Introduction

Maria Montessori began educating normal young children in the first Casa dei Bambini, or
Homes for Children.
The purpose of the Casa dei Bambini was to keep children busy during the day while the
parents were working and prevent vandalism and damage to property by the children.
Before that she had worked with idiot children housed in the insane asylums while she was a
medical student serving as an intern at the psychiatric clinic of Rome.
She had studied the work of Jean Itard and the methods and materials used by Edouard
Seguin devised to educate mentally deficient children.
57 years ago, Montessori modified these materials and methods in order to apply them to
normal children in the Casa dei Bambini.
Interest in Montessori waxed and waned. People became interested in her work but many
other theories were popular at the same time, and these theories were dissonant with
Montessoris.

Definitions
1. Dissonant
Psychological conflict resulting from different beliefs.

These theories believed that:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Early experience is not important

Intelligence is fixed
Development is predetermined
All behavior is motivated
Motor skills and receptor input is important

Other theories

What does it mean?

Montessori

1. Early experience is not

important

Early childhood has no

impact on what you will
be like as an adult.

Early childhood years (37) are the most important

years in terms of
development.

2. Intelligence is fixed

If you are born with a low Intelligence can be

IQ, you will never improve improved through
it.
intervention.

3. Development is
predetermined

Every stage of
development is set at a
certain age. Each person
develops the same way
at the same stage.

Each person is different.

Some develop
slower/faster and may
never reach all the stages
of development.

4. All behavior is
motivated

Innate drives and needs

give rise to behavior

Not all behavior is driven,

there is freedom to learn

5. Motor skills and

receptor input is
important

Children learn by
mastering motor skills
and receiving
information

Sensory learning is better;

children use their senses
and perform tasks.

Chapter 1: A critical consideration of the new pedagogy in its relation to modern

science
Definitions:
1. Critical consideration:
A very important part to keep in mind about the Montessori Method.
2. Pedagogy
The study of children to be educated

1. Old school teachers believe in the same theories

dissonant with Montessori.
2. Scientific teachers view the students as mechanisms

Barren application
(empty way of teaching)

Exterior technique (above) and the inner man is the difference between these ways and
Montessori.
Scientist:
Uses mechanical skill (tools: like the microscope) and spirit (passion/desire to find the truth)
when he studies something. When the spirit is at a higher level than the mechanism, that is
the highest level of achievement.
The goal is to cultivate more of the spirit in the teachers
Educator:
Awaken the heart and mind an interest in natural phenomena to develop an attitude of
anxiety and expectation for an experiment he has created and awaits the results from it.
The teacher becomes like a scientist, the teacher studies the children , using methods and
observations to find out if his experiment is working or not.
The educator becomes the crazy scientist: Excited about what there is to discover!
The spirit:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Respect and love

Sacred curiosity (secret passion to find out more)
Desire to seek spiritual greatness
Observe the childs growth

Whosoever shall become as one of these little ones, he shall be the greatest in the
Kingdom of heaven
To be happy, is to become the same as a child.

Self-sacrificing spirit of the scientist

Devotion of the Christian

Spirit of the teacher!

From the child itself, he will learn how to perfect himself as an educator.
Children at school

Montessori

*Butterflies: dead and pinned

*Flying freely

*Horse: beaten to follow instructions

*Wild horse running freely

*Desks deform the child

*The child is a slave, becomes a servant
and then a workman.

*Every person has a vocation, even if

modest.

Prizes and punishments may turn him in the wrong direction.

True reward lies in triumphant inner force
There is an urgent need to fight for human regeneration through education and instruction:
less desks, rigid curriculum, rewards and punishments.
Definition
1. Vocation
A call from God to do special work.
2. Modest:
Humble; free from vanity or egotism
3. Rigid
Fixed; cant be adjusted
Chapter 2: History of methods

Scientific pedagogy: liberty of the pupil

Method/technique
-Experimental sciences (without preconceptions of any sort)
Therefore it is the method of experimentation
Origin: Edouard Seguin took the experiences of Itard (who helped a deaf boy semi-hear) as
his starting point and used them for 10 years with insane asylum children.
By using the experiences of Itard, he applied them, modified them and completed them. He
called this the physiological method after another 20 years.
Montessori applied this by working with deficients for 2 years. She manufactured didactics
but they were not used by teachers and didnt interest the children, unless used correctly by
the teacher.
Problem: the level of the teacher
1. The teacher views himself as superior to the child
2. The teacher views himself on the same level as the child so plays games and tells silly
stories
The correct way:
We must know how to call to the man in the soul of the child to use the material to
educate himself.
She wanted to use her methods on normal children, not elementary age but little children aged
3-7. She opened Homes for Children with a friend who had children available for her to
teach. Many buildings were built for the children, each with a teacher living in the house. This
was the Homes for Children concept.
She found a parallel between deficients and normal children.
__________________ The child who has not the force to develop (deficient child)
__________________The child who is not yet developed (3-7 years)

Areas of development

Muscular (gross and fine motor)

Sense organs (5)
Language and speech
Focus and attention

She worked at the Homes for Children for two years, using her methods and materials.

Definitions:
1. Didactics
Instructions, instructive teaching method

Chapter 3: Inaugural address delivered on the occasion of the opening of one of the
Childrens Houses

1. Life of the poor: Filthy, dangerous and wretched

In the Quarter of San Lorenzo (poor area) there was a great building fever (1884-1888).
6 Bedroom houses were built. They had no water or electricity; there was so much
crime and evil passions.
World of shadows
It was the isolation of the masses of the poor.
Definitions:
1. Inaugural:
Formal beginning or introduction/ marking the beginning of a new venture
2. Wretched:
Very unfortunate in condition or circumstance, sadness, poor, extremely bad.
3. Isolation
Separation between persons or things
The Roman Association of Good Building stepped in.
1. They renovated the apartments so they had more air and light.
2. Large 6 bedrooms converted into small 2 or 3 bedrooms with staircases and a kitchen.
People had to respect the buildings, develop a habit of cleanliness and moral hygiene.
The buildings turned into homes, each with a family.
This came with responsibility: tax of care and goodwill.
This created honest rivalry: a species of pride
More civilized plane of living

Through this they know:

-how to live and
-how to respect the house in which they live.
They learnt to have personal hygiene (bath/shower with hot/cold water) in a bathroom.
One problem happened:

Children under school age were left alone all day while parents worked.
The children didnt understand the values that the parents had learnt and they became
ignorant little vandals.
This lead to the reform of the Childrens House that the Building Association paid for, this
way they would save money on repairs to damages.
Parents were able to enjoy peace of mind knowing their children were safe and not in the
streets. The parents had to work for the benefit of their children being in the Childrens
Houses.
This came with responsibility once again for the parents:
1. They had to make sure their children were clean and on time for school.
2. They had to make sure the child co-operated with the teacher.
3. Once a week the parent had the responsibility to meet with the teacher. This was time
for the teacher to give the parent helpful advice.
The child was expelled if he/she:
1. Was sent to school with a dirty body and/or dirty clothes.
2. Disrespected the teacher
3. Had parents that were incorrigible.

Definitions:
1. Vandals:
People that damage or destroy public property
2. Reform:
Intervention by making changes
3. Incorrigible:
Incapable of being corrected; uncontrollable
Before the Childrens Houses, the home and the school were separate from each other. The
Childrens Houses became an ideal in that it put the school within the house.

School was placed in a house as the property of collectivity: The parents know the life of the
teacher in her high mission.
The parents:
*have an educated son through their own conduct (behavior).
*have a child that advances socially.
*are able to leave their children at a place to be educated, like the rich. In those times only the
very wealthy upper class mothers could afford to send their children to daycare.
Not only were the Childrens Houses just a daycare, but it gave attention to the education,
health, physical and moral development suited to the age of the child.
This made even the rich people want to send their children here.

Chapter 4: Pedagogical methods used in the Childrens Houses

This method focuses on observations and experiments.
1. Anthropometrical records:
height, weight, etc.
The children loved to be measured.
2. Environment:
Big playground with space for a garden.
Tables that can be carried by the children.*
Child-friendly washstand (basin).
Blackboards and whiteboards for the children.
Plants, fish tanks, toys
Symbolism of a family

*small light-weight tables and chairs help the children to move freely and to correct his/her
behavior and movements.