| Volume32 Number 1
Winter2007
N·A·M·T·A
J 0 u
The Montessori
Century Concept:
A Continuing
Process in Reality
R N A
The… |
| WHAT Is AMTA?
The '-onh \mcncan Monte,,ori Te.1chcr-.. A,,oc1a-
tion prm idc, .t medium of ,tud}. intcrprct.llion. and… |
| THE NAMTA JOURNAL
VOL. 32, No. 1 • WINTER 2007
THE MONTESSORI CENTURY CONCEPT:
A CONTINUING PROCESS IN REALITY
In affili:… |
| THE MONTESSORI CENTURY CONCEPT:
A CONTINUING PROCESS JN REALITY
THE MONTESSORI CENTURY CONCEPT:
A CONTINUING PROCESS IN… |
| AN EXPLORATION OF THE USE OF SENSORY INTEGRATION IN THE
MONTESSORI CONTEXT… |
| THE MONTESSORI CENTURY CONCEPT:
A CONTINUING PROCESS IN REALITY
by David Kahn
When we look back to the origins of the… |
| this f 011 rnnl issue embodies one part of the fire of her continuing sparks
that mature into flames, and then regress as… |
| So there is no time barrier in this century of Montessori's work,
because the great questions of childhood process are… |
| depends-land,
water, energy, air, animals, plants, humans-is the
relevantadultissue for our time, so that insofar as… |
| OF HEROES AND THE HEROIC:
REFLECTIONS ON THE EARLY LIFE AND
ACHIEVEMENTS OF MARIA MONTESSORI
by Lawrence Schaefer
Lnrry… |
| In the early summer of 1896, a
young woman graduated from
the faculty of medicine and
surgery in the University of
Rome.… |
| the course of development, the child who alone has the power to
construct the adult and to create a better world.
Thomas… |
| PART ONE: MARIA MONTESSORI
IN 1896
Tn the early summer of 1896, a young woman graduated from the
faculty of medicine and… |
| In secondary school Maria had at first studied mathematics, then
science, and in the university she studied biology. All were… |
| sciences that saw an exp.losive growth in psychology, in sociology, .in
anthropology, and in pedagogy. It was an age of… |
| Montessori looked around the
ward and saw only beds. Nothing
but beds. The room was completely
empty of anything that would… |
| Montessori looked around the ward and saw only beds. Nothing
but beds. The room was completely empty of anything that would… |
| Early in September, 1898, Italy and its educational establishment
were rocked when an Italian anarchist assassinated Elizabeth… |
| It was a masterful achievement. Had anything like it ever hap-
pened in teaching before? Montessori would say later that it… |
| Butitisin the human con-
text that we must come to un-
derstand the depth of this
tragedy-the
terrible wrench
to a mother… |
| declared that she would dedicate herself to pedagogy. Then she began
her studies of the learning problems of normal children… |
| condition-the
tenants were in charge of the care and maintenance of
the tenements. It acted as a sort of covenant. And he… |
| Many left Rome convinced and opened Children's Houses in other
countries. In 1909, Montessori published her book in order… |
| tion-scientific observation. Her ideas developed systematically on
the basis of what children taught her. In a sense… |
| • the need for order, the sense of beauty
• the development of inner calm and the ability to be silent
• the development of… |
| REFERENCES
Carlyle, Thomas. 011 Heroes, Hero-Worship n11d the Heroic i11
History. 1865. Berkeley: U of California P, 1993.… |
| 22
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 32, No. 1 • Winter 2007 |
| THE LIGHT OF THE CHILD
by Dr. Maria Montessori
First published in 1957 by AMT inn special booklet com111e111orating fifty… |
| makes us understand that in the child we have a Teacher and not a
pupil and helps us to regard the child with a special… |
| gave,has survived, for there are in different parts of the world Case dei
Bambini of which even the Italian name has been kept… |
| Allie Kohn
26
The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 32. No. I • Winter 2007 |
| THE SCHOOLS OUR CHILDREN DESERVE:
HELPING PARENTS UNDERSTAND THE
RATIONALE FOR ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION
by Alfie Kohn
A/fie… |
| in which case, perhaps, I will drop a seed to invite you to think about
those ideas, not merely to sell ideas that are already… |
| think about their long-term goals for their kids; looking backward
means inviting them to reflect on what things were like… |
| parents or non-Montessori teachers, two things will almost always
happen: First, even when you ask educators what their long-… |
| otherwise might, can you think of a more important way to have
them spend their time at school or at home?
The consensus is… |
| to become a little more like this. The second possibility is that what we
are doing with them has nothing to do with these… |
| "forcible isolation of young children" but instead is called by a lovely
euphemism, time out-teach kids to… |
| these sentences"
when that sterile,
decontextualized
approach to lit-
eracy instruction
makesreadingand
writing… |
| work. If parents and kids look upon it as something like cleaning the
toilet, can't wait to be finished so we can do… |
| research to justify it, but other people are going to do this to you later,
so we have to do it to you now." And it… |
| existed. But you don't have to make kids do bad stuff to learn that bad
stuff exists. And you certainly don't have… |
| Second, do we mean success in the sense of being able to find a
vocation and an avocation that we care about? To constantly… |
| that a book I wrote on this topic more than a dozen years ago called
Punished by Rewards is probably the first book in history… |
| eh i ldren. You have to get some money if you work in an industrialized
society. But there's nothing, including grades,… |
| could he have done if he felt frustrated with the situation? Because kids
are going to come across bad stuff even if they… |
| facts? Why doesn't my kid memorize the multiplication table the way
I had to? Why doesn't my kid have to do fifty… |
| arc loads to choose from, so pick one. For others of us, we arc going to
spend this time trying desperately to think of one.… |
| ,. * ,.
What I would like to do now is try to talk a little more about the
specifics of what progressive or alternative… |
| "Cool! That's what a ball bearing is? How does it work?
Can we take apart the ottoman? Oh, I get it, why didn… |
| "All right, what should we do?" says the teacher. "Who has an
idea?" There are false… |
| What the greatest teachers often do
is deliberately complicate kids'
thinking, knowing just when to throw
a monkey… |
| Also, notice that the students experienced first rather than being
given the concept. It was hands-on, and they were scurrying… |
| a lot because of a mere calculation error even though they really
understood the concept. What matters is not so much just the… |
| For math, and especially for younger children, I recommend the
work of Constance Kam ii, a series of books titled Yo1111g… |
| and what they can do with what they know. And, in any case, great
teachers don't need them because they are getting a… |
| helps me to see that they
might not be so easy to
reconcile. And the third
kind of challenge is that
1 have this theory,… |
| there are some university instructors who do that as well? They
prepare a syllabus before they've met their students!… |
| Here's what I think makes sense in a school, and I think many of
you wiJI agree with this, and then Twill proceed to some… |
| We do not teach fractions because
kids are going to need to know about
that next year, or because it's on our
lesson… |
| not teaching in a holistic way that starts with problems and questions
and projects. In other words, I'm all for skills… |
| kids will blink like you must not be very swift. Well, we're doing it
because Ms. Brandt told us we're supposed to… |
| I hope you never forget as long as you live, is, Who cnres? If you ever
forget that's the correct answer, it will hold… |
| devices and embarrassed about asking for help because they're sup-
posed to know this stuff by now. In the worst schools… |
| to the port side in other respects. But at the same time, it's hard to
imagine truly progressive education without that… |
| now I've been mentioning that at schools all over the place and some
of them have picked up on it. Take it, steal it-they… |
| In one of my own books, called The Schools Our Children Deserve,
I took all the research and stuffed it at the end of the book… |
| * * *
Here are some of the challenges I like to offer to teachers who are
already pretty much with me. Are we defending a… |
| example: They're going to get a lot of it at that school, the implication
being we should give them. homework now. My… |
| antithetical to genuine, deep learning. Once again we can tell the
parents the absence of grades is often a precondition to… |
| Yeah, I'm already doing that. Sometimes there's this frozen identity, too,
with respect to the school, where we… |
| is given to kids on a regular basis? Should I skip this entirely, then, or
would it be helpful, as with the other stuff, to… |
| a weak correlation, that correlation tends to vanish when you use more
sophisticated statistical controls and, more… |
| But won't kids just go home
and play video games if we
don't give them homework?
Here's what I say: First,… |
| I need to just chill out and do the stuffllove, so why the hell shouldn't
children have that opportunity? Do they have to… |
| your body to move the right way in tennis. "Well, but homework
reinforces what teachers do during the day"-… |
| Q. What ca11 we say about standardized testing?
A. Standardized testing measures what matters least. Research
demonstrates… |
| kids-if you were primarily interested in sorting people into winners
and losers. If you were interested in the quality of… |
| punishment and sometimes a very cruel one to the child. It's not a
matter of figuring out slightly groovier ways to do… |
| THE ORIGINAL PRINCIPLES OF
THE SILENT JOURNEY
by Barbara Gordon
Bnrbnrn Gordon recounts tlie evol11 tio11 of The Si lent… |
| morning, and, believe it or not, I have a lot of working people who
do stay for the breakfast after drop-off and then go to… |
| a question on something you sent out. So, we thought they really
needed to experience it.
The first time we did the Journey-… |