THE MONTESSORI METHOD
By MARIA MONTESSORI
The Montessori Method
By Maria Montessori
Translated by Anne E. George
Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-7184-2
eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-7185-9
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Cover Image: a detail of “The classroom of a mixed [Montessori] kindergarten with a group portrait”, c. 1910, (b/w photo) / Spaarnestad Photo / Bridgeman Images.
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CONTENTS
PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION
CHAPTER I. A CRITICAL CONSIDERATION OF THE NEW PEDAGOGY IN ITS RELATION TO MODERN SCIENCE
CHAPTER II. HISTORY OF METHODS
CHAPTER III. INAUGURAL ADDRESS DELIVERED ON THE OCCASION OF THE OPENING OF ONE OF THE “CHILDREN’S HOUSES”
CHAPTER IV. PEDAGOGICAL METHODS USED IN THE “CHILDREN’S HOUSES”
CHAPTER V. DISCIPLINE
CHAPTER VI. HOW THE LESSONS SHOULD BE GIVEN
CHAPTER VII. EXERCISES OF PRACTICAL LIFE
CHAPTER VIII. REFECTION—THE CHILD’S DIET
CHAPTER IX. MUSCULAR EDUCATION—GYMNASTICS
CHAPTER X. NATURE IN EDUCATION—AGRICULTURAL LABOUR: CULTURE OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS
CHAPTER XI. MANUAL LABOUR—THE POTTER’S ART AND BUILDING
CHAPTER XII. EDUCATION OF THE SENSES
CHAPTER XIII. EDUCATION OF THE SENSES AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE DIDACTIC MATERIAL: GENERAL SENSIBILITY; THE TACTILE, THERMIC, BARIC, AND STEREOGNOSTIC SENSES
CHAPTER XIV. GENERAL NOTES ON THE EDUCATION OF THE SENSES
CHAPTER XV. INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION
CHAPTER XVI. METHODS FOR THE TEACHING OF READING AND WRITING
CHAPTER XVII. DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD AND DIDACTIC MATERIAL USED
CHAPTER XVIII. LANGUAGE IN CHILDHOOD
CHAPTER XIX. TEACHING OF NUMERATION; INTRODUCTION TO ARITHMETIC
CHAPTER XX. SEQUENCE OF EXERCISES
CHAPTER XXI. GENERAL REVIEW OF DISCIPLINE
CHAPTER XXII. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
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
WITH THIRTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
DR. MONTESSORI GIVING A LESSON IN TOUCHING GEOMETRICAL INSETS.
I place at the beginning of this volume, now appearing in the United States, her fatherland, the dear name of
ALICE HALLGARTEN
of New York, who by her marriage to Baron Leopold Franchetti became by choice our compatriot.
Ever a firm believer in the principles underlying the Case dei Bambini, she, with her husband, forwarded the publication of this book in Italy, and, throughout the last years of her short life, greatly desired the English translation which should introduce to the land of her birth the work so near her heart.
To her memory I dedicate this book, whose pages, like an ever-living flower, perpetuate the recollection of her beneficence.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Mrs. Guy Baring, of London, for the loan of her manuscript translation of “Pedagogia Scientifica”; to Mrs. John R. Fisher (Dorothy Canfield) for translating a large part of the new work written by Dr. Montessori for the American Edition; and to The House of Childhood, Inc., New York, for use of the illustrations of the didactic apparatus. Dr. Montessori’s patent rights in the apparatus are controlled, for the United States and Canada, by The House of Childhood, Inc.
THE PUBLISHERS.
PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION
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