The name "Montessori" has come to mean different things to different people. Some people image a drill camp, others imagine a madhouse where anarchy prevails, and still others imagine almost anything in between. Before forming any hasty misperceptions of our own, let us look at the literature. The major planks of the Montessori platform are listed below:
Offer preventive exercises
Fisher (1914: 141-152) gives the example of a child carrying a container full of water across the room for the first time. Our frequent exhortations to "be careful" are usually to no avail, as is our irritated reaction when the inevitable spill takes place. The Montessori curriculum breaks this complex task into its components, and then provides exercises for each of those components.
Children should not be forced to be quiet.
The adage that "children should be seen and not heard" does not apply here (Fisher 1964: 111-112). It seems that teachers spend almost as much time suppressing children as they do teaching. And then we wonder why there are so many communication problems in adult life!
Every rule must be accompanied by an explanation.
"Because I said so" is not good enough (Fisher 1964: 112-113).
David Ogilvy was an outstanding champion of the reason-why approach in advertising. He was widely praised for his Rolls Royce advertisement which began "At 60 miles per hour, the loudest sound you hear is the ticking of the clock."
The time-out corner is for treatment, not punishment.
Irritability in a child is a sign of fatigue or overstimulation, according to Montessori, so the child needs to be isolated. In order not to give the impression of solitary confinement, the child must be provided a supply of toys and given physical affection (Fisher 1964: 111-119).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fisher, D. C. 1914. A Montessori mother. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
Fisher, D. C. 1964. The Montessori manual: For teachers and parents. Cambridge, MA: Robert Bentley, Inc.
Montessori, M. 1912. The Montessori method. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co.
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