The Montessori Method

pedagogical issue is never wholly an issue of high principle.

. Montessori believes in liberty for the pupil because she thinks of life “as a superb goddess, ever advancing to new conquests.”

Dr. Montessori did her early work in Rome should be borne in mind. She had her pupils almost all day long, practically controlling their lives in their waking hours; and her pupils came for the most part from families of the laboring class.

work with objects designed for formal sensory, motor, and intellectual training should be done individually or in purely voluntary groups; imaginative and social activity should be carried on in regulated groups.

whereas the Montessori children spend almost all their time handling things, largely according to their individual inclination and under individual guidance, kindergarten children are generally engaged in group work and games with an imaginative background and appeal.

The groupings of the Montessori children are largely free and unregulated

kindergarten extends the range of the child’s social consciousness through the imagination.

The Montessori programme involves much direct social experience, both in the general life of the school and in the manual work done by the pupils

Montessori children often are, in a real social enterprise, such as that of serving dinner, cleaning the room, caring for animals, building a toy house, or making a garden

The Montessori pupil does about as he pleases, so long as he does not do any harm.