Philosophy of Montessori Education Essay

Dr Maria Montessori started her work in the field of bringing up and babe psychology, when she had already obtained a doctors degree in medicine and surgery. Her scientific training and experience were exception completely(a)y broad base and unique. Her approach to direction encompassed the satisfying beatment of man from birth to adulthood. The well-nigh important contribution of her work, in the present day, is the focussed attention on the fact that no attempt to solve social and moral problems of the golf club go forth succeed if it is concentrated only on man-the-adult, and not on the whole man, including his boorhood. Therefore aboriginal sister facts of intent becomes important for a better society.Today in social life, there exists an urgent need- that of reforming methods of education and instruction, and whoever strives to r distributively this goal is striving for the regeneration of man(The Discovery of Child, Chapter 2, pageboy 2). This motivation to creat e new anatomy kind through archaeozoic education was the h alonemark of the education philosophy of Dr Montessori. Dr Montessori observed that regular education follows a steady ascent, becoming increasingly difficult year by and by year, afterward starting at the age of 06 yrs.However, she discovered, through her innovative experiments, that human development and acquire is not steady and linear, but happens in a series of formative planes, starting from the birth of the nestling. She also discovered that the eject development of human universe is made possible by the leaning of the human being to certain universal actions in affinity to their milieu and the most productive development was observed when the surround was self elect and fold up to the interests of the pincer. Dr Montessori felt that adult should not assume that the babe is waste vessel waiting to be filled with our knowledge and experience.It is important to witness that the nestling has decl ar p otential for life and a suit subject surroundings is to be created for the tike to exercise the opportunity to learn on his own under limited close observation. Dr Montessori principal(prenominal)tained that the first purpose of life was the most important in a childs development, it is during this catch that thechilds powers of absorption and learning argon highest and life-long attitudes and purposes of learning ar unwaveringly formed. She believed that the child is endowed with unknown powers, which can guide us to a radiant future and The crackingness of human personality begins at the moment of the birth(The spongy Mind, Chp 1, rascal 2). Dr Montessori termed that both creature, whether plant or animal, comes from a primary, simple and un differentiated cell with the characteristics of the creature thus developed, greatly depending on some unidentified force.Every germ cell bears within itself a pattern of the organism to be, without visible sign, so that every ne w-born body, whatever species, bears in itself a pattern of psychical instinct, of functions that willing set it in relation to its purlieu, for the fulfilment of a cosmic bearing. Dr Montessori felt that this surroundings must(prenominal) depict not only the means of physiological existence, but stimuli to the mysterious mission inscribed in every creature that is born, all of which was summoned by their environs not only life but the exercise of a undeniable office for the conservation of the world and its harmony. In this way, Dr Montessori, pictured that there ar two initial embryos, namely physiological or the physical and spiritual, from severally one with distinct roles to play in the life of a child.She distinguished that these stages of early development, in man as pre-natal and post natal, where-in, this post-natal work is a positive activity which is carried on in what may be called the formative period, and take ups the tike into a kind of Spiritual Embry o(The absorbent Mind, Chp 7, paginate 62). According to this postnatal development happens only in man and the extend infancy of man separates him entirely from the animals, whereby man is seen as a being different from all others. Dr Montessori believed that for the psychic pattern to give away itself, two conditions must be fulfilled, first, the environment that he interacts to understand the limit of his universe, second, the freedom to undo himself. She emphasised that when these two conditions atomic number 18 met, the psychic life of the child will not reach its potential and his personality will be stunted.Dr Montessori potently felt that, the work of man on the earth is related to his spirit, to his yeasty intelligence service, therefore this spirit and creative intelligence must be the fulcrum of his existence, and of all the workings of human body. It is some this fulcrum, the behaviour and physical economy is organised. Dr Montessorisays that the whole man deve lops within this spiritual halo and therefore first care given to the new-born babe, over riding all others, must be a care for his mental life, and not just for his bodily life. Dr Montessori draw offd the epoch line of 3 yrs from birth, as the period of Spiritual Embryo, and all the non-physical qualities namely his intelligence, temperament, personality, spirit and soul develop in this stage.Dr Montessori describes that development of child is due to an unconscious power, a indispensable force, she borrowed a word horme to describe this vital force, which is similar to the force that created Nebulae, pushed by the universal unconscious intelligence of force. She thought that, this force is similar to the force that is pushing or driving force the entire world towards teleological end in the philosophy of the cut Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Dr Montessori opined that the child has a different relation to its environment, the child absorbs the environment and it becomes his soul and reincarnates in himself all in the world nigh him that his eyes see and ears hear and child is transformed by them.This vital kind of memory board, which does not consciously remember, but absorb images into the individuals very life, has been given a special name by Sir Percy Nunn, called Mneme(The receptive Mind, Chp 7 , Page 74). All the social and moral habits that shape a mans personality, the sentiments of caste, and all kinds of other feelings, that make him a exemplary Human being like a characteristic Indian, a typical Italian, or a typical Englishman, are formed during infancy, in meritoriousness of that mysterious mental power that psychologists fool called Mneme.It is with the combination of this powerful memory and the vital force, that the child experiences the environment and imbibes the attitudes for life, which result in his regeneration through different stages of development. Dr Montessori said Man unlike the animals, is not born with movements already co-ordinated he has to shape and co-ordinate his own movements. Nor has he even a predetermined aim this too, must find for himself (The Absorbent Mind, Chp 7, Page 77). The child has to self construct and learn from his environment, through divers(a) planes of development, happening in his life at different ages. Dr Montessori defined 04 main panes of development, from the birth to 24 yrs of age, each lasting for 6 yrs.Children are incite from within. The child has within him the person he will become, and it is our role as nurturing adults to encourage the process of the childs self-construction (http//www.pcmontessori.org/ nearly/montessori.php). Therefore, the child has to develop his own powers for reacting to life. Dr Montessori identified two assist one is internal aids and external aids that sustain the child to develop, of which the internal aids are responsive period and the absorbent sense.She narrates that, children have the expertness and passion to sur pass at certain activities at specific periods of time in their life, which disappears after the passage of that specific interval of time in the childs life. She adds that, during such a period the child is endowed with special sensibility, which urges the child to focus attention only on certain aspects of environment, excluding others. crank periods are those blocks of time, when the child is absorbed in only one characteristic of his environment, excluding other. Sensitive periods are active between 0-6 yrs of age.There are six sensitive periods defined namely (1) Sensitive to order, (2) Learning through their five senses, (3) sensibility to small objects, (4) Sensitivity to co-ordination of movement, (5) Sensitivity to language, (6) Sensitivity to social aspect of life. The baby has a creative aptitude, a potential energy that will change it to build up a mental world from the world about it (The Secret of Childhood, Chp 3, Page 33). This the child learns through the sensiti ve periods, which follow each other and are overlapping as well. While above periods describe the pattern the child learns in gaining knowledge of his environment, the absorbent explains the process of the knowledge gained from this learning.The absorbent mind is divided into the un-conscious (0-3yrs) and conscious mind (3-6yrs). In the un-conscious mind, the child absorbs from the environment, and therefore, there is a great requirement to make the environment as interesting and striking for the child, which helps the child to create his own impressions about the environment and develop the idea of analyses and reasoning on the basis of these impressions.The conscious mind follows the unconscious mind and takes all the inputs from the preceding un-conscious mind, for development of his mental functions, with the help of already established power of memory, analyses and reasoning. With the conscious mind, the child has an established will and memory, which he uses for further self c onstruction. The child at this stage is able to write, read, understand numbers etc., Dr Montessori defines some laws ofdevelopment, which actually reveals the kind of experiments she had carried out and intelligibly defines the requirements for the child to learn different things at different stages of development. There are eight laws of development which unfold over a course of time.They are (1) Law of Work The child, when given work in a inclined(p) environment, with any kind of behaviour, yields to the learning mode and gives up any kind of aggressive behaviour. This in turn shapes his personality and existence which come looking to face in the prepared environment. (2) Law of Independence When deliver the goodsd with independence, the child strives to bear in mind to its inner guide for actions and this helps in his innate development. (3) Power of Attention At a certain stage of development, the child becomes sensitive to his environment with great intensity and an inter est not seen before. When a child works, he develops his ability to concentrate which replaces his instinctive interest with intellectual interest, this leads to the child becoming calmer and controlled. (4) breeding of provide The child, through repeated work, slowly establishes his will. Dr. Montessori observed three stages of this Will development.First, as the child repeats his work many times over a period of time, he gains power over his own movements. The child and so moves to the second stage that is accepting self discipline as a way of life. After achieving self- discipline as a way of life, the child reaches the third stage of the developed will involving the power to obey. (5) Development of light For a child, development of intelligence through the comparison and differentiation of the already learnt attributes of the environment and this is the key to understanding life itself.It helps to put the images of consciousness in order. (6) Development of Imagination and Creativity Dr. Montessori believed that development of the powers of imagination and creativity develops as mental capacities are established through the interactions with the environment. She believed that when the child has developed vivid and ordered perception of is environment, he capable of selecting and emphasising process necessary for creative endeavours. (7)Development of Emotional and Spiritual life The child possesses within him at birth the senses that respond to his emotional side to the spiritual environment, due to which he learns he receives emotional and spiritual stimuli from all personnel whom he is close to. A sensitive period is at work, a divine pretermit is breathing through helplessthings, animating them with the spirit(The Secret of Childhood, Chp 3, Page 38). Dr Montessori maintain that development has to be accompanied with constant spirit for achieving greater heights.Dr Montessori named environment and freedom as the external aids of self constructio n, this she advised teachers to make changes to the environment to accommodate the requirements of the child, to be able to nourish the requirements of the child. Since, at all times the child is interacting with its environment, it is highly mandatory to maintain the environment to provide best opportunity for the child to learn. Every object must have a definite place, where it is kept, and where it remains, when it is not in use (The discovery of the Child, Chp 17, Page 182). Since all objects form the central part of the environment, it is required that the environment is not be disturbed for the child to learn from it. Freedom for a child provides an opportunity to express himself which in turn helps to grow the developed pattern resulting in the overall childs growth. This freedom and prepared environment leads to normalisation in children.The teacher involved in this method of program line has to provide the freedom and ensure that the environment is created for the child to avail every opportunity to learn, with all the freedom to learn things. According to Dr Montessori, there should be balance created between the mind and body of the child, to work in agreement and harmony and this will create normalised children, else there would be deviations in the child. Dr Montessori has separate deviated psyches into fugue, barriers, attachment, possessiveness, inferiority, fear and lies.Each of these category, has strong different reasons behind them, which encompasses the environment the child has been brought up in, how the child was treated in its childhood etc., Dr Montessori has framed different methods and advises for teachers in dealing with these children. Dr Montessori emphasises that normalised children are the result of freedom and ideal environment provided to the children, which will result in cohesion of children, due to the developed attentiveness for others, helping nature, harmonious mind. Also qualities of co-operation, discipline, social sentiment, obedience and character are developed by child that will lead in the making of a better society and better human kind.The teacher, when she begins work in our schools, must have kind of faith that the child will reveal himself (The Absorbent Mind, Chp 27, Page 287). Dr Montessori, places huge responsibility on the teacher, of that of creating a contributive environment for child with all freedom and required observation prowess, to measure and correct the child. Dr Montessori wants the teacher to have infinite faith in the child that the child will blossom into a flower with its own colour, shape, coat and fragrance. they who know the most Must mourn the deepest oer the mortal truth.The tree of Knowledge is not that of Life (Maria Montessori- Her Life and Work, Chp 21,Page 368). These words were from Bryons Manfred. EM Standing, author of Maria Montessori Her Life and Work, describes the need for complementary the idea of Dr Montessori Education for life through diss emination of Montessori Method of learning in creating harmonious children and greater future which is at peace with each other and with the environment.BibliographyDr. Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood, Orient Black Swan, India Dr. Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, Kalakshetra Press, India Dr. Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the Child, Kalakshetra Press, India EM Standing, Maria Montessori Her Life and Work, Penguin Putnam Inc, New York http//www.pcmontessori.org/about/montessori.php