Pedagogical Anthropology

by Maria Montessori

From the biological side, a consideration of these types serves merely as an illustration of an important law: the essential part of the organism (the vertebral column) is less variable than the accessory parts (the limbs).

Summary of the Types of Stature

According to the relative development of bust and limbs we have distinguished three types, the macrosceles, the brachysceles and the mesatisceles, within their respective limits of oscillation.

Since the type of stature gives us a proportion between the different parts of an individual, it constitutes a fundamental criterion for a morphological judgment of the personality. That is, it leads to a diagnosis of the individual constitution, with which are associated not only the "character" but also certain predispositions to disease.

A knowledge of these types shows us the necessity we educators are under of taking into consideration the individual pupils, each of whom may have separate needs, tendencies and forms of development; and of demanding separate schools, in which even the methods of moral education must differ. Because men are not only not all adapted to the same forms of work, but they are not even all adapted to the same standards of morality. And since it is our duty to assume the task of aiding the biological development and the social adaptation of the new generations, it will also be part of our task to correct defective organisms, and at the same time to correct the types of mental and moral inferiority.

In the following chart we may summarise the points of view from which we have studied the types of stature:

SYNOPTIC CHART

Types of stature	Macrosceles	long legs, short bust.
	Brachysceles	short legs, long bust.
Variations in types of stature	Normal	Race	Mongols (brachysceles).
Tasmanians (macrosceles).
Dark Mediterranean race (mesatisceles tending toward brachyscelia).
Blond race (mesatisceles tending toward macroscelia).
Sex		Woman more brachyscelous.
		Man more macroscelous.
Age		Childhood brachyscelous.
		Old age macroscelous.
Pathologically abnormal.	De Giovanni's hyposthenic types	Macrosceles predisposed to tuberculosis.
	De Giovanni's hypersthenic types.	Brachysceles predisposed predisposed to diseases of the heart.
Criminals.	Macrosceles	parasites.
	Brachysceles	violent.
Infantile types	Achondroplastic nanism.
	Gigantism.

Summary of the Scientific Principles Illustrated in the Course of our Discussion

Biological Laws.—a. Growth is not only an augmentation in volume, but also an evolution in form.