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Maria Montessori: A Brief Biography
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Maria Montessori |
Maria Montessori was,
in many ways, ahead of her time. Born
in
the town of Chiaravalle, in the province of Ancona, Italy,
in 1870, she became the first female physician in Italy upon
her graduation from medical school in 1896.
In her medical practice, her clinical
observations led her to analyze how children learn, and she
concluded that they build themselves from what they find
in their environment. Shifting
her focus from the body to the mind, she returned to the university
in 1901, this time to study psychology and philosophy. In
1904, she was made a professor of anthropology at the University
of Rome.
Her desire to help children was so strong,
however, that in 1906 she gave up both her university chair
and her medical practice to work with a group of sixty young
children of working parents in the San Lorenzo district of
Rome. It was there
that she founded the Casa Dei Bambini, or “Children’s
House.” What ultimately became the Montessori method
of education developed there, based upon Montessori’s
scientific observations of these children’s almost effortless
ability to absorb knowledge from their surroundings, as well
as their tireless interest in manipulating materials. Every
piece of equipment, every exercise, every method Montessori
developed was based on what she observed children to do “naturally,” by
themselves.
Children teach themselves. This simple but
profound truth inspired Montessori’s lifelong pursuit
of educational reform, methodology, psychology, teaching, and
teacher training-all based on her dedication to furthering
the self-creating process of the child.
What is the Montessori Method?
The Montessori method is both a philosophy
of child development and a rationale for guiding such growth. It is based
on the child’s developmental needs for freedom within
limits, as well as, a carefully prepared environment, which
guarantees exposure to materials and experiences. Through
this, the child develops intelligence as well as physical and
psychological abilities. It is designed to take full
advantage of the child’s desire to learn and their unique
ability to develop their own capabilities. The child
needs adults to expose him to the possibilities of his life,
but the child must determine his response to those possibilities.
The Main Premises of Montessori Education are:
- Children are to be respected as different
from adults and as individuals who differ from each other
who learn at their own rate.
- The child possesses an unusual
sensitivity and intellectual ability to absorb and learn
from his environment that is unlike those of the adult
both in quality and capacity
- The most important years of a child’s
growth are the first six years of life when unconscious
learning is gradually brought to the conscious level.
- Children
need the opportunity to build positive attitudes toward
themselves—and toward learning—during
these early years.
- Montessori Children develop concentration,
perseverance, a sense of order, initiative and a pride
in learning. As
a result, they become confident, competent learners for
life.
- Children flourish in a
joyful atmosphere, which balances intellectual stimulation,
creativity and love
The child has a deep love and need for
purposeful work. He works, however, not as an adult for
completion of a job, but for the sake of the activity itself. It
is this activity, which enables him to accomplish his most
important goal: the development of himself, his mental,
physical, and psychological powers.
The “Prepared Environment”
The “prepared environment” is Maria Montessori’s
concept that the environment can be designed to facilitate
maximum independent learning and exploration by the child.
In the prepared environment,
there is a variety of activity as well as a great deal of
movement. In a preschool classroom,
for example, a three-year-old may be washing clothes by hand
while a four-year-old nearby is composing words and phrases
with letters know as the movable alphabet, and a five-year-old
is performing multiplication using a specially designed set
of beads. Sometimes
an entire class may be involved in a group activity, such as
storytelling, singing, or movement.
In the calm, ordered
space of the Montessori prepared environment, children work
on activities of their own choice at their pace. They
experience a blend of freedom and self-discipline in a place
especially designed to meet their developmental needs.
The Montessori Materials
In the Montessori classroom,
learning materials are arranged invitingly on low, open shelves. Children
may choose whatever materials they would like to use and may
work for as long as the material holds their interest. When
they are finished with each material, they return it to the
shelf from which it came.
The materials themselves invite activity. There
are bright arrays of solid geometric forms, knobbed puzzle
maps, colored beads, and various specialized rods and blocks.
Each material in a Montessori classroom
isolates one quality. In
this way, the concept that the child is to discover is isolated. For
example, the material known as the pink tower is made up of
ten pink cubes of varying sizes. The preschool aged child
constructs a tower with the largest cube on the bottom and
the smallest on the top. This material isolates the concept
of size. The cubes are all the same color and texture;
the only difference is their size. Other materials isolate
different concepts: color tablets for color, geometry materials
for form and so on.
Moreover, the materials are self-correcting. When a
piece does not fit or is left over, the child easily perceives
the error. There is no need for adult “correction.” The
child is able to solve problems independently, building self-confidence,
analytical thinking, and the satisfaction that comes from accomplishment.
As the child’s exploration continues, the materials
interrelate and build upon each other. For example, various
relationships can be explored between the pink tower and the
broad stair, which are based on matching precise dimensions. Later,
in the elementary years, new aspects of some of the materials
unfold. When studying volume, for instance, the child
may return to the pink tower and discover that its cubes progress
incrementally from one cubic centimeter to one cubic decimeter.
The Process of “Normalization”
In Montessori education, the term “normalization” has
a special meaning. “Normal” does not refer
to what is considered to be “typical” or “average” or
even “unusual.” “Normalization” does
not refer to a process of being forced to conform. Instead,
Maria Montessori used the terms “normal” and “normalization” to
describe a unique process she observed in child development.
Montessori observed that when children
are allowed freedom in an environment suited to their needs,
they blossom. After
a period of intense concentration, working with materials that
fully engage their interest, children appear to be refreshed
and contented. Through continued concentrated work of
their own choice, children grow in inner discipline and peace. She
called this process “normalization” and cited it
as “the most important single result of our whole work” (The
Absorbent Mind, 1949).
She went on to write,
Only “normalized” children, aided by their environment,
show in their subsequent development those wonderful powers
that we describe: spontaneous discipline, continuous
and happy work, social sentiments of help and sympathy for
others . . . . An interesting piece of work, freely chosen,
which has the virtue of inducing concentration rather than
fatigue, adds to the child’s energies and mental capacities,
and leads him to self-mastery . . . . One is tempted to say
that the children are performing spiritual exercises, having
found the path of self-perfectionment and of ascent to the
inner heights of the soul. (Maria Montessori, The
Absorbent Mind, 1949)
E.M. Standing (Maria
Montessori: Her life and Work,
1957) lists these as the characteristics of normalization:
love of order, love of work, spontaneous concentration, attachment
to reality, love of silence and of working alone, sublimation
discipline, and joy. Montessori believed that these are
the truly “normal” characteristics of childhood,
which emerge when children’s developmental needs are
met.
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Philosophy