The Washington herald., 1912-12-01
BIZ MRS. A. RENO MARGULIEs.
Principal of the Reno MarguIie'
school for the Deaf.

|oR all mothers OF young children
- there is message Of supreme i'm
portanee in Nine. Montessori'I
methods.
1t is unfortunate that those who are
trying to spread an understanding of her
method have put all the emphasis upon
its use in school. For the truth is that
the animating spirit OF her work means
just as much for mothers in their homes
as 1t does for teachers in their schools.
Moreover. 1t seems to me that we are in
clined to lose sight OF that animatng
spirit and to puf-too much dependence
upon the material aids for the working
cut OF her ideas.
We are forgetting that behind the
blocks and the towers and the color
spools there is something vastly bigger
and more important-the spirit OF the
whole system.
spent last Summer a goodly part OF
every day for four months in the Casa
del Bambini in Rome, and during my stay
In that city I was a guest of DR.. Monies
sorf in her own home. This close COM
partnership with her and the opportunity
II gave for discussing her ideas and the
served in her schools impressed me very
deeply with the Importance OF her mes
sage to the mothers OF little children.
= The underlying principle Of her work
is acknowledgment OF the child. Every
thing that a child tries to do from the
moment Of his birth is part OF the IN
nate necessity of growth. All his squeal-
ing and gurgling and squirming, all the
kicking of his little legs and, Later, his
efforts to grasp objects are but the out
working of the imperative principle OF de-
vclopment. As the child grows older the
parents begin TO interfere with this nat
ural growth by CURLING his desire for &C
tivity He wants and needs to toucI OBJ
jects, to feel and handle them, to tie and
unite things, to play on the floor, to climb
over chairs But he is told he must not
touch this and must keep his hands off
that: that he must sit still and be good.
He is dressed and undressed, fed and
waited on; his toys are brought out and
put away. he is helped TO play his games,
until these well-meaning but utterly mis-
taken efforts to care for him so interfere
with the natural processes OF growth as
TO make him a helpless dependent upon
tyrant also when he can not have the in
slant attention of those to whose service
he is accustomed.
Contrast this with the child that has
grown in accordance with Montessori
ideas. He has been allowed 10 hold and
handle objects devised for this special
purpose, and has become wonderfully
delft He has trained his little fingers
and hands in lacing and tying and but
toning and putting things together and
taking them apart-alI the small activi-
ties in which he has shown desire TO
indulge.
With the greatest satisfaction hes will
apply his training to his own needs, and
gain by doing this what is of more value
than the act itself. The child who has
manfully struggled with the buttoning of
his little waist. and has finally succeeded,
has done great deal more than merely
button a waist. He has strengthened
the muscles of his fingers, hands, and
arms and has trained them to work less
clumsily; he has done something toward
developing the faculties Of attention and
concentration and the power of over
coming difficulties, and, finally, he has
filled his little soul with the joy of &C
complishing what he had undertaken
to do.
1t is evident that this principle of self
development, of allowing the child to
train himself, as he will do gladly and
happily II he is not interfered with and
helped, is just as applicable in the home
as it is in the school. and that the mother
could make use of it from the very be-
ginning Of the child's growth. The little