The Montessori method

Maria Montessori’s method of educating children, which she details in this book, is based on a conception of liberty for the pupil; it entails formal training of separate sensory, motor, and mental capacities; and leads to rapid and substantial mastery of the elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic. The Montessori Method is important because it springs from a combination of sympathy and intuition, social outlook, scientific training, intensive study of educational problems and the author’s unusual experience as a teacher and educational leader. Following opening statements from J. McV. Hunt and Jaan Valsiner, Maria Montessori discusses topics including pedagogical methods used in the children’s houses, discipline, diet, gymnastics, manual labor, education of the senses, intellectual education, methods of teaching reading and writing, language in childhood, and teaching of numeration.