Philosophy in Child Development

                 We all presume and hope that children are willing to learn since birth. They love exploring and enjoy self-constructing. So, Dr Montessori discovered that their ability to learn could be improved by providing them an enhanced and superior environment. How did she come to this conclusion ? How was the Montessori philosophy invented ? 

Groundwork 

1) Dr Maria observed the children intensely and studied them technically. 

2) Whenever a child does something strange, she would not accept it right away. She quoted, ‘ I shall not believe it yet, I shall, if the child behaves in the same manner again’, in her book, The Secret of Childhood. 

3) So, it becomes evident that the children revealed themselves to Maria and she was clever enough to detect them and draw to conclusions. 

4) She also observed the situations under which the children performed these actions. 

5) She was certain that it was a child’s true character, only when the child performed the action repeatedly under certain conditions without adult manipulation.

Setting up of Montessori System 

         The first Casa Dei Bambini, or House of Children, did not have specified educational principles, when it was started. It contained around 50 to 60 deprived, under privileged children behaving badly. Their parents too did not have any idea as to what educational arrangement they could offer their children.

          When Dr Montessori took up this project of educating these children, she had no specific furnishings or apparatus for the children. In fact she had no qualified teachers to coach them. In short, the set up was a total Zero when compared to the Montessori schools of today.

        But it was in this House of Children that the children revealed their unbelievable features of child nature, their mentality and their capabilities, and also their hunger for needs which were unfamiliar so far. A number of incidents occurred which motivated Dr Montessori to discover several aspects of child psychology. 

          As she possessed a scientific state of mind, she conducted repeated tests on child behaviour through a group of friends who reported the results back to her. After nearly two decades of such severe experimenting, Maria concluded that she had found out a method for child education, known as the Montessori Method which aids a harmonious development of the child’s mind and body. This concept of education was accepted and spread worldwide, still being practised successfully.

A Montessori Classroom