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_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 in nature"

  Birth of individuality

  Intellectual crises are accompanied by emotion

  Older child beginning in system, chooses materials in
  inverse order

  Course of psychical phenomena explained by diagrams

  Tests of Binet and Simon arbitrary and superficial

  Problems of psychical measurement

  Observing the child's moral nature

  Transformation of a "violent" child and of a "spying" child
  in a Montessori school

  Polarization of the internal personality

Guide to psychological observation.

  Work

  Conduct

  Obedience


CHAPTER IV

THE PREPARATION OF THE TEACHER

  The school is the laboratory of experimental psychology

  Qualities the new type of teacher must possess


CHAPTER V

ENVIRONMENT

  Physical hygiene in the school

  The requirements of psychical hygiene

Free movement.

  Misconceptions of physical freedom

  Action without an aim fatigues

  Work of "preservation" rather than "production" suitable
  to children


CHAPTER VI

ATTENTION

  Awakens in answer to an impulse of "spiritual hunger"

  Attention cannot be artificially maintained by teacher

  _Liberty_ the experimental condition necessary for
  studying phenomena of attention

  Child's perception of an internal development makes the
  exercise pleasant and induces him to prolong it

  External stimuli powerless without an answering internal force

  A natural internal force directs psychical formation

  New pedagogy provides nourishment for internal needs

  Organization of knowledge in the child's mind

  Teacher directs, but does not interrupt phenomena of attention

  Material offered should correspond to psychical needs


CHAPTER VII

WILL

  Its relation to attention

  Manifested in action and inhibition

  Opposite activities of the will must combine to form
  the personality

  Powers of the will established by exercise, not by subjection

  Persistence in effort the true foundation of will

  Decision the highest function of the will

  Development of will depends on order and clarity of ideas

  Power of choice, which precedes decision, should be
  strengthened

  Need of exercise for the will paralleled with need of
  muscular exercise

  Fallacy of educating the child's will by "breaking it"

  "Character" the result of established will, not
  of emulation


CHAPTER VIII

INTELLIGENCE

  Liberating the child means leaving him to "his own intelligence"

  How the intelligence of the child differs from the
  instincts of animals

  Intelligence the actual means of formation of the inner life

  Hygiene of intelligence

  Intelligence awakens and sets in motion the central
  nervous mechanisms

  In an age of speed, man has not accelerated himself

  Swift reactions an external manifestation of intelligence

  Ability to _distinguish_ and _arrange_ the
  characteristic sign of intelligence

  Montessori "sensory exercises" make it possible for the
  child to distinguish and classify

  The Montessori child is sensitive to the objects of his environment

  Educational methods in use do not help the child to distinguish

  Power of _association_ depends on ability to distinguish
  dominant characteristics

  Individuality revealed in association by similarity

  By means of attention and internal will the intelligence
  accomplishes the work of association

  _Judgment_ and _reasoning_ depend on ability to distinguish

  Activities of association and selection lead to individual
  habits of thought

  Importance of acquiring ability to reason for oneself

  Genius the possession of maximum powers of association by similarity

  Genius of errors in association and reasoning which have
  impeded science

  The consciousness can only accept truths for which it
  is "expectant"

  The intelligence has its peculiar perils, from which it
  should be guarded


CHAPTER IX

IMAGINATION

The creative imagination of science is based upon truth.

  Imagination based on reality differs from that based on speculation

  Speculative imagination akin to original sin

  Education should direct imagination into creative channels

Truth is also the basis of artistic imagination.

  All imagination based on sense impressions

  Non-seasonal impressions--spiritual truths

  Education in sense perception strengthens imagination

  Perfection in art dependent on approximation to truth

  Exercise of the intelligence aids imagination

Imagination in children.

  Immature and therefore concerned with unrealities

  Should be helped to overcome immaturity of thought

  False methods develop _credulity_, akin to insanity

  Period of credulity in the child prolonged for the
  amusement of the adult

  "Living among real possessions" the cure for illusions

Fable and religion.

  Religion not the product of fantasy

  Fable in schools does not prepare for religious teaching

The education of the imagination in schools for older children.

  Environment and method oppressive

  "Composition" introduced to foster imagination

  How composition is "taught"

  Imagination cannot be forced

The moral question.

  Contributions of positive science to morality

  Science raises society to level of Christian standards

  Parents' failure to teach sex morality

  Probable effects of experimental psychology in field of morals

  Experimental psychology should be directed to the schools

  Progress of medicine and its relation to new psychology

  Childish naughtiness a parental misconception

  Infant life different from the adult

  Hindering the child's development a moral question for the adult

  Need of the child "to touch and to act"

  How the adult prevents him from learning by doing

  Conceptions of good and bad conduct in the school

  Mutual aid a high crime in the school

  Surveillance for vicious habits originating in the school

  Developing the "social sentiment" in the school

  "A moral with every lesson" the teacher's aim

  Injurious system of prizes and punishments the school's mainstay

  The fallacy of "emulation"

  Necessity of reforming the school

  Good conduct dependent on satisfaction of intellectual needs

  Mere sensory education inadequate

  Love, the preservative force of life

  Christianity teaches necessity of mutual love

The education of the moral sense.

  Moral education must have basis of feeling

  Adult the stimulus by which child's feeling is exercised

  How and when the adult should offer affection

The essence of moral education.

  Importance of perfecting spiritual sensibility

  Necessity of properly organized environment

  Helping the child distinguish between right and wrong

  "Internal sense" of right and wrong

  Moral conscience capable of development

Our insensibility.

  Virtuous person and criminal not detected by contact

  The War as an example of moral insensibility

  Insensibility distinguished from death of the soul

  Spiritually, man must either ascend or die

Morality and religion.

  Conversion,