WHAT IS THE MONTESSORI METHOD?
BY  PAULA POLK LILLARD

Many people today know Montessori is an educational philosophy and method developed by Maria Montessori, the first woman to be graduated from the University of Rome Medical School, in 1896. They often miss, however, the significance of her medical background. She did not approach children's education with the traditional question "How can I give children the knowledge I know they will need to make a success of their lives?" The children she was given to care for as a young doctor were the insane, shut away in the asylums of Rome .

How ludicrous to think in terms of education for success in the world. Rather, Montessori sought a means whereby she might reach the humanity hidden within these "poor idiots," as she called them. It was this open-minded approach to education that made possible a great discovery. The keepers of the chil­dren in the asylums complained that they were so greedy, they would snatch up any crumb of food left on the floor. Montessori watched more closely and saw what others had failed to observe. The children did not eat these crumbs but began to manipulate and play with them. She regarded this spontaneous interest as a sign they could be reached on a sensory level. She traveled to France to study the work of two French doctors who had worked with deaf and neurologically damaged children in the early nineteenth century, Jean Itard and Edouard Seguin.

With their insights to aid her, Montessori began work with her children (now housed in the State Orthophrenic School which she directed) in 1898. For two years she labored day and night, developing her materials and methods. So successful were they that her children were heralded in the press around the world for passing Italian public-school examinations in reading and writing. This phenom­enon upset Montessori, for she knew her un­fortunate children could not equal children of normal intelligence. Realizing something was radi­cally wrong with traditional approaches to education, she returned to the University to study psychology, philosophy, and anthropology, becoming a Professor of Anthropology in 1904.

In 1907 Montessori was given her first opportunity to work with children of normal intelligence. She was to direct a day-care center in a housing project in. the slum section of San Lorenzo in Rome . Mon­tessori approached these children in the same spirit she had her mentally deficient children. She had not determined what she wanted to teach them; instead, she simply observed and recorded their responses to her special equipment. To her amazement, the chil­dren showed an incredible 

spontaneous repetition of certain actions and a concentration of the deepest level in response to the ma­terials. These phenomena were evi­dent to a degree not observable in the mentally deficient children at the Institute. Even more surprising, they appeared to be contented and rested after their labors, as though some great inner need was being satisfied.

As Montessori's children daily became more involved with the materials, other phenomena oc­curred. The children demonstrated they thrived on being free to choose their own materials and activities. Interestingly, they gradually ignored the dolls and other toys Montessori had put in the room, and she even­tually removed them. They dis­played a total disregard for either rewards or punishments in relation to their work. They appeared daily more self-confident, self-disciplined, and loving toward each other.

Many people understand that Montessori education involves a particular environment that is struc­tured to meet the needs of children, that this environment includes ma­terials to be manipulated, and that amazing benefits somehow accrue to the child. Common sense tells one, however, there must be more to it than merely placing children and materials side by side in the same environment. How, for example, do Montessori children learn to write and read? (In Montessori writ­ing precedes reading.) An indirect preparation for writ­ing begins with the Daily Living ex­ercises, which are presented to the child when he enters Montessori at age three. These are a series of carefully laid-out activities involv­ing those tasks the child sees ac­complished daily in his own home, and which, therefore, he spontane­ously seeks to imitate: the washing of hands, ironing, preparation of food, etc. The purpose of these exercises is not to learn the particular skill involved, although this accomplishment undoubtedly will aid the child's self-confidence and inde­pendence. It is rather to enable the child to develop control of move­ment, concentration, self-discipline, and the ability to complete a cycle of activity. Without this early ex­perience with the Daily Living exer­cises, any further exposure to the Montessori materials is fruitless, for the child will be unable to con­trol his own mind and movements even when he wishes to.

A second series of activities in the indirect preparation for writing is the Sensorial Materials. These are materials the child spontane­ously chooses to work with because they fulfill his instinctive desire to touch, taste, and feel the world about him. Through the manipula­tion of a sphere or a cube, different lengths of rods, or fitting cylinders into holes, the child begins to order his perceptions of size and space. Muscular movement needed for writing is refined by the use of the thumb and index finger to grasp tiny knobs used in much of this equipment. Control of a pencil is developed by tracing of metal frames with geometric insets such as a circle.

After Daily Living exercises and Sensorial Materials have laid a solid background, the teacher begins to present sounds to the child. She may say "sss," "some, Susie, bus. Can you hear sss? Can you think of any words with sss?" Because at age three the child is still in his sensitive' period for language, he enjoys this game. One day, when the teacher knows the child is aware of distinct sounds, she says "Do you know you can see sss, you can even feel it!" She then takes a tablet with a sandpaper S on it, and very slow­ly, conveying by her manner the mystery of the written symbol, traces the letter S with her index finger. She invites the child to do this also. After a number of the sounds of the letters-but not all­

have been learned in this way, the Movable Alphabet is introduced. This is a box containing the letters of the alphabet sorted into com­partments for easy usage. Sound and symbol are now placed on a mat in left-to-right progression. The child reproduces in this way his own words, then phrases, sen­tences, and finally stories. "D-o-g" is sounded out by the teacher and placed on a mat in a left-to-right progression. The child reproduces in this way his own words, then phrases, sentences, and finally stories.

The time comes when the child does not want to put away his story, as he must with the Movable Alphabet. Because of the early in­direct development of the skills needed for writing (the muscular control for holding the pencil through the gripping of tiny knobs on the materials, the tracing of the metal insets, the muscle memory developed by tracing the sandpa­per letters), the child now can pick up a pencil and write his own story. Other materials follow which present the intricacies of nonphonetic spelling and grammar. The creativity in Montessori is apparent here, for not many educational methods make it possible for a four- or five-year-old to compose his own stories, in spite of the fact this is the time when he shows a spontaneous and unselfconscious desire to do so.

Because he knows what he has just written, the child comes to reading by the back door, as it were. He reads his own stories to himself and others. When at last he selects a book to read, he already knows how. Our reading child may be anywhere from five to nine, but he is most likely six, no younger than his non-Montessori compatriot in the first grade. The point then is not early reading, but an introduc­tion to reading so carefully pro­gramed and well thought out in terms of the child's own needs, in­terests, and abilities that its success is guaranteed. 

Well done, then, Montessori eucation lead to self-confident and self-disciplined children who acquire a sound backgroun for academic and creative skills and interests.  Is it for you?

The question is purposefully stated: "Is it for you?" not "Is it for your child?" The philosophy and methods Montessori developed are based on universal laws of child growth and can certainly be helpful to your child. Whether Montessori will be helpful to you, however, is another question, for the answer depends

upon your conception of your function as a parent. Montessori viewed parents as guardians, not as creators, for it is the child who must create himself. He is given special powers for this task which the parents must seek to under­stand and collaborate with. How are they to do this? First, they must develop their innate capacity to ob­serve, enjoy, and empathize with their young. On a practical level, this means a frequent willingness to suspend the adult's achievement oriented view of life and to adopt the much slower pace of the child, a difficult thing to do!

Secondly, it means preparing a home environment in which the needs of the child are met. This means that as a tiny baby the child must be accepted into the social life of the family and not isolated in a nursery, where his need to ab­sorb the world about him is thwarted. As he grows, his need to crawl and eventually to walk must be accepted and encouraged. Mon­tessori did not believe the extensive use of playpens, cribs, and strollers is necessary. Rooms can be made safe for toddlers; low beds are much safer than cribs, which the adventurous child sooner or later climbs out of; walks can be set at a child's pace and distance.

As the child grows, he wants to touch and handle the same objects in the environment he sees others using. The parent must encourage this, for it is the child's innate un­derstanding that he must eventual­ly take his place in the world as an adult that compels him to this be­havior. Inevitably, the child will want to explore things in the envi­ronment which belong to others. Where possible, a substitution should be made. For example, it is not mother's pen but one like it of his own the child wishes. Because "don't touch" is synonymous with "don't learn" for the young child, it should be saved for only those situations where there is no other recourse. There is no question here of abuse, however, of either ma­terial things or the rights of others. The child has no way of develop­ing respect for his environment and the people within it if appropriate limits are not set.

The parent must so arrange the home that he helps the child master his environment and become in­creasingly independent of the par­ent's help. The child's room should be simple and orderly. Everything in it should be appropriate for his size and ability: low shelves with a few well-chosen toys, a low table with brush and comb, mirror, a pitcher and bowl for washing and brushing teeth.  low hooks to put his clothes on-the latter to be chosen for the ease with which he can get in and out of them, an accessible place to put his soiled clothes, hang up his towel etc.

It is the child's instinct and de­sire 'for work and serious accom­plishment that enable him to de­velop a healthy self concept and realistic self-esteem. Therefore, he should be allowed to observe and participate in his parents' activities at the kitchen sink or garage work­bench. An appropriate stool helps him into the adults' world, and the parent has only to slow his pace and expectations for the child to join him in making his own sand­wich and jello or birdhouse. An overabundance of toys and many hours of television rob the child of his opportunity for these accom­plishments and create an unnatural passivity and apathy toward life.

If you accept the Montessori viewpoint of parenthood, you may want to send your child to a Mon­tessori school to complement your approach to him at home. You should know, however, what to ex­pect from this experience. For ex­ample, children in Montessori are free to choose their own activities with only indirect guidance from the prepared environment, older children, and teacher. Children of parents who tend to overcontrol and manipulate them, albeit uncon­sciously, often use the Montessori classroom for a much needed rest from the pressuring they receive at home. The Montessori environment is good for them, but they will not be reading by 5 or 6, or perhaps even 7. This is nothing to be con­cerned about, of course, but anxious parents may create a problem where none should exist.

All this freedom of activity in the classroom is balanced with dis­cipline and structure. The Montes­sori environment is orderly, and the limits of social behavior are strictly adhered to. Dr. Montessori believed permissiveness, far from leading to freedom for the child, made him a prisoner of his own destructive feelings and acts.

Before selecting a Montessori school for your child, you should check carefully those available to you. There is no franchise on the name Montessori, and even schools run by certified directresses are sometimes of poor quality. The only way to determine whether the school you choose is a good one is to observe it for an entire morn­ing's session. Reading a good introductory book on Montessori may help you to have more confidence

in your decision. But whatever you do, don't let anyone talk you out of seeing for yourself where you are going to leave your three-year-old for several hours a day.

If you cannot find or begin a good Montessori school near you (most of the 1,000 Montessori schools in the United States were begun by parents), you may wish to structure some simple learning experiences at home. Many of the exercises pre­liminary to writing and reading, for example, could be worked out at home. It is not wise to pursue this course, however, unless you are certain you can approach it in a light-hearted manner. If you find yourself taking it too seriously, it may mean you have unrealistic ex­pectations for its success, and you will be programming both your child and yourself for frustration and failure. Better to spend your time sharing quiet walks in the woods!

Is Montessori for you? It is if you can raise your child knowing that he belongs not to you but to him­self, and that your job as a parent is one of temporary privilege and responsibility: the aiding and ob­serving of another life as it unfolds.

Paula Polk Lillard has long been active in educational research.  She is the author of Montessori:  A Modern Approach.

Reprinted from August 1972 issue of Town and Country by the Montessori Society with permission from the author and Town and Country Magazine.