Since 1936, when her seminal work 'The Secret of Childhood' was first published, Maria Montessori has been the leading figure in promoting a holistic education approach to children of all ages. Concepts as radical as the three fundamental freedoms (the freedom to repeat work, the freedom to move around the classroom and the freedom to choose which work they want to do) that each child should have, blast forth form the pages like a breaking news story. However, the 'secrets' in the book quickly surface as Montessori begins with a look at the traditional perception of the child. She believed that the child was going to be the major concern of the twentieth century and when the education systems that exist today are compared to those of the turn of the 20th century, it can easily be argued that she was right.
She does not end with feeble predictions, however, and goes on to talk of how adults have failed children and will continue to do so unless they change their attitude to children. For some this book will not turn out to be the rainbows and cuddly toys that they traditionally associate with books concerning young children! She pulls no punches in condemning those who have held children in such low regard for so long.
The psychological features present in the new born child, feature strongly in the early part of the book. Montessori cites the work of Hugo de Vries as a precursor to her work on 'Sensitive Periods', which are essentially, periods of time throughout the child's development where he is able to learn certain life skills. Once these periods are missed, it is unlikely that the child will be able to learn the skill, ever. These skills include speech, mobility and several others. From this snippet alone, it would seem that this work is very important to all parents, or people who are thinking about being parents.
Next there is a look at 'Order' and how important a well ordered environment is to the child. It is not as simple as putting everything away so that the child can not hurt him or herself with things or break things. Montessori believes that the child should be encouraged to explore the environment. She believes that the only real way that the child can do this, is if the environment is maintained so that the child can become familiar with its contents. The environment, she is careful to add, is not solely made up of the physical rooms and items, it is also made up of actions, sounds and everything that a child is exposed to.
The second part of the book focuses on how to educate the child. As with much that Montessori writes, there is a certain spirituality contained in the book that seems to help adults in their comprehension of the fact that the child is to be perceived as a whole being. Throughout the section that tells a brief history of the first school, there is clearly a more metaphyical nature to this approach of education.
The first school was opened in 1907, called Casa dei Bambini. The observations that Montessori took here are the basis for the Method she is famous for and also the overall essence of this book. Montessori, unlike most other educators, designed her classrooms to be 'hands-on' learning environments. She fashioned the equipment based on the work of 19th century education innovators, Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard and Edouard Séguin, with an emphasis on 'Sensorial' education and what she called 'Practical Life' exercises. (These exercises consisted of everyday tasks such as washing hands and buttoning coats, which she determined, led the children to higher independence). The materials were very didactic and allowed her to focus on the theory that she had of the child needing work for the hands.
In the next section, she discusses the observations that she was able to make from the children in this setting. As mentioned earlier, she determined that there were three essential freedoms that the child needed to have in order to be successful. These freedoms are interspersed with observations about various other psychological behaviors that the children displayed. Their propensity for 'order' astounded Montessori and soon she allowed them to put the materials away, instead of having the teacher of the classroom do it. This, seemingly, small incident and many more like it, are the makings of Montessori. Her focus on detail is what allowed her to see beyond what other adults had either failed to see or had chosen to ignore.
She continues with interesting information concerning the child's lack of attraction to toys that were placed in the room, due to their focus on the didactic materials that were present instead. She also discusses traditional rewards and punishment systems and how children are typically turned off and unaffected in the way that the system is designed to work. She writes instead, about 'Spontaneous Discipline' which she infers is directly related to the sense of order and the work for the hands.
She continues the controversial (in some circles) theme of the book that introduces the role of the child as that of 'worker'. She exponentially speaks of the instincts that the child shows for work and follows this with the differences between the adult's work and the work of the child. Throughout the whole book, the focus that Montessori puts on elevating the child to a higher plane than that of the adult, is constantly noticeable.
Her theories of inner growth through work are tied together in the last section also and we see the anthropological expertise that Montessori has brought to this study. She shows the steps that each of us go through to become an adult.
In recognizing the wisdom of this great observer of people, this book goes a long way to helping the argument that the child-focused approach is the finest way to create great adults from children.
