



Produced by Alicia Williams, David T. Jones and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
book was produced from scanned images of public domain
material from the Google Print project.)






_THE
ADVANCED MONTESSORI METHOD_

SPONTANEOUS ACTIVITY
IN EDUCATION

BY

MARIA MONTESSORI

AUTHOR OF "THE MONTESSORI METHOD," "PEDAGOGICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY," ETC.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY
FLORENCE SIMMONDS

[Illustration: company logo]

NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS


_Copyright, 1917, by_
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

_All rights reserved, including that of translation into
foreign languages_.

Printed in the U.S.A.


CONTENTS


CHAPTER I

A SURVEY OF THE CHILD'S LIFE

Laws of the child's psychical life paralleled by those of its physical.

  Current objections to a system of education based upon "liberty"

  Hygiene has freed the infant from straps and swaddling clothes
  and left it free to develop

  Education must leave the soul free to develop

  Principle of liberty in education not a principle of abandonment

The liberty accorded the child of to-day is purely physical.
  Civil rights of the child in the twentieth century.

  Removal of perils of disease a step toward physical liberation

  Supplying the child's physical needs is not sufficient

  Child's social rights overlooked in the administration of
  orphan asylums

  Poor child's health and property confiscated in the custom
  of wet nursing

  We recognize justice only for those who can defend themselves

How we receive the infants that come into the world.

  Home has no furnishings adapted to their small size

  Society prepares a mockery for their reception in the shape
  of useless toys

  Child not allowed to act for himself

  Constant interruption of his activities prevents psychical growth

  Bodily health suffers from spiritual neglect

With man the life of the body depends on the life of the spirit.

  Reflex action of the emotions on the body functions

  Child's body requires joy as much as food and air


CHAPTER II

A SURVEY OF MODERN EDUCATION

The precepts which govern moral education and instruction.

  Child expected to acquire virtues by imitation, instead
  of development

  Domination of the child's will the basis of education

It is the teacher who forms the child's mind. How he teaches.

  Teacher's path beset with difficulties under the present system

  Advanced experts prepare the schemata of instruction

  Some outlines of "model lessons" used in the schools

  Comparison of a "model lesson" for sense development with
  the Montessori method

  Experimental psychology, not speculative psychology, the
  basis of Montessori teaching

  False conceptions of the "art of the teacher" illustrated
  by model lessons

Positive science makes its appearance in the schools

Discoveries of medicine: distortions and diseases

Science has not fulfilled its mission in its dealings with children.

  Diseases of school children treated, causes left undisturbed

Discoveries of experimental psychology: overwork; nervous exhaustion

Science is confronted by a mass of unsolved problems.

  Laws governing fatigue still unknown

  Toxines produced by fatigue and their antitoxins

  Joy in work the only preventative of fatigue

  Real experimental science, which shall liberate the child,
  not yet born


CHAPTER III

MY CONTRIBUTION TO EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE

The organization of the psychical life begins with the
characteristic phenomenon of attention.

  Incident which led Dr. Montessori to define her method

Psychical development is organized by the aid of external stimuli,
which may be determined experimentally.

  Tendency to develop his latent powers exists in the child's nature

  Environment should contain the means of auto-education

External stimuli may be determined in quality and quantity.

  Educative material used should contain in itself the _control of error_

  Quantity of material determined by the advent of
  abstraction in pupil

  Relation of stimuli to the age of the pupil

Material of development is necessary only as a starting point.

  Corresponds to the terra firma from which the aeroplane takes
  flight and to which it returns to rest

  Establishing of internal order, or "discipline"

  Psychical growth requires constantly new and more complex material

  Difference between materials of auto-education and the didactic
  material of the schools

Psychical truths.

  "Discipline" the first external sign of a psychical reaction
  to the material

  Initial disorder in Montessori schools

  Psychical progress not systematic but "explosive