Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952) was born in Chiaravalle in the Province of Ancona in 1870, into an educated middle-class family; her uncle, Antonio Stoppani, wrote “Il Bel Paese”, which was the standard Italian geology textbook for many years. She was strong willed and defied her father, who wanted her to become a teacher.
She was the first woman to practise medicine in Italy, having graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Rome in 1896.
She worked as surgical assistant at Santo Spirito Hospital in Rome, where much of her work was with the poor, and particularly with their children. As a doctor she was noted for the way in which she ‘tended’ her patients, making sure they were warm and properly fed as well as diagnosing and treating their illnesses. In 1897 she volunteered to join a research programme at the psychiatric clinic of the University of Rome, and it was here that she worked alongside Giusseppe Montesano, with whom a romance was to develop.
As part of her work at the clinic she would visit Rome’s asylums for the insane, seeking patients for treatment at the clinic. She relates how, on one such visit, the caretaker of a children’s asylum told her with disgust how the children grabbed crumbs off the floor after their meal. Montessori realised that in such a bare, unfurnished room the children were desperate for sensorial stimulation and activities for their hands. This deprivation was contributing to their condition.
With Guisseppe Montesano, she founded the National League for the Education of Retarded Children together with a new institution called the Orthophrenic School.
The school took children with a broad spectrum of disorders and proved to be a turning point in Montessori’s life, marking a shift in her professional identity from physician to educator. Until now her ideas about the development of children were only theories, but the small school, set up along the lines of a teaching hospital, allowed her to put these ideas into practice. Montessori spent two years working at the Orthophrenic School, experimenting with and refining the materials devised by the French physicians Itard and Séguin and bringing a scientific, analytical attitude to the work. She taught and observed the children by day, then wrote up her notes at night.
Through careful and exhaustive scrutiny, she realised that children construct their own personalities as they interact with their environment. She also observed the manner in which they learned as they spontaneously chose and worked with the auto-didactic materials she provided.
She worked in a number of countries including the United States, Spain and India, continuing her observations throughout her life, widening and deepening her understanding until her death in 1952.
The Fascist Era forced her into exile in the Netherlands, where she died in 1952.
In 1907 she created the “Casa dei bambini” (Children’s House) where “normal” children from the poor quarters were welcomed.
She was always an educational revolutionary and “aiding the child to do it by itself” was the key principle that ran through her life.
A more than century later, her work remains revolutionary, as the following translation from her 1923 broadcasts on Belgian radio show.
The Blank Page
Almost all of so-called educational action is based upon the idea that it is necessary to obtain the direct, and effectively violent, adaptation of the child to the adult world.
An adaptation founded on an unquestioned submission and absolute obedience which denies the child’s personality. A denial that makes the child the object of unjust judgements, insults and punishments that would never be allowed on an adult, even on a subordinate. This is deeply rooted in the attitude which prevails in the family, even towards the most loved child. This intensifies at school which remains the place where the methodical process of directly and speedily adapting the child to the adult world is put into effect.
That is why one finds an environment which is strange and dangerous, where there is an inflexible discipline and work is imposed upon the budding human, the child where there is the seed of a pure spiritual life. Too often the educational agreement between family and school becomes and alliance of the strong against the weak, so the timid and hesitant voice finds no echo in the world and the child, who searches for a listener, is damaged by that injustice, sinking into submission.
About my method in general
The social environment that we have created for ourselves is not appropriate for the child. He doesn’t understand it and is greatly repelled by it. He doesn’t know how to adapt to our society from which he is excluded. He is confined to school which, too often, becomes his prison. Today, we have a clear idea of the dreadful consequences of a school where traditional methods are used. The children suffer both physically and morally. (….)
Nowadays everyone has heard of the “Casa dei Bambini” and have used simple, practical objects to assist the children’s intellectual development. We find the charming little furniture in lively colours, so light that a mere touch can knock them over, but the children can move them easily. The bright colours readily show stains that can readily be removed with soap and water. Each child chooses their place and organises it as seems proper; however because the furniture is light every disorderly movement makes a lot of noise. The children thus learn to pay attention to their movements. There are small fragile objects of glass or porcelain, if the child drops them, they break and are lost for ever, but the pain that they feel will be worse than any punishment. They will feel such sadness at the loss of a loved object. Who can resist the need to console a little one with a reddened face covered in tears faced with the fragments of a beautiful vase. After that, when they have to move fragile objects, they will make more measured movements (…)
Psychologists agree that there isn’t just one way of teaching: to arouse the student’s interest at the same time as obtaining a lively and constant interest. It is necessary to employ the child’s natural inclinations in the educational process. (…) Initially there will be easily recognisable objects that capture the youngster’s interest, brightly coloured cylinders of different sizes to be organised according to their differences, various sounds to distinguish from each other, surfaces with differing textures to explore through touch. Later, there will be the alphabet, numbers, reading, grammar, drawing, more complex arithmetical operations, history and the natural sciences, thus the child’s understanding is built.
It follows that the task of the new teacher appears more delicate and serious than previously. The child finding its way towards culture and perfection depends or whether it is lost, in effect, depends upon her.
It may be difficult for the teacher to understand that, for the child to progress, she needs to renounce the principles that she has relied upon until now; she must really understand that she will not have immediate influence on the pupil’s development or discipline. She must have full confidence in the individual’s latent energy. However, there is always something that may impel her to advise the youngsters to try again or to encourage them, to show her superior knowledge and experience, unless she abandons this vanity, she will not obtain any results.
Tailor-made in a State nursery
Montessori pedagogy applied within the framework of state education is possible. A report on a French nursery school when the Italian pedagogue’s principles allow the child’s autonomy.
In Montagny le Haut (Rhone) Primary School, groups of children of the nursery class work together in a room with large bay windows, the atmosphere is neither restrained nor festive. Rather, it is both studious and laid-back at the same time as each one of the 35 boys and girls from 3 to 5 years old is absorbed in an activity that they have chosen for them self.
It is the mixture of ages, as well as the freedom of choice that makes one realise that this is not a traditional nursery class, but a Montessori one.
The respect for the individual’s rhythm, which permits the free choice of activities, and the mixing of different ages, which allows the little ones to initiate things that the older ones can help them with, along the principles outlined by Maria Montessori. The idea of “help me to do it myself” promotes the individual’s autonomy.
Certainly, from the first glance, one notices the furniture, tables, chairs and cupboards adapted to the children’s size as recommended by the great Italian pedagogue. However, this brightly coloured furniture that conforms to the children’s size is so widespread today in all nurseries that it alone is no longer representative of the Montessori Method.
On the other hand, seeing each doing whatever they desire according to their development level and comparing it with the collective activity imposed on a class as occurs in the majority of schools, be they primary or secondary. Nevertheless, more surprising here, is that this scene is not from a private Montessori school, but from an ordinary village school near Lyon. This regime was initiated by Chantal Plaisantin and Christel Giordana, both Montessori trained.
Certainly, one may object that they have only undergone a short training programme, not recognised by the Association Montessori de France; that they don’t use all the Montessori materials (mainly because of cost which is around 10,000 euros for a class of 3-6 year olds), that the children have assigned places with a label on each table; that there are rubber feet on the chairs and tables whilst Montessori wanted the children to pay attention to the noise that they made on moving the furniture, so not to disturb their neighbours. In spite of all that, these details do not prevent the two teachers from delivering an education in full conformity with the Montessori Method.
Besides, the national inspectors thought their method to be so interesting that they asked their regional colleagues for an explanation . “They found that there was more learning time with us and that the children were always involved compared with the typical class, where the children are more often “occupied”, explained Christel Giordana.
It is logical that one loses less time when all the children aren’t obliged to do the same thing at the same time, like going to the toilet or washing their hands. Even though their classes have 35 pupils, the activities are individualised. From the morning snack which is self-service, they eat what they want, when they want. In the grand principle of autonomy, so dear to Maria Montessori, the children, with the help of an assistant, prepare their own food; washing tomatoes, cherries, making sandwiches. Afterwards, they clear up, clean the table and wash their dishes; just the opposite to the classic meal entirely run by the assistants.
In the nursery class, the children still have to shape their own personality before opening up to the others. In the course, like in games, they don’t, as a priority, look for the company of others as they will do later. Each, according to their development, is busy in their corner understanding the world. Certainly, they may glance sideways to see what their neighbour is doing, but they quickly return to their own task. Collective tasks aren’t yet suitable for them. That is because the Montessori Method suits them so well. “You don’t tell this group to draw and that to cut out”, explains Christel Giordana, “Each finds their own rhythm, rather than going on about it, like the traditional way. When the child is ready, in a sensitive period”, as Montessori says, “everything will progress rapidly without forcing”.
Another advantage of individualised activities is that the more advanced children don’t become bored waiting for the others, whilst those who haven’t yet acquired a skill can take all the time that they need to develop it. Christel Giordana remembers a child who spent days unscrewing and re-fastening a jar. As long as it was clear that the child wasn’t locked into that activity and that she found something interesting in it, there was no question of interrupting or interfering.
All that demands definitely demands good preparation, a strong personality and plenty of self confidence in the teacher, as well as the parents who may ask questions about the method. “Last year”, recounts Chantal Plaisantin, “Some disturbed parents came to see me. Whenever they asked the children what they had done at school, they replied, “We played about”. I invited the parents to come and see what the children called “playing about” and they were reassured.
Because the national curriculum is fixed and requires certain skills and knowledge to be acquired, these are largely met, ” a child who follows the Montessori route from nursery to CM2 will already have extracted a solid foundation with the aid of the materials developed by Maria Montessori. In handling that material they will have done things that they never could have do on paper as they will do later. They will have have a real understanding of the processes and of certain theorems.
In this way, with a row of ten beads and two beads together, the child makes twelve with knowing how to count up to there. If she lines up three rows of ten beads and three groups of two, she will obtain thirty six, she understands the sense of multiplication without being able to do it on paper. The efficacy of this pedagogy rests largely on the materials, beads for counting, pairs and triplets of cubes, brown steps, pink tower, number beads and rods, together with textured letters, puzzles, globes, all designed by Maria Montessori to help children understand number, measurement and quantity, to start them reading and writing; effectively to discover the World. The difference between the traditional system and this is that with the Montessori Method there is always something concrete and manipulable in the early stages of learning. This greatly helps the children who cannot concentrate. The maths material doesn’t spoil the abstract nature of the subject, it is a starting point that allows them to progress, having started well, without being out of their depth from the beginning.
In learning to read and write the “rough letters”, cut out of sandpaper stuck on plywood, help by calling upon different aspects of memory, vision, touch, movement and hearing by getting the child to sound out the letter and its name, whilst feeling the texture and shape with two fingers. Contrary to the traditional system where the programme is not designed for the child, but for what the adult thinks it should be and it does not consider the child’s real needs, whilst the Montessori system places the pupil at the centre of the teacher’s attention. It is the child’s project, not the teacher’s.
Patricia Spinelli
(Director of the Maria Montessori Institute in Paris)
“Helping the child to do things and to think on their own”.
How do you become a Montessori teacher ?
Generally, it is teachers between 30 & 40 years who wish to convert, often during a sabbatical year, but they must fund the course themselves at 5000 euros for 990 hours from September to June. We have around thirty trainees each year
What are the main criteria for Montessori training?
The four principal criteria are: the mix of ages (3-6, 6-9 & 9-12), the complete use of Montessori material, two and a half to three hours of self-directed activity each morning and afternoon, teachers trained by the Montessori Institute.
What is the goal of this pedagogy?
On one hand it revolves around the respect for the individual child’s rhythm, whilst on the other hand, for the 3-6 year-olds it is to create concentration through the repetitive use of the Montessori materials. Certainly, the teacher watches the children and if one is not involved in an activity, she will not leave the child to shut himself away. She will guide them until they are capable of making a choice for themselves.
Maria Montessori’s overarching principle is to aid the child to do things for themselves, then between 6-12 years to think for themselves, science and history for example can be learned through interdisciplinary research on the origin of the world and the appearance of man. Montessori called that ecological education.
Is the respect for the individual’s rhythm compatible with the national curriculum?
Thanks, notably to the maths materials created by Maria Montessori, our pupils are clearly more advanced than those in state schools.
Why so few Montessori schools?
In France there are around forty Montessori schools. The restrictions have their origins in the secular nature of French schools. Maria Montessori was a believer and spoke of the “spiritual embryo” and the “divine nature of the human being”. When a state school teacher reads that they close the book and go no further. Besides, we are private schools and the average cost, which is between 350 & 400 euros a month, may also be a disincentive.
What do you think of transplanting the Montessori method into state schools?
That would be fine as if it is used in the right spirit, as long as it is not didactically manipulated for the purpose of acquiring formal knowledge, rather than producing self-confident children.
LE MONDE DE L’ÉDUCATION – I JUILLET—AOUT 2007
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