Another keynote of the Montessori method is the de-centering of the teacher (Smith). The teacher's role was more of an observer and monitor than an instructor. Therefore, the Montessori is a quintessentially student-centric pedagogical method. The child determines what and how to learn, and the teacher observes, monitors, and facilitates.
Having gained respect among the medical community and having spoken at more than one women's conference, Montessori's methods drew considerable international attention. Montessori published The Montessori Method in 1912. In 1913, Alexander Graham Bell from the United States founded the Montessori Educational Association based on her methods. Montessori was invited to speak at Carnegie Hall in 1915, and also lectured in San Francisco. In 1929, Maria Montessori founded the Association Montessori International in the Netherlands and in 1947 also established a school in London. During Mussolini's reign in Italy, Montessori refused to turn her schools into training centers that would "mass-produce soldiers for the war," and so she was imprisoned and then exiled ("Maria Montessori"). Montessori took her son with her, and delivered her teaching philosophy to nations all around the world including India and Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, Maria Montessori left a significant legacy in education and trained thousands in her methods (Flaherty).
The Montessori Method, published in 1912, is a thorough work detailing the evolution and purpose of the author's revolutionary pedagogy. Montessori draws upon her background in the hard sciences by providing a solid empirical proof for her theory. The author incorporates case studies from her work at the Children's Houses, the Casa dei Bambini. Montessori also mentions her work with the Orthophrenic School at Rome as the empirical foundations for her theory. Moreover, Montessori includes the inaugural address she delivered to the Children's Houses in Rome and refers to her work there from an anthropological perspective as well as an educational one.
In addition to using case studies and qualitative research, Montessori also relies on powerful rhetoric to persuade readers of the ineffectiveness of traditional educational methods. For example, in one section of The Montessori Method, the author refers to the "principle of slavery" that still informs the traditional school (Montessori). The author also explicates...
The child is uniquely retentive in his or her capacity. It is the duty of the educator to create such favorable conditions for learning, and expanding the child's capacity for abstract thinking, while still respecting the child's self-directed role in the process. The child must be treated like an integrated being, and attention must be paid to the child's developing body and sensory perceptions, as well as to the
Similarly, Maria Montessori's life provides key lessons for educators and for other individuals confronted with large systems that they can see to be clearly broken. Montessori managed to overcome the general gender discrimination typical of her time, and more than that she managed to challenge and the preconceived and largely entrenched patriarchal notions of education as an exercise in control, replacing them with her own theories based solely on
Maria Montessori and the Process of Maturation Maria Montessori has had a dramatic effect on the methods of education. She was an insightful teacher who was had the courage to challenge traditionally held views of education at the beginning of the modern era. Maria Montessori brought vitality and insight into the classroom where children were routinely thought of empty vessels to be filled with information given to them by adults. She
Working with both the poor and the disabled, Dr. Montessori further developed her ideas of a system under which all children can develop at their own pace and, again, to fully develop to their own potential. She instituted a study of Cosmic Education, or the "gradual discovery, throughout the whole of childhood, of the interrelatedness of all things on earth, in the past, present, and in the future" (Stephenson, 1998,
Moreover, the Montessori method seems to be rediscovering its roots as a universal method of instruction. Montessori education has become "popular with some black professionals and are getting results in low-income public schools with the kind of children on which Montessori first tested her ideas," (Matthews 2007). Just as Maria Montessori practiced her pedagogy with the poorest children of Rome, modern Montessori educators are noticing "long-term success in several
Dr. Maria Montessori "We cannot know the consequences of suppressing a child's spontaneity when he is just beginning to be active. We may even suffocate life itself. That humanity which is revealed in its entire intellectual splendor during the sweet and tender age of childhood should be respected with a kind of religious veneration. It is like the Sun which appears at dawn one flower just beginning to bloom. Education cannot
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