Spontaneous Activity in Education   By: Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

SPONTANEOUS ACTIVITY IN EDUCATION

BY

MARIA MONTESSORI

AUTHOR OF "THE MONTESSORI METHOD," "PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY," ETC.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY FLORENCE SIMMONDS

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NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1917, by FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages .

Printed in the U.S.A.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

A SURVEY OF THE CHILD'S LIFE

Laws of the child's psychical life paralleled by those of its physical.

Current objections to a system of education based upon "liberty"

Hygiene has freed the infant from straps and swaddling clothes and left it free to develop

Education must leave the soul free to develop

Principle of liberty in education not a principle of abandonment

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

Supplying the child's physical needs is not sufficient

Child's social rights overlooked in the administration of orphan asylums

Poor child's health and property confiscated in the custom of wet nursing

We recognize justice only for those who can defend themselves

How we receive the infants that come into the world.

Home has no furnishings adapted to their small size

Society prepares a mockery for their reception in the shape of useless toys

Child not allowed to act for himself

Constant interruption of his activities prevents psychical growth

Bodily health suffers from spiritual neglect

With man the life of the body depends on the life of the spirit.

Reflex action of the emotions on the body functions

Child's body requires joy as much as food and air

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

Domination of the child's will the basis of education

It is the teacher who forms the child's mind. How he teaches.

Teacher's path beset with difficulties under the present system

Advanced experts prepare the schemata of instruction

Some outlines of "model lessons" used in the schools

Comparison of a "model lesson" for sense development with the Montessori method

Experimental psychology, not speculative psychology, the basis of Montessori teaching

False conceptions of the "art of the teacher" illustrated by model lessons

Positive science makes its appearance in the schools

Discoveries of medicine: distortions and diseases

Science has not fulfilled its mission in its dealings with children.

Diseases of school children treated, causes left undisturbed

Discoveries of experimental psychology: overwork; nervous exhaustion

Science is confronted by a mass of unsolved problems.

Laws governing fatigue still unknown

Toxines produced by fatigue and their antitoxins

Joy in work the only preventative of fatigue

Real experimental science, which shall liberate the child, not yet born

CHAPTER III

MY CONTRIBUTION TO EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE

The organization of the psychical life begins with the characteristic phenomenon of attention.

Incident which led Dr. Montessori to define her method

Psychical development is organized by the aid of external stimuli, which may be determined experimentally.

Tendency to develop his latent powers exists in the child's nature

Environment should contain the means of auto education

External stimuli may be determined in quality and quantity.

Educative material used should contain in itself the control of error

Quantity of material determined by the advent of abstraction in pupil

Relation of stimuli to the age of the pupil