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    Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook
    Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook
    Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook
    Ebook128 pages1 hour

    Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook

    By Maria Montessori

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    If a preface is a light which should serve to illumine the contents of a volume, I choose, not words, but human figures to illustrate this little book intended to enter families where children are growing up. I therefore recall here, as an eloquent symbol, Helen Keller and Mrs. Anne Sullivan Macy, who are, by their example, both teachers to myself––and, before the world, living documents of the miracle in education.

    In fact, Helen Keller is a marvelous example of the phenomenon common to all human beings: the possibility of the liberation of the imprisoned spirit of man by the education of the senses. Here lies the basis of the method of education of which the book gives a succinct idea.

    If one only of the senses sufficed to make of Helen Keller a woman of exceptional culture and a writer, who better than she proves the potency of that method of education which builds on the senses? If Helen Keller attained through exquisite natural gifts to an elevated conception viii of the world, who better than she proves that in the inmost self of man lies the spirit ready to reveal itself?

    Helen, clasp to your heart these little children, since they, above all others, will understand you. They are your younger brothers: when, with bandaged eyes and in silence, they touch with their little hands, profound impressions rise in their consciousness, and they exclaim with a new form of happiness: "I see with my hands." They alone, then, can fully understand the drama of the mysterious privilege your soul has known. When, in darkness and in silence, their spirit left free to expand, their intellectual energy redoubled, they become able to read and write without having learnt, almost as it were by intuition, they, only they, can understand in part the ecstasy which God granted you on the luminous path of learning.

    Maria Montessori.
    LanguageEnglish
    Publisheranboco
    Release dateAug 20, 2016
    ISBN9783736408982
    Author

    Maria Montessori

    Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was an Italian educator and physician. Born in Chiaravalle, she came from a prominent, well-educated family of scientists and government officials. Raised in Florence and Rome, Montessori excelled in school from a young age, graduating from technical school in 1886. In 1890, she completed her degree in physics and mathematics, yet decided to pursue medicine rather than a career in engineering. At the University of Rome, she overcame prejudice from the predominately male faculty and student body, winning academic prizes and focusing her studies on pediatric medicine and psychiatry. She graduated in 1896 as a doctor in medicine and began working with mentally disabled children, for whom she also became a prominent public advocate. In 1901, she left her private practice to reenroll at the University of Rome for a degree in philosophy, dedicating herself to the study of scientific pedagogy and lecturing on the topic from 1904 to 1908. In 1906, she opened her Casa dei Bambini, a school for children from low-income families. As word of her endeavor spread, schools using the Montessori educational method began opening around the world. In the United States, the publication of The Montessori Method (1912) in English and her 1913 lecture tour fostered a rapid increase of Montessori schools in the country. For her groundbreaking status as one of Italy’s first female public intellectuals and her role in developing a more individualized, psychologically informed approach to education, Maria Montessori continues to be recognized as one of the twentieth century’s most influential figures.

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      Book preview

      Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook - Maria Montessori

      Montessori

      DR. MONTESSORI’S OWN HANDBOOK

      BY MARIA MONTESSORI

      NOTE BY THE AUTHOR

      As a result of the widespread interest that has been taken in my method of child education, certain books have been issued, which may appear to the general reader to be authoritative expositions of the Montessori system. I wish to state definitely that the present work, the English translation of which has been authorised and approved by me, is the only authentic manual of the Montessori method, and that the only other authentic or authorised works of mine in the English language are The Montessori Method, and Pedagogical Anthropology.

      vii

      PREFACE

      If a preface is a light which should serve to illumine the contents of a volume, I choose, not words, but human figures to illustrate this little book intended to enter families where children are growing up. I therefore recall here, as an eloquent symbol, Helen Keller and Mrs. Anne Sullivan Macy, who are, by their example, both teachers to myself––and, before the world, living documents of the miracle in education.

      In fact, Helen Keller is a marvelous example of the phenomenon common to all human beings: the possibility of the liberation of the imprisoned spirit of man by the education of the senses. Here lies the basis of the method of education of which the book gives a succinct idea.

      If one only of the senses sufficed to make of Helen Keller a woman of exceptional culture and a writer, who better than she proves the potency of that method of education which builds on the senses? If Helen Keller attained through exquisite natural gifts to an elevated conception viii of the world, who better than she proves that in the inmost self of man lies the spirit ready to reveal itself?

      Helen, clasp to your heart these little children, since they, above all others, will understand you. They are your younger brothers: when, with bandaged eyes and in silence, they touch with their little hands, profound impressions rise in their consciousness, and they exclaim with a new form of happiness: I see with my hands. They alone, then, can fully understand the drama of the mysterious privilege your soul has known. When, in darkness and in silence, their spirit left free to expand, their intellectual energy redoubled, they become able to read and write without having learnt, almost as it were by intuition, they, only they, can understand in part the ecstasy which God granted you on the luminous path of learning.

      Maria Montessori.

      CONTENTS

      ILLUSTRATIONS

      1

      DR. MONTESSORI’S OWN HANDBOOK

      Recent years have seen a remarkable improvement in the conditions of child life. In all civilized countries, but especially in England, statistics show a decrease in infant mortality.

      Related to this decrease in mortality a corresponding improvement is to be seen in the physical development of children; they are physically finer and more vigorous. It has been the diffusion, the popularization of science, which has brought about such notable advantages. Mothers have learned to welcome the dictates of modern hygiene and to put them into practice in bringing up their children. Many new social institutions have sprung up and have been perfected with the object of assisting children and protecting them during the period of physical growth.

      In this way what is practically a new race is coming into being, a race more highly developed, finer and more robust; a race which will be capable of offering resistance to insidious disease.

      2

      What has science done to effect this? Science has suggested for us certain very simple rules by which the child has been restored as nearly as possible to conditions of a natural life, and an order and a guiding law have been given to the functions of the body. For example, it is science which suggested maternal feeding, the abolition of swaddling clothes, baths, life in the open air, exercise, simple short clothing, quiet and plenty of sleep. Rules were also laid down for the measurement of food adapting it rationally to the physiological needs of the child’s life.

      Yet with all this, science made no contribution that was entirely new. Mothers had always nursed their children, children had always been clothed, they had breathed and eaten before.

      The point is, that the same physical acts which, performed blindly and without order, led to disease and death, when ordered rationally were the means of giving strength and life.

      The great progress made may perhaps deceive us into thinking that everything possible has been done for children.

      We have only to weigh the matter carefully, 3 however, to reflect: Are our children only those healthy little bodies which to-day are growing and developing so vigorously under our eyes? Is their destiny fulfilled in the production of beautiful human bodies?

      In that case there would be little difference between their lot and that of the animals which we raise that we may have good meat or beasts of burden.

      Man’s destiny is evidently other than this, and the care due to the child covers a field wider than that which is considered by physical hygiene. The mother who has given her child his bath and sent him in his perambulator to the park has not fulfilled the mission of the mother of humanity. The hen which gathers her chickens together, and the cat which licks her kittens and lavishes on them such tender care, differ in no wise from the human mother in the services they render.

      No, the human mother if reduced to such limits devotes herself in vain, feels that a

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