Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Devotees wanting to become Montessori teachers were offered six-month courses in various locations in Europe taught by Maria herself. The personal contact with her changed the lives of those who took her classes. They came away with not only a teaching method, but new faith in their role as teachers, more hope for society, and more love for children.

I do see a subtle difference in Montessori and CM in a speech of Maria's at a graduating ceremony in one of her courses:

"...we are drawn toward the child, as individuals, as members of society, and for the good of the human race as a whole. The child is an authority; and the adult must make himself in accord with this authority if he wishes to better his conditions."

[My comment: Charlotte Mason had a deep respect for the personhood of the child, but not quite the same faith and reverence. She believed that teachers needed to work with the natural tendencies and abilities of children, but children needed to be under authority. They were too inexperienced, and their reasoning was too uneducated, to put the kind of trust in them that Maria seems to be advocating. CM would never have said that children were in any kind of authority that teachers or society should submit to. I think Montessori (like Rousseau?) thought that beauty and perfection were found in children, and if the rest of the world went back to that, society would be better. But CM felt that children, like everyone else, had imperfections that they needed to control, and if they were taught correctly, they'd be better adults. Rather than adults seeking to recapture or enshrine childhood, CM was more about teaching children to be better, more fulfilled adults by developing the potential they already had. Thus, I think that Montessori might appeal more to unschoolers who have faith that children will get what they need if we leave them alone and give them the freedom to do what they need to do. But CM felt that children needed self-discipline to prevent lazy habits that would be detrimental to him later and limit what he might have been. You can read CM's perspective about leaving children to develop free and unencumbered in Vol 2, ch 7, online here. ]

Montessori is representative of the Century of the Child. Maria thought that war was the result of materialism, people wanting more, because they hadn't had their needs met in childhood, and that was because society was built around what adults wanted without considering children. By transferring the center of society from adults to children, children would be fulfilled, productive, and become adults who weren't dissatisfied and frustrated. And [if I'm understanding this correctly] then there wouldn't be war. People would put their energy to work for harmony and order rather than death and destruction.

She appealed to the education of the spirit, not just the technical or utilitarian. The teacher needed a 'proper attitude to the moral order.' Yet she did this without pushing her own religion (Catholicism) or preaching. When Fascism took over in Italy, her schools were closed down, so she went to Spain. Then civil war broke out in Spain, so she went to Holland, opened a school and continued her work. She never wasted time responding to critics, but focused on continued continued progression forward.

She saw that children love walking along a line on the sidewalk because their disproportionate bodies have a hard time with balance. So she built that into her school routine, making children walk a chalk line. She saw how children like to balance on fences, and that led her to help invent jungle gyms. Her scientific background gave validity to her research. EM Standing concludes this section by saying that she epitomized her ideal for teachers: 'One who combines the self-sacrificing spirit of the scientist with the love of the disciple of Christ.'

Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.