[CHAPTER I]
a survey of the child's life
Laws of the child's psychical life paralleled by those of its physical.PAGE
[Current objections to a system of education based upon "liberty"]1
[Hygiene has freed the infantfrom straps and swaddling clothes and left it free to develop]2
[Education must leave the soul free to develop]5
[Principle of liberty in education not a principle of abandonment]9
The liberty accorded the child of to-day is purely physical.
Civil rights of the child in the twentieth century.
[Removal of perils of disease a step toward physical liberation]10
[Supplying the child's physical needs is not sufficient]11
[Child's social rights overlooked in the administration of orphan asylums]12
[Poor child's health and property confiscated in the custom of wet nursing]13
[We recognize justice only for those who can defend themselves]16
How we receive the infants that come into the world.
[Home has no furnishings adapted to their small size]17
[Society prepares a mockery for their reception in the shape of useless toys]18
[Child not allowed to act for himself]20
[Constant interruption of his activities prevents psychical growth]21
[Bodily health suffers from spiritual neglect]23
With man the life of the body depends on the life of the spirit.
[Reflex action of the emotions on the body functions]24
[Child's body requires joy as much as food and air]26
[CHAPTER II]
a survey of modern education
The precepts which govern moral education and instruction.
[Child expected to acquire virtues by imitation, instead of development]28
[Domination of the child's will the basis of education]29
It is the teacher who forms the child's mind. How he teaches.
[Teacher's path beset with difficulties under the present system]30
[Advanced experts prepare the schemata of instruction]33
[Some outlines of "model lessons" used in the schools]33
[Comparison of a "model lesson" for sense development with the Montessori method]42
[Experimental psychology, not speculative psychology, the basis of Montessori teaching]44
[False conceptions of the "art of the teacher" illustrated by model lessons]46
Positive science makes its appearance in the schools50
Discoveries of medicine: distortions and diseases50
Science has not fulfilled its mission in its dealings with children.
[Diseases of school children treated, causes left undisturbed]52
Discoveries of experimental psychology: overwork; nervous exhaustion57
Science is confronted by a mass of unsolved problems.
[Laws governing fatigue still unknown]60
[Toxines produced by fatigue and their antitoxins]62
[Joy in work the only preventative of fatigue]62
[Real experimental science, which shall liberate the child, not yet born]64
[CHAPTER III]
my contribution to experimental science
The organization of the psychical life begins with thecharacteristic phenomenon of attention.
[Incident which led Dr. Montessori to define her method]67
Psychical development is organized by the aid of externalstimuli, which may be determined experimentally.
[Tendency to develop his latent powers exists in the child's nature]69
[Environment should contain the means of auto-education]72
External stimuli may be determined in quality and quantity.
[Educative material used should contain in itself the control of error]74
[Quantity of material determined by the advent of abstraction in pupil]77
[Relation of stimuli to the age of the pupil]79
Material of development is necessary only as a starting point.
[Corresponds to the terra firma from which the aeroplane takes flight and to which it returns to rest]81
[Establishing of internal order, or "discipline"]82
[Psychical growth requires constantly new and more complex material]83
[Difference between materials of auto-education and the didactic material of the schools]85
Psychical truths.
["Discipline" the first external sign of a psychical reaction to the material]87
[Initial disorder in Montessori schools]88
[Psychical progress not systematic but "explosive in nature"]89
[Birth of individuality]91
[Intellectual crises are accompanied by emotion]93
[Older child beginning in system, chooses materials in inverse order]96
[Course of psychical phenomena explained by diagrams]97
[Tests of Binet and Simon arbitrary and superficial]110
[Problems of psychical measurement]110
[Observing the child's moral nature]114
[Transformation of a "violent" child and of a "spying" child in a Montessori school]115
[Polarization of the internal personality]121
Guide to psychological observation.
[Work]122
[Conduct]123
[Obedience]123
[CHAPTER IV]
the preparation of the teacher
[The school is the laboratory of experimental psychology]125
[Qualities the new type of teacher must possess]128
[CHAPTER V]
environment
[Physical hygiene in the school]142
[The requirements of psychical hygiene]143
Free movement.
[Misconceptions of physical freedom]148
[Action without an aim fatigues]149
[Work of "preservation" rather than "production" suitable to children]150
[CHAPTER VI]
attention
[Awakens in answer to an impulse of "spiritual hunger"]153
[Attention cannot be artificially maintained by teacher]155
[Liberty the experimental condition necessary for studying phenomena of attention]157
[Child's perception of an internal development makes the exercise pleasant and induces him to prolong it]158
[External stimuli powerless without an answering internal force]158
[A natural internal force directs psychical formation]161
[New pedagogy provides nourishment for internal needs]161
[Organization of knowledge in the child's mind]162
[Teacher directs, but does not interrupt phenomena of attention]165
[Material offered should correspond to psychical needs]166
[CHAPTER VII]
will
[Its relation to attention]170
[Manifested in action and inhibition]170
[Opposite activities of the will must combine to form the personality]173
[Powers of the will established by exercise, not by subjection]174
[Persistence in effort the true foundation of will]178
[Decision the highest function of the will]180
[Development of will depends on order and clarity of ideas]185
[Power of choice, which precedes decision, should be strengthened]185
[Need of exercise for the will paralleled with need of muscular exercise]187
[Fallacy of educating the child's will by "breaking it"]189
["Character" the result of established will, not of emulation]190
[CHAPTER VIII]
intelligence
[Liberating the child means leaving him to "his own intelligence"]195
[How the intelligence of the child differs from the instincts of animals]196
[Intelligence the actual means of formation of the inner life]197
[Hygiene of intelligence]198
[Intelligence awakens and sets in motion the central nervous mechanisms]200
[In an age of speed, man has not accelerated himself]201
[Swift reactions an external manifestation of intelligence]202
[Ability to distinguish and arrange the characteristic sign of intelligence]202
[Montessori "sensory exercises" make it possible for the child to distinguish and classify]203
[The Montessori child is sensitive to the objects of his environment]207
[Educational methods in use do not help the child to distinguish]207
[Power of association depends on ability to distinguish dominant characteristics]209
[Individuality revealed in association by similarity]211
[By means of attention and internal will the intelligence accomplishes the work of association]212
[Judgment and reasoning depend on ability to distinguish]213
[Activities of association and selection lead to individual habits of thought]214
[Importance of acquiring ability to reason for oneself]214
[Genius the possession of maximum powers of association by similarity]222
[Genius of errors in association and reasoning which have impeded science]227
[The consciousness can only accept truths for which it is "expectant"]233
[The intelligence has its peculiar perils, from which it should be guarded]239
[CHAPTER IX]
imagination
The creative imagination of science is based upon truth.
[Imagination based on reality differs from that based on speculation]241
[Speculative imagination akin to original sin]243
[Education should direct imagination into creative channels]244
Truth is also the basis of artistic imagination.
[All imagination based on sense impressions]245
[Non-seasonal impressions—spiritual truths]246
[Education in sense perception strengthens imagination]248
[Perfection in art dependent on approximation to truth]252
[Exercise of the intelligence aids imagination]254
Imagination in children.
[Immature and therefore concerned with unrealities]255
[Should be helped to overcome immaturity of thought]255
[False methods develop credulity, akin to insanity]258
[Period of credulity in the child prolonged for the amusement of the adult]263
["Living among real possessions" the cure for illusions]264
Fable and religion.
[Religion not the product of fantasy]266
[Fable in schools does not prepare for religious teaching]267
The education of the imagination in schools for older children.
[Environment and method oppressive]269
["Composition" introduced to foster imagination]270
[How composition is "taught"]271
[Imagination cannot be forced]275
The moral question.
[Contributions of positive science to morality]275
[Science raises society to level of Christian standards]285
[Parents' failure to teach sex morality]288
[Probable effects of experimental psychology in field of morals]291
[Experimental psychology should be directed to the schools]292
[Progress of medicine and its relation to new psychology]292
[Childish naughtiness a parental misconception]295
[Infant life different from the adult]297
[Hindering the child's development a moral question for the adult]299
[Need of the child "to touch and to act"]300
[How the adult prevents him from learning by doing]302
[Conceptions of good and bad conduct in the school]305
[Mutual aid a high crime in the school]306
[Surveillance for vicious habits originating in the school]309
[Developing the "social sentiment" in the school]310
["A moral with every lesson" the teacher's aim]311
[Injurious system of prizes and punishments the school's mainstay]312
[The fallacy of "emulation"]315
[Necessity of reforming the school]321
[Good conduct dependent on satisfaction of intellectual needs]323
[Mere sensory education inadequate]325
[Love, the preservative force of life]326
[Christianity teaches necessity of mutual love]329
The education of the moral sense.
[Moral education must have basis of feeling]331
[Adult the stimulus by which child's feeling is exercised]331
[How and when the adult should offer affection]332
The essence of moral education.
[Importance of perfecting spiritual sensibility]336
[Necessity of properly organized environment]336
[Helping the child distinguish between right and wrong]336
["Internal sense" of right and wrong]337
[Moral conscience capable of development]340
Our insensibility.
[Virtuous person and criminal not detected by contact]343
[The War as an example of moral insensibility]345
[Insensibility distinguished from death of the soul]345
[Spiritually, man must either ascend or die]346
Morality and religion.
[Conversion, the sudden establishing of moral order]347
[The spirit enslaved by sentiments hostile to love]349
The religious sentiment in children.
[Crises of conscience and spontaneous religious feeling]351
[Some original observations by Dr. Montessori]352

SPONTANEOUS ACTIVITY
IN EDUCATION

[I]

A SURVEY OF THE CHILD'S LIFE

[Top]

The general laws which govern the child's psychical health have their parallel in those of its physical health.—Many persons who have asked me to continue my methods of education for very young children on lines that would make them suitable for those over seven years of age, have expressed a doubt whether this would be possible.

The difficulties they put forward are mainly of a moral order.

Should not the child now begin to respect the will of others rather than his own? Should he not some day brace himself to a real effort, compelling him to carry out a necessary, rather than a chosen, task? Finally, should he not learn self-sacrifice, since man's life is not a life of ease and enjoyment?