The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-08-19

eBY. EMIL.
 "Just as the tuig is bent tn
 For years we have been hearing ai ent syst era of education " hats the question which has been constantly dl our eyes with never a sagg estion for i
 AS 1t is the first bending of the cniI Id. The manner. in which # learns s in It's eerIi est years when often it is tIol Edergarten, have probably more to do Afe than have the ii la5ority of in1uenee iin its s.lcceeding B Y ears.
 V0hf1s these facts have long been l woman. Dr. Maria Montessori, to recog which Dr ronaises to revolutio ionize presen Some years ago. Dss M ontessorf be ble-rninded or denckent chil dren and " educatton One day. an exa mi ton Y b1e-nainded children participated. Mt feeble-nrinded children v ao had been I much ahead of the norn1al chile Idren Wh
 4la,nasdiately sensing there was solne thing wrong with the school sys- tern she set to work to discover ne deficiency and, if possible, to rennedys i4 TI ar present system is the result T.ha Montessori method, while it sis raalzirag rapid growth iIa tl1ls cesarltry an q has been end dorsed bys of our Dronafnent educat tors, inc1u q ing 4resl-@ dent Wilson and his dsEsl gllters MISS Margaret Wilson is yet sos Trsad1caslly different from ansst ing we have aaseis can quickly reach out and eTatsp the ssgniffcance 8f. "a nesE lea It's aIa77 neal horever has been strong and I consedue all over tI1 g coH ntry A1ontessor ki1lae are spT TA1l gss ing up.
 MISS Ethel Louise Dona1dsen. the da1Rhter Of Dr. " ilIiaIn H. Donald 2 son Of Fairfield, is to be pioneer of this Iauded new method for at least this section of the state and, when her school opens on the tfirIieth of Sep teuzbsr, Fairfield and Bridgeport can be proud Of having one of the first N1ontessort kindergartenss Of the costn-
 talked with Miss DonaIdson the other day and she is full of enthusf- asrn for her school and confident of it's success She is a charIniIEg young woman with that wealth of personal fty which is so necessary to those who would successfully deal with children. In fact the personality Of the sDirec- foresss as the head of the Montessoria Kindergarten is called, has perhaps more to do with this method than. anything else as she astast guide the children, not teach them
 Miss Donaldson spent the past year studying at the Misses Lurns famous out-of-door Montessori Kindergarten in New Haven and is fully comp etent to und ertalse the direction of such a Kindergarten
 Her horne opposite the Fairfield Library, where the kind erBaIten is to I be held from until I ? a. m. each school day from September 80 until June 4 Of the following year, is ideally. situated for such an und taking. The house is large and sets back From the streets It is surrounded by spacious with hedges and marked with large shade trees
 Speaking Of the Montessori method Miss DonaIdson said, The Montessor
 method, generally speaking. is more radical than FroebeI. Fsr eedona and as the important principles of cIild7 hood. It tends to encourage spon- taneity and the training of the senses
 .This system of self education. z she continued, tends to bring out something within the child, such as spontaneity and Individuality.
 The sense training is accomplished by means of didactie nateriaL,'
 Here Miss Donaldson showed me views of this interesting material l winch consists of two boxes contain ing coIored tablets, plain insets and
 
 for teaching the children to tie bows. to button and lace articles and so l forth
 The motor education, continued Miss DonaIdson, is more compIex 1 Without guidance, the child is dis orderly in his movements and these dtsorderIy movements are character 1 istic of the child. A child never keeps still and touches eyerything. We de- sistsfrom attempts to reduce the child to state Of fnnmobility but give order to his movements by leading them to
 actions toward which his actions were actually tending
 tIt is necessary for the teacher to quiet the child without letting him l feel her presence too much We do i not consider one disciplined only when he has been rendered artificially silent
 as a mute and as in1movab1e as a paralytIc. He is annihilated. not dis | cipIined
 We say he is disciplined when he becomes master of himself and can re- gulate his own conduct Since a child 1 learns to move. rather than sit sti1l he prepares himself not for school,
 but for life. He becomes able, through
 habit and through practice. to per
 form easily and correctly, the simple
 acts of community life
 l Concerning the ssi lent perfods''
 practiced in the Montessori kinder 1 gartens, Miss Donaldson said Freqnent periods of silence are practiced that the child may rest a bit 1 and that less noisy atmosphere may exist.
 On these same silent periods it is well to quote here from A Montessori t Mother, written by Dorothy Garfield
 Fisher, pupil Of Dr. Montessori. One may be moving about among J the groups of busy children, or sitting