EDUCATING THE CHILD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15094, 10 September 1912, Page 5

EDUCATING THE CHILD.

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM. SUCCESS IN NEW SOUTH WALES. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] . Sydney,. September 4. Tite success of the Montessori system of education for children, with which experiments have been in progress for some weeks, has been such that it is to be developed systematically throughout 'the public schools in this" State. The difference between the Montessori and Froebel methods of kindergarten teaching is that while that splendid father of the child's garden treated the young folk en masse, Montessori gets at them individually. Every child must, under her methods, work out his salvation, so to speak, and yet the backward ones have twice the help of former days. But it is a. help that is never more than suggestion. The initiative is their own. Wonderful results have been attained. < devolution in Education. _ Explaining the system and its application a few clays ago, the Minister for Education (Mr. Carmichael) said : — " I do not think the press or public has quite grasped tho national importance of the new experi- ' mental departure we are making in infant tuition. I believe it will revolutionise the early period of education of the children, and very materially affect the later training as well. It will be one of the big things of the future, and if as successful as anticipated, will bo looked on as one of the landmarks of our education system. It is apparent that the phonetic rearrangement of the alphabet which causes the child to suggest to itself the combinations that go to make up tha words must, if introduced, effect a serious modification of our whole system. If, as our short experiments suggest, the child will, by the cultivation and use of the senses, be able to master the initial mysteries of reading and writing, to say nothing of mathematics, in a few weeks instead of years under the old strokes and pothook system— must, recognise a new and revolutionary discovery has been made. The teacher—an expert kindergartener—whom I placed in! charge of the new experiment, reported to me the other day as follows : 'Notwithstanding the difficulties of our language, .the Montessori method of teaching reading arid writing will, I am convinced, prove highly successful. We have not before realised the value of the sense of touch as an agent in education. To me the discovery of this value and its application to tho teaching of reading and writing is the greatest thing in the Montessori method. Every teacher knows tho tedious drudgery of teaching children to read and write. Sugar-coat it as wo may, the drudgery (to the teacher, at any rate) remains. To get over this as the children in tho Montessori schools get over it, sounds like a. fairy-tale. We may not accomplish such miracles, owing to the difficulties of our language, but, if the experiments now being carried out do not deceive me, I think the results, if not quite so magical as those of Italy, will bo sufficiently marvellous to wan-ant the introduction of tho Montessori method of ■ reading and writing into all schools."'

The Laws of Psychology. Questioned in regard to the history of the establishment of the method in New South Wales, the Minister said : " It is one of the most rapid things that has happened, and shows that State Departments do not always move as slowly as they are debited with. About three months ago my attention was drawn to an article in a magazine, describing some of the methods used, and some of the principles underlying the system. I was greatly taken with the application of the laws of psychology, and the training of tho senses to tho education of the children, and discussed the matter with our head kindergarten mistress. She had already seen several articles, and endorsed my view that it was worth investigating. I asked her to draw up a report, and meanwhile wo cabled, for the author's books. In a few weeks wc received them, but they came in Italian; thev were translated, and the training started. Tho teachers entered into the spirit of the thing, and at once began to manufacture the necessary letters and accessories. They have worked all sorts of overtime to do this, and have now a very decent equipment, which we are adding to every day. We have been going about a month now, and ,the results are, to say the least of it, startling. We are beyond the experimental statue, and shall. now go forward to develop the method systematically throughout our schools. One may judge of the keen interest that is now taken in education mattors in Australia from the fact that, although wo ha% only been going a few weeks, we have already had several visitors from Victoria and South Australia to investigate how the method is working here. They have gone away in every caso very much impressed with the result of our work. lam glad that New South Wales has been the first in the field, and I propose to complete at an early date my original intention, i.e., to permit one of our skilled kindergarteners to visit the Montessori Home for Children, and study the system under its originator." Asked what ho would characterise as the outstanding feature of the new method, Mr. Carmichaol said: "It is rather difficult to say in a word, but I think it is the principle .on which the system is built, viz.. along lines that cause self-suggestion to the child of those things we used to try to hammer into its head from the outside."

" Sense Training." Miss Simpson, the head kindergartner here, says that to put it in popular phraseology, tho Montessori system is "sense training," embracing practical life exercises, whereby the .child is taught the value of touch, in conjunction with other senses. This sense of touch is the underlying principle which governs all mental impressions. In learning to read, instead of droning out daily A B C, as in the old way. we blindfold the child (and each one has its own linen eye band), and put before it a card on which has been pasted a letter cut out in sandpaper. The only guide the child has is its sense of touch, and • whilst familiarising itself with the name, of the letter, the teacher orally gives the phonetic sound. Pens, pencils, and slates are dispensed with, and" after the full alphabet is mastered phonetically and otherwise, the pupils have access to boxes of cardboard letters, which they arrange according to pound, thus' accomplishing word-building. This plan is a rapid one, a child being known to learn, to spell 50 words in a fortnight. We apply the same sense of. touch in sorting fabrics, a lesson consisting of correctly arranging bundles of sample pieces of velvet, silk, satin, cotton, plush, leather, and wool. All this is done blindfolded, and we are daily discovering for ourselves the infallibility of the sense of touch". In my opinion, when developed on the lines laid down by Madame Montessori, it will be found to revolutionise the education of children."