundamentally from kindergarten End similar methods in that while the latter endeavour to become attractive to children by means of play and amusement, the basic principle of the Montessori method is that it is in work and not in play that true happiness and satisfaction are to be found. Play as a rule excites and often over-strains _ the jierves; whereas work, especially ■when it gives scope for the development of the powers and faculties, rsoothes and satisfies. As Dr. Mon--tessori points out, a research student /obtains far greater satisfaction from whe work he is interested in than do rthe votaries of pleasure from their ijnost costly indulgences. It is this Satisfaction with the work done that in a Montessori school |&he question of attention and behapviour. Naughtiness as such soon becomes non-existent in such a school. tThe children move about freely, but i.they do it orderly and quietly, and with the object of accomplishing some set purpose that takes Kip their whole attention. Progress in School Subjects. Dr. Montessori brought out her bfirst didactic apparatus nearly 25 Shears ago and since then she has peen developing her system with unremitting care and success so that it mow covers all the subjects of a full sprimary school course. In arithpnetic, for instance, all that is necesPary in, a primary school, including lecimais and fractions, is learnt by fihe time the child reaches Standard Til. After that it is only a matter of keeping up practice. In this way ft,he enormous amount of time saved tfrom this more or less mechanical feubject can be devoted in the upper classes to extensive work in such [cultural subjects as English, music, 'find art, for all of which there is designed material, the results achieved exceeding all expectations.. Montessori children learn writing and accurately within a few (months after commencing school, (/because the old method of looking .at a copy and trying to reproduce it mas been discarded for the more scientific method of using the plasjticity of the muscles of the child's Ehand to "feel" the formation of sand Betters and reproduce them by muswular effort only. Even a grown|PP Person who goes over, say, a let-

that his fingers reproduce it_ automatically. ■ This scientific saving of time in the teaching of elementary subjects is characteristic of all the branches of the Montessori system. In like manner children very early get copious exercise in express? ing their thoughts on various subjects without the need of using up paper or tiring themselves with the use of pen or pencil. They make up words, and before long, stories, or copy out poetry and other matter from books by. means of small cardboard alphabets which they spread out on a desk or on a mat, something after the manner of setting cut type for printing. These alphabet boxes give excellent occupation for children who are detained at home on wet days or for some other reason cannot attend a school.

Montessori in the Home,

A great deal of the value of the Montessori training described above depends upon its being taken up between the ages of four and seven. After the latter age there is not the same sensitiveness of the sense faculties and the children no longer find their former delight in manipulating the apparatus. This does not mean that Dr. Montessori is an advocate of making children commence schooling in grim earnest at the age of four. On the contrary she is much in favour of children being taught at home a little each day, both because the child's developing faculties need suitable and ordered exercise, and also because it is easy at this impressionable stage to teach a child self-control and at the same time well ordered self-expression. Dr. Montessori s Handbook for Parents and Teachers, an excellent little book, should be read by anyone desiring a simple and practical insight into that part of the Montessori system that can with - advantage be' carried out either wholly in the home or as an amplification of the work done at school. Pupils taught by the Montessori system not only become omnivorous book readers, but they also delight to express themselves dramatically, which they do easily and gracefully without any unnecessary self-con-sciousness. Moreover, it is not only that actual school subjects are so much more easily and effectively taught, but all that is best in the natural activity and alertness of the children is developed and perfected, instead of being crushed out, the result being that even those who are not naturally clever become bright and active, and find it easy to deport themselves properly, and to express their ideas simply and correctly, without any of the awkj wardness that comes from a feeling of inefficiency or inferiority. Montessori trained children find no difficulty in keeping themselves happily employed when out of school. World-wide Spread of the Montessori System. It may be as well to bring up here the question often asked: "Why is the Montessori system making such slow progress if it is so wonderful?"

In the first place, it is only at this end of the World that it is not making rapid progress. The following extract is from the Educational Supplement of the London "Times," October, 1925: "Last year the Italian Government undertook an enquiry with the object of ascertaining how far the methods advocated by Dr. Montessori had been accepted and were being applied in foreign countries all over the world. The reports when collected formed a document which has not yet been published, but which appears to have been of a magnitude and convincingness that surprised even the ministry which undertook the work. Signor Mussolini, after a study of its contents, is said to have formulated the characteristic reply for objectors and critics, 'that the Montessori principle is established, and that those who fail to understand it display their own ignorance.' As a result of this enquiry, Dr. Montessori was commissioned by Mussolini's Government to reorganise the primary schools of Italy on the lines of her system. Her system had already been adopted in almost every country of Europe, and has spread to America, Africa, and Asia. It has been very favourably received in England, and Dr. Montessori gives periodically in London a course of lectures on her system. She is being continually invited to different countries to give advice and explain her method. To take one year as an example. In 1926, at the invitation of their respective governments, she visited Germany, Italy, and the Argentine, and in the same year held an international training course for teachers in London, at which 22 different nationalities