Maria Montessori – 5 Principles

The meaning of Education  According to Montessori “ child is a body which grows and a soul which develops-these two forms, physical and psychic have an eternal front, life itself. She wants each child to develop himself from within and not from without.

Education should guide the process of unfolding the hidden powers of a child. In her word, “Education is the active help given to a normal expansion of the life of a child”. She continue saying that each child is different from others, physically as while as mentally. So, the child’s individuality must be respected and not suppressed through collective teaching. Each child should be bestowed individual attention and allow to grow at his own pace.

Therefore, after graduation in medicine, Montessori was in-charge of the training of mental challenged children. She taught a number of such children to read and write so efficiently by adopting her special method and her previous experience acquired from the infant school in Rome.

The Montessori system became an ‘education by touch’. Only methods, which Montessori adopted to educate and train up the muscles and sense organs of the mentally challenged children is known as Montessori Method.Hence will discuss the five principles of education proposed by Montessori

The 5 Principles

1. Inward Development

To start with, Development from within according to Montessori, the source of education of a child is within.(Montessori 1972) this means the child has within itself certain elements of knowledge that foster learning. For example, the language acquisition device that enables children to learn language. Each child has got his own peculiar interest, aptitude, capacities and endowment. Education should help the child to unfold his individuality from within himself.

2. Child's Full Potential

According to Montessori (1966), “If any education act is to be efficacious, it will be only that which tends to help towards the complete unfolding of child’s individuality. The child has a body which grows and a soul which develop”. So, after recognizing the physical and mental differences of the individuals a suitable environment should be provided to the child so as to enable him grow and develop the potentialities that he has within him. For example, prepare an environment suitable for children to learn different skills such as making blocks or skills to do with counting by preparing an environment for calculations.

3. Self Education

Individual teaching and development is another principle of education proposed by Maria Montessori. She proposed that, “individualistic instruction based on the physical and mental levels of individual is the key tone of Montessori’s philosophy of education.” (Malone & Camp 2007)this might imply that each child must be given lessons depending on their thinking and physical attributes, for example giving difficult questions to children that think fast and can solve tough questions while administering less tough questions to slow learners. This is because she believes that collective teaching suppresses the individuality which is essential for the growth and development of the child. As in the example above, administering and attending to individual needs of the learners is the best way to teach than giving concepts to the entire pupil’s in class. For example, giving a test on earth geometry to all learners in class when others do not even know the simple basics of what earth geometry is.

According to (Orem 1965), “Self –education or auto education: Montessori believed that self education is the best method by which the child can learn in his own way and at his own speed.”Meaning that a child has the ability to learn and do things on their own and at their own rate. For example, a child needs to be given freedom to learn whatever appears fit and at whatever rate, a child can choose whether to read ten pages of a book a day or just two books according to the learning capability of the child. According to Montessori (1972)“self education is the only true education, and should be without any interferencefrom outside.For example, children must be free to learn about things without any kind of restrictions from the teachers or parents.

4. Sensory Training 

Sense-training, according to Montessori, “senses are the gateways of knowledge they occupy an important role in a child’s education,” Scheerenberger (1983). The acquisition of knowledge depends on the training given to the sense. For example, if the sense of sight in a child is trained to see things related to computers, the child will learn about computers freely and fully. She believes that mental deficiency is due to the dullness of senses. Therefore, we should approach the child’s mind through sense training. According to Ward (1913) “Montessori realizes that the senses are very active between the ages of three and seven, and that’s the maximum learning takes place during that period.” Sense training, enables the child to recognize weight, color, sound, temperature, touch, smell, size, and forms. Thus sense training enables the child to be sensible and serves as the key for intellectual development.

5. Freedom or Autonomy

Freedom or liberty, Montessori is of the opinion that freedom or liberty is the birth right of every individual she insists that there should be no interference in the child’s in the way of the child’s growth and development. (Montessori 1912) She stands for full freedom which is essential for the spontaneous of child. In the words of Montessori the school must permit the free, natural, manifestations of the child if he is to be studied in a scientific manner, she believes that freedom and self discipline in the school insure proper development of children.

Writers Remarks

In conclusion, this academic essay has started by giving a brief life story of Maria Montessori. Included in this piece of writing are the five principles that Montessori proposed in education.Her impact on educational thought and practices in universal. It is important as a parent to consider these principles and apply them to a child. These makes education to be more valuable and make children interact in various ways and this helps to develops optimal development of teaching and learning.

 REFERENCES

Montessori, M. (1972)Education and PeaceHenry Regnery Company, Chicago

Montessori, M. (1966)The Discovery of the Child,Kalakshetra Publications,
                                     Adyar, India.

Montessori, M. (1966)the Secret of Childhood,Ballantine Books, New York

Orem, R. C. (1965). A Montessori Handbook,G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York

Scheerenberger, R.C. (1983). A History of Mental RetardationBaltimore
              Brookes Publishing Co, London

Ward, F. L. (1913). The Montessori Method and the American School,the
Macmillan Company, New York