The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1912-11-14
KANSAS CITY TAKES
UP MONTESSERI IDEA
italian Method OF Instructing
Children At Play Is Being
Carefully Tested.

The little toy dog Is covered with dust
In a community well out in Warwick
boulevard and the little tin soldier Is
buried deep in a soap box filed with Teddy
bears. "choo-choo" cars and dolls. The
little Boy Blues and Miss Muffets of that
neighborhood are busy from dawn to dark
In a nursery filled with the queerest Of
blocks, cans, cards, boards and sticks.
The joke is decidedly on the children.
they think they are playing. when in
reality they are learning.
1t is the equipment for the Montessori
method of instructing children which en-
crosses them. The set was designed by
Maria Montessori in Rome and the first
chest In Kansas City has arrived In this
Warwick boulevard home for the use Of
the children of that neighborhood and
family. The book which accompanies the
set was translated from the Italian by
Miss Anne E. George. a former Kansas
City girl, who now conducts a school in
New York.
Children. especially American" ar
cues Mrs. Montessori, "are surfeited with
gay and fimsy little toys which mean abb
solutely nothing to them. 1t is as easy
or easier to interest them in articles and
exercises which will instruct them and
train their senses. The articles in this
set are designed to interest them and to
develop their senses when they employ
them"
There are thin metal plates with irregu-
lar shaped pieces cut out Of them. The
children are blindfolded, given one of the
frames and left to select the piece by the
sense of touch which fits in 1t. 1t Is hard
for an adult to do, but the children who
practice do it readily. There are pieces
of woods of the same size. but lightly
varying weights. The children lift them
and decide which Is the heavier. There
are little boxes containing pebbles, corn,
wheat and sand. The children are given
these to rattle and distinguish by the
sound.
Ordinarily the human senses are only
slightly developed, because in childhood
the habit of neglecting them is formed.
AS a result men and women have stag
nant senses and go through life failing to
observe and lacking the power to judge
weights or distances and detect sounds
and doors.
The children are not directed to take
one step, then another, but the articles
they play with are such that the steps
suggest themselves. AS a result the chill
dren form the habit Of going ahead with
out prompting. They are taught the let
tiers and figures when they are 2 or 8
years old by tracing them with their fin
gers over s~andpaper placed on a smooth
surface. After tracing the figures with
their fingers they find 1t easy to write
them with a pencil. They are taught to
count by piling blocks. They learn the
colors from %various1y colored spools and
learn the order of colors by copying a
spectrum with colored pencils.
The system is said to be of inestimable
value in the training of foreign children
who are naturally slower of perception
and 'duller of wit. American children do
not need this training SO badly, but 1t Is
of great benefit to them and Is said to
teach the precision, dizziness and skill
which is the toundation of success n many
professions.