The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-12-14
Lacks Flashing Smile Charac-
teristic Of Her Race, But
Gives and Impression Of
Poise and Sureness.

Critics Of the Montessori method of
education have come to the front since
the departure of the systems famous
founder from Washington last Sunday,
and said that its chief defect was its abb
solute dependence upon personality DR..
Maria Montessori herself firmly denied
this defect during her visit here.
One may well have grave doubts, how
ever, a. to how "auto-education"- is
what the method may be appropriately
termed-win progress when the personal
ity of DIR. Montessori is lost to it. For
personality this famous Italian educator
certainly has, AMI one half-hour alone
with her establishes the fact that her
method is Montsssori and Montessori is
the method. She has that type OF per-
sonality with which Americans, who have
not Travelled extensively, are not IA
miliar. 1t is an individuality one does
not associate with the Temperament OF
the Latin.
II you have seen her you will remember
her as q heavy woman. sQuarely built
Those who had the honor of being In
her company at the residence Of DR.. and
Mrs Alexander Graham Bell, in Connec-
ticut avenue, where she was q guest
while in Washington, will remember that
sue cpcdhS uO sue ~
spends quickly to every suggestion.
Eyes Are Expensive.
Her black hair is sprinkled with gray,
but her face is rudy and without
wrinkle, showing clear and bright above
the black of her travelling dress. Her
eyes are the expressive part OF her face;
they. seem always to be working out
formulate about you. She has not the
quick, flashing smile that is character
istic of her race; she smiles slowly-her
face changes expression almost imper-
ceptibly. There is no rapid ALTERATION OF
mood.
But she gives, above all, the impress
sion Of poise and sureness. 1t is perhaps
that contrasted with our own nervous
ness, perhaps the mere fact that she Is
in a strange country and does not I'M
derstand English-whatever the cause,
she seems euriously detached. She is
not aloof. she is interested in this odd
and noisy place, but she is always apart,
serene and untouched by it
Those who know the fundamentals OF
the Montessori method will realize that
it is but an expression Of this serene
poise. Children of three and four under
the Montessori method have their ''silen-
cio,' the period Of meditation. That
does not mean, DR.. Montessori will tell
you, a passive, enforced, paralyzed
silence. 1t is voluntary, active thing.
Meaning of Meditation.
Meditation means something growing.
The Jesuits succeeded in winning souls
merely by encouraging the people to
mediate. Meditation opened up an un-
suspected inner world, which fascinated
the type of person accustomed to fit over
a multitude Of things.
Take the difference between read
ing and meditating. We may read e.
voluminous novel in a single night. We
may mediate upon verse OF Scripture
for an entire hour. When we read a
novel in a night, it is like a wind that
passes over arid ground. There is al
squandering of the physical powers. But
the one who meditates assimilates in a
manner that surprises himself because he
feels something unforeseen coming to
life within him. 1t is as though seed
had been planted in fertile soil, and sud-
denly, while it had been perfectly mo-
tionless, began to terminate"
This is the fundamental principle I'M
de lying the entire Montessori system,
the development of growth within ones
self, which is the reason for the sum-
ming up of tn method as "auto-educa-
ton" 1t is this power of assimilation,
of meditation, which gives DR.. Monies
scr. the air of detachment and differ
eng from her surroundings.
+ was very ready to talk. She spoke
IN ugh her first American pupiI-teacher,
ME- ANNE George, who is now director
OF Montessori Educational Associa-
scho0 and the head of the TarrytOwn
Interest In America.
:. watched faces calmly and close-I
~. ut not at all eagerly.
N object in coming to America" and
-. drew q W
a. nt her shoulders with just a glance
A. lhe windows, as If to imply that she
not come here to freeze to death.
America more than any county out
lae Of my own has been interested in
the method as 1 have worked it out ia
the Casa del Bambini. ! have come
largely to understand the spirit of this
great interest with which have been in
touch, though somewhat remotely, in
the teachers I have trained for their
work in America.
81 wish now to develop and implant
more deeply my educational ideas. BY
that mean the underlying ideas, which
are always obscured at first by the
petty and the trivial, often to their detr!-
ment ! come first to America because
the work is progressing here more rapid |
ly and I would be sure that the deveI- |
opment is right and unhampered.'
As a matter of fact. there are now
I america very 1OU hOHIeSSOFl
schools Out of a class of eighty-odd
pupil-teachers who took DR.. Montessoris
four months course at Rome last year,
sixty-odd were Americans.
Schools I'm Japan.
II would not imply that the Mon
tessori school is confined to Rome and
the United states. however, the doctress
explains. 1T was a peculiar gratifca-
ton to me to know that my book, The
Montessori Method was being prepared
in the Japanese tongue. There are al
ready in Japan tentative schools where
the method will be adopted. Under the
influence of some of the leading Protest
ant missionaries two schools have been
established in China
Then, too. the Sisters of Mary, at
whose convent the first model school
In Rome was established. have founded
several schools in Syria"
DR.. Montessori has been conducting at
her own home an experimental class made
up of a few children between the ages |
of seven and ten. It is this continuance
Of the system in its practical application