Pre-Primary Teachers'

Training
Advanced Diploma Course
CONDUCTED JOINTLY BY
NETAJI SUBHAS
OPEN UNIVERSITY
Sarat Bhavan, 1 Woodburn Park,
Kolkata 700 020
Phone: 2287-0157 Fax: (033)2287-1082
E-mail: nsou@cal2.vsnl.net.in &
nsou_university@hotmail.com
AND
LEARNING & LIVING
RESOURCES SOCIETY
3B Mani Vatika, 40/1 Dharmatala
Road, Kolkata 700 042 Phone: 6534-
3867
E-mail: mitali.llrs@gmail.com
Notes
Notes
COURSE STUDY MATERIAL FOR
PRE-PRIMARY TEACHERS' TRAINING
ONE-YEAR DIPLOMA COURSE
OF NETAJI SUBHAS OPEN UNIVERSITY
Prepared by
Learning & Living Resources Society
Planning and Design
Mitali Gupta and Ranajay Gupta
Text, Diagrams and Illustrations Copyright
Learning & Living Resources Society 2007
No part of the text of this book may be copied by
electronic or other means without the express
permission of the Society.
July 2007
i
Notes
Foreword
T
he Pre-Primary Teachers' Training Certificate and Diploma Courses have
proved to be among our most popular courses. Keeping in mind the
importance accorded pre-primary education in the Eighty-sixth
Amendment to the Constitution of India, we are integrating and upgrading the
two courses as a new twelve-month, two-semester Diploma Course.
Every course introduced by Netaji Subhas Open University shares a common
characteristic: it provides an opportunity for the student to be educated in the
subject of his or her choice. This implies that instead of prejudging aptitudes, we
evaluate the student through regular assessment. The Pre-Primary Teachers'
Training Course, which is one the most popular of our courses, is no exception; it is
a carefully formulated syllabus based on the system discovered by Dr Montessori
and incorporating its ideal components of child development. To that has been
added contemporary information, thought and analysis on the subject.
An important addition in the new course is a paper on the special needs child.
Modern thought on education of a child with mental or physical challenges
advocates integrated education along with mainstream children. In this scenario,
any teacher could have a such a child in her or his class and it is important to be
sensitised to the needs of such children. The knowledge also helps detect
challenges and handicaps among children who may seem otherwise normal and
allow early intervention.
This study material has been written with practical learning in mind. Thanks are
due to all those whose untiring efforts, skills and creativity went into the writing,
editing and design of this book. It is an invaluable complement to an application-
oriented course like Pre-Primary Teachers' Training. There may be errors and
aberrations that are subject to amendment and correction in the future. But it is
hoped that in general the study material will find appreciation through
widespread use.
The more a student studies and practises from this study material, the easier it will
be to go deep into the subject. Due attention has been paid to make it student-
friendly in its language and presentation. Practical application of the syllabus will
help increase the receptivity and sensitivity of the student.
Dr Surabhi Banerjee
VICE-CHANCELLOR

...And so we discovered t hat educat ion is

not somet hing which t he t eacher does, but t hat
it is a nat ural process which develops
spont aneously in t he human being. It is not
acquired by list ening t o words, but in virt ue of
experiences in which t he child act s on his
environment . The t eachers t ask is not t o t alk,
but t o prepare and arrange a series of mot ives
for cult ural act ivit y in a special environment
made for t he child.

Dr Maria Montessori
THE ABSORBENT MIND
ii 66
Colour Tablet s help
children comprehend t he
similarit ies and differences
bet ween various colours,
hues and t int s
65 iii
Touch Board. The children
act ivat e t heir sense of
t ouch by running t heir
fingers over a series of
graded surfaces from t he
rough t o very smoot h.
iv 64
Pict ure Cards for
Complement ary Pairing
(left ) and Ident ical Pairing
(below)
63 v
vi 62
61 vii
viii 60
59 ix
x 58
Syllabus
PAPER GROUP TOPIC SUBTOPIC
I A EDUCATION THEORY
1
st
Semester
Idea of Education
Theories of Education
Idealism, Naturalism and Pragmatism
Historical Profile of Education in
India
Rights of the Child
The Role of the Teacher
2
nd
Semester
Child-centric Education
Rousseau, Froebel, Rabindranath,
Montessori
Kindergarten
Pre-primary and Primary Education:
Objectives, Curricula and Methods
I B MONTESSORI THEORY
1
st
Semester
Life of Dr. Maria Montessori
House of Children
The Montessori Method
Montessori Method/Activity,
Presentation and Groups for Exercises
of Practical Life,. Sensorial Activity,
Language and Arithmetic2
nd
Semester
Life of Dr. Maria Montessori
House of Children
PAPER GROUP TOPIC SUBTOPIC
The Prepared Environment
57 xi
We speak very little, only just as much as is essential.
We must draw the child's attention
We must demonstrate the activity repeatedly, so that the child
can understand the activity well.
Freedom
The children will work freely. The freedom to choose, freedom to
move and freedom to repeat must be ensured.
The child will do the activity as many times as he wants. If he makes
a mistake, the adult will encourage him to do it again.
Direct and
Indirect Aim
Direct Aim: The direct aim of Exer-cises of Practical Life is to develop
in the child skill in the following activities:
Primary motor skills
Care of the environment
Personal care
Social behaviour
Indirect Aim: The indirect aim of Exercises of Practical Life is to
achieve coordination between intelligence, will and motor activity
and to build an integrated personality.
Montessori Materials
Normalisation
Adult Preparation
II A DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
1
st
Semester
Child Development and Developmen-
tal Psychology
The Originality of Montessori
Psychology
Sensitive Periods
Observation
Emotional and Social Response in the
Very Young Child
2
nd
Semester
Sense Modalities
Sensory Adaptation
Motivation : Needs
Handling Emotions
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT Physical, Motor, Mental, Language
and Personality Development.
II B HEALTH & HYGIENE
1
st
Semester
The Healthy Mother
The Girl Child
Feeding Habits
Crying
Anxiety
Parental Control
2
nd
Semester
Child Safety
First Aid
Vaccination
Cleanliness
Traffic Rules
xii 56
PAPER GROUP TOPIC SUBTOPIC
II A EXERCISES OF PRACTICAL LIFE (Manipulative Skills)
1
st
Semester
SETTLING DOWN Preliminary Activities
Some Rules
PRELEMINARY MOTOR ACTIVITIES Mat Activities
Chowki
Posting
Button
Sorting by Shape, Size & Colour
Picture Pairing (IdentiCAL)
FRAME ACTIVITY Fixing Coat Button
Fixing Press BuTTON
TAKING CARE OF ONESELF Napkin, Medial, Diagonal
SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR Offering (Pen, Tray, Knife, Cup and
Saucer , Scissors, Jug, GLASS
TAKING CARE OF ONE'S Pouring (Cereals)
ENVIRONMENT
2
nd
Semester
SETTLING DOWN Action Songs
Walking on a Line
PRELIMINARY MOTOR ACTIVITIES Chair
Picture Pairing (Complementary)
Fishing
Puzzles
Threading Beads
TAKING CARE OF ONESELF Napkin (Four-fold )
Duster
FRAME ACTIVITY Bow Frame
Lace Frame (Shoe Lace)
TAKING CARE OF Pouring (Water)
ONE'S ENVIRONMENT
Dusting With Broom and
Dust Pan
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR Walking
Tidying Up Ones Desk
Putting Away Ones Shoes in a
Shoestand
another object. The pairing activity helps a child to form a
consciousness of each one of the physical properties and
differences between them.
b. Complementary Pairing: The properties of one is
complementary to the properties of the other; the two together
make a complete pair.
2. Gradation: Gradation activities with sensorial material helps a
child realise that each physical property differs in degrees and
intensities. Grading follows pairing because pairing as an activity
is easier than grading.
The Aims of Sensorial Activity
The Direct Aim of Sensorial Activity is to help make the child aware
of the physical properties of every object.
The Indirect Aims of Sensorial Activity are
1. Gaining precision in certain types of motor cordination; and
2. Preparing the child for the next phase of intellect-based activity
55 xiii
PAPER GROUP TOPIC SUBTOPIC
MANIPULATIVE SKILLS Pattern Boards
Building Bricks
II B SENSORIAL
1
st
Semester
VISUAL AND MUSCULAR SENSE Cylinder Blocks
Pink Tower
VISUAL SENSE Colour Tablets
1st

Box, 2nd Box
TACTILE SENSE Touch Board 1 & 2
ACOUSTIC SENSE Noise Box (Identical)
MUSCULAR SENSE Long Stairs
Geometrical Cabinet
NAME LESSON Presentation, Enrichment of Vocabu-
lary, Precision of Vocabulary,
Perfection of Pronunciation
2
nd
Semester
VISUAL AND Brown Stairs
MUSCULAR SENSE
VISUAL SENSE Colour Tablets (Gradation)
TACTILE SENSE Touch Board III, IV
FABRIC
ACOUSTIC SENSE Noise Box (Gradation)
MUSCULAR SENSE Geometrical Cabinet & Cards
Constructive Triangle
Geometrical Solids
Baric Tablets
OLFACTORY SENSE Smell Activity
GUSTATORY SENSES Taste Activity
IV A LANGUAGE ([e_)
1
st
Semester
--|. +|
. +|+. -.
.-+ - -|
--+ +|
-- |-v|--
child is eager to learn about all material things, and it is the duty of
the adults in its environment to facilitate his perception of the
qualities of objects in his environment, abstract as well as material.
This will help the child conceptualise. When he has a clear concept of
the material objects around him he can sort and classify them
according to their characteristics. Once he achieves this ability, he
gains the desire to consciously explore his environment. His world
expands with the development his imagination and his intelligence
grows sharp. Along with this, he can work in an organised,
disciplined manner.
Sensorial Material
Many of the objects we find in our environment are objects we need
everyday. Some are needed occasionally. The child gradually but
easily gains this information with the help of his senses. Side by side,
he is also developing morally, socially and culturally. All this is made
possible by the use of his senses. There are some tools and toys that
help this development. The tools that we used to develop an abstract
concept of all objects are the Sensorial Material.
What are the characteristic of Sensorial Material?
1. Sensorial Material should be physically proportionate to childs
capacity.
2. As a rule, there should be only one set of Sensorial Material.
3. Sensorial material must be displayed.
4. Maintaining the material is also one of our duties and the material
should be clean and intact.
5. The materials are not familiar to the children.
6. Sensorial materials are scientifically prepared; they are universal.
Presentations using Sensorial Material are
always given individually. Why?
1. Because different children are ready for sensorial exercises at
different times.
2. Because each movement in such a presentation is so precise, it is
not possible to show it to more than one child at a time.
What are the Basic Activities and Presentations
performed with Sensorial Material?
1. Pairing Activity: We have sensorial materials in pairs, where each
material is found in duplicate
a. Identical Pairing: A part of one of object is similar to a part of
xiv 54
PAPER GROUP TOPIC SUBTOPIC
. - .
||. + |
.. |+|. -. +|.. +|
. - t---
- -. .
- - - |. +|
Y U] %W [b
--|. +|
. +|+. -.
.-+ - -|
--+ +|
-- |-v|--
. - .
||. + |
.. |+|. -. +|.. +|
. - t---
- -. .
- - - |. +|
2
nd
Semester
||.
+ -
+| -. -|-| +|
-. - . + .| |
-|-. +|. -
|-|- +. |. -
- .-|. -|-
-. +| -
|+ |. - .--|-|
-.
+ -t- -
+. +- .|-|. .-
|. .-| - |
+|+ -. + + .
. t - --
+ -. |-| -|
Our brains have memory reserved for each sense. The more a sense is
exercised, the more the experiences are stored in the memory, the
sharper and more alert the sense becomes.
The Rle of the Senses
The senses are directly or indirectly involved in all the exercises given
in the Montessori environment.
What rle do the senses play in human life?
Every human works in his own environment. Man tries to shape the
world of nature into a world of his own and the instrument he uses
for that is his intelligence. Intelligence is needed to perform any
conscious work. Man builds on experience gathered from the past to
apply his intelligence according to the environment and nature of the
work. Intelligence is a spiritual force, not a material one. It is not
directly applied to the environment. There is data and information in
the environment around us. The senses gather that information. But
we cannot utilise the information unless our intelligence uses it to
arrive at a decision and apply it on the environment through the
limbs and organs of the body.
As soon as a child is
born, it starts sen-
sing its environ-
ment and absorbs
all the information
gathered through
the senses like a
sponge. Its intelli-
gence starts work-
ing right from birth.
But around the age
of 2 years, it be-
comes aware of the
knowledge re-
sources it creates.
After the first, phy-
sical, birth, the birth
of this awareness is
like a second birth.
The child enters a
new universe. The
Colour Tablet s help children comprehend t he similarit ies and
differences bet ween various colours, hues and t int s
53 xv
Q . [ - -. | -|
PAPER GROUP TOPIC SUBTOPIC
|+|
. -| - |+
IV A LANGUAGE (ENGLISH)
1
st
Semester
Preliminary Activities on Sound
Awareness
Sandpaper Letters
Group Activity on
Oral Sound Analysis
Movable Alphabets
Learning to Recognise and Match
Objects, Patterns and Sequences for
Vocabulary and Language Skills
Action Cards
Daily Living Activity Cards
Three-Letter Words
2
nd
Semester
Vocabulary Enrichment
Recognition of Script Letters
Phonetic Word Matching
Phonograms
Orthographic Complications
Homophones
Open Sounds
Opposites
OneMany
Preposition
Naming and Doing Words
Small Phrases
Small Sentences
SingularPlural
Who Am I ?
V A Arithmetic
1
st
Semester
children on low shelves. The material for EPL, Sensorial, Arithmetic
and Language are arranged according to the stage and course of
development. The children can see the Sensorial material on the
shelves right from the beginning and start showing interest in them
even as they do the Exercises of Practical Life.
How does EPL prepare the child for Sensorial Activity?
The child develops a general interest in the sensorial material kept
on the shelf after doing Exercises of Practical Life for some time.
EPL enhances their intelligence and their ability to work
independently, making them eager to explore new activities like
Sensorial Activities.
EPL instils self-confidence in the children. Sensorial activities are
presented individually; the self-confidence generated through EPL
is therefore important. The child initially simply observes the EPL
presentation and at one time wants to do it himself. Sensorial
activity teaches the child to observe with a purpose.
A child realises his mistakes as he works. When a child does
Exercises of Practical Life, he discovers the right way to do the
work as he does it, and thereby works to perfect it. In Sensorial
Activity, the material itself shows up the error, therefore the child
gets an opportunity for correcting his mistakes.
Only one set each of the Sensorial material is kept in a
Montessori environment. Why?
Sensorial Activities involve a large variety of materials. Therefore
more than one set is not required. 3 sets of each material are required
for EPL.
Our Senses
What senses do we possess?
Tactile Sense or the Sense of Touch: :: :: It helps the child distinguish
between different textures and grade them from rough to smooth.
The sense of touch is felt through the skin.
Gustus Sense or the Sense of Taste: It helps the child distinguish
between sweet, bitter, salt and sour. The organ of taste is the
tongue.
Visual Sense or the Sense of Sight: This sense helps the child with the
concept of colour, of shape and size. We see with our eyes.
Acoustic Sense or the Sense of Hearing: The child can distinguish
different kinds of sounds and their loudness with this sense. We
hear with our ears.
Olfactory Sense or the Sense of Smell: We smell all things around us
with our nose.
xvi 52
Number Rods
PAPER GROUP TOPIC SUBTOPIC
Sandpaper Figures
Number Rods And Cards
Spindle Box
0 Lesson
Chit Game
Card And Counters
Even And Odd
Static Decimal
Traditional Names (Seguin Board)
2
nd
Semester
Change Game
Snake Game
Addition Strip Board
Subtraction Strip Board
Multiplication Board
Division Board
Dot Board
Dynamic Multiplication
Group Division
Large Addition
Large Subtraction
Work Sheet
V B ARITHMETIC
1
st
Semester
Hundred Board
Addition Balloons
Subtraction Petals
Puzzle
Number pegs
2
nd
Semester
Coins
Add the Balloons
Match Mates Card
Petal Card
3 Sensorial Activity
S
ensorial activity
implies development.
The children's senses
are developed through
various exercises. The keener
the senses become, the
sharper the development of
intelligence and the intellect.
These activities are time-
sensitive they have to be
given according to age. When
the child first enters the
House of Children, he is
introduced to some
preliminary activities.
These preliminary activities
help the child settle down.
After that the child goes on to ECL and only after completing that he
is introduced to sensorial exercises.
Why do we give EPL first and not Sensorial Activity?
The materials used in Sensorial Activity do not attract the children at
first. They are unfamiliar. If they are introduced prematurely, they
may not interest the child she may even reject them. That is why
their interest, will and intelligence are stimulated through EPL before
we start with Sensorial work.
One thing should be remembered in this context. In a Montessori
House, the material for all the stages are kept accessible to the
Touch Board. The children act ivat e t heir sense of
t ouch by running t heir fingers over a series of graded
surfaces from t he rough t o very smoot h.
51 xvii
Abacus
PAPER GROUP TOPIC SUBTOPIC
Addition with Abacus
Subtraction with Abacus
Worksheets
VI A Cultural Activities
1
st
Semester
Art & Craft
Story & Rhymes
File
Sincerity & Observation
Conduct
2
nd
Semester
File And Group Discussion
THEME TEACHING Project With Teaching Theme And
Lesson Plan
Exhibition
Attendance/Punctuality & Regularity
VI B Professional Preparation Awareness about Children
with Special Needs
VISUAL IMPAIRMENT Introduction to Visual Impairment
Anatomy and Functions of the Eye
Causes and Prevention of Eye
Diseases
Characteristics of Eye Impairment
Identification and Early Intervention
Course and Syllabus
Application
2
nd
Semester
BRaille
Direct and Indirect Aim
Direct Aim: The direct aim of Exer-cises of Practical Life is to develop
in the child skill in the following activities:
Primary motor skills
Care of the environment
Personal care
Social behaviour
Indirect Aim: The indirect aim of Exercises of Practical Life is to
achieve coordination between intelligence, will and motor activity
and to build an integrated personality.
Pict ure Cards for Complement ary
Pairing (above) and Ident ical Pairing
(right )
1 50
I Pre-Primary Education:
The Open Window
A
child. Just learning to speak. As soon as she learns to walk,
she wants to run. A world awaits her. Her small hands
wants to grasp everything. A world awaits her touch, waits to
touch her in turn, to come within her grasp. Her tiny ears listen in
wonder, a thousand smells reach her tiny nose. All that
she feels, all that she experiences, she stores away in her
young brain. It may be young, yet it is a mind
with an extraordinary capacity to receive and
retain. Every moment she knows, every
moment she learns, every moment she
understands, every day she speaks new words,
every day her powers of expression reach new
heights.
Where will this process of development take her? What kind of
adult will she grow up into? That depends on her environment
natural and social. And on her nearest humans.
Apart from her parents, her first teacher will be one of those who
will play a most important rle in her life. Which is why a pre-
primary teacher bears an awesome social responsibility.
For she is the one who opens the windows of the child's mind.
there should be two to three sets of each material, so that the child
can get the material of her choice
Invitation
The children sit scattered in the House of Children. They are too
young to sit on chairs. They sit on mats laid on the floor.
The sit as they like, facing any way the like. When they first come to
the House, we play some light music or song. We make them realise
that if they sit down as soon as the music or song plays, the adults
will be pleased and show them something new a presentation.
Invitation: How do we call someone if their is an occasion at our
home? Every society in the world takes special care over an
invitation. We try to make it as attractive as possible through special
behaviour, ettiquette and rituals. When we send an invitation in
writing, it is not an ordinary letter. We make an invitation card,
taking care over its design, decoration and language and put it into a
special envelope.
We must take the same kind of care to invite a child so that she is
motivated to do the activity.
Presentation: When we give someone a gift, we take care to make it as
attractive as possible. We gift-wrap it in wrapping paper, we tie it up
with a ribbon. The receiver should want to see it. Similarly, when we
want a child to do an activity, we should not be casual about giving it
to her. We must demonstrate it with care, so that the child can observe
it with fascination. This is called Presentation.
When we make a Presentation, we observe certain rules:
We make one presentation at a time, never a number of
presentations together.
For each activity, we clearly demonstrate the movement of the
limbs and fingers (analysis of movement).
We speak very little, only just as much as is essential.
We must draw the child's attention
We must demonstrate the activity repeatedly, so that the child can
understand the activity well.
Freedom
The children will work freely. The freedom to choose, freedom to
move and freedom to repeat must be ensured.
The child will do the activity as many times as he wants. If he makes
a mistake, the adult will encourage him to do it again.
49 2
Course Objectives
At the end of this course, you will be able to
explain the significance of early childhood learning
explain the Montessori Theory of Education in the perspective of
other theories of early childhood learning
Describe the mental and physical development of a child from
birth to childhood
Demonstrate the application of Montessori theory and materials to
the motor and sensorial development of a child
Demonstrate the application of Montessori theory and materials to
the language development of a child
Demonstrate the application of Montessori theory and materials to
develop mathematical concepts in a child
Apply the skills and resources required by the Montessori system
Rights of the Child
The right of every child to education and its necessity for society
was not recognised till very recently. And the right of a pre-school
child to a proper education is even now not fully appreciated.
The UN Convention on Child Rights
Article 6 of the United Nations Convention on Child Rights requires
that every signatory state "shall ensure to the maximum extent
possible the survival and development of the child."
Article 28 of the Convention states:
1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and
with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis
of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:
(a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to
all;
(b) Encourage the development of different forms of secondary
education, including general and vocational education,
make them available and accessible to every child, and take
appropriate measures such as the introduction of free
education and offering financial assistance in case of need;
(c) Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of
capacity by every appropriate means;
(d) Make educational and vocational information and guidance
available and accessible to all children;
(e) Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools
and the reduction of drop-out rates.
Practical Life. As pointed out earlier, they are all common activities:
1 The care of one's own person
2 The care of one's physical environment
3 The care of one's social environment
These three kinds of activity is an essential and permanent part of
human life. As the child grows and observes her environment, she
shows interest in her elders' activities and wants to build a
relationship through them.
These activities are usually quite simple and the child can do them
with intelligence and care. That is why we have these activities in the
House of Children. The activities attract children and doing them
enhances their will power, power of movement and intelligence, and
they try to do the work to perfection.
Exercises of Practical Life
We can divide these activities into four classes:
1 Preliminary motor activities various kinds of games
2 Personal care keeping oneself clean
3 Care of the physical environment various housekeeping
activities
4 Social environment social behaviour and etiquette
We start with motor activities, then we proceed to activities related to
the social environment and behaviour. Then comes activities related
to personal care and the care of the physical environment.
Creating the Environment and Making the Activity Materials
A proper environment must be created. It should be such that the
child can do the activities easily and without inhibitions. The space
and opportunity should be conducive to this.
Appropriate materials must be kept so that the children can do
activities according to their needs and requirements.
The following must be kept in mind while making these materials:
they must help the child's development
they can be easily made or acquired
they can be easily maintained
their size and weight conforms to the child's physical
abilities
they will help enhance the child's will power, intelligence
and her ability to work independently
they will be familiar, they are things that the child sees or
has seen at home
3
2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that
school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the
childs human dignity and in conformity with the present
Convention.
3. States Parties shall promote and encourage international
cooperation in matters relating to education, in particular with a
view to contributing to the elimination of ignorance and illiteracy
throughout the world and facilitating access to scientific and
technical knowledge and modern teaching methods. In this regard,
particular account shall be taken of the needs of developing
countries.
The absence of the mention of pre-primary education highlights the
low awareness worldwide about the educational needs of early
childhood. However, Article 29 sets out
1. States Parties agree that the education of the child shall be directed
to:
(a) The development of the childs personality, talents and
mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential;
(b) The development of respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms, and for the principles enshrined in
the Charter of the United Nations;
(c) The development of respect for the childs parents, his or
her own cultural identity, language and values, for the
national values of the country in which the child is living,
the country from which he or she may originate, and for
civilizations different from his or her own;
(d) The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free
society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance,
equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic,
national and religious groups and persons of indigenous
origin;
(e) The development of respect for the natural environment.
These are principles that coincide with Dr Montessori's advocacy of
Peace Education for all children.
Pre-Primary Education: A Fundamental Right
Yet, this is a priority area after recent amendments to the Constitution of
India. The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 amended
the Constitution as follows:
2. Insertion of new article 21A.- After article 21 of the
Constitution, the following article shall be inserted,
namely:-
Right to Education
21A. The State shall provide free and compulsory education to
all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such
Exercises of Practical Life
Introduction
From morning to night, our lives are full of activity. We brush our
teeth, wash our faces, have a bath, put on clothes and shoes. We
sweep the floor. We pour water into glasses. When guests come, we
serve them. All these are activities of practical life.
These are activities that a child sees and observes since birth. She sees
them each day, because they are performed each they, in the same
way. Therefore these activities become extremely familiar. As soon as
she gains some control over her limbs, she wants to do them herself,
to participate. At first she wants to do what her mother does, then she
wants to emulate her father and brother and sister. And then she tries
to grab the broom and rag from the domestic help.
Adults do these activities because they have to. But children? They
want to do them because they want to grow up. These activities help
in their development physical, mental and in building
character. We keep these activities in our Montessori environment as
essential components of child development. We call them Exercises of
A set of pict ure cards t o familiarise children wit h various t hings found in pract ical life
47 4
manner as the State may, by law, determine..
3. Substitution of new article for article 45.- For article 45 of
the Constitution, the following article shall be substituted,
namely:- .
Provision for early childhood care and education to
children below the age of six years.
45. The State shall endeavour to provide early childhood
care and education for all children until they
complete the age of six years..
4. Amendment of article 51A.- In article 51A of the
Constitution, after clause (J), the following clause shall be
added, namely:-
(k) who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities
for education to his child or, as the case may be,
ward between the age of six and fourteen years..
Skills and Will
Despite the laudable aims of this amendment, little can be achieved
without
the awareness of the requirement of pre-primary education;
the political will to implement it; and
the infrastructure and trained manpower required to
implement it
Unfortunately, even with political will, pre-primary education cannot
go far without awareness of its necessity and the awareness that it
requires specially trained personnel to implement it.
Even today, there is a widespread belief that it takes no special
training to be a pre-primary or even primary school teacher.
If you successfully complete this course, you will realise that the pre-
primary stage is the most critical stage of education; and trained pre-
primary teachers are critical to this stage of education.
children vaccinated.
First Aid
Every home with a child should have a proper first aid kit with the
following:
Surgical Cotton Wool
An Antiseptic like Dettol or Savlon
Band Aid
Surgical Gauze
Sticking Plaster
Mercurochrome or a similar antiseptic lotion or ointment
Scissors
Burnol or similar ointment for burns
Oral Rehydration Solution
Gripe Water
It should be remembered that these are for emergency treatment only.
A doctor should be consulted at the earliest opportunity and no
medicines should be administered without medical advice.
Some First Aid Tips
If a child swallows an object like a coin, put the child head down
and slap his back
If a child cuts himself, wash the place with clean water and apply
an antiseptic like mercurochrome, tincture of iodine, benzene or
Dettol. If the wound is relatively large, cover it with a bandage to
avoid infection.
In cases of bruises, apply ice to stop the bleeding beneath the skin
If a child bumps his head, apply ice on the bump. In case of
concussion, the child should be immediately taken to hospital.
5 46
When the mother is sick and unable to keep watch
When the child is restless
When there is excitement at home the family is getting
ready for an outing, or guests are expected
When parents have arguments
When the play area has not been made safe
Safety Precautions
All medicines and chemicals should be kept out of reach of
children
All containers containing chemicals should be clearly
labelled
Electrical wiring should not be at a low level; wires should
not be left lying on the floor
Electrical outlets should be installed at a safe height
Pins, needles, matches, lighters, knive, scissors and sharp
instruments, plastic bags, heavy objects that are not too
heavy to be pulled or pushed by the child should be kept
safely out of reach of children
Floors should be clean and never slippery
Furniture and fittings should not have sharp edges or
points on which the child can hurt itself
Things should not be left lying on the floor
It is safer for a child to sit on the floor than on a chair
Commodes and toilet pans should be safely covered. It is
safer to use a plastic potty for the baby
Health Checkpoints
A child should be checked regularly by a qualified health
professional to ensure that it is reaching developmental milestones
on time. It should be remembered that certain handicaps like
deafness may not be recognised by inexperienced parents at first; yet
the earlier such a handicap is identified the more likely is the child to
overcome it and lead a normal life. Similarly certain diseases or
conditions can be treated only if detected early enough.
Vaccination
Following a proper vaccination schedule as advised by your doctor or
health worker not only saves your child from the diseases against
which she is vaccinated; it also helps eradicates the disease itself.
Teachers can play a key rle in ensuring vaccination in the local
community by advising parents and encouraging them to have their
45 6
2 Pre-Primary Education:
A Historical Perspective
F
rom the informal education within a family and
community that marks most primitive societies to the
institutionalised education system of today, education has
come a long way.
Education is a social activity. Many educationists and philosophers
have tried to interpret it from their own viewpoints; and the aims and
objectives of education have varied with the philosophies prevailing
in different ages.
Theories of Education: Idealism, Naturalism, Pragmatism
Idealism: The Idealist philosophies believe that the world is an
expression of the Supreme Being. The world we see is fleeting. Only
the Supreme Being is real and eternal. That is God. The Supreme Soul
resides in our own souls; the awareness of this Being is the aim of Life
and its liberation. Religious and moral instruction forms an
important part education according to this school of thought.
Naturalism: Naturalism is a reaction to Spiritualism. This school of
thought believes that the natural qualities and abilities of the child
must be given an opportunity to be expressed. The mental level of a
child changes with age. The methods of education must conform to
the needs of the child. Education is the natural development of the
child's potential; the needs of the child, his nature, his potential, his
will and interest form the basis of education. The child controls his
education, and the child must be allowed to express himself in his
environment through his activities.
Rousseau was the main advocate of this ideology. Later Frbel,
Herbert and Dr Montessori gave it a wider and more well-defined
structure.
Pragmatism: This theory brought a revolutionary change to the
world of education. The basic premise of Pragmatism is that truth can
only be proved through its application in the real world. There is no
such thing as eternal truth. In a changing world, truth also changes.
Whatever brings success is true; whatever is useless is false.
more prone to temper tantrums than amiable, peaceloving children.
The child's will versus parental control
The child's tantrum is a display of willpower and strength, and an
attempt to capture attention. When the child's will clashes with that
of an adult, it results in a struggle. The tantrum starts as an attempt to
exert its will, and intensifies as it actually makes the child tired.
If the parents express their concern about such tantrums to someone
in front of the child, that only encourages it; the child notices that the
tantrum does draw attention.
Child Safety
During the first few months of life a child is utterly unable to look
after itself. But given the opportunity, it gradualy learns to do so.
Parents should know to what extent a child may be left to look after
itself independently and how far it should be kept under their care.
Just as it is important to care for the child, it is a crime to to turn a
child into a shy, scared and overdependent person.
Having said this, it is important to ensure safety for the child even
while we allow it independence. The most important thing is to
create an environment it can explore safely. This means consciously
removing everything that can hurt it from within its reach; if that is
not possible, the child should be kept under constant watch while it is
in the vicinity of anything that could cause harm.
Preventing accidents
Accidents leave a temporary or long-lasting scar upon the child's
psyche. Achild that has scalded itself trying to drink hot milk is likely
to refuse milk till it can be persuaded that the milk itself won't hurt.
Similarly, a child that hurts itself painfully in a fall while learning to
walk is likely to refuse to try again for some time.
An important thing, however, is never to keep saying no to whatever
it does. It is likely to rebel and not take your 'no' seriously enough;
that may result in an accident when it does something you told it not
to.
Accident-prone Situations
Accidents are prone to happen at certain times and environments:
When the child is hungry, tired or sick, and therefore less
alert
7 44
Therefore truth changes with changing needs. What is true in our age
may prove to be false in another. Whatever is successful in the light of
our experience we shall accept as true this ideology had its main
proponent in Dewey. Education is the experience of the child through
the interaction of the child with his environment.
Dr Montessori's influence on child education: By education and
profession, Dr Maria Montessori was a paediatrician and
psychologist. It was by accident that she came to be involved in child
education, and the result was revolutionary. In order to understand
why and how, we must know about her life and work.
The Inclusion of Early Childhood Learning as
Part of Institutionalised Education
Through most of history, early childhood learning was never part of
formal education, which usually started much later. Early childhood
was usually spent in a family environment. The need for institutional
education at this arose as the industrial revolution brought more and
more mothers into the workforce and children were left without care.
The early theorists of early childhood education included Froebel in
Germany, Dr Montessori in Italy and Margaret and Rachel Macmillan
in the UK.
Child Education in India
Through most of history, children in India the minority who have
had access to education have started their education in institutions
like tols and madrasahs, where learning was by rote and entirely
teacher-centric. It was only in the nineteenth century that reformers
like Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar attempted to make child education
more child-friendly. Nevertheless, it was still highly teacher-centric,
with emphasis on moral instruction.
Rabindranath Tagore was one of the pioneers of original thought on
child education in India. The methods followed at the Shishu Bhavan
in Shantiniketan brought a new dimension to child education in
India. Dr Maria Montessori said of him, I brought science to child
education; Tagore brought poetry.
Dr. Montessori spent an important period of her life in India. Many of
her original works were written while in India. The revolutionary
influence of Tagore and Montessori on child-centric education was so
indistinguishable in India and Southeast Asia that it came to be
known as the 'Tagore-Montessori Method'.
opening up for him. He wants to understand the minds of grown-
ups. And he starts having anxieties.
On the one hand, while he becomes self-confident, he also becomes
dependent. He wants freedom. Yet shyness, frustration, anger,
jealousy, likes and dislikes are also developing within him. He
expresses all these emotions by crying.
This is the age when he learns to fear. Fear is natural, because it is a
self-defence mechanism.
The child is afraid of the unknown. So he may be afraid of the dark,
shy of strangers, reluctant to accept unfamiliar objects. He is also
afraid of unpleasant sensory experiences like lightning and thunder.
These fears will be overcome if the unfamiliar becomes familiar.
Therefore on no account should we deliberately scare a child or play
upon his fears. We should try to make him comfortable with new
experiences. We can, for instance, spend time in the dark with him,
and explain the reason for day and night as soon as he can
understand. Avillage child is much less likely to fear the dark than a
child living in the midst of city lights.
Separation Anxiety
Many children fear separation from parents, particularly from the
mother. It often becomes a problem when sending them to pre-school
environment for the first time.
The best way to overcome this insecurity is for the mother to play
with him for about 15 minutes before he starts getting ready. Getting
ready itself should be an enjoyable experience; the child should never
be forced. He should have a say in what he wears, what tiffin he takes
to school.
Within a few days, the child will look forward to getting ready and
going to school.
Temper Tantrums
A temper tantrum is an assertion of the child's will against the adult.
Tantrums come on suddenly, and the cause might be trivial. Once the
child starts, it refuses to stop. It beats its head against the wall, throws
whatever comes to hand, sometimes it holds its breath till it turns
blue.
What is the cause?
Part of it lies in the child's personality. Strong, lively children are
43 8
3 EDUCATION THEORY
Introduction
Education is the blossoming of a life. It reflects every facet of human
life. We have already learnt that
1. Education and life are parallel. The history of education is the
history of human civilisation. A persons education starts at birth
and continues till the moment of death.
2. In a wider sense, education does not simply mean gathering
knowledge on any particular subject. Learning limited to a
particular subject is solely for pursuing a particular career or
interest. But education itself is an endless process of experiencing
and learning from life.
3. Education is ever-changing. A human being continuously gathers
new experiences and evaluates them on the basis of past
experience. This is a lifelong process. A person retains the
knowledge of experience that helps him in his life. Education
therefore is an active, progressive process.
4. The scope of education is not just limited to the evaluation of ones
experiences. Humans preserve the knowledge of past experience
for future generations. In no age have humans started off solely
with new experiences; they have always had a foundation of
experiences and learning from the past preserved by society.
5. Human life is a process of adjusting to ones environment. The
wider scope of education is to enable this process of adjustment of
a. a person with his environment
b. a person with other persons
c. an individual with his internal and external nature
d. an individual with the mores and morals of his society
This is how the individual expresses itself. This is the dialectic
process through which Man becomes aware of different values.
Child-centric Education
The first and main element in education is the child or student. The
needs of a child were ignored in earlier systems of education. The
purpose of education was to reflect the will and tastes of elders upon
take the spoon from the mother's hand. He should be encouraged
when he wants to do this. It will give him self-confidence, and he will
enjoy meals. He should eat with the rest of the family. He may make a
mess with his food. But parents should have patience to bear with it.
Once he picks up feeding skills, he will feed without any hassle. On
the other hand, if we repress his attempts to feed himself, he is likely
to resent it and end up with a feeding problem that will plague the
parents for years.
When starting solids, it is best to provide foods that the family
normally eats. He can be given rice. Dal is good for him. Vegetables
and fish are excellent. Of course, on needs to follow some rules:
all food should be mashed or cut into small pieces that the baby
can tackle at his age
he should never be left alone while feeding: he could choke on a
large piece or a large helping
the feeding area and utensils should be clean and tidy
There are certain foods to be avoided when feeding a very young
child:
hot or rich foods
too much sugar in food or drink
fatty foods
cut fruit which has remained exposed
fruit with seeds or stones; seeds or stones should be removed
before feeding
tea or coffee
drinks containing alcohol
Once a child is well set on solid foods and feeds less at the breast he
will need extra fluids. The child should be given plain water or fruit
juice, freshly pressed at home. Packaged soft drinks available in the
market should not be given, as they may contain substances harmful
to the child's health.
As the child grows, he can start sharing the family's food. It is
worthwhile to cook less spicy, oily or rich food that everyone can eat
while there is a young child in the family.
2.3 Crying
Crying is a means of communication for the baby. As it grows, the
reasons for crying become more and more complex. Just after birth, a
baby cries because it is hungry or tired or because of discomfort. But
as it develops, its mind becomes more organised. The world starts
9 42
a childs life. The child did not actively educate itself according to its
own needs and capacity; education was imposed upon its mind. The
teacher is the giver of knowledge. The child is the receiver. Therefore
education was teacher-centric, run-of-the-mill, lifeless.
Modern education is child-centric. The child is ancient, the same
today as it was when Man first emerged on this earth. The child in
this age of technology is no different from the stone-age child in its
insatiable curiosity, it its instinctive urge to explore and discover. It is
because of this that we have to think so carefully about its problems.
The 21st Century is an age of rediscovery. We have to discover the
child afresh.
Education Theory in an Indian Perspective: Rousseau,
Tagore and Montessori
Rousseaus Philosophy
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the 18th Century French philosopher, laid the
foundations of modern educational philosophy with his book, mile.
The focus of mile is upon the individual tuition of a boy/young man
in line with the principles of natural education. He made, it can be
argued, the first comprehensive attempt to describe a system of
education according to what he saw as nature. It certainly stresses
wholeness and harmony, and a concern for the person of the learner.
Central to this was the idea that it was possible to preserve the
original perfect nature of the child, by means of the careful control
of his education and environment, based on an analysis of the
different physical and psychological stages through which he passed
from birth to maturity. This was a fundamental point. Rousseau
argued that the momentum for learning was provided by the growth
of the person (nature) - and that what the educator needed to do was
to facilitate opportunities for learning.
The focus on the environment, on the need to develop opportunities
for new experiences and reflection, and on the dynamic provided by
each persons development remain very powerful ideas.
Well quickly list some of the key elements that we still see in his
writing:
a view of children as very different to adults - as innocent,
vulnerable, slow to mature - and entitled to freedom and
happiness (Darling 1994: 6). In other words, children are naturally
good.
otherwise the mother may not be strong enough to cater to the needs
of two children at the same time. Neither should the interval be too
long; it results in too large a mental gap between siblings.
Boy or girl?
There are couples who yearn for a girl; others may want a boy.
Modern medical technology has made it possible to ascertain the sex
of the unborn child through tests like amniocentesis and
ultrasonography. Unfortunately, such tests have had to be banned in
India because they were being used to abort female foetuses. In a
society prejudiced against female children, failure to bear male
offspring often results in persecution of the mother. Female
infanticide is practised in parts of the country.
It is heartening however to see that more and more parents are
coming to realise that a girl child is not a liability; she can compete
with her brothers. In fact, in modern society, it is often a daughter
who is likely to care for her parents in old age than a son.
Good habits start young
Many problems in later life have their inception right at the
beginning of infancy. Like many teachers, parents too assume that
children are like putty that can be moulded to their liking; or that a
child is too young to learn good habits.
In fact, the environment for a baby to grow into a healthy individual
must be provided right from the beginning. He must be given the
space and opportunity to grow; parents should just guide him.
Nothing should be forced on the child. Forcing a child into an activity
only conditions him to dislike it. A very young child has the natural
instincts to know his own needs and tries to demand them through
his actions. Parents must learn to interpret what he tries to express
and respond accordingly; they should not try to impose what they
think he needs on him.
Feeding habits
Feeding a baby is one of the areas where parents are particularly
prone to force their perceptions on a child, or try to make him
conform to their convenience. Breastfeeding is always best for a baby.
It gives him not only just the right nutrition, it also gives him all the
fluid he needs. He does not even need water while he is breastfed.
When he starts taking solids, he also wants to feed himself. He tries to
41 10
the idea that people develop through various stages - and that
different forms of education may be appropriate to each.
a guiding principle that what is to be learned should be
determined by an understanding of the persons nature at each
stage of their development.
an appreciation that individuals vary within stages - and that
education must as a result be individualized. Every mind has its
own form
each and every child has some fundamental impulse to activity.
Restlessness in time being replaced by curiosity; mental activity
being a direct development of bodily activity.
the power of the environment in determining the success of
educational encounters. It was crucial - as Dewey also recognized -
that educators attend to the environment. The more they were able
to control it - the more effective would be the education.
the controlling function of the educator - The child, Rousseau
argues, should remain in complete ignorance of those ideas which
are beyond his/ her grasp. (This he sees as a fundamental
principle).
the importance of developing ideas for ourselves, to make sense of
the world in our own way. People must be encouraged to reason
their way through to their own conclusions - they should not rely
on the authority of the teacher. Thus, instead of being taught other
peoples ideas, mile is encouraged to draw his own conclusions
from his own experience. What we know today as discovery
learning One example, Rousseau gives is of mile breaking a
window only to find he gets cold because it is left unrepaired.
a concern for both public and individual education.
1
Rousseaus philosophy of education found concrete expression in the
work of several leading educationists from the mid-18th Century to
mid-19th Century and spread all over the world. Pestalozzi, Herbert
and Froebel were among the leading exponents.
Tagores Philosophy
Rabindranath Tagore tried to bring child education close to Nature at
his institution at Shantiniketan. The childs sense of freedom, a free
environment, the childs physical, mental and spiritual development
were the focus of this education. To quote Tagore,
I dont think even the busiest people can deny that an open sky, a free
atmosphere and greenery are extremely important for the correct
development of a human child. With age, pulled by the duties of our
office, pushed by the crowds, mind distracted by myriad worries, we
grow up to lose much of our closeness with Nature. Let us at least know
the eternal cradle of water, earth, sky and wind into which we were
2 Health and Hygiene
The health of a child depends to a great extent on the health
awareness of his family and community.
A Healthy Mother: First Requirement for
a Healthy Child
We know that a child's first environment is its mother's womb. We
cannot expect good fruit unless the tree is strong and healthy.
Similarly, the chances of a child being born healthy depends on the
physical and mental health of the mother. Care for a mother's
physical and mental health should begin even before conception, and
her family bears a great responsibility in this respect. During
pregnancy, all care must be taken for the care of the unborn child, and
that means caring for the mothers health for nine months and
ensuring safe delivery.
At what age is it safe to become a mother?
It is important to remember that apart from being generally healthy, a
woman should be physiologically and psychologically ready for
motherhood. Medical evidence shows that this maturity usually
comes at around 20 years of age. On the other hand, there is an
increased risk of abnormal birth in women over 35 years old.
Motherhood, therefore, should be planned with professional advice,
keeping in mind factors like the family's economic condition and
other factors likely to influence the upbringing of the child.
The important thing to consider is the ability of a mother to care for
the baby and the help and support she can get from her husband and
family members. A sick mother or a tired mother or an ignorant
mother is more likely to be impatient with her child or neglect it.
One child or more?
The decision to have a second child depends on the couple. But a
second child should come not earlier that three years after the first;
11 40
born, let us draw in its nectar as at a mothers breast, let us absorb its
liberating message, only then shall we grow into complete humans. Let
the boys play while their hearts are yet young, curiosity alive, senses yet
keen, under the open sky, where the sun plays with the clouds; dont
deprive them of Natures embrace. Let every dawn, cool and pure, open
each day to them with fingers of light; let sunset-brilliant, serene
evenings silently spread a star-studded curtain of darkness at the end of
each day. Let them witness the six-act musical drama of the seasons,
played out on a stage of green. Let them stand under the trees in June
and see the young monsoon approach like a prince newly crowned, the
dark, rain-bearing clouds, thunderous in their joy, blanketing the ever-
hopeful forest with the shadow of imminent rain; and, after the rains
depart, let them be blessed with the sight of endless green riches
spreading to the horizons on the breast of the generous earth, revelling
in verdant colours, kissed by dew-laden breezes. O guardian, made
wise by your years and your head for business, you may have numbed
your imagination and hardened your heart, but never even in shame,
say their is no need for this; let your children feel the magic touch of
Mother Earth at first hand. Even if you cannot comprehend how much
more effective it is than your Inspectors reports and examiners
question papers, do not deign to ignore it...
Kindergarten: Froebels Education Philosophy
The German educationist Froebel established a school for children
aged 3 to 8 years and called it Kindergarten or the Garden of
Children. Today, this name represents Froebels philosophy
worldwide.
According to Froebel, a school is a garden where the students are
seedlings and the teacher, an alert gardener. The teachers duty is to
take care and see how his charges grow up she is there solely to
assist the childs development. Froebel has said, the the childs mind
is by nature self-active. No external effort is needed to activate it; this
activeness naturally happens in a childs life. The teacher will create
an environment that does not interfere with the childs natural life.
Froebel does not detail the requirements of the environment; he says
that the childs self-activeness will express itself through play and
spontaneous activity. By spontaneous work, he means song and
dance, entertainment, movement, conversation, drawing pictures,
telling stories and so on. He also speaks of exercising the senses
may let him see how you prepare the picnic basket. You may also let
the child help you in all other preparations so that his interest in the
coming event may be increased. The important point is that the plan
of the walk or the course of it should not be changed without getting
the consent of the child. It is of creative value that a child sees a plan
and sees it carried out. It must be remembered that at this stage a
walk is not intended to make the child walk about. He must be
regarded as an observer and explorer who walk spontaneously for
the sake of observation or exploration. It is the childs interest in the
outer environment that must determine the course of his walk. The
mind moves towards items of interest. Thus after miles of such an
educative walk the child shows no symptoms of excessive fatigue.
There must be provision for the child to have contact with nature, to
understand and appreciate the order, the harmony and the beauty of
nature. And also to master the natural laws which are the basis of all
sciences and arts, so that the child may better understand and
participate in the marvellous things which civilisation creates. It thus
becomes a duty of society to satisfy the need of the child at the
various stages of development.
The houses of children are intended to solve the above social
problems. Dr. Montessori discovered the new method of offering
education to the children on the basis of her observation. The first
House of Children gave her the stimulation and courage to observe
the children and to know their real nature and needs. She continued
to observe in a specially prepared environment, where she wanted to
develop a child. Achild reveals his real needs in a specially prepared
environment. The child wants to exercise himself to become master
and consolidate what he has achieved. The Montessori Method
reveals itself in its vital manner of observation. The more we observe,
the more we can know the needs of the children; not only in quantity,
but also in quality. So we will have to learn to observe each and every
individual childs needs in their own way.
Montessori Method as a technique of love.
The more we know the child; more we can serve the child. In a House
of Children somebody must be there to observe and correct the
mistakes of a trained assistant. From the point of inner discipline, we
should learn to observe the children as a community, as a group, and
as individuals.
1
Michele Erina Doyle and Mark K. Smith (1997) Jean-Jacques Rousseau
on Educat ion, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF INFORMAL EDUCATION, http://
www.infed.org/thinkers/et-rous.htm
39 12
through object lessons. The development of the senses is an
important psychological foundation. According to him, not only does
the activity exercise the senses, it also expresses and satisfies the
creativity inherent in every child.
Froebels system of education works through gifts and occupation.
For instance, a child may be given a sphere and a cube. These gifts are
not simply playthings, they also symbolise definite concepts.
The Kindergarten system also lays importance on the social
development of a child.
The Montessori Method
At the beginning of the 20th Centuri, Dr Maria Montessori
introduced a new method of education. The method brought a
revolutionary change in child education.
Many elements of modern education have been adapted from
Montessoris theories. She is credited with the development of the
open classroom, the role of teacher as a guide, multi age classrooms;
develop mentally appropriate and individualised education, and the
use of manipulative learning materials.
4 The Montessori Way
Early social experiences play an important part in later personality
development. The social behaviour of a person and his attitudes to
social situations are largely formed by the home environment. If the
overall family atmosphere is healthy this will contribute to the
favourable social attitudes, on the other hand tensions and conflicts
in the family are likely to affect the childs social behaviour adversely.
Early social experiences outside the home also contribute to the social
attitudes and social behaviour of the child when he grows up to be an
adult. If the child enjoys favourable relationships with his friends and
adults outside the home, he will enjoy his social contacts and will
want to repeat them.
Social development is thus influenced by many factors and parents
and adults who came in contact with the child play an important role
in the social development of pre-school children.
Observation and Discovery
Before the age of two and a half years the child is almost completely
engrossed in the development of his own personality. She has very
little communion even with other persons of her own age. After two
and a half years of age the child gets interested in other persons; she
becomes sociable. This is another characteristic of the period. The
child begins to observe more closely and discuss in greater detail the
objects of the environment. Consequently between two and a half
years and three years it is admissible to take educative action in two
directions. First as preparation for further development in the house
of children, the social life of the child may be initiated by helping the
child to receive visits from people he knows and to make calls on
other persons of his acquaintance and thus to enlarge and increase his
social contacts as far as he can.
The other preparation for the child of two and half years is to help
him in his more detailed observation and discovery of his
environment. This is best done at this stage by providing for long
walks for the child. The consent of the child must be won before the
walk. The child must know in his own way that is going for a walk
and where he is going. The child must be given a change to prepare
his mind for what is to follow. It is importance for the development of
the child that the child should visualise with as much clearness as is
possible under the circumstances what are going to be his future
actions. If for instance you have an intention to have a picnic during a
walk it is good to tell the child that you are going to have a picnic. You
13 38
D
r Maria Montessori passionately believed each adult
must develop her or his abilities to observe children
deeply so as to witness the unfolding of each new human
being.
She pursued a scientific education and was the first woman to
become a physician in Italy. As a practising physician associated with
the University of Rome, she was a scientist not a teacher. Her
involvement in pedagogy was almost accidental.
Her approach to education was scientific and empirical. Keenly
observant, she discovered a number of secrets aspects of young
children never before observed.
Many elements of modern education have been adapted from
Montessoris theories. She is credited with the development of the
open classroom, the role of teacher as a guide, multi age classrooms;
develop mentally appropriate and individualised education, and the
use of manipulative learning materials.
Life of Dr Maria Montessori
Dr Maria Montessori was born on 31 August 1870 at a village
Chiaravalle, Anlona near the Italian capital of Rome. She was an only
child. Her father was a military man. Her mother was deeply
religious.
Even in her childhood, Maria had a deep empathy for the disabled
and downtrodden. One of her closest friends was a polio-stricken
child. Maria gave her constant company and helped her in all her
needs.
Soft-spoken and friendly, Dr Montessori yet displayed a streak of
stubbornness even as a child. She never liked her textbooks
learning by heart the lives of great men! But she never ever thought
she would be a teacher. In fact, her first ambition was to be an
engineer. But when she finished school, she set her heart on becoming
a doctor. Her father wouldnt hear of it. In those days it was unheard
of for a girl to become a doctor. Though her father refused, she
wouldnt give up either. She gave tuitions to earn the money needed
to study medicine and joined a medical college, defying her father.
She immersed herself in the study of medicine. But the environment
was extremely hostile for her. She was the only girl in the college. And
she was pretty. That was a problem. She was constantly teased and
harassed by the boys.
and demanding.
Thus parents and other adults crucially influence a childs emotional
development with their own behaviour towards them. In fact, adults
in close proximity to the child need to be careful even with their
behaviour towards each other, because anger, jealousy and other
negative emotions amongst adults in the environment can also have a
negative impact on a childs emotional development.
Social Development in Pre-School Years
We live in human society, firstly within a family, which is part of
larger social units religious and ethnic, regional, national and so
on.
Any social structure expects certain behaviour from its members.
Social development concerns the acquisition of abilities to act and
behave in a manner that is in accordance with these social
expectations. In modern society, it also involves transcending
prejudices and attitudes in many existing societies and conforming to
norms that respect the rights and beliefs of all humanity.
There are three processes involved in social development:
1. Proper performance of behaviour;
2. Playing approved social roles; and
3. The development of proper social attitudes.
Social development is a process in which the child learns to behave
with others around him and in the social group in such a way that he
will be accepted by this group as a member. Achild is not born with
any readymade social behaviour. He learns as he interacts with more
and more humans around him, particularly with individuals from
the greater social environment outside his immediate family.
True socialisation takes place as the child tries to adapt or modify his
feelings and behaviour in accordance with the social group. This can
be observed in the Nursery class, or school situation where the child
tries to win approval of others through his behaviour. The child
should have proper opportunities by which he can learn how to live
socially with others. This is very important in the early formative
years.
The child has such opportunities when he plays with children in the
neighbourhood. Pre-school education in the form of Kindergarten
Montessori or Nursery schools also offers this opportunity with the
additional benefit of the guidance and directions from the teacher. In
these schools, children not only have the company of his own age-
mates but also adults or different age groups and social backgrounds.
37 14
Yet she had to have far more courage than the boys. She was allowed
to work in the laboratories only after the men had finished. Which
meant at night. She had to dissect cadavers alone. More often than
not she returned home after sunrise.
At one point of time, she even considered dropping out. As she
walked from college with this thought in mind, she saw an amazing
sight. Amother was begging by the road while her two-year old child
played beside her. The child had found some colourful wrapping
paper, and was carefully tearing it into small bits. She stared at the
child for a long time. She walked away, but she had a strange feeling
and returned. She felt that there was much she could do for the child.
She felt inspired enough to complete her studies.
How the Montessori Method Originated
She taught at the medical school of the University of Rome, and
though its free clinics, she came into frequent contact with the
children of the working class and poor. These experiences convinced
her that intelligence is not same and that most children come into the
world with the human potential that is barely revealed unless adult
creates environments specifically designed for children to exercise
their learning capabilities.
In the early part of her career, she was deputed to work with mental
patients. She was horrified to find that psychiatric patients were not
the only ones housed there. There were disabled children too who
were housed with the demented. She tried to convince the other
doctors that it was not right, that the disabled should be separated
from the demented. But none agreed. She protested. The institute was
treating its patients as guinea pigs.
She continued her protests to various levels and in various ways and
appealed to the government to remove the mentally disabled from
the institute.
At last, the authorities responded. She was given a place where she
could take care of the mentally disabled.
In 1900 Montessori was appointed director of the New Orthophrenic
School attached to the University of Rome. It was here that she began
a meticulous study of the available research. Her study led
Montessori to the works of Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) who
believed sensory experience was the basis for all knowledge. She also
studied Pestalozzi, Froebel, Itard and Seguin, who had made
pathbreaking research in their time.
is important that their emotions are handled with understanding.
How to handle the emotions of a child
The early years are crucial to a childs ultimate emotional
development. If emotions are improperly handled at this stage, it
leaves a lifelong scar: the child is likely to grow up poorly adjusted in
later life. The first requirement for healthy emotional development is
an environment that is conducive.
Harlock has pointed out some characteristics of childrens emotions:
1 They are short-lived.
2 They are more intense than those of adults.
3 They are transient e.g. child shifts quickly from laughter to tears.
4 They get emotional more frequently than adults
5 Children show different emotional responses to the same situation.
6 Childrens emotions are visible.
Children experience different types of emotions. Some are negative
feelings towards the object of emotion: fear, anger and jealousy. While
these emotions do have a rle to play in self-preservation or
competition, any excess is harmful to its emotional development.
They can lead to unhappiness and maladjustment in later life.
Therefore they should be avoided as far as possible and the child
energies channelled to more positive feelings. Their attention should
be diverted. The causes of such emotions should be analysed and
removed to the extent possible.
Anger and jealousy often are symptoms of insecurity. Therefore the
best way to handle them is to make the child feel wanted and loved
by parents and others around them for what they are. They should
not be punished for expressing these emotions unless the cause harm
to anyone. Parents should treat such behaviour with understanding.
It is particularly important not to vent our own anger and frustration
upon the child. Nor should they be handled by bribing the child with
treats; that only encourages this kind of behaviour because the child
associates it with rewards.
On the other hand, the child also displays affection and love,
hugging, petting and kissing the objects of his affection. The objects
of affection are not only persons but also pets and toys. Love and
affection from parents and others around the child help these
emotions develop. If they are neglected, or not shown enough love
and affection, children tend to withdraw into themselves. On the
other hand the show of love and affection should not extend to
unnecessary pampering, which can cause the child to become selfish
15 36
She applied what she learnt from her study to the education of her
own work. She worked tirelessly to educate her charges. After two
years, the mentally challenged children sat for an examination in
which normal children also took part. The world was wonderstruck
when the disabled children outdid the normal ones.
Though the world felicitated her, Dr Montessori was deeply troubled.
She wondered why the healthy, normal children could not compete
with their disabled brothers. This is what set her thinking and led to
her discovery of the Montessori Method of Child Education.
Ironically, Dr Montessori herself never ever had a direct opportunity
to work with normal children.
The First Casa Di Bambini
The Montessori Method arose out of the first Casa di Bambini what
started off as aday-care centre for working class children. This is the
story in Dr. Montessori's own words:
It came about in a strange way, I have pondered much about it and tried
to understand the reason for it. I dont know if it is an indication of
destiny, or if it was established by fate itself. All that I know is that it has
something to do with the House itself. It may seem curious that I express
it in this way but I do so to render the ensuing story clear.
Many years ago, Rome was a capital of a state in very rapid
development, which manifested itself in a mania for building. Every
small available space was utilised to build houses, every- little open
square. One of the many was delimited on one side by the old Roman-
walls which had witnessed many battles and on the other by the modern
cemetery. This area was the last place to be filled, no doubt because of
the superstition that it was not lucky to live near the dead, for fear of
ghosts and also for hygienic reasons.
But probably because of the beautiful and historical situation, one
building society decided to stake its money into building there. It was a
tremendous scheme, five houses on the scale of palaces, 5 or 6 stories
high. But the idea had been too vast so that the society went bankrupt
before the building were completed and the scheme failed. The work
was interrupted and left to stand. There were only the walls with open
holes for doors and windows, there was no plumbing and the erections
stood as a sort of skeleton.
For many years this enormous skeleton remained abandoned and
neglected. It became a shelter for homeless beggars, a hiding place for
evildoers who wished to avoid recognition and who if discovered, could
easily escape in this labyrinth. Criminals of all sorts, thieves and
murderers, took refuge in them. People lived there in the same
This first period in a childs development is a highly creative one
during which the body and mind go through rapid and important
changes. The end of this period of psychological development is a
dividing line: the beginning of conscious memory. We carry little
conscious memory of this period of early childhood. We call it the
psycho-embryonic period. In this psycho-embryonic period, various
powers develop separately and independently on one another for
example, language, arm movements and leg movements and certain
sensory powers also take shape. In this psycho-embryonic period,
various powers develop separately and independently of one
another. Thus it happens that at the age of three, life seems to begin
again. Before three the functions are being created; after three they
develop.
Dr Montessori observed that a child starts revealing his conscious
individual character after about two and a half years of age. Prior to
that there is no conscious process of mental development. But infants
of that age do have some universal powers that make it possible for
them to development with perfection, fullness and joy. One such
power is Horney, will power. Another is Mneme, the power of
retention.
Dr Montessori was the first to recognise that the mind of a child of
this age is different from an adults, it is an unconscious mind. She
called it the Absorbent Mind. The child absorbs everything that is in
its environment and makes it a part of himself. This absorbent mind
is universal.
How does a child attain this miraculous development? How does he
learn by himself without a teacher? The laws of Nature dictate that
the development of every organism must be accomplished in the
precise space of time allotted to it. Dr Montessori saw it as Natures
greatest miracle.
Emotional Development in the Pre-School Years
Emotional and Social Responses in the Very Young Child
Emotions are basic in very young children. They cry from hunger,
tiredness, discomfort or even boredom. As they grow, they smile and
gurgle when something soothes them or gives them pleasure. They
tend to become quiet when picked up. They respond to the voices of
adults.
Their emotions and responses become more complex as they grow. It
35 16
conditions as the cavemen of old did in their caves.
All those who were homeless, and those who wished to hide, found
shelter within those walls. Even the police did not go near them, or
dared to, as they did not know their way within these grim walls of
crime and horror.
Slowly, the number grew, until thousands of people crowded in these
abandoned buildings. People were found dead, murdered or
succumbed to diseases; the place became a breeding place of infection
for the whole land; a centre of crime and of the lowest prostitution.
The Quartiere di San Lorenzo became known as the shame of Italy.
People were too afraid to do anything about it; no one knew what
happened within those dark walls. There were no small shops for
provisions anywhere near, no itinerant vendor would go there to sell.
Even the lowest labourer, or the poorest fisherman would seem as
princes in comparison, for however poor, they would have at least some
honest livelihood whereas those who lived inside that gloom had no
work, no means to pay, their only livelihood was derived from crime.
The problem of clearing this pit of inhumanity demanded a solution.
Another building society of very wealthy bankers, considered the
problem and decided that as the walls already stood, only a small
expenditure would be necessary to make fruitful whatever capital was
invested. The district, due to its illrepute, would of course never
become a fashionable quarter, therefore only small renovations were
necessary to render it habitable for these people already so unfortunate.
Regarding it thus as a business venture, they started with one building
which they discovered would house a thousand people. They used some
whitewash, put in some doors and windows, and laid in a few water
pipes and drains.
It was estimated that in this area lived at least 10, 000 people, therefore
bow could they discriminate which among them would be the best?
They chose the married ones who by reason of their relation with one
another would be the -most human. As it happened there were only
very few children. It seems perhaps logical that under such conditions
although there were thousands of men and women there should be only
fifty children.
But these children, wild and uncivilised as they were, presented a
serious problem of damage to the houses. Left alone while the parents
went to work, they were free to carry out any wild fancy. So the director
of the concern decided that the only obvious thing to keep them out of
mischief was to collect all the children and confine them.
One room was set aside for this purpose, resembling in every way a
childrens prison. It was hoped that a person would be found with
enough social courage to tackle the problem.
I in my capacity of medical officer of hygiene was approached to take an
about ten months, it stands and learns to walk at about twelve
months. All these involve not only the physical growth and
development of its limbs and body, but also the coordination of its
movements with its senses.
At the same time, the childs mental development is also taking place.
Starting with the ability to recognise and bond with its mother, the
baby starts to respond to other individuals in its environment.
The most fascinating development is learning to speak. The child,
who starts life with only the ability to express his needs through body
language, absorbs the sounds of speech around him and slowly starts
recognising words. The first syllables he utters in his attempt to speak
are the first stones in the complex structure of language he will build
for himself over the years. It represents a great step in acquiring
independence, because he is beginning to express himself with
greater meaning and no longer depends on others to guess what he is
trying to express. The acquisition of speech proceeds in parallel with
learning. He gets into direct touch with humans in his environment,
and the power to speak and understand others speech gives him
immense scope for learning.
Almost all mammals must learn to walk. For some, that is a matter of
minutes, for others, of days. But for none is the process as long as for
Man. Because Man alone walks on two feet, and this involves a
prolonged and delicate process of development. Standing and
walking on two feet means achieving a keen sense of balance and
coordination between our muscles and senses that is unimaginably
delicate. It requires an elaborate nervous organisation involving
several parts of the nervous system.
But the rewards of bipedal locomotion to humankind is immense.
Walking on two legs frees the hands for manipulative operations.
Indeed, the evolution of Man is the history of the parallel
development of his manual skills and of a brain powerful enough to
achieve them. The development of his intellect is, in a sense, a by-
product of this process, made possible by the increase in the capacity
of his brain.
The development of the skeleton is vital to the development of a
childs motor skills. The bones have to harden before it can take the
stress of walking. The bones of the skull are not joined at birth,
because they have to have to expand and make space for his growing
brain. They have to harden grow together enough to eliminate the
risk of injury in case of a fall before the child starts walking.
17 34
interest in the work. Having considered the situation I demanded that at
least the commonest aids in hygiene, food and sanitation be made
available.
At the time it had become fashionable among society ladies to interest
themselves in social uplift. They were approached to do something to
collect funds, because we were confronted with the strange problem that
while the bankers had agreed to invest money to improve the housing
situation, they were not at all interested in education. One could not
expect any returns from money, put into anything with an educational
purpose.
Although society had embraced the ideal of improving the condition of
these unfortunate people, the children had been forgotten. There were
no toys, no school, no teacher. There was nothing for them. I was able to
find one woman of 40 years, whose help I asked and who I put in charge.
On the 6th of January 1907 this room was inaugurated to collect the 50
children. The room had already been in use for little time but it was
inaugurated on that day. Throughout Italy the 6th of January is looked
upon as the day of feast for the children. It was on this day that the
three Kings arrived before the Child Christ and offered him their gifts. It
is celebrated as the Feast of Epiphany.
It was striking at the time this interest of society imbued with the idea
that their giving hygienic houses to the homeless would be the means of
purifying the evil core in their midst, consisting of a group of ten-
thousand criminals and pitiful humanity. I also was imbued with this
sentiment.
But while everyone had had the idea that by giving houses and
sanitation, the people would be purified, no one had taken in
consideration the children; no one had thought to bring toys or food for
them. When the children, ranging between the ages of 2 to 6 entered,
they were dressed all alike in some thick, heavy, blue, drill. They were
frightened and being hindered by the stiff material, could move neither
arms nor legs freely. Apart of their own community they had never seen
any people. To get them to move together, they were made to hold
hands. The first unwilling child was pulled, thus dragging along the
whole line of the rest. All of them were crying miserably. The sympathy
of the society ladies was aroused and they expressed the hope that in a
few months they would improve.
I had been asked to make a speech for the occasion.
I dont know what came over me but I had a vision and inspired by it, I
was enflamed and said that this work we were undertaking would
prove to be very important and that some day people would come from
all parts to see it.
In reporting this new whim of society, the press also mentioned that Dr.
Montessori had made a beautiful speech, but what an exaggeration in
life, his working psychical life has no means of expressions in his
earlier life.
3. We do not come across children who are normal, i.e. enjoying real
psychical health, for our study.
4. Our deep-rooted prejudices prevent us in recognising the grandeur
of a childs nature.
Theory of the Montessori Method
Unique Position of Man at Birth and
the Laws of Natural Development
Man, amongst all creatures, has the longest period of development
from conception to adulthood. Indeed, certain features of juvenile
behaviour are carried over right into adulthood, particularly the
playfulness, curiosity and the urge to explore and learn. In most other
creatures, these features disappear with the attainment of adulthood.
This process is then obviously the most complex in the case of Man.
Studies of childrens growth from birth to adulthood reveal that this
process of development can be divided into distinct periods. The first
of these the period that concerns pre-primary learning is from
birth to six years of age.
While in the mothers womb, a baby is dependent on its mother for
various bodily processes. At birth, these become completely
independent. The senses are among the first organs to function
independently.
A baby is born with a definite personality that shows up in its
temperament. He does not have any conscious powers; he has
instincts. He has practically no voluntary control over his
movements; he has reflexes for rooting, sucking, grasping,
swallowing and walking (a baby held upright makes walking
movements as soon as her feet touch a firm surface). These reflexes
disappear as the baby grows. Conscious powers like intelligence, will
and memory develop over time. He has a limited ability to express his
emotions through crying or smiling. He has no articulate language.
His limbs are too weak and uncoordinated to achieve any work.
A growing child can be measured against definite developmental
milestones to find out if its physical and mental development is
proceeding normally.
At three months, the child should turn over by itself. At six months, it
should sit up. At about nine months, it should be able to crawl. At
33 18
what she had said!
It was from then that the real work began.
Remember that all these children were completely illiterate. Their
parents were also illiterate and they were born and grown in the
environment, I have described.
What happened more than thirty years ago now will always remain a
mystery to me. I have tried since then to understand what took place in
those children. Certainly there was nothing of what is to be found now
in any House of Children. There were only rough large tables.
I brought them some of the materials which had been used for our work
in experimental psychology, the items which we use today as sensorial
material and materials for the exercises of practical life. I merely wanted
to study the childrens reactions. I asked the woman in charge not to
interfere with them in any way as otherwise I would not be able to
observe them, Some one brought them paper and coloured pencils but in
itself this was not the explanation of the further events. There was no
one who loved them, I myself only visited them once a week and during
the day the children had no communication with their parents.
The children were quiet, they had no interference either from the
teacher or from the parents, but their environment contrasted vividly
from that which they had been used to; compared to that of their
previous life; it seemed fantastically beautiful. The walls were white,
there was a green plot of grass outside,. though no one had yet thought
to plant flowers in it, but most beautiful of all was the fact that they had
interesting occupations in which no one, no one at all, interfered. They
were left alone and little by little the children began to work with
concentration and the transformation they underwent, was noticeable.
From timid and wild as they were before, the children became sociable
and communicative. They showed a different relationship with each
other, of which I have written in my books. Their personalities grew
and, strange though it may seem, they showed extraordinary
understanding, activity, vivacity and confidence. They were happy and
joyous.
This fact was noticed after a while by the mothers who came to tell us
about it. As the children had had no one to teach them or interfere with
their actions, they acted spontaneously, their manners were natural.
But the most outstanding thing about these strange children of the St.
Lawrence Quarter was their obvious gratitude. I was as much surprised
by this as everyone else. When I entered the room all the children sprang
to greet me and cried their welcome. Nobody had taught them any
manner of good behaviour. And the strangest thing of all was that
although nobody had cared for them physically, they flourished in
health as if they had been secretly fed on some nourishing food, And so
they had, but in their spirit. These children began to notice things in
their homes, a spot of dirt on their mothers dress. untidiness in the
The study of Man in the course of his fundamental development as a
constructor of his own individual physical life from birth and as a
builder of himself.
Montessori preferred not to call this field of study Child Psychology.
She pointed out that
1. since the study concerns life of human beings from birth to
adulthood it is wrong to refer to this period of human life as
childhood;
2. it is best to avoid the term Child because people have
preconceived notions and prejudices about it;
3. the most outstanding feature of this period of human life is the
development that one undergoes;
therefore, one should, with all relevance, call it Development
Psychology.
The Originality of Montessoris Psychology
Montessoris Psychology is unique in many ways
1. The origin itself is unique. It is not based on theories but on
discoveries of the real nature of child.
2. The way Dr. Montessori defined the subject is original.
3. The methodology of her study itself was original in the way she
(a) observed child in an ideal environment;
(b) verified her conclusions;
(c) based her observations both on the individual and the
period of his life;
(d) observed the child totally and whole-heartedly;
(e) observed children belonging to various backgrounds;
(f) also tried to understand how to provide for the child in
better ways through experimentation
4. Her realisation that progress in Psychology and education of a
child advances side by side.
5. The content of her study differs from the contents of other schools
of psychology. This is because she studied only psychically healthy
children and not any child, which the other Psychologists studied.
However, her theory was not easy to accept as it overturned many
established ideas and concepts and cannot be verified without keen
observation. For instance,
1. It is hard for us to accept the fact that a child has a psychical life at
birth; a newborn baby does not show any sign of his working
psychical life.
2. Psychical life expresses itself through some means such as
movements and speech. As these abilities develop later in a childs
19 32
room. They told their mothers not to hang the washing in the windows
but to put flowers there instead. Their influence spread into the homes,
so that after a while also these became transformed.
Six months after the inauguration of the House of Children. some of the
mothers came to me and pleaded that as I had already done so much for
their children, and they themselves could do nothing about it because
they were illiterate, would I not teach their children to read and write?
At first I did not want to, being as prejudiced as every one else that the
Children were far too young for it. But I gave them the alphabet in the
way I have told you. As then it was some -thing new for me also, I
analysed the words for them and showed that each sound of the words
bad a symbol by which it could be materialised. It was then that the
explosion into writing occurred.
The news spread and the whole world became interested in this
phenomenal activity of writing of these children who were so young
and whom nobody had taught. The people realised that they were
confronted by a phenomenon that could not be explained for besides
writing, these children worked all the time without being forced by any
one to do so. This was a great revelation but it was not the only
contribution of the children. It was also they, who created the lesson of
silence. They seemed to be a new type of children. Their fame spread
and in consequence all kinds of people visited the House of Children,
including State ministers and their wives, with whom the children
behaved graciously and beautifully, without anyone urging then, that
even the newspapers in Italy and abroad became excited. So the news
spread, until finally also the Queen became interested. She came to that
quarter so ill famed that it was considered hells doors, to see for herself
the children about whom she had heard wonders.
What was the wonder due to? No one could state it clearly. But it
conquered me for ever, because it penetrated my heart as a new light.
One day I looked at them with eyes which saw them differently and I
asked myself: Who are you, are you the same children you were
before? And I said within myself: Perhaps you ore those children of
whom it was said that they would come to save humanity. If so, I shall
follow you. Since then, I am she who tries to grasp their message and to
follow them.
And in order to follow them, I changed my whole life. I was nearly 40. I
had in front of me a doctors career and a professorship at the University.
But I left all, because I felt compelled to follow them, and to find others
who could follow them, for I saw that in them lay the secret of the soul.
You must realise that what happened was something so great and so
stirring that its importance could never be sufficiently recognized. That
it will never be sufficiently studied, is certain, for it is the secret of life
itself. We cannot fully know its causes. It is not possible that it came
because of my method, for at the time my method did not yet exist. This
activity in most animals is at an unconscious level. The study of
learning processes in animals led to the initial realisation that there
must be something common in the learning processes of children. But
the attempt to bring these findings to bear on the understanding of
the child mind was initially unsuccessful. Many psychologists
realised that the mind of the human child was far more complex; they
could not create a natural environment for studying children because
they did not know the natural requirements for a human mind to
reveal its true nature. Therefore no definite conclusions could be
drawn.
Child Development or Developmental Psychology
However, as studies continued, it became apparent that child
psychology involved a dynamic process of development. Mere study
of different age groups could not explain the changing behaviour of
growing children. The focus now shifted to the pattern of
development of a child: a new area of the science called Child
Development. Child development or Developmental Psychology
focuses on the process of development of the human mind.
Psychology itself concentrates on the product of this development.
The objectives of Developmental Psychology are:
1. To find out the changes in development from one developmental
period to another; e.g. changes in appearance, behaviour,
interests and goals.
2. To find out under what conditions these changes occur.
3. To determine how these changes influence a childs behaviour
4. To find out whether or not these changes can be predicted.
Dr. Montessoris Work on Developmental Psychology
As a medical practitioner, Dr Maria Montessoris fields of
specialisation were paediatrics and psychology a combination that
created a unique opportunity to study the childs mind. She was,
indeed, one of the pioneers who established Child Psychology as a
separate subject of study.
Her original contribution to the field came to be known as Montessori
Psychology. It did not come so much from deliberate research or
philosophy as from accidental discoveries during her interaction
with children in the course of her work. These discoveries led to a
gradual understanding of the real nature of a child. Her definition of
this field of study was:
31 20
is the clearest proof that it was a revelation that emanated from the
children themselves.
My educational method has grown from these as well as from many
other revelations, given by the children, You know from what I have told
you, that all the details included in the method, have come from the
efforts to follow the child. The new path has been shown us. No one
knows exactly how it arose, it just came into being and showed us the
new way.
It has nothing to do with any educational method of the past, nor with
any educational method of the future. It stands alone as the contribution
of the child himself, Perhaps it is the first of its kind, which has been
built by him step by step.
It cannot have come from an adult person; the thought, the very
principle that the adult should stand aside to make room for the child,
could never have come from the adult.
Anyone who wants to follow my method must understand that he
should not honour me but follow the child as his leader.
Maria Montessori
Discovering the Secrets of Childhood
So it was that on 6 January 1907 the first school under Dr Montessoris
supervision started. It was named Casa dei Bambini or House of
Children.
A crowd of children, free from the constricting mould of age-old
concepts, beliefs and superstitions. Dr Montessori and her two
inexperienced assistants want to educate them. Their young minds
are free to flow along natural channels. Dr Montessori observes them
with an open mind and discovers new aspects of child psychology.
House of Children. A large hall with a big armchair and a large
cupboard. Thats all the furniture there is. There are some scientific
materials created by Dr Montessori. And there are two girls. Dr
Montessori teaches them the use of the materials.
Each day the materials were put away after use and locked in the
cupboard. Each day saw incidents that opened up new vistas of
discovery for Dr Montessori.
One such incident: one day the girls complained to Dr Montessori
that the children had been disobedient. The previous day the
cupboard had accidentally been left unlocked. When the girls came in
the morning they found the children had opened the cupboard
themselves, picked up materials of their choice and had started
working with them. Dr Montessori told the girls not to lock the
Developmental Psychology
Psyche is the Greek word for mind. Logos is the Greek for word.
Psychology means word of the mind the science that studies the
nature and function of the mind.
Every human being consciously or unconsciously studies minds. We
try to understand the mind of other individuals with whom we
interact, and try to mould our own behaviour so that we can
stimulate in them behaviour that we desire of them; or we try to
predict their behaviour or reactions and tailor our own behaviour
accordingly. We also try to understand our own minds our
emotions and moods and control them to our own advantage.
Psychology is a science that gives us a more accurate understanding
of the minds and behaviour of individuals and groups with which we
interact. We gain insight into the reason why people have different
tastes, likes and dislikes and temperaments, and how to deal with
them. It also helps us achieve better mental health and therefore
better efficiency in our work.
The Origins of Developmental Psychology
Psychology was developed as a science by a few scientists in France
and Germany who started studying non-physical phenomena in
human life between 1870 and 1880. Early researchers in psychology
traditionally believed children to be immature adults; no separate
study of the child mind was undertaken. The first stimulus to the
study of the minds of children came from the field of medicine, when
it was discovered that diseases in children developed and progressed
differently from adults. This led to medical researchers focusing on
the study of children of specific age groups in primary schools. Maria
Montessori was one of the first to enter a primary school as a medical
doctor. This experience formed an important stage in her study of the
child.
Psychiatry the treatment of mental diseases provided the next
insight to the study of the child. As this branch of medicine
developed, psychiatrists discovered the unconscious mind of man,
and a clue from childhood memories of patients that childhood
mental experiences might have an impact on the ultimate adult mind.
This initially led to the study of animal psychology, because mental
21 30
cupboard anymore. Later, she replaced it with a low, open shelf so
that the children could easily reach and pick out the materials of their
choice.
Another incident. Dr Montessori had come to visit the House of
Children. She observed a little girl absorbed in working with a
material called Cylinder Blocks. She tried to attract her attention. She
asked the other children to clap their hands. So engrossed was the
child that she paid no heed. Dr Montessori picked up the child as she
held the cylinder blocks and went and sat in another place with the
child in her lap. Even then the child continued putting the cylinders
into the block and pulling them out again.
It was only after she had done it 42 times that the childs
concentration broke. From this incident Dr Montessori inferred that if
a child finds some work interesting, they want to repeat it over and
over again till they reach perfection.
Another observation. The girls reported that many of the children
would not let go of the materials they were working with. Dr
Montessori observed that children come to love the materials they
have worked with for a long time.
So it was that each day her observations led to new discoveries. In the
light of these observations, she conducted tests and experiments,
learning about the character of children step by step.
This is how the Montessori Method evolved into a complete
philosophy of education.
The children remained at the centre from dawn to dusk, while their
parents worked. There were fed two meals a day, bathed regularly
and received medical care. The children themselves were typical of
extreme inner-city poverty conditions.
They entered the children House on the first day crying and pushing,
exhibiting generally aggressive and impatient behaviour.
Montessori, not knowing whether her experiment would work under
such conditions, began by teaching the older children how to help
with the everyday task that needed to be done.
She also introduced the manipulative perceptual puzzles that she had
used with children with developmental delays.
They were fascinated with the puzzles and perceptual training
devices. But, to Montessoris amazement three and four year old
children took the greatest delight in learning practical everyday
living skills that reinforced their independence and self respect.
Spontaneous concentration
Attachment to reality
Love of silence, and
Working alone
Sublimation of the possessive instinct
Power to act from real choice
Obedience
Independence and initiative
Spontaneous self discipline and joy
Montessori believed that these are the truly normal characteristics of
childhood, which emerge when childrens developmental needs are
met.
challenges facing our children include human migration, hunger, &
terrorism.
Given the urgent and demanding complexities of everyday living, we
find the Montessori way more relevant today then ever before. We
29 22
As summarised by Dr. Maria Montessoris student and colleague, E.
M. Standing, young children prefer:
Work without compulsion
Spontaneous repetition
Work rather than play
Concentration and self-discipline
Montessori called her discoveries the Secrets of Childhood
Montessori also discovered that two other qualities were necessary
for this response from young children: a carefully prepared teacher
and an environment specifically prepared for the learning
capabilities found in its children.
Montessori made a practice of paying close attention to their
spontaneous behaviour, arguing that only in this way could a teacher
know how to teach.
Montessori believed that the educators job was to serve the child,
determining what each one needed to make the greatest progress. To
her, a child who failed in school should not be blamed, anymore than
a doctor should blame a patient who does not get well fast enough.
After all, it is the job of the physician to help us find way to cure
ourselves, and the educators job is to facilitate the natural process of
learning.
Montessori duplicated her first school in other settings through out
Europe, and then in the United States. She made three American
tours between 1912 and 1918, with the support of the Washington
Montessori Society, whose members included Alexander Graham
Bell and US President Woodrow Wilsons daughter. Montessori gave
lectures at the White House, Carnegie Hall, and numerous
universities.
She conducted a teacher education programme and developed a
classroom at the Panama Pacific International Exposition.
The Montessori Method offered a systematic approach that
translated very well to new educational settings, a love for work with
learning materials and freedom and spontaneity.
Principle of Self-education
Montessori described this sense of belonging as Valorisation of the
personality, a strong sense of self-respect and personal identity. She
opened up to the world around her and found that mistakes were not
something to be feared but rather the endless opportunity to learn
comes from accomplishment.
As, the childs exploration continues, the materials interrelate and
build upon each other. For example, various relationships can be
explored between the pink tower and the brown stairs, which are
based on matching precise dimensions. Later, in the elementary
years, new aspects of some of the materials unfold. When studying
volume, for instance, the child may return to the pink tower and
discover that its cubes progress incrementally from one cube
centimetre to one cube decimetre.
The Process of Normalisation
In Montessori education, the term normalisation has a special
meaning, Normal does not refer to what is considered to be
typical or average or even usual. Normalisation does not
refer to a process of being forced to conform. Instead, Maria
Montessori used the terms normal and normalisation to describe
a unique process she observed in child development.
Montessori observed that when children are allowed freedom in an
environment suited to their needs, they blossom. After a period of
intense concentration, working with materials that fully engage their
interest, children appear to be refreshed and contented. Through
continue concentrated work of their own choice, children grow in
inner discipline and peace. She called this process normalisation
and cited it as the most important single result of our whole work.
(The Absorbent Mind 1949)
She went on to write
Only normalised children aided by their environment, show in their
subsequent development those wonderful powers that we describe:
spontaneous discipline, continuous and happy work, social sentiments
of help and sympathy for others . An interesting piece of work, freely
chosen which has the virtue of inducing concentration rather than
fatigue, adds to the childs energies and mental capacities, and leads him
to self mastery one is tempted to say that the children are performing
spiritual exercises, having found the path of self-perfectionment and of
ascent to the inner heights of the soul.
Maria Montessori, The Absorbent
Mind, 1949
E. M. Standing (Maria Montessori Her Life and Work, 1957) lists these
as the characteristics of normalisation.
Love of order
Love of work
23 28
from experience.
Children around the world share common or universal
characteristics and tendencies, even though each child is a unique
human being, who deserves the same respect we would give an adult.
Dr. Montessori arranged to give her first training course for teachers
in 1909. Expecting only Italian Educators, she was amazed to find
that her first course, and all of the courses offered since, attracted
teachers from all over the world who had heard of her discoveries
and were moved to make great sacrifices to learn from her personally.
When Montessori returned to America in 1915, she arranged to have
an entire class work in a special school house made of glass at the
Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. It attention
and publicity, as the children went about their tasks under the
scrutiny of thousands of visitors from around the world.
She established an international training centre and research institute
in Barcelona in 1916.
In 1919 Montessori began a series of teacher-training courses in
London. That same year, she was invited to give a series of lectures
on the issue of education for the young adult (secondary). These
talks, later published as the Erdkinder Essays, reflected a strong
theoretical basis for her thoughts about the reform of secondary
education, however she was not to develop them herself during her
lifetime. Others did pursue this path, and the first secondary schools
following the Montessori approached opened in the Netherlands in
the 1930s.
In 1929 Dr. Montessori was invited by Italian Dictator Benito
Mussolini to introduce her ideas throughout the Italian National
School System. Having left Italy after her mothers death to find a
more liberal thinking home abroad, Montessori arrived back in Rome
with much fanfare in January of 1930 and re-established her teacher
training centre.
She believed that she could quietly do her work without getting
involved in politics. Ultimately, the two clashed publicly when
Mussolini demanded that all students in Italy join the young Fascists
and wear a special student uniform. In 1934, she was forced into exile
once again, returning to Barcelona, Spain.
The years leading to the Second World War were tumultuous for
Maria Montessori, who was then sixty-six year old. In 1936, as the
Civil War broke out across Spain, she escaped the fighting on a British
learning and exploration by the child.
In the prepared environment there is variety of activity as well as a
great deal of movement. In a pre-school classroom, for example, a
three year old may be washing clothes by hand while a four year old
nearby is composing words and phrases with letters known as the
moveable alphabets, and a five year old is performing multiplication
using a specially designed set of beads. In an elementary classroom,
a small group of six to nine year old children may be using a timeline
to learn about extinct animals while another child chooses to work
alone, analysing a poem using special grammar symbols. Sometimes
an entire class may be involved in a group activity, such as
storytelling, singing or movement.
In the calm, ordered space of the Montessori prepared environment,
children work on activities of their own choice at their own pace.
They experience a blend of freedom and self-discipline in a place
specially designed to meet their developmental needs.
The Montessori Materials
In the Montessori classroom learning materials are arranged
invitingly low, open shelves, children may choose whatever materials
they would like to use and may work for as long as the material holds
their interest, when they are finished with each material, they return
it to the shelf from which it came.
The materials themselves invite activity. There are bright arrays of
solid geometric forms. Knobbed puzzle maps, coloured beads, and
various specialised rods and blocks.
Each material in a Montessori classroom isolates one quality. In this
way the concept of the child is to discover is isolated. For example,
the material known as the pink tower is made up of ten pink cubes of
varying sizes. The pre-school aged child constructs a tower with the
largest cube on the bottom and the smallest on top. This material
isolates the concept of size. The cubes are all the same colour and
texture; the only difference is their size. Other materials isolate
different concepts, colour tables for colour, geometry materials for
form and so on.
More over, the materials are self-correcting; when a piece does not fit
or is left over, the child easily perceives the error. There is no need for
adult correction. The child is able to solve problems independently,
building self-confidence, analytical thinking and the satisfaction that
27 24
cruiser sent to rescue British Nationals. She travelled to the
Netherlands, where she opened a new Montessori Teacher Education
Centre and Lab School.
Dr Montessori in India
As war approached, many urged her to leave Europe, and in 1938 she
accepted an invitation to conduct a series of teacher training courses
in India. When India entered World War II as part of the British
Empire, Montessori and her son, Mario, were interned as enemy
aliens. She was, however allowed to continue her work and over the
next few years trained more than ten thousand teachers in India and
Sri Lanka.
It was during this period that she wrote several of her most important
works, including The Absorbent Mind, Education and Peace and To
Educate the Human Potential.
The Last Years: The Vision of Peace Education
Having spent years, educating teachers to grasp the big picture of
the interdependency of all life on earth, Dr Montessori, on her return
to Europe after the end of the war, during her final years became an
even more passionate advocate of peace education.
Maria Montessori died in 1952 at her home in the Netherlands. In her
last years, she was honoured with many awards and was nominated
for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1949, 1950 and 1951.
Supposing I said there was a planet without schools or teachers, study
was undertaken, and yet the inhabitants doing nothing but living and
walking about came to know all things, to carry in their minds the
whole of learning: would you not think I was romancing? Well, just this,
which seems so fanciful as to be nothing but the invention of a fertile
imagination, is a reality. It is the childs way of learning. This is the path
to follows. He learns everything without knowing he is learning it, and
in doing so passes little from the unconscious to the conscious, treading
always in the paths of Joy and Love.
Dr. Maria Montessori
Dr. Maria Montessori carried a large vision for the purpose of
education the establishment of universal and lasting peace.
Although she witnessed two world wars and the unleashing of
nuclear power, Montessori evolved a living philosophy of education,
child study methods, age-appropriate curricula and instruction and
3 Sensorial Activity
4 Language Activity
5 Arithmetic Activity
6 Along with these the childs creativity and imagination is nurtured
through storytelling, rhymes and art and craft.
Each set of exercises is done with a primary aim in mind. But each
stage also prepares the child for the next one.
When a child first comes to a Montessori House, the initial task is to
familiarise him with the new environment and to help him adjust in
it. This is done through games, songs and other activities.
After the child adjusts to the Montessori environment, the first
activities that the child works on are ones that are familiar to him.
Sweeping the floor, pouring water into a glass, pouring grain into
small vessels from a large vessel, rolling out a mat and rolling it up
again, setting a stool, carrying water on a tray... in short, he is given
the work he sees done everyday and that he always wants to try. But
of course, all the things he uses are made to his scale.
These exercises are called Exercises of Practical Life. On the one hand
the children achieve some skills necessary for his personal life, in
family life and in social life; on the other hand, it helps develop his
motor skills and senses. He is ready for the next stage: Sensorial
Activity.
Sensorial Activity deals with the senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell
and taste. The senses are exercised with the aid of specially designed
materials. The exercises develop the senses and help diagnose any
sensorial weakness or disability the child may have. Each activity is
first done by the adult and the children observe. Then, when the
children come forward to do the activity, the adult withdraws and
observes from a distance. A child generally is able to detect its own
mistakes; if not, the adult shows the activity again and the child
repeats it. The materials used for sensorial exercises are scientifically
designed and precise.
In the same way, the concepts and skills of language (reading and
writing) and arithmetic are easily developed using scientific methods
and materials, evolved through much research and experimentation,
that utilise the childs inborn strengths and potential.
The Prepared Environment
The prepared environment is Maria Montessoris concept that the
environment can be designed to facilitate maximum independent
25 26
programme for adult teacher education. In 1940 she wrote:
Man masters almost everything but himself. He knows almost
everything but himself. He avails himself of the most hidden
treasures but does not use the immense riches and powers that he
within himself.
This points to the great and urgent task of education. No
mobilisation is as complete as that which can be realised by the
school. In the past, military service was limited to men of a certain
age group. Now more and more people are drawn into the service of
war even women and children.
The Montessori way continues almost one hundred years after
Montessoris initial discoveries in her first school in Rome.
Montessori schools today seek to help children become independent
and self disciplined by assisting them with a full development of
their unique individual potentials. Montessori teachers do this
through child study and by designing classroom and outdoor
environments in which children find engaging activities that help
them develop habits of lifelong learning for example,
concentration, investigation, collaboration, problem solving, and
communication.
The Montessori Environment
Montessori theory postulates that the child develops through stages,
going through three environments. The first is the womb, the second
is the family. The Third Environment is the Montessori Environment
the school or House of Children. Dr Montessori never referred to
the Third Environment as a school since the environment had to
emulate the environment at home. That is why she called it the House
of Children. In this environment the child sees and handles things
with which she is familiar she sees them at home. Only here they
are scaled down so she can easily handle them. There are small mats
for the children to sit on (they sit on the floor). In the West, there are
rugs instead of mats, while in South India, small durrees are used.
Obviously, the materials will have to vary according to the culture of
the local environment. There are other materials: small stools,
napkins for folding, vessels for pouring grain, brooms, foot-mats,
jugs, trays and so on. All these are things that the child sees at home
but are rarely allowed to use often because they are too large for
them to handle. However, here they are their size, and they use them
with eagerness and master them within a short time.
Apart from imparting household skills that they will use all their life,
these exercises help strengthen their limbs, increase manual dexterity
and eye-hand coordination. This prepares them for the stage when
they have to hold and maneouvre a pencil. These exercises also
exercise their creativity.
There is an old Chinese proverb:
I hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I know.
Therefore, the best way to teach a child is to show him hands on. Dr
Montessori advised, Count your words! i.e., do not say anything
that is unnecessary. Children do not listen to superfluous words.
Therefore whatever you say should be necessary and sufficient. You
should not say anything that the child cannot understand.
Dr Montessori once said, If you give the right child the right
assistance at the right time in the right way... If we keep this in mind,
every child can grow up to be a valuable resource to society. Plant a
seedling in a pot, give it light and air, fertiliser and water, and it will
grow strong and tall. If someone places the pot on its side... what
happens? The plant will bend from the base in its attempt to reach the
light. Place the plant straight again, and the stem bends back to its
previous orientation. But a kink stays forever in the stem. A childs
growth is similar. He grows according to the way we allow him to
grow. He will grow even in a bad environment, but his development
will be distorted, his foundations will be weak.
In a Montessori House the child is given freedom. There is no set
routine or timetable. The adult or teacher must understand the childs
needs. She must observe him carefully. She must know the
environment in the childs home and therefore his special needs and
work with him accordingly.
The rle of he adult will be passive. According to Dr Montessori, he
must increase and we must decrease. That means the child will
continuously take from the adult and grow, while the adult must give
him the work and gently withdraw.
The child must be spoken to with love and respect. He must never be
commanded, he must be asked if he would like to do the work. Dr
Montessori called it an assistantial approach.
In the Montessori System, the child develops through a series of
exercises or activities:
1 Preliminary Activity
2 Exercises of Practical Life