Posted on 09/01/2020 10:00:02 AM PDT by Borges
One hundred and fifty years after Maria Montessori’s birth, tens of thousands of teachers around the world still hail her innovations and educational philosophy.
One of Italy’s first female doctors, Montessori applied her training as a scientist to teaching children in new ways. She upended conventional thinking about education by, among other things, letting kids freely choose from an array of classroom activities to foster their independence.
Many of Montessori’s original ideas are commonplace today, especially in preschools and kindergarten classrooms: child-sized tables, hands-on games and other opportunities to play at school. Even the common practice of letting children sit on the floor was revolutionary when Montessori allowed it in her first school in 1906.
I’ve been a student of Montessori’s all my life. Before becoming a college professor, I was Montessori educated, a Montessori teacher and teacher trainer, and the mom of two (now-grown) Montessori kids. My experience isn’t unique. Montessori’s specific methods are still used in the nearly 20,000 schools worldwide that bear her name, including about 5,000 in the United States. And many of Montessori’s innovations are prevalent in preschools everywhere.
An uncommon path Maria Montessori was born on Aug. 31, 1870, in the small Italian town of Chiaravalle. Her family soon moved to Rome, where she excelled academically.
At 16, Montessori began to study engineering in the prestigious Regio Istituto Tecnico Leonardo da Vinci. She continued on what was an uncommon path for young women at the time, becoming one of the first Italian women to earn a medical degree.
She worked in psychiatric clinics for children, where she argued that a lack of stimulation was causing many of the patients to be hospitalized for mental and emotional conditions.
In 1904, the University of Rome hired her to research and teach anthropology.
She proposed sweeping changes to how schools were designed. Montessori had an opportunity to put her ideas into action in 1906, when she opened her first classroom in a tenement in Rome. There, she taught the children of poor laborers while their parents were working.
Applying the scientific method Montessori’s approach reflected her application of the scientific method – the cycle of hypothesizing an idea, testing it in action, and reflecting on the outcome to childhood development – at a time when scientists looked to young children to understand how people think and learn.
In the hospitals and clinics where she worked, Montessori observed children playing and the kinds of activities they seemed drawn to and how they experimented with games and toys to help them learn. She used these early observations to design that first school in Rome, the Casa dei Bambini or “Children’s House.”
Montessori constructed a “Children’s House,” filled with tools and furnishings designed for children, where kids prepared and served meals.
These kids learned to dress themselves by practicing buttons, ties and laces. They taught each other to read and write with cut-out letters they could move around, and learned to count and do math with special glass beads they could hold in their hands.
Montessori noticed children’s interest in the kinds of activities they saw around them in their homes, like sewing clothes or washing floors. Montessori described these activities as children’s “work.” Doing these tasks helped students become more independent and became a hallmark of the Montessori philosophy that remains evident to this day.
Global recognition The classrooms, with their pint-sized furniture and curious games, attracted worldwide attention. Montessori lectured widely about her observations, hosted dignitaries and professors to her new network of schools in Rome, and helped to inspire others to establish the same kind of schools.
Within six years of opening her first school, there were teacher training sites and Montessori schools on five continents, and Montessori’s first book, “The Montessori Method,” had been translated into 10 languages.
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At the 1915 World’s Fair in San Francisco, Montessori’s new way of teaching children was as mesmerizing as Henry Ford’s Model T automobile and the transcontinental telephone system.
Montessori lectured internationally for the next four decades, until her death from a cerebral hemorrhage in the Netherlands in 1952.
Early detractors suggested that Montessori’s theories were too radical for American schools, slowing the spread of her educational philosophy in the U.S. until the social and education reforms of the 1960s inspired a resurgence that continues today.
A great opportunity Attractive to many parents due to a “whole child” approach and celebrity graduates that include Beyoncé Knowles and Jeff Bezos, Montessori schools are now a popular charter school model.
More than 100,000 U.S. kids attend a Montessori public school, as do almost a million children worldwide. Only 10% of American Montessori schools are in the public school system.
But as the national conversation on race and class gains new urgency, Montessori organizations and related grassroots efforts are pushing to align their influence with Maria Montessori’s original emphasis on social justice and equity.
Montessori leaders and advocates will first have to figure out how to expand access to more families. Whether they succeed may determine if Maria Montessori’s legacy remains strong in another 150 years.
Yeah. Lasting influence like they can’t read.
See what happens when you let doctors start sticking their nose into issues they aren’t qualified for?
Montessori seems to appeal strongly to the Left.
I later learned the school they attended was a mixed model school - they had three hours of structured learning each morning, and three hours of full-on Montessori free schooling each afternoon.
Two of my Nephews are Montessori schooled. Both are head and shoulders above some of the other kids in the family. They’re very nice to be around, interesting to talk to, well-read, both can play numerous musical instruments, they can repair and/or mend just about anything, they raise and are kind to animals, well-traveled, very responsible, are total Nature Boys - and they’re just hitting their teens.
Seems to have worked out well for them, though I will also add that they have a Mensa-Member Mother who makes big, BIG money and a Father who did the ‘stay at home’ part while raising them.
That probably helped. ;)
Yeah. Lasting influence like they can’t read.
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Are you critical of Montessori methods?
My children attended Montessori pre-school. They have fond memories of their time there. I read Montessori’s book and applied her methods to our homeschool practices.
Yeah. So if they don’t see math as fun and something to play with...then they don’t have to learn it.
“In the hospitals and clinics where she worked, Montessori observed children playing and the kinds of activities they seemed drawn to and how they experimented with games and toys to help them learn...”
They learn how to be sensitive, caring rule followers. We have friends who’s kids went to a school and the mom actually taught there as well. The boy is a gay green activist and the daughter is considering a “career” with the peace corps.
not every kid wants to have fun with math or reading...then what?
Montessori methods are not right or left.
My children flourished using her philosophy.
All kinds of famous people born on August 31: Caligula, Commodus (Roman emperor 180-192), and Maria Montessori.
I was a terrible math student because they sprung “New Math” on me in first grade and confused the living hell out of me. Even my father, who was an engineer, couldn’t figure out my homework half the time. Using children as educational guinea pigs is NOT a good idea.
I believe that there are some people (kids) who
just can't be educated or taught anything until
they mature up a bit. I've seen them. Why are they
like that? I have no idea.
Your question: "Then what"?
Then you send those kids home and inform
their parents that they will have to provide some
type of special educational care for their child
at their own expense.
What kind of fantasy world do you live in?
“I believe that there are some people (kids) who just can’t be educated or taught anything until they mature up a bit.”
Re: not every kid wants to have fun with math or reading...then what?
That is why School Choice is needed. The people in the best position to judge the type of schooling needed is the parents....NOT....the government.
I homeschooled. Our neighbors sent their kids to a private **military** boarding school. We both made good decisions for our children.
The idea that all children learn the same way therefore can be taught the same way should no longer be practiced, but the public schools and their unions seem to believe that. Montessouri schools probably work wonders for certain children but are the wrong approach for others - the problem is figuring out which is which. Seems like parents should have more help with that so they can make the right choices for their children. But then the rats that run education only want children to be in the union-run pantifa factories.
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