New-York tribune., 1918-12-07
The School Idea
DIR. Monfessori's Vision of Fut-
ure Education

THE ADVANCED MoNTEssonI METHOD, by
Maria Nontessori }. Spontaneous Activity in
Ee%snsy aer Rn 'IS pp a.. The rsssres
Stokes Company
AS the Montessori method is being
applied to the children of the French
and Belgian war zone, the latest book
by the gifted Italian educator assumes
double interest 1t must it is true, be
confessed that with the advent of The
Century of tho Child" such thorough
going reforms have been suggested and
effected in individual and collective
education that one wonders. what the
outcome will be. For that puericulture
IS stlH In an experimental stage cannot
be denied, and that the greet woman
whose genius has formulated the prin
clples OF the new education and tested
them by practice is far ahead of her
time seems also to admit of no doubt.
Whatever child psychology and school
hyglene may contribute to change the
attitude of parents and teachers toward
the child, to improve the environment
IN which 1T grows up, and to adapt the
currlculums and methods to the child's
capacities, instead of forcing them into
tasks selected by adults with little
knowledge of the working of child's
mind, the consummation Of DR.. Montes-
SORTS ideal will hardly be seen by the
present generation. Accustomed as we
are to regard the child as type rather
than individual, and to handle it from
collective standpoint, applying fore
gone conclusions, we rise from the
reading OF her book convinced of the
'o1flness of her purpose and the prac
tlcability of her method, but depre sed
by the knowledge that the world at
large will not benefit by it before a
new generation of teachers has grown
up. For the fundamental idea under
lying DR.. Montcssori's method is that
Of making education growth from
within, rather than a process of sug-
casting, 'insti'ling and training from
without Moreover, this growth from
within is based upon liberty, the
ch!ld's right of individual choice, this
being spiritual condition of healthy
development heretofore not sufficiently
! recognized. DR. Montessori compares
the inner working of a chi'd's mind to
mat OF genius-incomprehen sible to
US until we see it's results. Hence tn,
danger of disturbing the natural inner
process bv interference from without
by dlverting attention, by changing
current which had it run its natura
course might have meant Il great step
teachers capable of approaching their
tasks from that standpoint must not
only have thorough y dieested the prin
c'nles Of child psychology, but must
bring to their work the fruits of per.
sonal observation ard experiment.
Ihe Survey of Modern Education,"
With it's Model Lessons" placed along
side mode lessons by the Monte
scri method, is perhaps the one that
gives the general reader the deepest
insight into the features that differen-
tiate the work of the great Italian ed
ucator from that of her predecessors
The chapter on "The Preparation of
the Teacher" summarizes the demands
which the method makes upon those
who undertake to demonstrate it and is
likely to appall the young novice eacer
20 be up to date in pedagogy. But it
IS we'll to warn the ambitious young
teacher not to undertake to study, and
much less to teach, the Montessori
method until that inner maturity has
been reached which clarifies the vision
and strengthens the will to perseyere
IN spite of seemingly insurmountable
d'Hicu'ties. In the chapter on "Atten-
ton which, in the language of the au.
thor, awakens in answer to an impulse
i OF spiritual hunger, she pays tribute
10 our own William James, who in the
ore of the mysterious factors of life"
According to Montessori, the will is
strengthened by exercise, not by sub
lection. Intelligence depends on the
ABILITY to distinguish and arrange, and
genius possesses maximum powers of
association s. by similarity. The final
n1ty pages or more DR.. Montessori de-
votes to the moral question, and sug-
gests that moral education be based
upon feeling, remarking, by the way,
tnat the great war is an example of
moral insensibility
The second volume deals with the
teaching Of grammar, reading. arith-
"et'c, geometry, drawing, music and
met,.cs, and appeals more exclusively
TO the teaching profession. The trans
Iator, Mr.. Arthur Livingston, associate
professor of Italian at Columbia Uni
verslty, explains in a predatory note
that the work really contains text
books on the teaching of Italian gram.
mar, reading and metrics, which can
not be, without essential changes, ap-
Piled to the English language. But
antil the suggestions they contain have
been modified for practical use in the
teaching of English, the instructor in
foreign languages will welcome and
apply them to individual needs The
chapters on arithmetic, geometry and
drawing, which were translated by Miss
! Helen Parkhurst and Miss Emily H.
, Greenman, contain much that strikes
the ear of our teachers to-day as rank
heresy. But the results attained bv
the method in the mother school in
Rome and in some of the Montessori
schools that have within the last few
/ears sprung up all over the world
end to prove the justice of the authors
statements. Exceedingly interesting is
the chapter on music. For when Mon
tessor says rhythmic interpretation
Of the musical thought is expressed by
rtters the same truth which gave birth
to Dalcroze eurhythmics, that admi
rable system Of physical and musical
education which in its logical develop.
nent from within out, from rhythmic
gymnastics to plastic INSTALLATION OF
music, comes nearer to the Hellenic
ideal of education than any attempt at
fevivng the art of the Greek dance
in our modern environment Thus this
second volume, too, is a mine of in
formation to the reader interested in
che attempts made by great educators
to replace education from without
by conditions favoring growth from
within. A.E.