| Potential
Prelace: To Nurture the Human Potential
by David Kahn
Creative Abllity in Childhood
by Maria Montessori… |
| WHAT Is NAMTA?
The North American Montessori Teachers' Associa-
tion provides a medium of study, interpretation, and… |
| THE NAMTA JOURNAL
VOL. 20, No. 1 • WINTER 1995
MONTESSORI: NURTURING
THE HUMAN POTENTIAL
e In affiliation with the… |
| MONTESSORI: NURTURING
THE HUMAN POTENTIAL
PREFACE: To NuRTURE THE HUMAN POTENTIAL .......................
by David Kahn… |
| To NURTURE THE HUMAN
PoTENTIAL
by David Kahn, Editor
When Maria Montessori looked to the child, she saw unlimited
human… |
| occupations, looking at new challenges in linking practical life and
experience with academic frameworks. Louise Chawla and… |
| The NAMTA Journal
3 |
| Maria Montessori, San Remo, 1949
4
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 20, No. 1 • Winter 1995 |
| CREATIVE ABILITY IN CHILDHOOD
by Maria Montessori
Dr. Montessori presented this lecture at the Eightlz l11ternatio11al… |
| In our century, the impression has become more and more
definite that the possibility of a spiritual union has failed humanity… |
| This great truth evokes in us a deep sense of humility and
admiration. Children, who live a purer life than ours, are divine… |
| that it finds round
about itself. An evident
example of this is lan-
guage, which the little
human being, dumb in
its… |
| fifty years, several times beginning over again the work that others
had destroyed. I should not have the strength, at my age… |
| The great secret for forming a union of better men consists in the
scientific cultivation of their best hidden energies.… |
| To understand human qualities deeply one must have recourse to
the child. One must be led by this exponent of budding life in… |
| Rita Schaefer Zener, PhD
12
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 20, No. I • Winter 1995 |
| NURTURING THE CREATIVE PERSONALITY
Rita Schaefer Zener, PhD
Exploring in careful sequence Dr. Montessori's writings… |
| concrete, real, and relevant to the lives of young children; (5) provid-
ing experiences for children that are outside of the… |
| (1936/1975, 1949/1961, 1949/1975). When the developmental pro-
cess proceeds normally, normalization occurs, and all four of… |
| She emphasized that normalization is an empirical reality which
appears in all cultures. She was not using the concept of… |
| ln a little girl of 3½, who attended our first school, the intensity
of this was amazing. With many interesting things on all… |
| discoveries. He also becomes aware of his class-mates in whom he
takes an affectionate interest" (Montessori, 1949/… |
| In our schools, this moment of healing is not the point of
arrival, as it is in the clinics for difficult children, but it is… |
| The two kinds of activity among children are difficult to distin-
guish because both appear to be spontaneous. In both,… |
| Once children have thoroughly explored a material, the teacher
presents a lesson with a new difficulty to master (Montessori,… |
| Teachers have to know strategies that concern their own move-
ments. "The teacher should study her own movements, to… |
| more definite but also serve to awaken more concentration. Once
again, the "personal skill of the educator is… |
| careful and precise manner. "Their [children's] hands have been
trained to the most delicate movements ... &… |
| child and the world of possible activities. The lessons that they offer,
the interventions they make to re-direct non-… |
| it valueless for its purpose, that is, that it does nothing towards the
development of the child's intelligence, she must… |
| Another appropriate response teachers make to children who
manifest characteristics of deviations is to limit the choice of… |
| Teachers make new materials for the environment and try to find
things to match the children's interests. They prepare… |
| You, the teacher, with your knowledge and attitudes about
guiding the process of normalization, are the most important part of… |
| Hildegard Solzbacher
30
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 20, No. I • Winter 1995 |
| MONTESSORI AS AN AID TO LIFE
by Hildegard Solzbacher
Hildegard Solzbacher's direct encounter with Montessori values and… |
| It is complex-not simply taught, but demanding continuous study
and investigation of all aspects of life.
It is complex… |
| mark a celebration, something new for this child to explore indepen-
dently. We give it happily and without conditions… |
| students performed higher than expected. In fact, the homeroom
teachers had to be convinced that is was really the students… |
| since I began my work, childhood still seems to me an
inexhaustible source of revelations and hope.
Childhood has shown me… |
| cence, and maturity. These periods are not determined by human
beings but by nature-and
education has to aid nature's… |
| continuously remind ourselves and others of the creative power
within the child that we must trust. It calls on faith, a faith… |
| This Is a wonderful profession,
but It Is not easy. We must pro-
vide the structure for the soclal
group and have clear… |
| ronment is one that assures safety and protection. The ability to follow
one's own interest without competition, without… |
| cannot be free without being independent, hence, in order to gain
independence, the active manifestations of personal liberty… |
| again to firmly proclaim the secret of childhood which she had discov-
ered. Education as aid to life, then, means for us to… |
| References
Boehm, W. (1973). The actuality of the Montessori method in
the light of modern preschool education. Around the… |
| The NAMTA Journal
43 |
| Jane M. Healy, PhD
44
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 20, No. I • Winter 1995 |
| NURTURING THE GROWING BRAIN
by Jane M. Healy, PhD
Dr. Healy's plea for the developing child calls for the removal of… |
| it easier for a child to learn to use similar approaches in other
situations-such
as school.
Dr. Martha Bridge Denckla, a… |
| entertainment committee and the rest is up to the school or the day care.
But I wonder if you can learn these general habits… |
| its effects tend to be short-lived unless this kind of "behavioral" or
"cognitive" therapy… |
| Momentarily satisfied, the child decided his needs were taking a
different course.
"I'm thirsty!"… |
| him get control over his own
brain, his behavior-and
his
world. I am willing to bet this
child will do well in school, not… |
| her hands, pantomiming fear. "Oooooo-" she said, and Dad replied,
"Ummmmmmm."
Overall, it… |
| organization-as well as with managing their behavior. It is more sur-
prising to discover, in the writings of Russian… |
| Speech that Tums into Thought
According to Vygotsky, inner speech develops as the child learns
to use language, first to… |
| same way.) For the child, this step is an important one, which
Vygotsky called "egocentric speech." &… |
| situation or not, but older ones were more successful with instruc-
tions that had appropriate meaning. Experiments like these… |
| adult, working with
the child, structures
the situation so that
the child can reason
at a level that would
be impossible… |
| When a child learns along with an adult, special sorts of motiva-
tion and mastery infuse the experience. They mutually share… |
| One elementary school head in an affluent Midwestern suburb
recently told me that children from "normal"… |
| lower-order skills (routine adding, multiplying, etc.). Students' abili-
ties to answer questions requiring application… |
| as models and guides
at every stage of devel-
opment. Jerome Bruner
calls this "loaning chil-
dren our conscious… |
| dissociation between talk and follow-through
problems with complex and conceptual verbal activities
inability to regulate and… |
| If Luria was correct about inner speech being the mechanism that
"feeds" the development of the frontal… |
| spelled out and brought to people's attention, nobody's going to do
the experiments," he continued. &… |
| fail to instill in developing minds the fundamental skills of attention
and reasoning. Increasing numbers of children today… |