Visual Education (Jan 1923-Dec 1924)

196 VISUAL EDUCATION July, 1924 The Montessori System As Applied in the Mary Crane Nursery of Chicago By Lola Kinel THE question of pre-school education, that is the care and training of infants and children up to the age of six, is receiving more and more attention because there is continuous evidence that so many problems of growing youth, cases of social maladjustment, degeneracy and even delinquency, can be traced back to the training received in the first years of infancy and childhood. It is astonishing how much potential good or bad can be inculcated in very small children through the environment and training. And it is, of course, of growing importance that the good should predominate. Not so very long ago, the average laymen's idea was that all a baby needs to be happy is good food, cleanliness and fresh air. If the child developed what is commonly called tantrums, it was either spanked or left alone. If the tantrums became a habit, the child was dismissed as a "bad one," with the implication of bad character. Nowadays a continuity of "tantrums" is looked into very closely by the wise parent or teacher, and the cause removed, often preventing what would develop in adults into complexes— the modern word for so many nervous disorders, obsessions and other marks of ill balance which can be adjusted entirely only in early childhood. In the growing complexity of civilized life the child care among the poorer classes is becoming a bigger and more difficult problem every year, for often there are lacking in the homes even the simplest elements of physical care, to say nothing of moral or mental guidance. The various nurseries and kindergartens have solved this problem at least partly, in that they take physical care of little children and give them some elementary training before the children go to school. One of the most progressive systems of child care and one which aroused considerable discussion in American educational circles a few years ago, although it has not found wide adaptation as yet, is the Montessori system. So far only two nurseries in Chicago are run on Montessori lines. One is a kindergarten in Winnetka, conducted by Miss Cyrus. The other is a part of the Mary Crane Nursery run under the auspices of the United Charities. The Montessori system was founded by Maria Montessori, an eminent Italian pedagogue who is doctor, professor and social worker combined. There are now several schools in Italy and other parts of Europe conducted successfully on her theory. The central idea of this system is that of a free development through spontaneous activity. The principle is an old one' and has been embodied in the teachings of Pestalozzi and Froebel, but Madame Montessori's distinction lies in having evolved a whole practical didactical apparatus and having applied it successfully in her own school in Rome. The children in her school are stimulated into activity gently and helpfully. They are never forced to it and they are not as much directed and ruled as guided, which makes for independence and a discipline that is largely voluntary. Those who have observed the work of the famous Casa dei Bambini in Rome all unanimously proclaim that the children seem very happy, frank without being forward, and very developed and intelligent for their age. The Montessori School in Rome is described also as a "kindergarten where children from four to five years old read, write and do number work with a facility equal to that of other children of the second and third grades." Such results seem surprising. However, as Prof. Gesell, of Yale, has expressed it in his book on primary education, "the moment that one reduces any philosophy of education to concrete, graduated material, it loses the unity and vital impulse which created it and invites as many interpretations as there are individuals to handle it." This is notably true in the case of the Montessori system, a successful 1 '. 3SE ■■■■H^fiflSHHBSI | > -4 ■ . h At ■ .,:$r MM. £ ^::_ ftVf'' — f.-V. w& i J if :^ll: mi s ^' • 5 o ■ 7 Picture Games in a Montessori Class Room — Mary Crane Nursery