Maria Montessori - Her Life and Work

I finally finished reading the book about Montessori; there's a series of posts about that starting here.

There are over 20 posts, but each one is linked to the next one, so if you start at the beginning, you can continue to click "next" to get through all of them. They're longish, but are my narrations as I read the book interspersed with my own thoughts from a Charlotte Mason perspective as I read Montessori's concepts and practices.

There's also a letter that Charlotte Mason wrote to the editor of her newspaper sharing her own thoughts on the Montessori method. I rewrote the entire letter in modern English so I could understand more fully what CM was saying about Montessori, and I posted it as well. It's linked from the first posts.

Montessori - ch 21 (final chapter)

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 21 - Montessori, Froebel and the Junior School

Around age 9 or 10, the enclosed Montessori school environment is no longer enough for the child. He wants more; he's entered his next phase of development and longs to explore again, but this time he wants to explore the wide world. Traditionally, this is the age when boys escape, run away, play hookey from school, form gangs. This is the optimum time to prepare students to go out into the world. Boy scouts, which teaches survival skills, is one workable solution. But what about school? Ideally, scout-type activities should be part of school. Froebel's students learned about nature (in a way that sounds like CM's section on 'Red Indian lore' in volume 1). Froebel's students explored terrain and then made their own maps from their explorations. But preparation for the real world involves more than survival skills and map-making. It means moral training to choose between right and wrong.

The herd instinct becomes strong at this phase, and can be harnessed so that students form groups that have moral goals and standards. Froebel liked organized sports for this purpose. Montessori liked scouts, but preferred to have something attached to the school. Schools in each culture would find their own solutions.

Children at this stage begin to Reason. So Montessori's junior schools switch from isolated skill lessons with color boards and graduated cylinders to a more wholistic approach, teaching about related interests with a unified center that were similar to but not quite like unit studies that squander too much time on unimportant subjects. 'Seeds of interest' are sown about lots of different subjects (sounds like CM's varied curriculum in all different fields of knowledge). But the whole class isn't dragged through lessons in the same subject - learning is still individual and child-led yet still guided by the teacher. Before, the young child child was taught skills so that, if he chose an activity, he was free and capable to do it - he had the skills to do what he wanted to do. It's the same at this age. The teacher has to be able to help the student pursue information within his interest, which means she has to know a LOT! (I imagine this aspect of Montessori would be a lot easier in our computer age!) It sounds like this phase of education was never fully worked out and still had some problems to be worked through - the expectations of the teacher's file of knowledge, for one!

Montessori felt that the child's imagination should be inspired from the wonders of the universe, not fantasy, because fact is more fascinating than fiction.

The book closes with more hyperbole about how recognizing the inner light of the child would create a Christ-like-ness in children and lead to world peace.

To start at the beginning of this series, click here.

Montessori - ch 19 and 20

I changed my mind about skipping the Froebel chapters. In an e-group I'm on, we're just about at the part of CM's volume 1 where she says what she likes and doesn't like about Froebel. So this suddenly became more interesting for me. :) There's still one more chapter in the book, which I'll post this weekend. Then the book will truly be done.

Chapter 19 - Montessori and Froebel: Similarities

(Froebel was the father of Kindergarten)

Both Montessori and Froebel love and reverence the child as a spiritual being (CM also agreed here).

Both felt that the vital element in education and learning was the child's own activity, and that shouldn't be interfered with.

Both use teaching materials, although Montessori's are more closely related to Gestalt and Froebel's are called 'gifts' and are more spiritual and metaphysical (this sounds more like a difference than a similarity).

Both saw the child as soft wax to be molded. And both saw the development of humans as stages of metamorphosis - infant, toddler, child, youth, man. If anything is missed at any one of these stages, it becomes like a 'dropped stitch' in life and can't be made up for later. This is related to sensitive periods, such as the 'absorbent mind' stage of preschool. (This sounds to me like 'windows of opportunity.')

Both saw the child as an explorer, collecting data to build his mind with, and both felt that more was gained if the child discovered and figured things out for himself. But both felt that adults could offer some help. For Montessori, that help was providing a prepared environment. For Froebel, the help was more direct (by answering questions, I think.)

Macrocosm/microcosm - both felt that the child sought to recreate the order and knowledge he saw in his world, which reflected God's order and knowledge as manifested in Creation.

Both felt that too much interference and not enough opportunity to allow children to develop according to their own nature is the cause of deviations, abnormal behavior and bad habits.

Both understood that, for children to know the right thing to do, they needed more than to be told what to do. Their bodies and muscles needed to practice doing it. Froebel used 'drill' to teach coordination. Montessori put more emphasis on this wih her focus on life skills. (CM emphasized training the muscles to do tasks excellently, but she didn't feel that training the muscles had any impact on the mind as Froebel and Montessori did.)

Both were profoundly keen on freedom and autonomy - but only in the sense of being free within the law, never as a license to do wrong.


Chapter 20 - Montessori and Froebel: Differences

Although both aimed at education through self-activity, the differences between Montessori and Froebel may explain why Montessori was more successful.

Froebel's 'teaching unit' consisted of 8-10 children, so that would be an ideal class size. Since Montessori's 'teaching unit' is one child learning independently, larger class sizes of 35 students are more efficient.

Montessori puts more faith in the child's 'inner light' to choose what and when to learn within the confines of the prepared environment, so the teacher's role is merely to direct in the background. A Froebel teacher teaches. (CM said that, in a Froebel kindergarten, everything rested on the teacher's kindliness, enthusiasm and cheerfulness.)

In a Montessori school, children learn through self-initiated work. In a Froebel school, they learn through play.

Montessori didn't think it was healthy for children to hear fairy tales before they were old enough to sort fact from fiction - around age 5. While they were still in the exploring and data-collecting phase of their development, presenting fantasy would only confuse them and scare them with thoughts of witches and goblins that might stay in their minds into adulthood. There are enough fascinating real things in the world to spark preschool children's imaginations--nature itself offers lots of real fascination. Montessori found that children tended to role play about being independent. In a Montessori school, they are independent. They set real tables for real meals and clean real messes - so they don't need to act it out in play. Froebel focused on play and the imagination, even suggesting activities to act out (the 'flapping like butterflies and frisking like lambs' that CM criticized). Montessori focused on work and intellect and believed the imagination would take care of itself because people were designed to be creative. It is as true for children as adults that work brings the greatest satisfaction, and all play and no work makes recreation boring. Montessori felt that much of children's playing was an attempt to escape the authoritative adult world where children didn't fit and mastery is frustratingly impossible. Under the right circumstances (prepared environment, freedom to work) Montessori hd no objection to play. She even sometimes had them role play situations or scenes in stories. Froebelians objected to Montessori's insistance that teaching materials be used only for their intended purpose. Froebel would have praised children using them imaginatively, but that was contrary to Montessori's purposes. If the child wants to wash something, let him wash real (child-sized) laundry. If he wants to build, let him use real building materials, not the graduated cylinders.

Froebel was pantheistic (Nordic, the book says) while Montessori was Catholic and believed in one God.

Froebel emphasized 'making the inner the outer' through self-expression, while Montessori focused on the child internalizing and ordering the outside world in his mind - more like 'making the outer the inner.'

To start at the beginning of this series, click here.
Read the final installment.

Montessori ch 18

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 18 - The Montessori Directress

A Montessori teacher needs to undergo religious/spiritul preparation in order to properly understand the child as a dignified person. This is the most difficult and important part of her training. She must learn to analyze and correct her own faults rather than looking for and trying to fix a child's faults. She must cultivate humility and patience and get rid of pride and anger. Adults who act angry or arrogant are received coldly by other adults, but children don't know any better and, instead of reflecting it back, they absorb it all and it affects their self-esteem. She must seek to serve children instead of tyrannizing them as an authority. She should be interested and enthusiastic without being too energetic or too forced and turning the children off; she must move gently, calmly, delicately, naturally. She must be interested in what she's teaching and know how to present it in a fresh, novel way if she hopes to interest her students. (I guess that implies that she'd need to be constantly improving herself as a sort of parallel to CM's model of mother/teacher culture?) She must encourage the child without giving so much praise that he begins to do his work for her instead of for his own growth. She should give enough guidance and direction to get the children working, but she must practice non-intervention (which sounds like CM's masterly inactivity).

The two final chapters are about the similarities and differences between Montessori and Froebel. I might delve into that someday, but I think I'm ready to be done with this book for now and move on to something else. I changed my mind about skipping the chapters about Froebel.

For all practical purposes, I've finished the book, and there never was any mention of books or instilling any kind of ideas to inspire children's minds. I gather that, in Montessori's view, children's 'inner lights' and work to create themselves didn't need the outside influence of other people's ideas. Maybe that would be seen as an intrusion into the child's development?

To start at the beginning of this series, click here.
To read the next entry, click here.

Montessori ch 17

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 17 - Liberty in Education

The idea that Montessori means 'freedom in a prepared environment' is only partially true. Montessori didn't believe in letting children do whatever they wanted with no discipline. Montessori has definite principles (as Charlotte Mason does) and those principles include order. Freedom doesn't mean doing what you want, but being able to choose what's right. That requires the ability to reason and make choices, and the ability to physically do whatever choice you make.

But you can't be free if you have to rely on others, so the Montessori method emphasizes independent skills. An informed choice requires knowledge, so the Montessori method strives to help children acquire knowledge and experience to base choices on.

The goal is to get children to do the right thing (such as their schoolwork) because they choose to, not because someone is making them. And they need to build confidence in doing for themselves and choosing for themselves, rather than being 'in slavery' to an adult who tells them what to do, when to do it, and how.

The teacher/directress provides guidance. She might reprimand a child for not using materials properly, suggest a better activity for a child (children are never allowed to use what they haven't learned to use yet), separate two children who would be better served in different partnerships. She takes an active role in getting rid of any evil, and maintaining harmony in the classroom.

Curiosity is often cited as what makes a child learn. In reality, children may pick up an item and study it out of curiosity (like an unfamiliar Montessori resource) but it's only when they understand the activity and choose to practice and master it that they truly learn from it. That's not the same as curiosity. (The book goes into a child's 'inner light' in repeating and internalizing as the activity is mastered.)

Children in a Montessori setting are required to use the learning resources only for their intended purpose--they aren't allowed, for example, to use the cylinders for building blocks, or to pretend they're trains. The materials are designed for the child's maximum development, and using them as toys wastes the children's time and wastes the resources. Montessori likened the requirement to use materials properly to a large family where the child was not allowed to wear just any shoes in the name of freedom. Shoes are designed to help walking, and the child must only wear his own because that's how he'll walk most efficiently. Using things for their correct purpose isn't a denial of liberty, it's just efficient. And improper use - such as allowng scribbling instead of insisting on using color shapes to fill in colors neatly - becomes boring, so the child loses interest quickly. Yet, within these limits, we need to trust the child's 'inner light' to sense what he needs, and to know which activity his development requires. Their sensitivities to their 'inner lights' haven't been spoiled with brights lights and sounds and stimulus like ours have. We can't know what his inner light is saying, but we can present Montessori materials to make his options clearer. We can let children work as long as they need to without interrupting them for 'rest breaks' that we think they need.

The fruits of freedom: children retain their individuality. The flip side of freedom's coin, discipline, isn't neglected. Freedom enables children to concentrate and develop better. It encourages them to obey by choice - willing obedience.

Will liberty make children avoid hard tasks in their Montessori schools? No, because they like the challenge and satisfaction of mastering hard things. The liberty of a Montessori school allows children to learn how to socialize (because there are other children there that he's allowed to socialize with if he wants, and because lots of visitors tour the schools - not sure how this relates to liberty, exactly.)

Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori

Montessori ch 16

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 16 - The Prepared Environment

Children have absorbent minds to soak in knowledge from birth to six years, so there's no reason to put off learning to read and write, as long as it's done in the context of a prepared environment. Adults see all the progress that a child makes and then conclude that he's finally ready to be educated at age seven. But, in a prepared environment, the child's absorbent mind can easily absorb reading and writing at age five or six. A prepared environment is especially necessary in these days when children don't have gardens to grow up in and their homes are set up for adults. In a prepared environment, children can reach everything and help themselves. Everything is safe - no bees to sting, no rocks to fall on.

Besides child-sized furniture, a Montessori prepared environment needs things to practice life skills (like brooms), sensory materials (like color boards), cultural lesson materials (timelines, math manipulatives) and whatever is necessary for religious development (I have no clue what that would include!) A child's need for order means that everything should have a place and things should be where the child expects them to be. Children like this environment so much that they naturally maintain it, even cleaning up their own messes. The cultural lesson materials are used more with older students. The teacher is available and accessible to help when needed. She is 'the dynamic link' between the child and the prepared environment. Without her, the environment is wasted. An ideal Montessori classroom has 30-40 children. They'll naturally cluster in small groups and work together and learn from each other.

When the child has developed beyond his need to coccoon himself in the limited environment, he'll naturally want to broaden his horizons, but he'll still have some need for the prepared environment.

There's a list of 14 things the teacher is responsible for:
1 keep the area tidy and clean
2 add touches of beauty
3 show how to use the materials
4 connect the child to the environment, then move out of the way
5 watch to see who needs help
6 come when called
7 listen and respond to children
8 don't interrupt working children
9 don't correct a child making a mistake
10 let children rest if they want
11 continue offering materials
12 be a loving but inobtrusive presence
13 be accessible but not in the way
14 be invisible to children offering work to God (?)

Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori

Montessori ch 15

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Ch 15 - The Fundamental Problem in Education

The author lists some of the suggestions offered by critics for improving education - more teacher pay, more activity, better buildings, etc., but none of those seem to help education get any better. (Oddly enough, he doesn't mention anything about ideas, or knowledge, or books!) Maria Montessori saw the problem as being rooted in the relationship between teacher and child. Relationships based on oppressers and the oppressed can never work, and teachers can't seem to unlearn the concept of lording it over their weaker pupils! Why else do teachers have the attitude that they need to mold students and tell them what to learn? Like all other oppressed classes of people - women, slaves, workers - children needed to be liberated in a revolution. She felt that children had the right to be independent in doing for themselves, to be able to move freely instead of being forced to sit still, to explore without being reprimanded for getting dirty, to have access to a suitable working environment. She wrote about this in her book, The Secret of Childhood.

If parents and teachers had to be subjected to living where everything was too high and too big, and their treasures were flung away because they were deemed dirty or worthless, and they couldn't decide what to do for themselves, they'd understand what abuses children have to deal with. The solution is for adults to learn to see children in a whole new light.

I think Maria made a good point that children are people and that adults should try to see things from their perspective. But Charlotte Mason had already found the perfect balance between the need to view children as people and not to hinder them in body, mind or soul - and yet not overlook their need for guidance and good habits and a sense of their duty to others. Since I already know about her perfect balance, it's hard to read Montessori without reacting to her lack of balance. Seeing children as persons who didn't need someone telling them what to do, and providing an artificial environment where everything is sized for them can't solve all the problems of education. Human nature tends to take the path of least resistance, and Montessori doesn't address that. Charlotte Mason wanted children to strive to be better people; Montessori seems to think they already were perfect and just needed adults to stay out of their way. I think a Montessori perspective might mesh well with a TCS/non-coersive view of parenting, but it doesn't mesh well with a Christian worldview.

Start at the beginning of this series or go to the next chapter.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori

Montessori - ch 14

Herbartian education comes up in this chapter, so it will be helpful to know who he is.

Johann Friedrich Herbart 1776-1841: "In education he emphasized the importance of relating new concepts to the experience of the learner so that there would be less resistance to apperception of new ideas. He stressed the need for moral education through experience and brought the work of teaching into the area of conscious method." [more here]

Herbart's 5 steps:
"The five formal steps prescribe the order and method of procedure in an ideal lesson. PREPARE the mind for the reception of the new matter by repetition of questions which freshen the pupil's recollection of ideas related to the subject of the coming lesson. Next PRESENT the matter clearly, developing it in an orderly method. Then, or pari passu by comparison or illustration ASSOCIATE the new ideas or facts with those already familiar. After this GENERALIZE the results and finally APPLY the knowledge gained in some form of practical exercise." (Another site lists steps 4 and 5 as ILLUSTRATE the lesson's major points, and TEST students to assure they learned the lesson.)

More about Herbart

Enough background, here's the chapter:

Chapter 14 - Movement and Mental Assimilation

The teacher/directress's main job is to introduce children to learning materials and get them to the point where they're working with those materials. It's during the time that they're touching, moving, and manipulating the materials that learning is taking place. This is very much based on Herbart's philosophy [he said that the brain is like a vacant stage, and ideas clamor to take the stage. They gather in clusters with other similar ideas in the same way that children separate into groups on the playground according to what they have in common. It's a cute idea, but Charlotte Mason didn't buy it and had a lot to say against it.] Maria used the example of a hostess who wants two ladies to live together. She introduces them (the book likens this to Herbart's 'presentation') so that now the ladies recognize each other (likened to Herbartian 'apperception'). But it takes more than that to get them living together. In the same way, a Montessori directress does more than introduce the child to the materials. She has to get the child interested enough to explore and continue to use the materials on his own.

Children are always moving, they're never perfectly still [except when they're zoned out watching TV?] Montessori said that movement was necessary for the child to 'create himself,' as his senses take in information that grow his intellect and personality. [Charlotte Mason was very clear that physical movement did nothing to enlarge or enhance the mind. Only ideas and mental activity develop the mind. Physical movement developes the physical body.] Montessori said that physical movement was necessary to learn - children can't learn just by seeing and hearing. [Partially right - the brain does need to be engaged to learn. Passively receiving information via TV doesn't really teach. The mind needs to be in gear, actively taking the knowledge. Maybe Maria noticed that kids whose minds were engaged were alert and not in a vacant trance, and she confused the symptom of movement and thought it was the cause rather than the effect?] Maria said that children couldn't learn their colors if we just showed them different colors. They had to touch and feel the color boards. They wouldn't learn to read by hearing the letter sounds.They needed to handle and feel the shapes of the letters [this doesn't sound logical to me - I just don't believe it. If manipulatives speed up the process, I'd attribute that to increased interest from the child, not to the role of physical movement itself in the process.]

Maria said that physical movement and mental activity had to work in concert. She said that schools who break up intellectual effort with periods of physical movement [recess?] were like a man hopping on his right foot to refresh himself after hopping on his left foot! Nature designed the mind and body to work together: if the man used both feet and walked instead of hopping on one foot, he wouldn't tire in the first place. Maria thought that organized sports required thought while physically playing, so that would be better for developing character than gymnastics (?), but eurythmics was even better yet Eurythmics (teaching music through physical movement) requires 'interior analysis' during listening, and 'a corresponding external activity.' Therefore, Montessori believed it might 'bring about something almost resembling a moral transformation of character.' [Charlotte Mason mentioned eurythmics in her books, and not favorably as it regarded developing the mind.]

As a sidenote, the author points out that Montessori relied on practicing life skills instead of calistenics ('drill') or gymnastics for exercise/coordinaton.

While some advocated letting children run free and natural, Montessori thought that such unfocused movement did nothing for their intellect. Instead, she thought a child should channel his movements into perfecting something in himself as a way of building up his inner character. Such activities might include washing tables, arranging flowers, doing a puzzle - but the child had to want to do it. His wanting to do the activity made it his choice of work, which built up a child's confidence. Since the child needs to be free to develop/create his own self/personality, it would be wrong for his teacher to pressure him into doing any kind of character-enriching activity. [Charlotte Mason felt that it was wrong for a teacher to pressure children to learn with rewards, or threats, or too much influence over them - but not because children needed freedom from constraint to be who they needed to be. For her, it was because it destroyed their pure motive for learning. The whole idea of children needing to be free to create their own selves sounds very Rousseau-influenced, too much like the philosophy of 'I gotta be me!' and too TCS to put much stock in. I think Charlotte Mason is a better balance of child respect combined with an acceptance of their fallen nature that needs some gentle guidance.]

In contrast to Herbart's '5 steps' that focus only on the child's invisible inner mind, which is too personal and sacred for us to tamper with, Montessori felt that education should concern itself with the more visible 'peripherals' of the child - his five senses and his muscles. The child's inner self must be left alone to grow in its own way. All we can do is provide the best conditions for his peripherals [maybe the peripherals themselves are part of the 'prepared environment' that the directress orders?] and let the child work on his own inner 'centre.' So, Montessori's method provides opportunities for the child to use his muscles and his senses by presenting an environment that invites him to explore and handle and do. Every item in the classroom is carefully selected, and the goal is for all the children to be always busy at one activity or another.

Yet a room full of beautiful Montessori props is useless if the students are ignoring them. The teacher needs to make sure that a 'point of contact' is made, where the child's movements are actively involved in the music, or puzzle, or whatever materials are there. If the child's body is engaged, then his mind is engaged. Children are exposed to color, shape and sound every day in their real life, but engaging their minds so that they focus on them is what brings those things to their notice. How does the teacher make a 'point of contact'? After getting the class's focus on her by doing a group activity or song, she has to work with one child at a time. She might move a chair silently, and then challenge a child to see if he can do it without a sound. Children sometimes even help other students to take on a challenge. The goal is get the students concentrating and interacting independently with the materials. When their bodies are engaged with something intellectual, their minds are concentrating, and their focus can be intense enough not to mind distractions.

Once children have mastered the materials, they like to do it again and again until they have an explosive 'aha!' experience and intutively realize some new concept with an unusual mental leap. It's like an inspiration of genius. One common example in her schools was that pre-reading children would suddenly just start writing words.

------------

I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book, and it just occurred to me that the subject of books hasn't even come up! How strange that the concept of passing ideas from one mind to the next through stories and poems and talking hasn't even been mentioned!



Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori

Montessori Chapter 13

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 13 - The Exercises of Practical Life

Montessori children work at domestic tasks such as sweeping, setting tables, or polishing brass. But it's important for the teacher to understand the purpose of these tasks in order to make the most of them. The goal isn't to get the floor cleaned, or the table set, or the brass polished. Children have a biological and psychological need to practice and perfect the kinds of movements that will enable them to do tasks well and easily. But they need to practice with real things - setting real tables for a real meal, cleaning real floors, polishing brass that's really tarnished. They need to be maintaining their own selves (clipping their nails, washing their faces, cleaning their clothes) or maintaining and ordering their surroundings (this includes food preparation.)

Related to this is learning grace and courtesy - the social niceties, such as when to stand up, how to close a door quietly, which fork to use. These skills are taught objectively so that the child is doing it because he wants to, not because his teacher/directress wants him to. The directress shows him how, but in such a way that he doesn't imitate her exactly. The goal is to teach the necessary steps, but to allow the child to be independent in deciding exactly how to do it, and when. Children need freedom in order to show initiative. Limiting skill-building lessons to one period of the day doesn't encourage children to jump on a task when it needs doing (such as, mopping the floor when there's a spill). In skills and social manners, they need the tools, but they need to be free to use those tools at their own discretion. A child can be polite to a visitor or not, it's his choice. But he needs to know how to be polite so he can when he wants to. The child who wants to be polite, or do some cleaning, should have the skills he needs at his disposal when he needs them. Yet the child should never be pressured to do something.

Children are pefectionists. Once they're comfortable with a task, such as setting the table, they can rise to new challenges: can they set the dishes down without a sound? They will enjoy the attempt, using their own ear to judge their success. Thus, the teacher doesn't need to be his judge and critic. Other challenges include pulling out his chair quietly, or washing hands without spilling a drop of water. If these challenges are perfected during the sensitive period for muscle coordination (before age 7), they will become automatic habits.

Children should be made aware of the sequence of motions needed to do any task. People trip up when they do motions out of sequence--they stumble when they move forward before their foot has moved up. They spill if they pour water from a pitcher before setting the glass in place. Every task is made up of a series of smaller movements. It's helpful to be aware of them, and graceful to do them in order.

Balance is practiced by walking a straight line. Challenges can be added, like holding a flag, or holding bells but walking the line so steadily that they don't ring, or balancing a basket on their head.

Children love stillness and quiet. They enjoy playing the Silence Game, where the teacher puts a sign ("Silence") on the wall, and the children sit in perfect silence in response, waiting to hear their name called in a whisper so quiet that it doesn't break the silence. They love the power of knowing that silence is something they can create collectively by being still. In silence, children can hear their inner selves. The ability to play and enjoy the Silence Game can only be achieved by normalized children who have inner calm as a result of a Montessori education.


Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori

Montessori chapter 12

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 12 - Movement in Relation to Instinct and Reason

Human babies are more helpless than newborn animals. They can't walk at birth; they can hardly lift their heads. This isn't because they lack strenth, but because they lack coordination. Humans seem to have less instinct than animals because their instinct is mostly in the mind and will, where it's not as apparent. Animals are born with physical instincts; humans are born with mental instincts and must create their physical tools by developing the body. She didn't agree with psychologists of her day who taught that all human drives (love, knowledge, worship) were really just physical instincts manifested through the mind. She didn't agree that what separates humans from animals is which instincts are more important, and how we manifest them. She believed that human intelligence and ability to reason was what separated us from animals.

Man is mysteriously infinite and spiritual, so it's no surprise that the beginnings of a baby's conscious life are a mystery to us. Maria lived when Darwin was blurring the distinction between man and animals. But she based her perspective on her own observation rather than on the theories or religious traditions of others. She felt that science was too focused on the negative aspects of humanity (deviations, psychoses) and ignored higher values and morality. She felt that art, morals and religion weren't the expressions of our subconscious, but that art, morals and religion were what shaped our subconscious.

Man's reason allows us to do what no animal can: to have a consciousness of history and a future, and to have a conscious awareness of ourselves. Man's will allows freedom to choose one thing over another. Our ability to choose makes it possible for us to develop character and integrity if we deliberately make right choices. Grace and salvation can only exist for reasoning, intellectual creatures with free choice.

Babies collect experiences and knowledge, and from this, they develop the ability to reason. [CM felt that we were born with Reason and we just needed to learn how to use it and control it.] Maria explained the growth of a baby's head in its first year as a quadrupling of its intelligence and psyche. Between the ages of 0-3 years, 'the child creates his own mind.' Children start from nothing, and they build their intelligence from their tactile experiences (explained in her book The Absorbent Mind). A child's impressions from his environment are the building blocks of his conscious mind. [This is very different from CM; she felt that the child was born with a mind. Belief that a mind is created out of sensory impressions means that, if we control the environment and experiences, we determine what kind of mind gets created. CM was opposed to that notion.] As the mind is being created, coordination is developing and creating a physical residence for the child's self.

Montessori said that children adapt to their environment, as evidenced by the way they pick up the language and customs of the culture they live in. Dogs don't do that - a poodle in France behaves exactly like a poodle in Africa. Even their bark has no influence from their home country. But humans adapt to fit whatever place and time they live in. If babies had more instincts, they couldn't adapt. Instead, babies are born 'incomplete' in all aspects, so that there's raw material to adapt. Even their bones are soft enough to adapt to whatever kind of movements they'll need. In other words, humans are still unfinished embryos at birth. [The bun in the oven comes out only half baked?] Mind and body are undeveloped. But the mind dictates how to develop the body to whatever's needed to express the inner person. The mind doesn't adapt to fit the body, the body adapts and develops to fit the mind. The inner spirit builds the kind of instrument it needs by shaping the body and telling it how to develop. The body can develop to be as specialized as needed. A surgeon, for example, can develop the hands to do intricate surgery with practice and deliberate effort. Dancers, artists, musicians develop special muscles to do what their minds want. At birth, the baby's mind and body aren't working together, there's a dualism because the baby hasn't achieved 'progressive incarnation.' He can't make his body do what he wants.

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

Montessori Chapter 11

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 11 - A Visit to Lilliput

This chapter describes the wonder and delight of a Montessori classroom. Little desks, little sinks, little shelves, and lots of colors. Children are quietly busy on tasks, or talking in small groups, solving their own problems, or helping each other. One girl decodes words on a card that tell her to get a drink of water - she's working on her own to read. Another child works out addition problems. A few children place historical pictures on a timeline. The teacher isn't even noticable. She is available to help if children need it, to help keep materials in order, and to keep new (non-normalized) children from disturbing the work of the normalized children.

At one point, the teacher puts up a sign with the word "Silence" on it. One by one, as the children notice the sign, they become still and wait. The teacher leaves the room, and the children are so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. One by one, she quietly calls each child by name from outside the door until all the children are outside the classroom. For 10-15 minutes, they're quietly waiting for her to call them. Then they all go back in and resume their activities.

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

Montessori chapter 10

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 10 - Deviations and Normality or Growth and Inner Directives

The miracle of growth is a mystery, but we can observe a few principles about it:
--Every organism grows according to its kind.
--Organisms selectively use matter taken from the environment to grow.
--They use a process called digestion to assimilate that matter into themselves.

The mind is the same way and uses the same principles. It takes in impressions and digests them for mental growth. [CM said that the mind took in and digested intangible ideas, not sensory impressions of the environment, to grow and broaden.] Montessori said that the child's body voluntarily moved and experienced tactile sensations while the mind used a spiritual force. Mind and body somehow worked in unison for the child's growth and development. Mental imbalance manifested as bad habits and naughty behavior will result if mind and body are prevented from acting together. How does this happen? If the child is prevented from physical movement when he wants to move, or when the adult's will takes precedence over the child's [coersion?] And sometimes the child needs more guidance to figure out how to get mind/body working together. If left without help, children sometimes don't know what to do and will be bored and get into mischief. Engaging the mind and body with learning/work (in a Montessori environment) will restore balance.

A Montessori teacher who has a disobedient child added to her class needs to be firm and respectful with him, continue offering learning activities without pressuring him to do them, and let him be free to choose to participate or not as long as he isn't disruptive. One day he'll suddenly and spontaneously take to it with his whole being and his entire concentration. Then he'll begin returning to 'normality.'

What do normal (or normalized) children look like in the classroom? They like order. They love their work. They have amazing ability to concentrate. They like silence and working alone. They prefer the real world and real things to pretend and make believe. They lose their possessiveness and are content to use and share the learning materials without desiring to own them. They are docile and willing to obey. They cooperate and help each other instead of being competitive. They are self-disciplined and happy.

Children coming from public school to homeschool sometimes need time to 'deschool;' in the same way, Montessori newbies need a period of adjustment to normalize.

Montessori's discoveries about what children are capable of must not be confused with the method--the method doesn't produce a normalized child, it's the observations of normal children that led to the method [not sure I understand the distinction.] Montessori said she didn't create a novel new miracle; it's the luminous, beautiful children themselves who should be credited. Humans apparently are better than people thought. This should inspire us with hope for the human race. With prepared environments, even troubled teens can be normalized.

Does this Utopian vision mean that Montessori believed in the goodness of mankind and not original sin? No, but like stars that are neither good nor bad but follow the laws of the universe in harmony with God's design, human nature is a beautiful thing when it follows the right plan. The internal drive in children was put there by God and will respond to order. Older people might choose evil, but childhood naughtiness is often simply internal disorder that needs to be set on the right path.

Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori
About the Pictures in the Book

Montessori chapter 9

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 9 - The Sensorial Foundations of Intellectual Life

Humans aren't purely intellect; their minds don't work independently. The child's mind is interconnected with his physical body. The five senses are the connection between the child's inner self and his surrounding world. In three years, newborn babies collect enough sensory experiences to understand concepts like hard, soft, big, color, etc. These intangible concepts can only be learned through first-hand experience with tangible objects. In some mysterious way, the mind is able to obtain that knowledge through the five senses.

Maria Montessori wanted to help the child accelerate this process and make it more efficient by isolating each attribute to help bring systematic order from the chaotic impressions in the world. She divided the concepts to be learned and designed objects to focus on each concept. If the lesson was going to be hard/soft, she used rods all the same size and color so that the only difference in them was their hardness/softness. That way, the mind could put all its focus on one concept. To teach color, she used tablets that were identical except for color. All future knowledge is built on the foundation of those experiences, so it's important that those first sensory experiences do a solid job of teaching those concepts. A Montessori child won't have vague impressions picked up from routine life jumbled in the dark recesses of his mind. He'll have neatly sorted mental images and categorized memories. [I think Charlotte Mason would have said that this under-values the child's mind and underestimates the ability of human intellect. I think God designed the mind to be able to learn the sensory concepts it needs from the natural environment. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find God's model more efficient by presenting more than one concept at a time.]

Abstract concepts like math also rely on the use of hands-on manipulatives so that the child experiences the concept first-hand. For example, first steps in geometry are taught by fitting geometric cut-outs into same-shaped holes. After handling the tangible shapes, the child transfers that knowledge to his abstract mind and no longer needs or wants to use the tangible objects. [Hands-on math manipulative curriculums such as Math-U-See use this idea of letting the child handle tangible objects until the child discovers the abstract math concept on his own.]

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

Chapter 8

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 8 - The Work of the Child

Adults and children view work differently. Adults are glad to let someone else do their work so they can take a break, but children want to do it themselves. A child will enjoy filling a pail with dirt just to empty it and start over. Adults have a goal of changing their environment, accomplishing something productive. But children just enjoy the process. They'll work at a task, only to undo it when they're done and start over. With children, the work going on as they do their tasks is inside them, manifested as inner growth. Adults, who are done growing and changing, work to perfect the world around them, and their eye is on the completed task. Children work to perfect themselves and achieve 'a more advanced state of being.' They don't try to economize or make it easier by carrying more than one thing at a time. They savor each step of the process, even though it looks to us like they're wasting time and motion. Adults look ahead to the end product, but children live in the here and now. They don't look ahead.

Children enjoy their work because, unlike men of modern society, they aren't working to increase someone else's profits and power. Artists, discoverers and geniuses also love working because their work is for themselves. If children were encouraged to do tasks at their own speed in their own way, they might not grow up to dislike work. [I'm sure I oversimplified that concept!]

Adults tend to divide a project (such as building a house) among different people and different tasks. They try to economize and save steps for efficiency. But the child doesn't care about completing the project, so he does it all himself, and he completes each step methodically. Children thrive on repeating the same thing over and over again. Adults are tired after they work, but children's work refreshes and invigorates them. Children's work isn't productive in the practical adult sense. But it's productive at turning children into men and women.

In the same way that adults need specialized places to do their jobs, children need specialized places where they can do their work in peace and on their own timetable. This isn't referring to the 'prepared environment' of child-sized props, but something even beyond that. We should look at nature for our example. If we would stop building bombs and put our time, money and focus into workplaces where children could learn harmony instead of prejudice, then maybe we could have world peace. [I'm sure this leap is developed better in the book, but I'm skimming, and, frankly, it looks like a leap from my perspective. It might look less like wishful thing if I read it more carefully.] Religion would have a major part in this, but the book hasn't really explained its role.

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

Chapter 7

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 7

Maria Montessori (1870-1952) defined 'school' as 'a prepared environment' where children could experience freedom to develop with a minimum of interference from adults, so that, in whatever stage of development they were in, they could get what they needed. Her 'law of sensitive periods in development' is the most original and vital part of her method. The concept came from a biologist studying animals. [Once again, the medical/science side of Montessori influenced her concept of children and education.] In the same way that newborn caterpillars who need the tenderest leaves are born with temporary sensitivity to light to help locate those tender leaves, children have certain sensitivities at specific stages in their development to make the most of each critical stage. It's whytoddlers are obsessed with stacking toys, and preschoolers love repitition. These drives compel them to work at the task with an obsessed passion. If teachers match tasks to the child's stage, the child will want to work.

Language is an example of a sensitive period. Children are driven to learn language as toddlers, but it's hard to learn a new language in adulthood. For a child in that stage of development, it comes naturally and without deliberately working at it.

The sensitive period for developing a sense of order is around the ages of 2 or 3. Children in this stage are disturbed by changes in their routine or things out of their normal place. Maria believed that many toddler tantrums were caused by children's distress over a disruption of order that the adult wasn't picking up on. The example given was a mother whose toddler was upset and she didn't know why. It turned out that it had been a warm day and she had taken off her coat, and her child was upset because he knew that coats were for wearing, not for carrying. Even pictures of horses with their riders not on top of the horse, or pictures of hats that aren't on heads can be distressing.

Adults may feel uncomfortable without order, but children absolutely can't tolerate it because they are 'constructing themselves out of the elements of the environment.' A child with little experience or memory needs the world to be like he expects it. That's why they enjoy hide-and-seek, even though they don't "get" the concept of hiding--they love 'finding' something where they expect it to be. How can we help children in this stage? We can take them for walks on the same route every day and let them take time to enjoy the familiar landmarks, so that impressions are made in the 'soft wax of the child's soul.'

Small children are delighted by tiny things, such as ants.

Small children love shapes, colors, sounds, textures, at the same age as their senses are developing. Increased sensory experience at this sensitive period can refine the keenness of their senses. That's why Montessori schools use colored boards, shapes, bells to refine their hearing, etc.

Preschool is the sensitive period for learning manners and ceremonial rituals. It's the best time to teach children how to eat properly, walk quietly, handle sharp instruments, light a candle and carry it carefully. This is the age when they try hardest to do it right.

If school is timed to teach lessons that correspond to children's sensitive periods, then education will be a breeze because children will be internally driven to do the work. For example, they have intellectual periods where they feel driven to spend hours on math. Letting nature set a timetable is more effective than forcing children to learn on our timetables. [Maybe a case for child-led unschooling?] These sensitive periods are windows of opportunity that we need to take advantage of before they're gone. If a sensitive period is missed, it can affect the child's entire development. If children don't do precise movements at their peak creative period (preschool), then they'll be less contented and less confident adults because that period was missed, leaving a small gap in their development that can't be filled in later. If they memorize things at elementary age, it will stay with them for life, unlike when adults try to memorize. Children are most interested in learning to write (or, more accurately, recreating letter shapes) at ages 3 to 4. Later, at age 7-9, children go through a second sensitive language period, when they should learn grammar. The metric system is best learned before children can count, but when they can enjoy the shapes and lengths of sensory blocks.

Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori
About the Pictures in the Book

Maria Montessori ch 6

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing

Chapter 6

The Montessori method is a "living system." You can't single out any one part of it, any more than you can reduce the Charlotte Mason method to narration or living books. It needs all of the tenets, working together. Montessori's 'prepared environment' needs a 'directress' between it and the students, which also requires liberty and the teacher's non-intervention [I'm not familiar with Montessori, so the terms are a mystery to me.] The most fundamental principle in Montessori is the difference between children and adults [unlike CM, where children are seen as not all that different from adults, except that they lack knowledge and experience.] Montessori saw children as growing and changing, while adults had reached the 'norm of the species,' and were more static. A caterpillar has certain characteristics and a certain diet. Then it stops eating and becomes a chrysalis. Then it reaches its norm and is finally a butterfly. In the same way, children pass through different stages until they finally reach the 'norm,' the butterfly stage. Even their proportions change--they start with large heads and their bodies gradually catch up. Their minds also have different developmental stages:

From birth to six years, they're in the "absorbent mind" stage. They absorb impressions, sense of self, language from the world unconsciously for their first three years, and consciously for the next three years. The unconscious absorbent mind is out of our reach, there's nothing we can do to teach it, it has to do its work on its own. But we can provide the best conditions for it to work, such as a prepared environment. The unconscious absorbing mind creates faculties, such as memory, ego and will, so that, by three years old, the child can consciously manipulate his environment and process information, mostly through his hands. The absorbent mind needs a prepared child-friendly environment where it can move freely and get what it needs independently.

From six to twelve years, children experience a period of 'uniform growth.' They grow at a more steady rate, are more stable, and get sick less often. This is when children grow mentally and collect cultural knowledge. Their ego grows (making them more boastful and competitive), they develop a herd instinct that makes them crave peer acceptance, and they become reasonable and concerned with issues of fairness and conscience. What worked with the absorbent mind doesn't work with humans in this stage of development, but the tendencies of this age can be harnessed and taken advantage of by the teacher. Thus, a Montessori grade school would look nothing like a Montessori kindergarten.

From twelve to eighteen, children are in a period of transformation, first with puberty, then adolescence. This is a delicate time of bodily changes, mental growth, emotional turbulence and self-consciousness. Adults need to be sympathetic, understanding and help build the child's confidence. An inferiority complex at this age could set up social problems that last a lifetime. Montessori envisioned land settlements ('Erde Kinder') where adolescents' entire lives would revolve around social adjustment: a 'prepared environment' just for teens. (I'm not making this up!) As in the other stages, independence and confidence are the goals.

Children would be taught to have faith in God for their inner selves, and faith in themselves and their abilities to succeed in society.

My Thoughts

This smacks of 1970's pop psychology to me. I don't see that the child is taught how to control their own impulses and taught what their duty to others is, as Charlotte Mason emphasized. This is what comes, I suppose, of Montessori picking up her ideas of childhood development from a medical/psychological perspective in insane asylums.

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

Montessori Ch 5

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing

Chapter 5

What distinguished the Montessori method is that her students worked on their own, of their own accord. Maria believed strongly in spontaneous intellectual activity and based her method on it. If students have to be coaxed to work, then their subjects aren't being presented properly. Working is natural and the mind was designed to work. So, all that needed to be done to get students to do the work that came naturally (sorting, comparing) was to remove hindrances. [CM also believed that learning came naturally, and that, with the right kind of lessons, children wouldn't need to be coaxed to do their schoolwork.] Infants, for instance, work hard to make sense of the world they're born into. As humans, we never complete the process of making sense of the information that comes into our lives like random jigsaw puzzle pieces. Sizes of things in relation to one another stumps children, so they willingly work with Montessori cylinders trying to work out the size concept in their minds [but do Montessori children working with cylinders figure it out any sooner than children who naturally mature into that understanding without the benefit of Montessori cylinders?] Time (past, present and future) is vague to children, a mysterious concept.

Children have to learn the difference between what's real, what's imaginary, and what's a dream. To Maria, filling them with stories was confusing. It put adults in the position of perpetuating the confusion between real and imaginary. Parents tell children fantasy stories, and then punish the child for lying. In earliest years, reality is amazing enough to enchant children. They don't need fantasy.

Even with all the confusing mysteries and frustrating complexities of the world, children are always eager and ready to learn about it. They never give up and get tired of learning. Every day, they wake up excited about discovering, experimenting, examining. Even babies are never idle. They're constantly busy exploring and trying things.

My Thoughts

Charlotte Mason also marveled at children's abilities to keep busy learning all the time. See chapter 7 (pg 65) of Home Education, the first book in her series. But rather than devise apparatus to speed the process, she says, "Nature teaches so gently, so gradually, so persistently, that he is never overdone, but goes on gathering little stores of knowledge about whatever comes before him." I suspect that a child's natural environment is the best place for him to figure out concepts, and that a contrived Montessori environment isn't necessary. Perhaps, considered from the perspective of a long life, it isn't really even helpful, since children will learn those concepts with or without special equipment like cylinders. There are better ways to spend money than on tools specifically designed to teach what will be picked up in the course of a normal childhood.

----------------------------------

Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori
About the Pictures in the Book

CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori - paraphrased

I wanted to re-read the Letter to the Editor of The Times that Charlotte Mason wrote about Maria Montessori. It was that letter that prompted me to find out more about Montessori, to see what made it so different that CM didn't like it. But, in order to pinpoint exactly what Charlotte Mason took issue with, I had to re-word her letter into dumbed-down English so I could understand what she was saying. And, having done the work, I thought I'd post it. :)

I'm guessing that this letter is from 1918, or thereabouts. Thanks to Aimee Natal, not only for posting Charlotte Mason's letter, but for redirecting me to its new location on the web.


Note that this is my own paraphrase. You can read CM's original wording here. (I think Charlotte Mason made up the story about the toe-writing schools in Kranconopolis.)

Update Jan 2010 - Aimee took the original offline, but I found a scan of the original draft of this at the new Charlotte Mason Digital Collection of archives, hosted at Redeemer University College in Canada. I wish I could provide a quick link, but the direct link doesn't seem to load. Go to their search page, here. Then, search for the term "Montessori." Choose this one: "Draft articles by Charlotte Mason with copy letters to newspapers". That will open up a multi-page pdf file. Scroll through the images, and it starts at about the third image - there's a total of five or six pages.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ .

Dear Sir,

I'd like to remind your readers of an experiment that was tried a hundred years ago in the city of Kranconopolis. One of their citizens had been very impressed by the abilities of a man who had lost both of his arms as a child, but had made up for his lack of fingers by using his toes. The man was a bit of an artist, and he painted pictures, wrote, knitted, and carved with his toes. No matter what he crafted, his work was better than the work of most people who had hands.

One person who observed this recognized an educational principle: that whenever there's a deficiency, Nature never fails to make up for it by compensating in another area. He reasoned like this:

'Progress in any skill is the result of concentrated focus. Children who have hands don't do well at writing because it's too easy to write when you have hands. So they take it for granted and don't give it their full attention. But what if we taught them to write with their toes? That's a lot more challenging and interesting. Then they'll be sure to pay attention, and they should make great progress.'

The idea caught on. The people of Kranconopolis, who loved hearing about new and novel ideas, eagerly supported his idea, and several Toe-Writing schools were established. Children between the ages of two to six had the most success because their muscles were more flexible. Besides, they were fascinated by their toes and they loved the carefully graduated exercises with needles, toothpicks, and skewers. Of course, their hands had to be tied behind them so they wouldn't use their fingers, but once that was done, their progress was remarkable. Many people went to see, and Toe-Writing schools were started in several neighboring states. With observant and carefully trained teachers, the children learned to read and write at about the same time they normally would have in spite of their handicap because they weren't as restless when they were busy with their reading lessons. No distractions such as songs or stories were used that didn't encourage toe-writing, either directly or indirectly.

As I said, the results were amazing. When they finally went to other schools, they were a full year ahead of their classmates. But that wasn't all. The friendly support and attention they had received from people visiting the schools gave them an easy, relaxed manner. And, because their toes were so important, they required some care, and the children got used to walking delicately, which made them graceful and dignified. Toe-Writing was lauded as one of the most important scientific developments of the age, and Toe-Writing schools became even more widespread than the previously popular 'Tasting Schools.' People reasoned, 'After all, isn't tasting good things a lot like bribery?'

I hope I won't be accused of writing flippantly about a serious and noble endeavor. The insightful article in the educational section of November 6's Times about The Montessori Method compels me to comment about such items as the cheerfulness and contentment of the children. If children have a pleasant room that's made comfortable for them, and friendly visitors who make nice comments about what they're doing, it's only natural that they'll be relaxed and open. If the school appeals to children and their parents, and they have to be clean to be allowed in, then of course their parents will make sure they're clean. America has understood for a long time how to make free American citizens out of the diverse crowds of immigrants who come into the country using practically the same methods that Dr. Montessori uses. The delightful spontaneity of her young Italian students isn't limited to her schools. It's just as evident in every English home and cottage school, as well as in our summer schools. No child under the age of six should go to a school that doesn't allow him the full freedom to run, or squat, or lay face down on the floor if the mood strikes him.

A few years ago I wrote to an educational journal suggesting that schools for very young children be held on the roof, except in bad weather. I still think that long hours in the open air with twice as much time to play as work is what children need. In Germany, as we know, children start school at age six, and a child entering school is proud of the milestone of beginning his eight-year education. But sometimes the preschool child at home is in his mother's way, so he's sent off to some little school they call Kindergarten. Perhaps the flat roof of a bigger school would be a better place to send him.

But 'I tire of unlimited freedom; my chance whims feel like a burden' is as true for children as it is for us grownups, and for the poet who wrote those words. We need the ease and discipline of good habits to save us the effort of having to make lots of minor decisions such as, 'which foot goes after which?' Making liberty a religion will raise up the next generation to be vagabonds. And, as far as Montessori's extensive school diet of geometric forms and colored boards, we know what Dickens said about that in his tragic story of young Gradgrinds at his school. We would all benefit from learning it by heart.

But it isn't the charming manners or the harmony and freedom of the Montessori schools that are attracting so many education experts that Switzerland alone has 70 of these schools. We all strive for these things in our schools, and we're grateful to Dr. Montessori for showing us a way to do it. But let's be honest. Her children can read and write by age four or five, while our own children don't master those skills until age eight. That's what appeals to us about her method. But we forget that education is more than the mechanics of reading and writing. Such skills don't educate any more than mastering shorthand, or Morse Code. But we get excited thinking that, by teaching these mechanics earlier, we'll gain two or three years of school life. But this is nothing new or novel. We've all heard that young boys in the slums of Russia learn Hebrew very quickly because there's nothing else for them to learn. All people who train animals, acrobats and musical prodigies know that the secret of ensuring focused concentration is to shut out any and all other interests and pursuits. If you remove all distractions, you can get young children to do almost anything by channeling all of their effort in one direction.

If we don't count the charming manners, the personal neatness, and the early success at the mechanics of reading and writing, since all of these are pretty generally achieved with similar means, what principles are left for us to imitate? I can't find any principles. All I see is a practice--the practice of learning the shapes of letters and other things by touch instead of by sight. It's hard to see the logic of preferring the less accurate and less active sense of touch over sight. The blindfolded children feeling shapes to discern their form remind me of the famous saying, 'Whenever the nose puts his spectacles on in the daylight or by candle light, the eyes should be closed.' You can try it yourself. Touch whatever's closest at hand that has an outline, such as your own nose or mouth. Even after a lot of patient feeling, you won't know what you're touching unless your memory cheats and tells you. But possibly, if you were to touch certain specified objects for a prescribed number of minutes every day for months, you might finally be able to accurately draw a mouth, or write the letter 'm.' At first, the act of touching is boring. But after a while, it becomes soothing and you enter a tactile sensuous state of being, a little bit hypnotic. If you look at pictures of children in Italy and America doing their touch exercises, they do seem to be in a hypnotic state.

We know that the use of hypnotic suggestion is helping to advance education in some Continental schools. This might be a clue as to why children seem to suddenly and spontaneously have the ability to write, as we've been so excited to read about. But there may be reason for caution here. A child who is too easy will become an adult whose will power has been weakened, and whose brain has been overtaxed so that he's not able to direct his own will effectively. The fact that normal, eager, active children have been beguiled to continuously touch objects seems to indicate that they've been subjected to too much outside influence, whether it's the influence of the touching itself, or the influence of someone else's will.

It's claimed that 'giving the eyes a break by developing and using the sense of touch' is good for education. But we haven't even determined whether this unnatural practice is safe. Blind people learn to read by touch. If we decide to use this method in schools for older children, we'll need lots of bulky books in Braille. But a blind person doesn't need any coaxing or beguiling to learn Braille because he does it out of necessity, and his own will motivates him, canceling any hypnotic effect that the act of sensory touching might have as he learns Braille. We can't make ourselves and our children blind, and why should we? Light and natural, routine use is good for our eyes, it makes them stronger. Darkness and lack of use will make them lazy and useless.

The Montessori method is just one of many experiments being carried out in the interest of educational science. 'I don't believe there's no such thing,' said Betsy Prig [from Martin Chuzzlewit, by Dickens] Would she say that about educational science? And, if she did, would she be right? I think she would, even though every advance we make furthers educational 'science.' Practically speaking, the message of this kind of method seems to be, 'If you develop a child's senses, he'll be educated. If you train his eye and hand so he can earn a living, what more does he need?' But a child trained like that is not even as well educated as the native American Indian children we read about when we were children. Montessori children's senses aren't nearly as acute, and the Indian children had the added advantage of growing up with songs, and dance, and tales and legends. They developed a philosophy of life and even a religion early in their lives.

But Montessori students don't have that opportunity. Yes, they develop one of their senses, but it's at the expense of the sense of sight, which is even more important. And there's no chance to gradually paint a lively backdrop in his mind that will enrich his life. No fairies play in his imagination, no heroes stir his soul, God and the good angels form no part of his thoughts. The child and the adult he'll become are nothing more than a scientifically created phenomena, produced as the result of a lot of sensory tactile experience and a little seeing and hearing. Intangible, vague things like ideas have no place in science, and are thus left out. Science encourages the child to take hold of physical life, matching shapes with shapes and colors with colors. But songs and pictures, hymns and stories are tossed aside like unnecessary garbage. We're grateful to Maria Montessori, the gracious Italian lady who showed us that, if we treat children with courtesy and consideration, we'll see the dignity and grace that are within every child. She showed us that children's rights include the freedom to educate themselves, and she showed us that every human being is precious and worthy of honor, especially during childhood. But I think that's where our gratitude ends. The expensive equipment needed in her method, and the reliance on sensory touch instead of sight, and developing the senses at the exclusion of everything else, are serious mistakes.

I have deep contentions with her method. Man is more than a purely physical being whose brain discharges thoughts in the same way that the liver produces bile. Man's body is merely the physical and spiritually tuned housing for a non-physical being. It's been said about this being:

'Even though darkness might blind his eyes, it can't limit his imagination. Even while confined to bed, he might be, like Pompey and his sons, in various places in the universe. He might be enjoying the vast world within his own mind.'

Anyone who wants to teach children needs to decide whether man is just physical, or something more. It can't be both ways, and even the most trivial detail of the school day will line up with one or the other of these two fundamental perspectives. One method is scientific education. The other is humane education. Both methods cultivate the senses and exercise the muscles, but for different reasons, and with a different goal in mind. To give just one example, scientific education (such an inaccurate phrase for it!) encourages a child to sort various boards by colors in the vague hope that, while handling the colored boards, the child's mind just might secrete wonderful thoughts about all kinds of beautiful colored things. But the humane teacher has his own philosophy. He knows that a child who's playing with colored boards is using his imagination to apply that color to the classroom, or the street, or even the whole world. If the teacher decides to go out of his way to teach something that the child would pick up on his own anyway, it won't be with contrived artificial equipment. It will be with real things that the child recognizes from the world--things like leaves, flowers, beads, scraps of velvet or silk that the child already has mental associations with, and that might inspire more ideas in the child's mind. And the child might do more than mentally pave streets. He might imagine a beautiful tower in the midst of bright gardens with winding brooks and sunny patches of leaves. The humane teacher realizes that the lesson itself isn't the end. The lesson is merely a scrap of raw material that a child uses to help him speculate about the world. Because of that, a lesson is successful only if it lends itself to reflection and imagination. An artist I knew was given blocks of wood and stone to make sculptures for a huge building. He complained to me that he couldn't find any men with initiative to assist him. They kept asking, 'How should I do this?' The artist would answer, 'Do it however you want.' But the assistants couldn't think of any way to do it. They'd been brought up on a mental diet that was utterly lacking in ideas.

A great danger is threatening the country, and even the world. We're losing our faith in ideas. We're replacing guiding principles with mechanical practices. As I've said in previous Letters to the Editor, the trend in popular education these days is to have contempt for knowledge, and for the books that contain the knowledge of mankind. Instead, 'Education by physical things' is advocated, ignoring the principle that things can only lead to more and more other things. They have no impact on the thoughts of a person, therefore they have no effect on the person's character or how he acts, except to teach him to analyze or make more things. A boy can be taught to build accurately crafted models out of cardboard or lumber. If he was already a neat, careful boy, that training will help him to do whatever job he ends up with. But if he was a lazy boy who learned in spite of his natural tendencies, then everything he learned will only help him in that particular craft. Handicrafts enrich our joy in life, and might help us get a job, but they don't do anything to influence a person's character. That's why children shouldn't do handicrafts (including sorting cubes and cylinders by size, or arranging colored boards) that don't have some practical value or intrinsic beauty. A child is a person, and his education should make him a better person. The ideas that inspire better character are found in books, art and similar things. There aren't enough people of strong character and good judgment. For those reasons and others, I think that any school or educational method that rejects knowledge in favor of scientific equipment and exercises is disastrous, no matter how contented and well-mannered the children seem. Knowledge is the only way to build up character. It's the only thing that feeds and sustains the mind.

Yours obediently,
Charlotte Mason
Ambleside

If you want to know more about Charlotte Mason, you can start with this FAQ. You can also read CM's six-volume series online, including an in-progress modern English paraphrase, here.

To read my review of E.M. Standing's book about Maria Montessori and her educational method (reviewed from a CM mom's perspective), start here.

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.

Montessori chapter 3

This is from Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing.

Chapter 3

Maria's success attracted a lot of attention. Visitors came from around the world, more schools were set up, and she was persuaded by friends to write a book to safeguard her miraculous method in case anything happened to her. Her method seemed to come from nowhere because she had no teacher training, she was a medical doctor. Froebel [of Kindergarten fame] was influenced by Pestalozzi, who was influenced by Rousseau, who was influenced by John Locke. But Maria had no recognizable educational influences. She was influenced by Seguin and Itard, who were unknown in the educational field. And they were influenced by Pereira, who educated deaf mutes in Spain.

Maria was practically an overnight sensation. She decided to quit working at her school in order to evangelize the world with her discovery. She would live off her book royalties and travel to give courses in her method. [A friend just today speculated that perhaps Charlotte Mason never achieved the kind of household-word status that Montessori and Waldorf did because she was focused on improving the education within England, while Montessori and Steiner actively promoted their methods to the world at large.]

She went to America and impressed Alexander Graham Bell, who was interested in deaf mutes, and Thomas Edison. Five thousand people came to hear her at Carnegie Hall. She set up a model classroom at the San Francisco World Exhibition. But, although the movement started off so enthusiastically in the US, she didn't stay to help mold it. She returned to Europe. And, without her guidance, the movement became 'diluted' in the US as less and less teachers were trained by her and understood her original method.

In Europe, special schools were built with everything downsized to children's scale. Her books were translated into many languages. In 1919, she went to England amidst much acclaim [this would have been during the last years of Charlotte Mason's life.] EM Standing notes her insight into children, her strong yet charming personality, her devotion to her mission, as some of the reasons for her popularity. But she was afraid that people would think of her method as merely a miracle for kindergarten, and she felt that what she had discovered would have implications into adulthood, and would permeate homes and all of society in a few generations. But that would only happen if her principles were adhered to exactly [Charlotte Mason said the same thing about her own principles.] And she felt that the only way to prevent her ideas from being misunderstood and misapplied was to stop traveling and evangelizing, and devote herself to study and development of her method to older children, and give lectures to pass on her vision directly to as many people as possible. She lectured in India during WWII and met Ghandi. She traveled and lectured into her old age, with the help of her son Mario [she had a son? The book never mentioned that development! There was no mention of her marriage or any of her personal relationships, except her mother.] She died suddenly in 1952 in Holland at the age of 81. She was Catholic, and was buried in a Catholic cemetary in Holland.

This isn't the end of the book, it's just the opening biography. I think the rest of the book deals with her method.

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