Certain Leading Concepts Explained-Part I
Dr. Maria Montessori was and is often misunderstood, all the more so because she and other experts often used the same terms with different meaning. It is in this sense that the statements of Maria Montessori must be evaluated. But even when the meaning is the same, her conclusions are often in conflict with that of experts. Some of the leading concepts like (1)Education (2) Adaptation (3) Development (4) Heredity (5) The Unconscious were interpreted by Mr. Mario Montessori Sr. and these interpretations will be serialized in this blog. In this current posting we are presenting Mario Montessori Sr.’ s interpretation of Education.
Education
The Montessori approach to education follows the lines of developmental psychology. Ours might be called: Development Education. It differs sharply from education as normally understood, when the emphasis is on the ends pursued and what is felt to be important is the career or occupation for which the student will be equipped by the time his studies are over.
Previously all education was based on this kind of preparation for the future. To pass from primary to secondary school, or from grammar school to university, the pupil must acquire certain knowledge so that he may finally qualify for a job and parents and educators combine to urge him towards his goal. The child himself has not been greatly considered. At an early age he does not grasp the importance of the future or the equipment he will need for it and his inclination may not be attuned to what his mentors propose. So he has to be enticed to follow his curriculam and the question whether the way he is expected to study is suitable to his age and capacity is of quite secondary importance.
The Montessori ideal is not Utilitarian in this sense. Developmental education is concentrated on the phases of the individual’s growth from birth to maturity. It tries to respond to his needs as he develops to help the process of his adaptation, without laying too much stress on the programme officially imposed. Our Montessori schools cover the same programme. In fact our programme is generally wider, but this is because the children themselves, as their minds expand, pursue their interests in all directions. We regard their studies as food on which the child’s psyche can feed in order that it may become adapted to society and the world to the best that civilization has to offer. It is the child and his optimum development, not his stock of knowledge, which is the main objective of developmental education.
(The next article in this series, ‘Certain Leading Concepts Explained-Part II’, will provide Mario Montessori Sr.’s interpretation of the concept of ‘Adaptation’.)
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on Saturday, September 20th, 2008 at 7:10 am and is filed under Montessori Fundamentals - A Series.
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