A teacher with a higher medical education, Maria Montessori, whose upbringing method received worldwide fame, was an outstanding personality of her time. Her bold approach to pedagogical theory and practice is still controversial.
Maria Montessori methodology - child's self-worth and prepared development environment
Studying the behavior of children, Maria Montessori came to the conclusion that the patterns of development of the human body, the stages of maturation of its physiological systems in connection with higher nervous activity are purely individual. The teacher does not have the right to actively intervene in the process of becoming an individual. Any encouragement or punishment violates the natural course of development. Traditional education, aimed at imposing general rules on the child without taking into account his individual abilities, prevents the disclosure of the potential of the individual. The task of the teacher is upbringing. The main meaning of the word is in the root - nutrition. From this postulate it follows the natural conclusion that the true task of the teacher is to create a breeding ground that will nourish feelings and emotions, nourish creative forces and thereby provide food for the development of intelligence. If this principle is respected, each child will be able to become a full-fledged, highly developed, harmonious personality. Without a prepared environment, the Motessori technique cannot function. The environment only provides stimulating development when it allows the child to make feasible independent actions for its transformation.
Montessori method - the concept of a sensitive period of development
The first and most important stage of personality development, according to Motessori, is age from birth to 6 years. At this time, the child absorbs sensations, impressions, emotional signals from the environment, and they become part of his personality.
One of the basic aspects of the Montessori method is the concept of a sensitive period of development. Sensitive - the period of greatest sensitivity to the effects of the environment, when the child is capable of full concentration, the most favorable period for the maturation of certain mental functions and the acquisition of various practical skills. The intellectual development of a child occurs through sensations: a natural interest in studying the environment is fueled by tactile sensations that transform into cognition.
If the child does not get the opportunity to develop certain skills through feelings and sensations in the corresponding period, in the future their formation can be significantly difficult or even impossible. So, for the development of speech, the sensitive period is the age from birth to six years. A child deprived of full human communication during this period will never be able to learn to speak. And vice versa, an infant who, from birth, constantly hears emotional human speech, learns to speak without difficulty.
Montessori methodology involves the active use of special didactic material aimed at the development of sensory perception. And the motive for learning is the natural inner need of babies to imitate the actions of elders. The role of the teacher is to recognize periods of sensitivity and help in organizing the independent activities of the child by creating suitable conditions.
Learning with passion
Maria Montessori deeply believed that the natural need to learn is inherent in every human being from the beginning. A child who learns at a natural pace experiences the joy of learning and gains confidence in his abilities, which helps him achieve more. The Montessori method used in kindergarten provides clear evidence that children through imitation are quite capable of independently learning to wash, dress, put things in place and perform other socially significant and practically useful actions. In addition, in the process of games with didactic materials, children learn the properties of objects, the meaning of letters and numbers, learn to solve logical problems.
The Montessori method in the preschool period of child development has obvious advantages. The use of this technique in mass school education raises objections from the point of view of the impossibility of organizing a strictly individual approach to the education of each child. On the other hand, it is an ideal to strive for.