The Montessori Method: Scientific Pedagogy as Applied to Child Education in “The Children’s Houses” With Additions and Revisions by the Author
By Maria Montessori; Translated From the Italian by Anne E. George, with an Introduction by Professor Henry W. Holmes of Harvard University
CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments
Preface to the American Edition
Introduction
CH1. A Critical Consideration of the New Pedagogy in Its Relation to Modern Science
CH2. History of Methods
CH3. Inagural Address Delivered on the Occasion of the Opening of One of the “Children’s Houses”
CH4. Pedagogical Methods Used in the “Children’s Houses”
CH5. Discipline
CH6. How the Lessons Should Be Given
CH7. Exercises of Practical Life
CH8. Refection--The Child’s Diet
CH9. Muscular Education--Gymnastics
CH10. Nature in Education--Agricultural Labour: Culture of Plants and Animals
CH 11. Manual Labour--The Potter’s Art and Building
CH 12. Education of the Senses
CH13. Education of the Senses and Illustrations of the Didactic Material: General Sensibility; The Tactile, Thermic, Baric, and Stereognostic Senses
CH14. General Notes on the Education of the Senses
CH15. Intellectual Education
CH16. Methods for the Teaching of Reading and Writing
CH17. Description of the Method and Didactic Material Used
CH18. Language in Childhood
CH19. Teaching of Numeration; Introduction to Arithmetic
CH20. Sequence of Exercises
CH21. General Review of Discipline
CH22. Conclusions and Impressions
In February, 1911, Professor Henry W. Holmes, of the Division of Education of Harvard University, did me the honour to suggest that an English translation be made of my Italian volume, “Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica applicato all’ educazione infantile nelle Case dei Bambini.” This suggestion represented one of the greatest events in the history of my educational work. To-day, that to which I then looked forward as an unusual privilege has become an accomplished fact.
The Italian edition of “Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica” had no preface, because the book itself I consider nothing more than the preface to a more comprehensive work, the aim and extent of which it only indicates. For the educational method for children of from three to six years set forth here is but the earnest of a work that, developing the same principle and method, shall cover in a like manner the successive stages of education. Moreover, the method which obtains in the Case dei Bambini offers, it seems to me, an experimental field for the study of man, and promises, perhaps, the development of a science that shall disclose other secrets of nature.
In the period that has elapsed between the publication of the Italian and American editions, I have had, with my pupils, the opportunity to simplify and render more exact certain practical details of the method, and to gather additional observations concerning discipline. The results attest the vitality of the method and the necessity for an extended scientific collaboration in the near future, and are embodied in two new chapters written for the American edition. I know that my method has been widely spoken of in America, thanks to Mr. S. S. McClure, who has presented it through the pages of his well-known magazine. Indeed, many Americans have already come to Rome for the purpose of observing personally the practical application of the method in my little schools. If, encouraged by this movement, I may express a hope for the future, it is that my work in Rome shall become the centre of an efficient and helpful collaboration.
To the Harvard professors who have made my work known in America and to McClure’s Magazine, a mere acknowledgment of what I owe them is a barren response; but it is my hope that the method itself, in its effect upon the children of America, may prove an adequate expression of my gratitude.
MARIA MONTESSORI.
ROME, 1912.
