,illustration3 ,patient waiting for the earth to bloom develops a little child spiritually4 ,,montessori ,,children ,,by ,,carolyn ,,sherwin ,,bailey ,,illustrated ,,from ,,specially ,,posed ,,photographs ,illustration ,,new ,,york ,,henry ,,holt ,,and ,,company #aiae ,,copyright1 #aiac1 #aiad1 ,,by ,,the ,,butterick ,,co4 ,,copyright1 #aiae1 ,,by ,,henry ,,holt ,,and ,,company ,published ,february1 #aiae ,,the ,,quinn ,,boden ,,co4 ,,press ,,rahway1 ,n4 ,j4 ,,preface ,as a student of child psychology and always most deeply interested in the welfare problems that confront us in connection with the upbringing of little children1 ,i went to ,rome in #aiac to study1 first-hand1 the results of the ,montessori system of education4 ,a great deal had been written and said in connection with the technic of the system4 ,little had been given the world in regard to individual children who were developing their personalities through the auto-education of ,montessori4 ,i wished to observe ,montessori children4 ,through the gracious courtesy of ,dr4 ,montessori1 ,i was given the privilege of observing in the new ,trionfale ,school where the method could be watched from its inception1 and in the ,fua ,famagosta and ,franciscan ,convent ,schools4 ,i was also given the privilege of hearing ,dr4 ,montessori lecture1 elucidating certain problems in her theory of education not previously given publicity4 ,i found little ones of three1 four1 and five years1 surrounded by the many observers of the first international ,montessori training class1 yet so marvelously poised and self-controlled that they went through the days as if alone4 ,i saw such proofs of the integrity of the system as the instances of ,otello1 ,bruno1 and others4 ,the pages which follow constitute a series of pictures of real child types showing ,montessori results4 ,as a record of results1 ,i hope they may contribute to the world's greater faith in the discovery of ,montessori--the spirit of the child4 ,,carolyn ,,sherwin ,,bailey4 ,,new ,,york1 #aiae4 ,,contents ,,page ,,dr4 ,,montessori1 ,,the ,,woman #c ,,with ,,margherita ,,in ,,the ,,children',s ,,house #ac ,showing the ,unconscious ,influence of the ,true ,montessori ,environment4 ,,valia #bf ,the ,physical ,education of the ,system4 ,,the ,,freeing ,,of ,,otello1 ,,the ,,terrible #ci ,montessori ,awakening of ,conscience ,through ,directed ,will4 ,,the ,,christ ,,in ,,bruno #ed ,about the ,new ,spiritual ,sense4 ,,mario',s ,,finger ,,eyes #fg ,montessori ,sense-,training4 ,,raffaelo',s ,,hunger #ha ,color ,teaching4 ,its ,value4 ,,the ,,going ,,away ,,of ,,antonio #id ,directing the ,child ,will4 ,,andrea',s ,,lily #ajh ,the ,nature-,training of the ,method4 ,,the ,,miracle ,,of ,,olga #aai ,reading and ,writing as ,natural for ,your ,child as ,speech4 ,,clara--,,little ,,mother #ace ,the ,social ,development of the ,montessori ,child4 ,,piccola--,,little ,,home ,,maker #adh ,the ,helpfulness of the ,montessori ,child4 ,,mario',s ,,plays #afc ,montessori and the ,child's ,imagination4 ,,the ,,great ,,silence #agf ,montessori ,development of ,repose4 ,,illustrations ,patient ,waiting for the ,earth to ,bloom ,develops a ,little ,child ,spiritually ,frontispiece ,,facing ,,page ,back-yard ,apparatus for the ,physical ,development of ,children ,is ,valuable #bh ,an ,important ,physical ,exercise of ,montessori #cj ,hand and ,eye ,work in ,connection in ,exercises of ,practical ,life #cb ,walking upon a ,line ,gives ,poise and ,muscular ,control #cd ,the ,kind of ,toy ,dr4 ,montessori ,recommends for ,physical ,development #cf ,replacing the ,solid ,insets by the ,sense of ,touch ,alone #gj ,building the ,tower and the ,broad ,stair #gj ,a ,fineness of ,perception ,is ,developed by ,discriminating ,different ,textiles ,blindfolded #gd ,perfecting the ,sense of ,touch with the ,geometric ,insets #gf ,to ,match the ,colors ,two by ,two ,is the ,first ,exercise #hd ,grading ,each ,standard ,color and ,its ,related ,colors in ,chromatic ,order #hh ,all the ,colors of ,nature ,may be ,found #hh ,every ,child ,should ,have a ,pet #aaj ,the ,loving ,care of a ,dumb ,animal ,results in ,child ,sympathy #aad ,to ,feel that ,something ,is ,dependent upon ,him for ,care and ,food ,helps a ,child to ,reverence ,life #aaf ,building ,words with the ,movable ,alphabet #abb ,learning the ,form of ,letters by the ,sense of ,touch #abf ,filling in ,outlines with ,color to ,gain the ,muscular ,control ,necessary for ,writing #abf ,,montessori ,,children ,,dr4 ,,montessori1 ,,the ,,woman ,a holiday in ,rome1 the ,eternally ,old1 the ,eternally ,young4 ,a long1 sun-dried street that flanks the ,tiber is gay with fruit venders who push along their carts of gold oranges1 strings of dates1 and amber lemons4 ,italians of the wealthy class mingle in friendly fashion with the native-costumed peasants4 ,someone starts a snatch of song2 a dozen passersby take up the strain4 ,where the chariots of the ,csars rattled by in yesterday's centuries1 there rises a stately row of stucco apartment mansions with terraced gardens where pink roses and purple heliotrope run riot over the hedges and silver-toned fountains sing1 all day long1 their tinkling tunes4 ,leaving the gay1 bright street1 you ring the electric bell at number #e ,principessa ,clotilde4 8,is the ,dottoressa at home1 or is she keeping holiday1 too80 you ask of the porter4 ,he laughs1 motioning you to an almost human elevator that lifts itself and will stop at whichever floor you ask it4 8,yes1 ,la ,dottoressa ,montessori is in--in fact1 she is nearly always in because of the many people1 mainly ,americans1 who come to see her4 ,and the children come daily to see her as well40 ,the porter shrugs his shoulders1 uncomprehendingly1 as you enter the elevator and stop at the fourth floor4 ,the popularity of this tenant of his is a matter of wonder to the porter4 ,as a low-voiced maid opens a great carved door and you find yourself in ,dr4 ,montessori's apartment1 you hold your breath at the modernism of it4 ,plain white woodwork1 fine old rugs covering the stone floors1 the soft tan walls covered with a few beautiful tapestries2 ,french furniture and electric lights4 ,the reception room in which you wait might be that of an ,american home1 but a glance out of the open window unfolds to you the heart of the tenant4 ,while her home is in one of the most beautiful and cultured centers of ,rome1 ,dr4 ,montessori sees daily a tiny1 narrow ,roman alleyway where the 8people0 live like bees in a hive and the doorsills throng with little children and their voices rise to her every hour of the day4 ,but you hear a step4 ,you turn4 ,you are face to face with ,maria ,montessori4 ,at first you have no words4 ,you have seen her picture in ,america1 but it gave you no conception of the fine1 chiseled beauty of the woman who stands before you dressed in severe black that accentuates the marble of the classic features1 the depth of the far-seeing1 dark eyes4 ,poise1 grace1 self-control1 sympathy1 love of humanity are written on the face4 ,it is as if all the ,madonnas of the imagination of the old ,italian painters had come to life in ,la ,dottoressa4 ,overpowering the first glance of courteous welcome1 though1 that accompanied her outstretched hand is a look of stern query4 ,why have you come8 ,are you another of the curious visitors who have besieged her from almost every nation the past year to try and grasp in a day her method of teaching that she gained only through twenty years of patient1 tireless scientific study of the child mind1 she seems to ask4 ,but your words come like a torrent now4 ,you assure her that you have made this pilgrimage to ,rome1 not as an individual1 but as the voice of thousands of mothers who have children to be educated4 ,they ask ,dr4 ,montessori1 through you1 for her message to the ,american people4 ,as you linger over the words1 madre1 mother1 and bambino1 baby1 ,dr4 ,montessori smiles4 ,you have set her doubts at rest4 ,she talks fast1 eloquently1 in her musical ,italian1 and you listen1 thrilled1 fascinated4 ,often you are interrupted1 but always by children4 ,lovely1 dark-eyed1 courteous little ,roman boys and girls they are4 ,they come from you know not where1 are admitted to ,dr4 ,montessori's apartment quite as if they were adult visitors1 and after they have greeted her in their graceful1 polite fashion1 they quietly run about the room or sit in groups talking together as if the apartment were the popular meeting place for all the children of the neighborhood4 ,you find their interruption and their presence a help instead of a hindrance to your interview4 ,they illustrate by their loving friendship for ,la ,dottoressa and each other1 and by their complete self-control1 the message that ,dr4 ,montessori gives you to carry back to the ,american people4 ,she would liberate the children4 ,the ,american people are free1 but ,american children are not4 ,we have lost sight of the ,republic of ,childhood1 she says4 ,through forcing our adult standards of conduct and teaching upon children1 we have closed the gateways of their souls4 ,we must believe that every child1 well-born into the world1 is going to be good and happy and intelligent if we as parents and teachers give him a fair chance4 ,we must stop commanding our children4 ,instead1 we will lead them4 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us that we are undergoing a slow but certain change in the social structure of society4 ,woman is being emancipated from her domestic slavery of yesterday4 ,we are creating a new and more healthful environment for the laboring man4 ,but the ,american child is still a slave to the capricious commands of his parents1 which claim his soul and prevent his free1 natural development to his best manhood4 ,in school1 too1 children are still bound4 ,the vertebral column1 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us1 which is biologically the most fundamental part of the human skeleton2 which survived the desperate struggles of primitive man against the beasts of the desert1 helped him to quarry out a shelter for himself from the solid rock and bend iron to his uses1 cannot resist the bondages of the present-day school desk4 ,curvature of the spine is alarmingly prevalent among children and is increasing4 ,instead of resorting to surgical methods1 corsets1 braces1 and orthopdic means for straightening child bodies1 we should try to bring about some more rational method of teaching that children shall no longer be obliged to remain for the greater part of the day in such a pathologically dangerous position4 ,not only do we hurt child bodies by the confinement of the school desk1 but we wound their souls by ever offering rewards and punishments1 by insisting upon such long periods of absolute silence as are demanded in our schools1 and by imposing upon children a program of instruction that is built1 often by law1 to be followed by large groups of children4 ,the normal child is he who finds it impossible to follow a program of school work or to obey1 unquestioningly1 the arbitrary commands of his parents4 ,he must follow his own bent1 providing he does not interfere with the freedom of others1 if he is to dig out his own life path4 ,the abnormal child is the one who never resists2 he is the child who1 without dissent1 obeys all adult commands4 ,so ,dr4 ,montessori1 who has discovered a method of free teaching by means of which children from two and a half to five develop naturally and happily along lines that culminate in a spontaneous 8explosion0 into self-taught reading and writing at four and five years1 speaks to the ,american parent4 ,she begs us to give our children the freedom that is the ,american nation's boast4 ,not the freedom that would lead to disordered acts1 but that liberty which means the untrammeled exercise of all the moral and intellectual powers that are born with the individual4 ,about twenty years ago ,maria ,montessori1 a beautiful young society girl of ,rome1 startled ,italy by receiving with honors her degree as ,doctor of ,medicine4 ,the ,italian girl of the cultured classes is essentially a home girl4 ,she studies at home1 she embroiders1 she plays with flowers1 she is introduced to society--then she marries4 ,that ,maria ,montessori should desert the quiet1 rose-strewn paths of ,roman dbutantes and1 after taking her degree1 act as assistant doctor in the ,psychiatric ,clinic of the ,university of ,rome1 startled all ,italy4 ,her work at the clinic led her to visit the general insane asylums1 and she became deeply interested in the deficient children who were housed there1 with no attempts being made to educate them4 ,as she studied these helpless little ones1 the idea came to her that it might be possible1 by putting them into better surroundings1 and giving them opportunity for free gymnastic activities and free use of the senses1 to educate them4 ,she gave up medicine for teaching and again startled ,italy--and the world4 ,her deficient children learned to read and write1 easily and naturally1 and took their places beside normal children in the municipal schools4 ,then ,dr4 ,montessori carried her method of physical and sense education a lap farther4 ,if this method stimulated to action the sleeping mind of a deficient child1 might it not save time and energy in the teaching of normal children1 she asked herself4 ,at that time1 the ,good ,building ,association of ,rome was tearing down the squalid1 disease-filled houses of the poor of the ,san ,lorenzo ,quarter and putting up in their places hygienic model tenements4 ,dr4 ,montessori arranged to have the children of each tenement gathered in one room of the basement1 where large1 free spaces1 didactic apparatus1 hot meals1 and gardens would make it a ,children's ,house4 ,she applied her method in numerous of these ,children's ,houses and in the beautiful convent of the ,franciscan nuns on the ,via ,giusti4 ,again the miracle happened4 ,children of four began to read and write1 having taught themselves4 ,there were other wonders1 too4 ,these ,montessori-trained children were self-controlled1 free1 happy1 good4 ,to-day there are ,montessori mothers all over the world4 ,to furnish the right environment for the expanding of the child soul1 ,dr4 ,montessori urges that every home be transformed into a ,house of ,childhood4 ,it will not consist alone of walls1 she tells us1 although these walls will be the bulwarks of the sacred intimacy of the family4 ,the home will be more than this4 ,it will have a soul1 and will embrace its inmates with the consoling arms of love4 ,the new mother will be liberated1 like the butterfly bursting its winter cocoon of imprisonment and darkness1 from those drudgeries that the home has demanded of her in the past1 leaving her better able to bear strong children1 study those children1 teach them1 and be a social force in the world4 ,the new father will cultivate his health1 guard his virtue1 that he may better the species and make his children better1 more perfect1 and stronger than any which have been created before4 ,the ideal home of to-morrow will be the home of those men and women who wish to improve the human species and send the race on its triumphant way into eternity4 ,so ,dr4 ,montessori1 physician1 psychologist1 teacher1 lover of children1 and womanly woman1 speaks to us4 ,as one says addio and leaves her and goes down into the blue1 star-filled evening of the ,eternal ,city1 the night seems to be charged with a new mystery4 ,rome1 who holds in her beautiful hands such good gifts for us--art1 sculpture1 history1 painting--now offers to us another4 ,stretching farther than the moss-grown stones that line the ,appian ,way1 she shows us a new road--the way that leads to the soul of a little child4 ,,with ,,margherita ,,in ,,the ,,children',s ,,house ,showing the ,unconscious ,influence of the ,true ,montessori ,environment ,it is so early in the sweet1 perfume-laden ,italian morning that the dew is still hanging in diamond drops on the iris and roses in the garden of the ,casa dei ,bambini of the ,via ,giusti1 ,rome4 ,the great white room1 with its flooding sunlight and host of tiny1 waiting chairs and tables1 is empty1 quiet1 calm4 ,margherita stands a happy second in the wide-arched doorway that makes room and garden melt into one fragrant1 peaceful whole4 ,a wee four-year-old girlie is ,margherita1 big-eyed1 radiant with smiles1 and tugging a huge wicker basket of lunch that is almost as large as she4 ,she is the first baby to arrive at the ,children's ,house4 ,ah1 but that does not ruffle her composure4 ,she is already alone in her newly-found freedom of spirit4 ,she needs no teacher4 ,she places the lunch basket on a waiting bench1 crosses to a wall space where rows of diminutive pink and blue aprons hang at comfortable reaching distances for little arms4 ,she finds her own apron1 wriggles into it1 buttons it at the back4 ,she is ready for the day4 ,what shall come first in ,margherita's day8 ,so much is in store for her1 waiting for her eager finger tips1 her electric-charged soul4 ,as her great brown eyes slowly trail the room and the colorful garden outside1 it is as if she were making a soul search for that 8good thing0 which will be her first silent teacher4 ,her glance lingers on the terraced rows of flowers1 the tinkling fountain in the center4 ,she has found the object of her search4 ,she runs--no1 she floats1 for such complete physical control of her limbs has this four-year-old baby--to the garden1 and kneels there1 looking up at a redolent1 yellow rose that has opened in the night4 ,she does not touch it2 she only looks and breathes and wonders4 ,she has watched for this unfolding daily1 waiting with sweet patience for the branch to burst into bud and the bud to unfold into bloom4 ,she has tugged a vase of water each morning to offer drink to the roots4 ,now her patience and her service are rewarded4 ,as she kneels there looking up into the petals of the gold flower1 her small hands clasped over her breast with devotional ecstasy1 ,nature opens her heart to the heart of a little child4 ,many rapturous minutes the baby kneels4 ,then she flies back to the room again and glances at it with the critical eye of a housekeeper4 ,here she flicks away a speck of dust1 there she picks up a scrap of paper from the stone floor4 ,she peeps into the wall cabinets that hold the ,montessori didactic materials to see if the gay buttoning1 lacing1 and bow-tying frames1 the fascinating pink blocks of the tower1 the frames of form insets are all in their places4 ,in the meantime the ,signorina directress comes4 ,bruno1 of five1 arrives1 bringing with him his two-and-a-half-year-old brother4 ,more toddlers trail in1 two and a half1 three1 four1 four and a half years old1 and button themselves into their pink and blue aprons4 ,independent1 polite1 joyous little children of the ,csars they are1 each with his or her own special happy task in mind in coming to the ,children's ,house this blue day4 ,the wee-est toddlers drag out soft-colored rugs1 orange1 dull green1 deep crimson1 and spread them on the wide white spaces of the sun-flecked stone floor4 ,here they build and rebuild the enchanting intricacies of the tower of blocks1 the broad stair of blocks1 and the red and white rods of the long stair1 chanting to themselves as they unconsciously measure distances and make mental comparisons3 8big1 little2 thick1 thin2 long1 short40 ,children of three and a half and four take from the cabinets boxes of many-colored1 silk-wound spools1 which they sort and lay upon the little tables in chromatic order until a rainbow-tinted mass lies before their pigment-loving eyes4 ,from the bright scarlet of poppies to the faint blush of pale pink coral1 from the royal purple of the tall1 spiked ,roman iris to the amethyst tint of a wild orchid1 they make no mistake in the intermediate color gradations4 ,other children of four and over finger with intelligent1 trained skill the geometric forms2 circles1 triangles1 squares that they are learning to recognize through the 8eyes in their fingers10 and which will help them to see with the mind's eye the form that makes the beauty of our world4 ,small ,joanina1 in her corner1 runs her forefinger with the greatest delicacy of touch a dozen times around a circle4 ,then she fits it in its place in the form board1 takes it out and fits it in again4 ,then she looks up1 a new light in her eyes1 darts out into the garden and walks slowly about the fountain1 running her finger around its deep basin4 8,signorina1 ,signorina60 she calls4 8,the fountain is a circle4 ,i can see a pebble that is a circle1 too4 ,i see many circles60 ,so the children learn through the exercise of the senses4 ,but ,margherita8 ,all this time she has flitted from one task to another4 ,she found an outlined picture of clover leaves and colored it with dainty pencil strokes1 making the leaves deep green and the background paler1 and handling her pencil with careful skill4 ,then she took a box of white cards on which are mounted great black letters1 cut from fine sandpaper4 ,holding each card in her left hand1 she traced the form of the letter with her right forefinger1 closed her eyes1 traced its form again1 repeated the letter's name to herself in a whisper1 sat silently a second4 ,as the ,signorina directress moves from child to child1 smiling encouragement1 showing ,bruno's baby brother's clumsy fingers how to slip a button through a buttonhole1 helping ,joanina to find a new form1 the square1 she watches ,margherita4 8,this may be a white day in the child's mind growth10 she thinks1 but she does not suggest1 or hurry the miracle4 ,she only waits1 hopes1 watches4 ,silence is written on the blackboard4 ,three hours have passed in which over thirty children1 barely out of babyhood1 have worked incessantly at many different occupations1 have moved gracefully and with complete freedom about the room1 have changed occupations as often as they wished1 have not once quarreled4 ,but now1 out of the ordered disorder1 comes a marvelous hush4 ,no word is spoken1 but one baby after another1 glancing the written sign1 drops back with closed eyes into a hushed silence in which the whir of bird wings in the garden1 the fluttering of casement hangings1 the far-away sound of a bell are audible4 ,even ,bruno's baby brother struggles not to make a clattering noise with his little chair4 ,no one has said to this two-year-old1 8,be still40 ,rather1 has he been inspired to feel stillness4 ,out of the restful calm of the room comes the whispered call of the ,signorina3 8,bruno1 ,piccola1 ,maria1 ,joanina1 ,margherita60 ,lightly1 noiselessly1 joyously the children come and huddle in a hushed group about the directress4 ,she has called to the soul of each child1 she has commended them for their self-taught lesson in control4 ,as the work with the didactic materials is taken up again1 ,margherita sits in a little chair for a space1 quiet1 reflective4 ,her lips move1 her fingers trace signs in the air and on the table before her4 ,the ,game of ,silence has helped this four-year-old with her spirit unfolding4 ,now1 with a sudden impulse1 she darts to the blackboard1 seizes a piece of chalk1 writes4 8,ma-ma6 ,ma-ma60 ,margherita writes it a dozen times in clear1 flowing script with breathless1 eager strokes4 8,signorina1 ,signorina1 ,i write--,i write about my mother4 ,i write60 she joyously interpolates4 ,the other children look up with sympathetic interest1 some leaving their work to crowd about the victorious ,margherita4 ,all of them voice their sympathy4 8,margherita writes10 they say4 ,with the older ones who have already reached this wonder lap in their education there is a note of nonchalance4 8,we also write10 they seem to say4 ,with the tiny ones there is a note of hopeful promise4 8,some day we1 too1 will find that we can write10 they seem to say4 ,margherita covers the blackboard with clear1 big script4 ,she erases it all for the sheer joy of assuring herself that she is able to write it all over again4 ,when the luncheon hour comes1 she looks back longingly at the blackboard as she lays plates on the little tables with dainty precision1 places knife1 fork1 and spoon deftly1 carries five tumblers at a time on a tray without dropping one1 and passes a tureen of hot soup that is so large as to almost hide her small self4 ,even the happiness of being one of such a happy 8party10 of eating one's lunch of peas and sweet wheat bread and soup in the ,children's ,house1 does not wholly satisfy ,margherita to-day4 ,her big brown eyes are raised continually to her first written word4 ,luncheon over1 the children1 with balls1 hoops1 and toys1 romp out for an hour's play in the garden4 8,margherita10 ,bruno calls4 8,come1 we will have ,the ,little ,one for a donkey1 and ,i will harness him with you1 who may be the horse60 ,but the little girl1 usually the first to start a game1 does not hear4 ,she is seated under the rosebush as if she were telling her rose the wonder that has come to her to-day4 ,she and the rose have unfolded together4 ,so it is with all ,montessori children4 ,they open their souls as flowers do1 naturally1 freely1 surely4 ,margherita is your child as well as the precious bambino of her ,roman mother4 ,children the world over1 from sun to sun1 from pole to pole1 are the same in these plastic first years of mind growth4 ,they have the same insatiable desire to do1 to touch1 to be free in activity4 ,not always understanding the little child's hereditary way of grasping knowledge1 we wound his spirit by crushing these natural instincts4 ,we say1 8don't touch10 8be still10 because the activities of our small ,margheritas and ,brunos interfere with our adult standards of living4 ,dr4 ,montessori has discovered that to say1 8don't touch10 8be still10 to a child is a crime4 ,such commands are the keen-edged daggers that kill the child soul4 ,it is possible that some time will elapse before ,dr4 ,montessori's system of setting the clockwork of the little child's mind running automatically1 of opening the floodgates of the child soul can be adopted in their entirety in our ,american school4 ,we are so used to thinking of a school as a crowded place of many desks1 where children must remain1 bound physically and mentally by the will of the teacher and the relentless course of study1 that a ,montessori schoolroom where1 as ,dr4 ,montessori herself expresses it1 children may move about usefully1 intelligently1 and freely1 without committing a rough or rude act1 seems to us impossible4 ,we even prescribe and teach imaginative plays to our children--as if it were possible for any outside force to mold that wonderful mind force by means of which the mind creates the new out of its triumphant conquest of the world through the senses4 ,ideal ,montessori schools may be our hope of to-morrow1 but to make of a home a ,children's ,house is the fact of to-day4 ,to bring about ,montessori development in the home is not alone a matter of buying the didactic materials and then offering them to your ,margherita and looking for their future miracle working4 ,this would mean stimulating lawlessness instead of freedom4 ,many of our children already play with squares and circles without seeing how squares and circles make beauty in the architecture of our cities4 ,many of our children grow up side by side with opening roses without unfolding with them4 ,we would most of us rather button on our babies' aprons1 tie their bibs1 feed them1 than lead them into the physical independence that comes from doing these things themselves4 ,we wish children to be obedient1 but instead of establishing principles of good in their minds which they will follow freely1 if we only give them a chance1 we command1 and expect unreasoning obedience to our injustice4 ,a ,children's ,house in every home will be a place where the mother is imbued with the spirit of the investigator4 ,she watches her children1 asking herself why they act along certain lines4 ,she leads instead of ruling4 ,she will teach her children physical independence as soon as they can toddle4 ,to know how to dress and undress1 to bathe1 to look quickly over a room to see if it is in order1 to open and close doors and move little chairs1 tables1 and toys quietly1 to care for plants and pets--these are simple physical exercises which help to keep children free and good4 ,she will provide her ,children's ,house with materials for sense-training4 ,she will lead her children by simple1 logical steps into preparation for early mastery of reading and writing4 ,the first step1 however1 in giving the ,american child a chance to develop along the self-active1 natural lines of ,margherita is to fill our homes with the spirit of ,montessori4 ,we will have unlimited patience with the mistakes and idiosyncrasies of childhood1 remembering that we do not aim to develop little men and women but only as nearly perfect children as we can4 ,we will endeavor to surround ourselves with those influences of love and charity and beauty and simplicity which it will be good for our children to feel as well4 ,we will offer the children the best food1 the greatest amount of air1 the brightest sunshine1 the least breakable belongings1 the most encouragement1 the minimum of coercion4 ,our attitude toward the child will be that of the physician to whom the slightest variation of a symptom is a signal for a change of treatment1 to whom a fraction of progress measures a span4 ,a careful home record of the child's mental1 moral1 and physical gain should be kept1 and it will be radiantly discovered that the removal of the burden of force and coercion from the shoulders of the little child will give him an impetus1 not only to mind growth1 but to the attaining of greater bodily strength4 ,much misunderstanding of the system of ,montessori has come about through our too lavish interpretation of the word freedom as lawlessness4 ,it should be interpreted1 rather1 as self-direction4 ,the home in which the children are provided with good living conditions1 in which it is made possible for them to grow naturally1 where their longing to see and touch and weigh and smell and taste is satisfied as far as can be arranged1 and where they are led to be as independent of adult help as possible1 is laying the foundation for the education of ,montessori4 ,,valia ,the ,physical ,education of the ,system ,valia was her mother's little stranger4 ,although the mother had borne and fondled and bathed and clothed and undressed the pink flesh that held the baby soul1 she did not know that flesh4 ,and ,valia grew to be three years old1 fat and good1 but with little bent limbs and a tired-out spine and clumsy1 fumbling fingers4 8,sit in your chair1 ,valia4 ,that is what chairs are made for10 ,valia's mother admonished at home when the baby joyfully pranced across the floor on 8all fours0 or lay prone at play with her toys4 8,walk in the garden path like a little lady10 she urged1 when ,valia1 taken out for a walk1 climbed to the lowest railing of an adjacent fence and walked along it1 sideways1 or hung from the top1 her fat legs swinging in the air4 8,do not jump2 to jump is noisy and unbecoming in little girls10 the mother commanded1 as ,valia1 brought to the ,trionfale ,children's ,house in ,rome1 hopped gayly up and down the wide stone steps4 ,but the directress of the school had no word of reproof for baby ,valia4 ,she looked at the bent legs that could hardly hold the weight of the plump body1 she glanced at the powerless baby hands that could not clutch with any force the handles of a toy wheelbarrow which another child offered ,valia for her play4 8,you have not noticed the baby's limbs10 the directress suggested4 ,the mother's eyes trailed the school yard where ,valia struggled to keep up with the other sturdy little men and women who trundled their toy wheelbarrows up and down in long happy lines4 ,she shrugged her shoulders4 8,perhaps they are crooked1 but what can one do to the body of a bambino but feed and cover it80 she asked in discouraged query4 8,ah1 ,la ,dottoressa tells us10 the directress replied simply4 8,we can know the body of the little child40 ,the education of ,valia's muscles was begun that very day1 that instant4 ,illustration3 ,back-yard apparatus for the physical development of children is valuable4 ,in the school garden the little maid found her way with the other children to an immediately fascinating bit of gymnastic apparatus2 a section of a low fence it looked1 its posts sunk deeply into the ground so as to make it strong and durable4 ,it was the right height for small arms to reach the top rail1 which was round1 smooth1 and easily grasped by small hands4 ,here ,valia hung1 her limbs suspended and at rest1 for long periods4 ,sometimes she pulled her body up so that her waist was level with the upper railing4 ,it was a new game1 one could climb a fence without being chided for it4 ,valia did not know1 but ,dr4 ,montessori did1 that little children climb fences1 pull back when we lead them1 and try to draw themselves up by clinging to furniture because they need this form of physical exercise to bring about harmonious muscular development4 ,valia's body was developing at an enormously greater rate than her limbs4 ,the height of your baby's torso at one year is about sixty-five per cent4 of its total stature1 at two years is sixty-three per cent41 at three years is sixty-two per cent4 ,but the limbs of the baby1 ah1 these develop much more slowly4 ,to hang from the top railing of a fence straightens the spine1 rests the short limbs by removing the weight of the torso1 and helps the hands to prehensive grasping4 ,so ,dr4 ,montessori invented and uses this bar apparatus with the children at ,rome and recommends its use in ,american nurseries and playrooms4 ,the next ,montessori exercise for ,valia was a simple1 rhythmic one--walking on a line to secure bodily poise and limb control4 ,it was just another game for a child1 full of happy surprise1 too1 for she never knew when the sweet notes of the piano in the big rooms of the ,children's ,house would tinkle out their call to the march4 ,but when the pianist played a tune that was simple and repeated its melody over and over again and was marked in its rhythm1 ,valia and ,otello and ,mario and all the other babies put away their work and fluttered like wind-blown butterflies over to the place where a big circle was outlined in white paint on the floor4 ,to march upon this line1 now fast1 now slowly1 sometimes with the lightness of a fairy and then with the joyously loud tramp of a work horse1 oh1 how delightful6 ,sometimes the music changed to the rhythm of running or a folk-dance step1 and this gave further delight to the little ones4 ,at first1 ,valia could not find the white circle of delight4 ,her fat feet refused to obey the impulse of her eagerly musical soul4 ,but with the days she found poise and grace and erectness and the crooked limbs began to straighten themselves4 ,she sat1 for hours at a time1 in a patch of sunlight on the floor1 using her incompetent little fingers in some of the practical exercises of everyday living4 ,the directress gave her a stout wooden frame1 to which were fastened two soft pieces of gay woolen stuff1 one of which was pierced with buttonholes and the other having large bone buttons4 ,valia worked all one morning before she was able to fit each button in its corresponding buttonhole1 but when she did accomplish this1 the triumph was a bit of wonder-working in ,valia's control of herself4 ,it started her on the road to physical freedom4 ,illustration3 ,an important physical exercise of ,montessori4 ,happy in her new accomplishment1 she mastered all the other dressing frames2 the soft linen with pearl buttons that was like her underlinen1 the leather through which one thrust shoe buttons with one's own button hook1 or laced from one eyelet to another1 the lacing on cloth like her mother's ,sunday bodice of green velvet1 the frames of linen with large and small hooks and eyes1 the frame upon which were broad strands of bright-colored ribbon to be tied in a row of smart little bows4 ,daily1 simple physical exercises such as these2 hand and eye co-ordination1 exercises in poise1 stretching1 rest for the limbs and freedom for the spine and torso slowly transformed ,valia from a lump of disorganized1 putty-like flesh to an erect1 graceful1 self-controlled little woman4 8,what have you done to my ,valia80 asked the mother as she waited at the school door for her little one a few months later4 8,she dresses the young bambino at home and buttons her own shoes4 ,she no longer stumbles all day long but stands well on her feet4 ,she helps me to lay the evening meal and carries a dish of soup1 full1 to the place of her father4 ,i do not understand it4 ,did you punish her for climbing and being clumsy80 8,no40 ,the directress of the ,children's ,house lays a kind hand on ,valia's curly head as she explains4 8,we did not punish ,valia4 ,we gave her a fence upon which to climb and we let her tumble about on the floor when she was tired1 and we helped her to find her feet and her fingers40 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us that there is a little ,valia in every home4 ,the child from one to three and four years of age is in need of definite physical exercises that will tend to the normal development of physiological movements4 ,we ordinarily give the little child's body slight thought4 ,then1 in the schools1 we gather older children into large classes1 and by a series of collective gymnastics in which the commands of the teacher check all spontaneity1 we try to secure poise and self-control and grace for the child body4 ,illustration3 ,hand and eye work in connection in exercises of practical life4 ,gymnastics for the home will accomplish this result1 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us1 and these include simple exercises such as one sees in the ,children's ,houses4 ,they are planned taking into account the biology of the body of the child from birth to six years of age--the child who has a torso greatly developed in comparison with his lower limbs4 ,they have for their basis these goals3 ,helping the child to limb development and control4 ,helping the child to proper breathing and articulate speech4 ,helping the child to achieving the practical acts of life2 dressing1 carrying objects without dropping1 and the resulting co-ordination of hand and eye4 ,to bring about this physical development1 ,dr4 ,montessori has planned and put into the ,children's ,houses in ,rome certain very simple physical exercises1 so simple as to seem to us almost obvious1 but the results in child poise1 control1 and grace have drawn the attention of the entire world4 ,these exercises include3 ,swinging and 8chinning0 on a play fence1 modeled after a real fence or gate4 ,climbing and jumping from broad steps1 a flight of wooden steps being built for the purpose4 ,ascending and descending a short flight of circular steps1 these steps built for the exercise at slight expense4 ,climbing up and down a very short ladder4 ,stepping through the rungs of the ladder as it is laid upon the ground or the floor4 ,rhythmic exercises carried out upon a line2 walking slowly or fast1 softly and heavily1 on tiptoe1 running1 skipping1 and dancing in time to music4 ,these exercises may be done by utilizing the long1 straight cracks in a hardwood floor1 the seams in a carpet1 by strewing grain or making a snow line out of doors4 ,exercises in practical life1 the most important of these being brought about by the use of the dressing frames included in the ,montessori didactic materials1 and including3 buttoning on scarlet flannel1 linen1 and leather1 lacing on cloth and leather1 fastening hooks and eyes and patent snaps1 and tying bow-knots4 ,other materials used in these exercises are3 brooms and fascinating little scrubbing brushes and white enamel basins with which the children help to make the schoolroom tidy in the morning4 ,and the children are taught to open and close doors and gates softly and gracefully and to greet their friends politely and with courtesy4 ,physical training brought about through play with a few toys that stimulate healthful muscular exercises and deep breathing4 ,these toys include rather heavy toy wheelbarrows1 balls1 hoops1 bean bags1 and kites4 ,breathing exercises4 ,for these1 ,dr4 ,montessori recommends the march1 in which the little ones sing in time to the rhythmic movement of their feet1 an exercise in which deep breathing brings about lung strength4 ,she recommends also the singing circle games of ,froebel4 ,she leads the children to practice such simple respiratory exercises as1 hands on hips1 tongue lying flat in the mouth and the mouth open1 to draw the breath in deeply with a quick lowering of the shoulders1 after which it is slowly expelled1 the shoulders returning slowly to their normal position4 ,exercises for practice in enunciation1 including careful phonic pronunciation of the sounds of the vowels and consonants and the first syllables of words4 ,this practice in the co-ordination of lips1 tongue1 and teeth not only helps the child to clear speech but leads to a quicker grasp of reading4 ,illustration3 ,walking upon a line gives poise and muscular control4 ,each of these physical exercises has its basis in child interest4 ,your toddler instinctively pulls and climbs1 stretches1 and scrambles about on the floor1 longs to dress his own fascinating1 wee body1 and play into the activities of the home4 ,he loves marked1 rhythmic music and longs to hear those jingles and nonsense ditties of childhood's literature in which syllabic sounds are emphasized and repeat themselves4 8,not commands1 but freedom2 not teaching1 but observation10 ,dr4 ,montessori begs of mothers4 ,so she has taken these instinctive activities of the little child and1 using them as a basis1 she has built upon them her system of physical training for the baby1 a system that needs no bidding1 8,do this10 because all children love to climb fences and play with buttons and stretch little limbs on the floor1 and keep time to rhythmic music4 ,illustration3 ,the kind of toy ,dr4 ,montessori recommends for physical development4 ,every ,thursday morning a crowd of thirty or forty eager tourists from all over the world wait with impatience to be admitted to the ,montessori school on the ,via ,giusti1 ,rome4 ,silently1 led by a white-robed sister1 they enter the schoolroom and seat themselves in quiet expectant rows to watch the miracle of ,montessori physical freedom4 ,a hush1 a tinkle of child laughter1 and the babies flock in from the garden4 ,noiselessly1 gracefully1 with no rude jostling or crowding--and alone--they greet each visitor with outstretched hands4 ,then1 like a bevy of little men and women1 eager to work1 eager to achieve1 they hasten to the cabinets that hold the didactic materials1 to choose their material for the day4 ,nothing drops1 nothing is broken1 no child hurts his neighbor in his haste1 and they find their places1 some stretched out on the floor1 some seated at the white tables4 ,when the hour for the midday meal comes1 the materials are as carefully put back in their places in the cabinet and the little ones lay the tables for luncheon4 ,to see a child balance a tray that holds five filled tumblers1 to see another child bring in a huge bowl of warm soup and serve it with no mishaps1 these interest curious sightseers as much as the ,roman ,colosseum or the ,roman baths4 ,but isn't1 after all1 the child who has come1 by natural steps1 to this control of his mind and body the normal child8 ,are not our children1 whom we feed and dress and lead and fasten into high chairs1 the abnormal ones8 ,it is vastly easier to lace a child's shoes1 to hold his hand when he goes up and down steps1 to fetch and carry for him1 than to teach him this muscular co-ordination1 but it is just this careful teaching of the simple things of life that makes the ,montessori child a sight for tourists4 8,what makes these children so good80 ,i heard a visitor ask her neighbor one morning as she watched the ,via ,giusti little ones4 ,a number of factors contribute to the goodness of the ,montessori child1 but one of the most important of these is that he 8knows himself40 ,he knows his body1 what it can do and what it must not do4 ,this physical freedom leads naturally and surely to freedom of the spirit4 ,,the ,,freeing ,,of ,,otello1 ,,the ,,terrible ,montessori ,awakening of ,conscience ,through ,directed ,will ,he was so wee a bambino to have absorbed so much brutality in his heart4 ,not quite three summers and winters old was ,otello when his mother pushed him across the threshold of the big1 cool1 white room of the ,trionfale ,public ,school at ,rome that houses a ,montessori ,children's ,house4 ,there she left him after a volley of guttural speech that told the little dark-eyed girl directress how uncontrolled and passionate was this baby of ,rome1 a quaint little 8man0 in stuff dress and bare legs and torn shoes who looked with stolid wonder into the happy eyes of the other babies4 ,at first it seemed as if the mother were right4 ,in an awed whisper to ,dr4 ,montessori the girl directress spoke of ,otello as 8the terrible40 ,he met love with apparent hate1 kindness with malevolence1 sociability with taciturn aloofness4 ,did little ,mario with painstaking effort lay a carpet of beautifully tinted color spools in careful order on his table2 then ,otello swooped down from his watchful corner and with one sweep of his fat hand wrought confusion in the beauty4 ,did a stone lie1 harmless1 in the school garden2 ,otello found it and used it with dire results4 ,did ,valia1 the toddler1 with much toil fill her small wheelbarrow with a precious load of sticks ready to trundle it across the playground2 ,otello intervened1 overturned the barrow1 and gloated over ,valia's tears4 ,from his first day he showed an amazing inventiveness along lines of disorder4 ,to tear a finished picture that his little girl neighbor had zealously colored1 to swoop down upon the heights of the pink tower whose perfect building some other baby had just achieved in a patch of sunlight on the floor and overturn it--these seemed to be ,otello's most joyful triumphs4 ,and always1 as he planned some act of disorder1 he looked up1 expectantly1 for the blow1 the harsh command with which the misdirected force of childhood is so often met by the brute force of the adult4 ,but these never came4 ,instead1 he saw a group of sympathetic little ones run softly across the wide spaces of the room to help ,mario in rearranging his color spools4 ,there was no thought of him1 ,otello the law breaker1 but only the love of ,mario in their hearts4 ,in place of the reproof that he almost longed for1 that he might meet it with rebellion1 he felt the touch of warm lips on his forehead1 and he heard the soft voice of the directress3 8,ah1 ,otello1 that was wrong40 ,there was no other word of blame1 no command1 you must not1 for him to meet with his marvelous strength of will and1 ,i shall4 ,he might choose the thing that was wrong--or---- ,it was one sweet spring morning in ,italy that ,i saw the miracle happen to ,otello1 a morning when the free breezes from the ,roman hills brought heavy odors of grape and orange blooms and the birds sang their freedom outside the windows of the ,trionfale ,children's ,house4 ,otello sat in a little white chair in front of a little white table1 suddenly quiet and thinking4 ,he saw1 all about him1 other little white chairs and low white tables4 ,if he wished he might choose another chair2 no one would insist that he stay in one seat4 ,the brown linen curtains at the windows rustled pleasantly with the perfume-laden wind4 ,if ,otello wished he might go out in the playground for a breath of that wind4 ,no one would prevent him4 ,in front of him he saw another large room with a piano and low white cabinets filled with fascinating ,montessori materials1 and colored rugs for spreading on the stone floor1 and many babies1 of his own kind1 sitting there busily at work4 ,a child might dash over and spoil the work of a dozen children at one attack4 ,or a child might do a little experimenting himself with these materials that so engrossed the others4 ,otello chose the latter course1 and going to one of the cabinets1 he selected one of the solid insets1 a long polished wood frame1 into which fit ten fascinatingly smooth cylinders of varying diameters4 ,holding the cylinders by their shining brass knobs1 he put them in their proper places in the frame1 took them out1 put them in again a dozen1 a score of times4 ,unconsciously he was training his sense of touch1 but more than this1 he was exercising his conscience in a new way4 ,a small cylinder refused to fit in a large hole in the frame2 a large cylinder could not be forced1 no matter how strenuously he hammered it with his little clenched fist1 into a small hole4 ,before ,otello put each cylinder in its proper place1 he tested it with a larger or smaller hole4 8,wrong60 he whispered to himself in the first instance2 and1 8,right60 he ejaculated when the good1 smooth little piece of wood dropped out of sight in its own hole4 ,after almost three-quarters of an hour of this will training1 for the little child who persists in a piece of work and completes it is taking the first steps toward properly directed will1 ,otello looked up from his work4 ,mario1 his neighbor1 bent over the color spools again4 ,from the pocket of ,mario's apron protruded one of the crown jewels of childhood--a big glass marble4 ,otello had no marble4 ,with all the longing of his heart he had wanted one4 ,mario bent lower over his color matching and the shining glass sphere1 as if it were alive1 slipped from his pocket1 dropped to the floor1 and rolled across to ,otello4 ,with quick stealthiness ,otello grasped it in his eager little fingers4 ,it was his marble now2 no one had seen him take it2 in his little brown palm it held and scintillated a hundred colors4 ,how happy it made him to own it2 he would slip it into the hole in his shoe to keep it safe until he reached home6 ,but1 even as he made a hurried movement to hide his booty1 his prisoned soul burst its cocoon4 ,with one of the rare smiles in his eyes that one sees in the undying children of ,raphael1 ,otello ran over to ,mario and dropped the marble in his lap4 ,otello had taught himself the right and he had made the right his happy choice4 ,the old way of helping ,otello1 of helping your child to right action and self-education1 was to command4 ,yesterday1 we said3 8,you must do this because ,i tell you to2 this is right because ,i say that it is40 ,dr4 ,montessori gives us a new1 a better way of educating little children4 ,before we present her didactic materials to a child1 before--even--he leaves his cradle and his mother's arms1 we will give the child his birthright of freedom2 physical freedom1 mental freedom1 moral freedom4 ,the place of the mother in education1 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us1 is that of the 8watcher on the mountain top40 ,she observes every action of the child1 helps him to see the difference between right and wrong1 but she leaves him free1 that he may train his own will1 make his own choice1 educate himself4 ,how can we help our children to the goodness that little ,otello has found8 ,what had he missed at home that was supplied to him in the ,children's ,house8 ,the root that is denied space by its earth mother to stretch and pull and reach does not grow into a tall1 straight tree4 ,the bud1 shut off from its birthright of sunshine and moisture1 does not unfold into perfect flowering4 ,the child who is choked at home by an artificial environment and chained by the commands of his parents will develop into a crooked1 blasted man4 ,dr4 ,montessori told me that her first word to ,american mothers is this3-- 8,free your children40 ,every child is born with an unlimited capacity for good4 ,his impulse is to do the good thing1 but we so hedge him about with objects which he must not touch and places which he must not explore and inaccuracies of speech which confuse his understanding1 that he rebels4 ,with the force of a giant1 the baby uses his will to break our will4 ,this is right2 he was born as free as air1 and we act as his jailers4 ,presently1 his thwarted will finds other outlets1 and we are confronted with a little ,otello4 ,we have thought that to 8break0 a child's will was the first step toward giving him self-control4 ,we say to a child3 8,don't be capricious60 8,don't tell lies60 ,he is capricious because we have so often interfered with his normal child activities1 because they made him dirty1 perhaps1 or caused a litter that we thought disorderly4 ,he lies because we have not explained his world to him1 or because he fears us4 ,seldom is a child capricious or untruthful unless we have made him so4 ,the ,montessori directress at the ,trionfale ,children's ,house1 first of all1 patiently observed ,otello4 ,at the end of a week's time she knew more about him than his mother did1 for she had recorded his height1 weight1 chest1 and cranial development and had discovered that he needed physical exercise to help his mental development4 ,we will watch our children's bodily growth more carefully than we have in the past if we are to be ,montessori mothers4 ,she never commanded the little fellow whose ears were so deafened with the many commands of his mother that he found it a psychological impossibility to obey4 ,instead she had faith that his new environment1 her careful pointing out of right and wrong1 and the ordered activities brought about by the ,montessori didactic materials would loose his spirit1 which had been like a butterfly stabbed by the pin of a scientist4 ,so we will be patient with our babies and watch them and wait expectantly for the unfolding of their minds and souls which will surely come if we supply the opportunity4 ,dr4 ,montessori gives us a new word for the home and she blots out an old one4 8,why80 is our new word4 ,we will observe the minutest activity of the home child from its first month to the time when it leaves the home for school1 asking ourselves the reason for each activity4 8,don't60 is our blotted-out word4 ,no activity of a child should be inhibited unless it is morally wrong4 ,from babyhood to the age of six years almost every free movement1 every free thought of the child has a meaning in relation to its bodily and mental growth4 ,if we suffocate children's activities1 we suffocate their lives4 ,the good child is not the quiet1 inactive child4 ,the perfect child is not the child who is nearest like man4 ,the only way to keep a child still is to teach him orderly movement4 ,the only way to keep him from handling our things is to give him educational things of his own to handle4 ,it is a more fascinating home occupation than any which you ever attempted1 this ,montessori way of observing your child4 ,he is your own life flower1 a bud1 now1 but with the power of sure1 beautiful unfolding into bloom4 ,your part is to watch the process of this unfolding1 and to surround the child plant with light and nourishment and freedom for growth4 ,you thoughtlessly say1 8,don't sit on the floor and play2 you will soil your clothes40 8,walk faster and keep up with my footsteps or ,i will not take you out with me to-morrow40 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us that the limbs of the little child are very short in comparison with his torso and tire quickly from holding up his body weight4 ,if his legs are to grow straight and strong he must follow his own inclination and sit and lie on the floor when he plays2 he must not be required to keep up with our longer stride in walking4 ,we were thoughtless when we commanded don't4 ,dr4 ,montessori shows us the why4 ,these actions of the child were wrong only from our standpoint4 ,we have to cleanse soiled clothes2 we think that we have no time to walk slowly4 ,but in the ,children's ,houses no child is ever required to stay in his small white chair or to keep his work on his low table4 ,he is free to work on the floor in any position which makes him physically comfortable and soft rugs are provided for this purpose4 ,no ,montessori child is commanded to stay in line and 8keep up0 when the piano gives the signal for a march or one of the gay ,italian dance steps4 ,otello and ,mario and ,piccola1 the babies1 drop out for a few seconds1 seating themselves for a space of rest1 and when their fat legs are ready for more muscular exertion1 they again join the other children4 ,but this freedom will make my child fickle1 lacking in concentration1 you say4 ,on the contrary1 it leads to concentration4 ,the ,montessori-trained child who has never been prevented from doing a thing unless it was wrong and who has been allowed to carry on any activity which it chooses2 free play with outdoor toys1 the ,montessori physical exercises1 sense-training1 drawing1 suddenly arrives1 at five or six years at a most unusual amount of concentration4 ,from a free choice of occupations that lead to the exercise of the muscles and the senses1 the minds of these little children order themselves1 and the children are able to concentrate on one line of thought for long periods4 ,in the ,children's ,house of one of the ,model ,tenements in ,rome1 ,i saw a little girl come quietly in at nine o'clock1 button on her apron1 and seat herself with a book4 ,she read1 happily1 for three-quarters of an hour1 hardly lifting her eyes from the pages1 although twenty-five other little ones were carrying on almost as many different occupations all about her4 ,at the end of this time1 she closed her book1 crossed to the blackboard1 looked out of the window a moment1 and wrote in a clear hand the following childish idyl to the day3 8,the sun shines10 it began4 8,i smell the orange flowers and the sky is blue and ,i hear birds singing4 ,i am happy because it is a pleasant day40 ,do we find such concentration in our children whom we teach according to rule and in masses8 ,we have thought that to educate was to formulate a great many rules and make our little ones follow them1 but our new ,montessori ideal is a very different matter--that of leaving ,life free to develop and to unfold4 ,the ,american child has the strongest will1 his gift from a vital heredity1 of any child in the world4 ,his father and his mother have1 also1 this splendidly forceful inherited will4 ,parent and child tilt and bout in a daily fight1 and if the parent comes out triumphant and succeeds in breaking the child's will there is a deadly wrong done4 ,that is why our reform schools and prisons are so full of strong wills1 beyond bending4 ,we must let our little ones blaze their own trails1 provided1 of course1 that they are trails which lead in the right direction4 ,we must1 also1 let them make their own decisions1 and if occasionally they prove to have been wrong1 the experience will have helped them to decide wisely the next time4 ,we will1 also1 put into their hands the self-corrective didactic apparatus of ,montessori1 which has a distinct ethical value in the training of the human will4 ,education to be vivid and permanent in the child's life should be worked out along lines of experience4 ,to say to a child1 8,don't do that2 it isn't right10 is to make a very inadequate appeal to one1 only1 of his senses1 that of hearing4 ,to put into the child's hands the blocks of the ,montessori tower so carefully graded in dimension that it takes exquisite differentiation to pile them is to give him a chance to learn through experience the difference between right and wrong by means of three senses4 ,he hears a possible direction as to their use1 he touches them1 he sees the perfectly completed tower4 ,in like manner the broad and long stair1 the solid and geometric insets1 all contribute their quota to the sum of the child's perfectly directed will control4 ,the average home is full of mediums for helping a little child to develop along lines of willed control4 ,to concentrate upon a bit of constructive play until it is finished1 to learn orderliness in putting away playthings1 or to do some simple home duty that will be carried over from day to day1 all are important willed activities4 ,to do whatever is in hand1 building or drawing or picking up toys1 or bathing or caring for a doll or a pet1 or helping mother as well as possible1 is1 also1 very vital will-training4 ,dr4 ,montessori helps us to a hopeful outlook on the subject of child will4 ,our ,otellos are not1 after all1 terrible4 ,the child who is most difficult to manage is1 with ,montessori training1 the child who turns out to be best able to manage himself4 ,,the ,,christ ,,in ,,bruno ,about the ,new ,spiritual ,sense ,when ,bruno was a little fellow1 his mother and father were killed in the ,messina earthquake4 ,because he was one of so many left-behind babies1 he was quite neglected1 and he grew up to four years as a weed grows4 ,sometimes one madre of the tenement mothered him1 sometimes not4 ,at times he was fed1 at other times he starved4 ,because of the great fear that came to him with the blinding smoke and the twisting red river of molten lava and the death cry of his girl mother that day of the earthquake1 ,bruno's mind seemed a bit dulled4 ,he was often confused by the commands of people who tried to take care of him and so could not obey4 ,then they would strike him4 ,and he heard very vile language spoken and he saw very evil things done during his babyhood in the tenement4 ,when ,bruno wandered across the threshold of the ,via ,giusti ,children's ,house in ,rome1 he seemed like a little alien among the other happy little ones who were so carefully watched over1 so gently led4 ,for days he sat in silence1 his great1 frightened blue eyes watching to help him dodge the blow that he expected but never felt2 his lips ready to imitate the vile speech that he had known before1 but which he never heard here4 ,his timid fingers fumbled with the big pink and blue letters that the other children used in making long sentences on the floor2 they tried to button1 to lace1 to match colors1 but not very effectually4 ,it was as if the great fear of his babyhood had shadowed his whole mental life and left him powerless4 ,one morning ,bruno's dulled blue eyes glimpsed an unusual stir among the children4 ,a new little one had come and1 full of disorderly impulses1 had snatched at the varicolored carpet of carefully arranged color spools ,piccola had placed on her table1 scattering them to the floor4 ,red1 green1 orange1 yellow1 ,piccola's painstaking work of an hour lay in a great1 colored1 mixed-up heap4 ,piccola's eyes1 still pools that reflected all the hazel tints of fall woods1 grew blurred with tears4 ,she dropped her curly head in her arms and sobbed1 big1 gulping sobs that wouldn't stop1 that strangled her4 ,bruno1 watching her1 found his muscles4 ,he ran to her1 putting one kind little arm around her waist1 and with the other drew her head down to the shoulder of his little ragged blue blouse and smoothed her hair1 talking sweet1 liquid nonsense all the time that made ,piccola's sobs grow less and less1 and comforted her4 ,when she smiled and drew away to watch the group of children who had hurried to pick up her colors for her1 ,bruno slipped back to his corner and the old1 dull look settled back in his face4 8,the little man has the conscience sense4 ,he shall have a chance to use it10 thought the ,montessori directress who had been watching the scene4 ,and because she wanted his soul to grow strong1 even if his timid fingers couldn't1 she often stopped by ,bruno's chair to hold his hand1 kindly1 for a minute in hers1 or just bent over him1 smiling straight down into his face4 8,no one will hurt this little man of ours4 ,he loves us and we love him10 she assured ,bruno over and over1 until one day her patience reaped the prize of ,bruno's answering smile and she felt his two hungry little arms clasping her4 ,she strengthened his beginning friendship with ,piccola1 the color-loving1 reckless1 daring little maid1 whom all the children loved to love and loved to fight4 ,when ,piccola brought an unusual treat in her luncheon basket1 a leaf-wrapped packet of dried grapes or two luscious figs instead of one1 the directress suggested that she share with ,bruno1 who had no one to tuck a surprise in his basket4 ,as the two child faces drew close above the feast and the little hands fluttered together over this friendly breaking of bread1 ,bruno's eyes sparkled4 ,he was reading his first lines in the primer of love2 he was finding his sight4 ,and in return ,bruno helped ,piccola to rake leaves in the garden1 he unrolled and carefully spread upon the floor the rug upon which ,piccola wished to curl herself and sort letters2 he hastened to add his strength to hers when the drawer that held the letters stuck2 he fought ,piccola's street battles for her4 ,soon ,bruno's loving busy-ness so increased that he found things to do almost every second of his happy days in the ,children's ,house4 ,no longer the little cowering1 cringing1 inactive child of a few weeks past1 he was an alert little man whom ,i instantly watched1 because his activity was so unusual4 ,when the line of children1 two by two and clasping hands1 in their pretty custom of welcoming visitors to the ,via ,giusti ,children's ,house1 tumbled in each morning1 ,bruno always headed the line4 ,he held by the hand the smallest1 newest1 or the most timid child1 dragging it in his eagerness to teach it to shake hands and say good-day4 ,he would 8hold up0 the line because he had so much to say in his welcome to the strangers who had come to spend the morning with the little ones4 8,see our ,signorina2 is she not kind8 8,this is our room2 do you like it8 8,there is ,margherita2 she writes6 8,this is ,piccola1 who reads60 ,in breathless sentences1 ,bruno's heart interest worded itself4 ,then1 as the others settled themselves for the day's work1 ,bruno began his day of service4 ,he was the ,loving ,one1 the ,helping ,one1 the ,comforting ,one of the ,via ,giusti ,children's ,house4 ,was any child left without a glass of water at the luncheon hour1 ,bruno fetched it4 ,did the little girl waitress for the day forget to fill a soup plate from her tureen1 ,bruno reminded her4 ,if the three-year-old started home with his cloak unbuttoned1 ,bruno1 feeling in his tender little heart the chill wind of the ,roman hills1 buttoned the cloak for the baby4 ,if a toddler tumbled down1 ,bruno picked it up and examined it for bumps1 and started it safely on its way again4 ,he fetched and carried1 watched for chances to help1 to champion the weak1 to wipe away anybody's tears with the hem of his apron4 ,the seat he most often chose was under a cast of the ,madonna4 ,sometimes he sat quiet for long spaces1 looking at it4 8,bruno calls the ,madonna his madre10 whispered ,piccola one day4 8,who is that big1 homely child80 asked a visitor1 pointing to ,bruno putting fresh water in a bowl of roses that stood under the cast4 8,isn't he older than the other children80 8,older--yes1 in spirit10 answered the far-seeing directress4 8,he is our little ,christ-child40 ,so he is our little ,christ-child4 ,wherever there is a child in a home1 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us1 there ,christ is4 ,she discovers for us a new sense1 the 8conscience sense10 only waiting for an opportunity to exercise itself and1 in the exercising1 unfold and bloom and ripen into the fruits of the spirit4 ,if being an orphan and hungry and beaten and knowing vile things couldn't hurt the soul of ,bruno1 think of the possibility of ,christ in your baby4 ,children grow1 mentally1 through the right exercise of the senses4 ,to see and to be able to distinguish between beautiful colors and beautiful forms2 to discriminate between sounds that are discordant and sounds that are harmonious2 to know rough things and smooth things1 round things and square things1 velvet things and linen things1 by touching them with the finger tips1 this we know is a starting point on the road of the three ,r's of everyday education4 ,dr4 ,montessori guides us a lap farther in the new education4 ,she sees1 born with every child1 eyes of the spirit and slender1 groping fingers of the soul that look and reach for the good4 ,to help a child to use his spirit eyes and his soul fingers means to give him a chance to exercise his conscience4 ,it is a new sort of sense-training that means his finding the three ,r's of the life of the spirit3 faith1 hope1 and charity4 ,how shall we help a child to exercise and train his conscience sense8 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us that if we but watch a little child's free1 spontaneous use of his soul fingers1 his daily loves and hopes and faith1 these will shine for us as a ,bethlehem star-path leading us to the manger-throne of a ,king-in-the-making4 ,as we are turning a child's tendency to handle into mind-training1 we will turn his manifestations of inner sensibility into morality4 ,it is quite ineffectual to say to a child3 8,you must love your neighbor40 ,of course he will try to do the thing that we ask of him because he is a very kind little person1 ready to put up with the inconsistencies of his elders and willing to try to obey2 but it will be a makeshift sort of love1 not free and a flowering of the child's own heart1 but built upon what we tell him about love4 ,this makes of children little puppets4 ,dr4 ,montessori says3 8,watch how children love and what they love40 ,you know how your child loves--with the thoughtless abandon of pure passion4 ,that he interferes with your important occupation1 crumples your immaculateness1 has a soiled face and sticky fingers when he kisses you1 do not enter into his thoughts4 ,that anything should interfere with his caresses would wound his heart4 ,if you were disfigured or maimed1 he would still vision you as the beautiful mother whom baby eyes see only with the eyes of adoration4 ,is this a love that we can teach8 ,you know what your child loves4 ,there was the ugly yellow puppy with muddy feet that stained your new rug2 don't you remember how the ,little ,chap sobbed so long1 and then woke up in the night crying1 the day you sent away the yellow puppy8 ,he loved1 too1 the dirty rag doll that you burned and the broken toy that you threw away1 and that little street gamin of a newsboy who stands at the corner in all kinds of weather4 ,he doesn't love ceremony and money and the opinions of other people as we do4 ,the ,little ,chap goes out into the highways and byways for his stuff of love4 ,and he doesn't care if the thing he loves is ugly1 or old1 or halt1 or lame1 because he sees1 with his soul eyes1 behind the veil of appearances to the real of it4 ,your child is born with faith and hope1 too4 ,if you tell him that the moon is made of green cheese and that a stork dropped him down the chimney1 he believes you1 and when he grows up and catches you in the lies1 he has one less peg in his moral inner room to pin his faith in the divine to4 ,if you tell him that you will take him to the circus1 and then let your bridge party interfere with that promise1 the ,little ,chap is going to be less hopeful that ,god will keep ,his promises1 for you stand for the divine in the ,little ,chap's beginnings of spirituality4 ,dr4 ,montessori says that we often crush the child's conscience sense by not giving him an opportunity to exercise it as he is led to1 instinctively4 ,we must let our children1 in their baby days1 love as they wish and what they wish4 ,we must be quite careful to give them true conceptions of the strange world in which they find themselves1 and we must make only good promises to children and use much vigilance in keeping those promises4 ,dr4 ,montessori sets another guidepost for us in the star-path by which our children will travel across the desert of unbelief to the manger where ,god1 incarnate1 lies4 ,she tells us that1 as the ,ten ,commandments were a very simple set of laws for the ,israelites1 and ,john1 in his preaching of simplicity1 paved the way for ,christ1 so the first religious teaching of the little child should have this same quality of directness4 ,the child's first religious training will consist in a discrimination between good and evil4 8,it was good of you to share your sweets with sister4 ,when you ate your chocolate1 alone1 yesterday1 ,i was sorry1 because it was selfish40 8,it was thoughtful of you to fetch grandfather's cane for him4 ,some little boys would not have been so kind40 8,you must not scream and kick when you are angry4 ,it is wrong60 ,we might say in contrast2 we do1 ordinarily1 say3 8,you must share because ,i wish you to40 8,you must be kind because the world likes gentlemen40 8,you mustn't scream and kick1 because you give me a headache and mar my furniture40 ,such commands are quite ineffectual1 because they call the child's attention to us and not to his own acts4 ,but patiently and effectually to see that the ,little ,chap knows the difference between good and evil and practices good instead of evil--this gives him a chance to train and strengthen his conscience sense and forms the beginnings of his moral life4 8,but how shall ,i give my child an idea of ,god80 thousands of thinking parents object4 ,it isn't necessary to give the idea of ,god to your child4 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us that every child has it4 ,we think that we must do so much teaching in order to educate the little child's mind1 or his soul4 ,in fact we need to do less teaching than watching1 less pruning than watering4 ,after observing our little ones' spontaneous manifestations of love and giving these a chance to increase1 and meeting them with encouragement after conscientiously pointing out to them the good and the evil of life and insisting that they choose the good and reject the evil--we discover a miracle4 ,god comes to the little ones4 ,bruno1 starved in his mind and starved in his heart1 and never having heard of things of the spirit except in terms of the vilest blasphemy1 found ,god as naturally as he would find the first gold blossom of the broom braving winter's frosts on the ,appian ,way4 ,our own ,helen ,keller1 deaf and dumb and blind1 knew ,god before anything that her teacher could tell her about ,him had pierced the dark wall of her sleeping senses4 ,dr4 ,montessori asks us to prepare the way for this miracle in our homes4 ,she says that she would like to suggest to mothers a new beatitude1 8,blessed are those who feel20 and we add1 ,for they find ,god4 ,,mario',s ,,finger ,,eyes ,montessori ,sense-,training ,your little one1 ,mario1 might have been1 big eyes instantly glancing a bit of color1 something that moved1 something that could be handled or broken4 ,all his four years he had been fighting his mother1 his home1 the world--a one-sided fight1 too1 for everybody and everything always triumphed over him in the end4 ,he was so little and so ineffectual to do battle4 ,and the times when he had been punished for breaking his mother's cherished plates with the pattern of raised roses--plump and red--for clutching in loving1 chubby1 grimy hands the soft silk window curtains or the bright velvet table-cover could not be counted4 ,yet ,mario was cheerful and uncowed and continued the struggle1 the impulse for which had been born with him1 to use his fingers in learning about the world of things4 ,to check this impulse was the object of everyone who had anything to do with little ,mario4 ,there was his grandmother in a wonderful silk headdress and a yellow wool shawl1 fringed2 she would not let ,mario clutch the cap and then feel of the shawl1 as his fingers itched to4 ,there was the old fruit man at the corner near ,mario's house2 he shook a stick at children who handled his round and square measures1 his fruits1 and vegetables of so many different shapes4 ,there was always his madre1 who pursued ,mario from waking to sleeping time1 interfering with his activities4 8,mario1 don't run your fingers along the window ledge2 don't handle the door latch4 ,you will soil them4 ,you must not play with copper bowls and pots2 they are for cooking1 not for little boys40 ,as the warfare continued1 ,mario grew bolder4 ,to be stopped when one is playing with a fruit measure or a door latch or a bright1 red copper bowl with no malicious designs upon these but only to satisfy a sense of hunger for knowledge of form1 hurt his spirit4 8,i will10 he announced one day1 when his grandmother tried to rescue her cap from his deft fingering1 and he pulled off one of the long1 silken streamers4 8,i will not10 he further asserted when his mother wished the copper pot to cook her beans1 and when she tried to take it from him forcibly1 ,mario stamped and shrieked and struck his madre4 ,the habit of saying 8,i will0 or 8,i won't0 in situations that demand the will to decide1 8,i won't0 or 8,i will0 is an easy habit for a little child to form and a most dangerous one1 morally4 ,it is seldom a self-formed but a parent-stimulated habit4 ,when his mother put ,mario1 for reformation and 8to get rid of him10 in ,the ,house of the ,children at the ,trionfale ,school in ,rome1 it was with the assurance3 8,he's a bad little boy4 ,he never does what he ought to2 he's always in mischief40 8,what should be a little child's #8oughts' the first years of life8 ,isn't what we call getting into mischief1 perhaps1 the big business of childhood80 we asked ourselves as we watched ,mario in his ,montessori development4 ,so1 at least1 ,mario's teacher decided4 8,go as you please1 do as you wish1 play with whatever you like--only be careful not to hurt the work or the body of any other little one10 were the words that turned ,mario's struggles to educate himself into a joy instead of a fight4 ,sitting in the light of the ,roman sunshine and the smiles of the other children of the ,children's ,house1 ,mario began to do the thing he was born for in babyhood--he began to see with his fingers4 ,illustration3 ,replacing the solid insets by the sense of touch alone4 ,illustration3 ,building the tower and the broad stair4 ,i watched him for days1 such a blessedly good1 chubby1 curly-headed little man that my arms ached to hold him1 instead of leaving him free to trot from one occupation to another1 busy1 concentrated1 educating himself4 ,mario's mother1 his wise old grandmother1 the canny fruit seller1--none of them had known how blurred the world looks to the eyes of a little child4 ,many mothers are not able to see with the eyes of a child4 ,we grown-ups who comprehend a beautiful landscape1 a lovely fresco1 a piece of miracle machinery1 a fragile porcelain vase1 a statue1 an immortal pile of architecture instantaneously1 analyzing the form that makes the beauty1 never stop to think how we grasp it1 mentally4 ,it is the color and curve of the landscape1 the combination of lines in the fresco1 the 8feel0 and contour of the statue1 the 8fit0 of the machinery1 the design of the vase1 the combination of geometric figures in the building1 that make the beauty4 ,the artist1 the inventor1 the sculptor1 the architect1 saturated their finger tips1 then their eyes1 and last their brains with a knowledge of line and form before they saw ,fame reaching out her hands to touch theirs4 ,every little child is born with a longing to feel line and form1 not perhaps for ,fame's1 but for ,knowledge's sake1 and we crush the longing when we say 8don't touch40 ,intent1 engrossed ,mario worked for days until he grew expert in piling1 one upon the other1 the graded1 rose-colored blocks of the ,montessori ,tower4 ,soon he could erect the tower1 blindfolded4 ,just a fascinating play it looked1 as interesting as is the play of our babies with their nested picture blocks1 but it was play with a purpose4 ,it taught ,mario to feel and then to discriminate1 mentally1 between objects that differ in dimension1 one from another4 ,then came the fun of laying in order the graded blocks of the ,montessori ,broad ,stair4 ,building steps1 it was1 as all home children instinctively struggle to build steps with their blocks1 with dominoes1 with pebbles and rocks of different sizes4 ,why do children like to build steps2 is it not because they live in a world of high and low1 and higher and lower things8 ,we grown-ups say1 8,it is a beautiful sky-line1 the tall and low buildings rubbing shoulders10 or 8,the clouds are banked in a red and gold mass40 ,how did we learn the beauty of gradation of form in a city1 in nature8 ,once when we were as little as ,mario we tried to build stairs1 we jumped1 happily1 from one step to another2 we climbed1 we learned height and depth by feeling them4 ,so1 ,mario learned to see minute variations in the height of objects through the broad stair4 ,he spent hours fitting the little wooden cylinders in their places in their frames4 ,how he had longed to play with the vases and jugs at home1 some tall and some short1 some thick and some thin4 ,and how many times his mother had prevented his digging rows of little holes in the garden in which to fit1 first1 a fat thumb1 then a slim forefinger2 last1 a tiny finger6 ,with the ,montessori geometric insets1 he could enjoy this hole play1 and1 at the same time1 learn1 through feeling1 to recognize very fine differences in height and breadth4 ,one day ,mario found a little set of drawers in the big white material cupboard at the ,montessori ,school4 ,it made him remember his grandmother's great shelf of drawers with the polished brass knobs4 ,in these were hidden fascinating1 musty-smelling wool shawls1 silk scarfs1 soft embroideries1 and stiff1 bright ribbons4 ,mario's secret happiness had been to climb upon a stool1 clutch a brass knob1 pull1 and then delve pink fingers into the sense-feeding horde of stuffs4 ,he would close his eyes and enjoy the feel of them1 but there was always the rude awakening4 8,naughty ,mario--don't touch40 ,but now he had these other drawers full of stuffs to open1 to empty1 to sort the contents1 to crumple the stuffs in his hands1 and then match velvet to velvet1 silk to silk1 wool to wool1 blindfolded4 ,it hadn't been shawls and scarfs and embroideries and ribbons that the little man wanted1 but a chance to use his fingers in learning to recognize the qualities of objects2 rough1 soft1 smooth1 stiff4 ,otello brought a great1 crimson poppy to the ,children's ,house one day4 ,poppies to the ,roman baby are as dandelions to our children1 so lavish a gift of the nature mother as to be of little value after the first bloom colors the grass4 ,otello's impulse was to pull off the already dropping petals of the flower1 but ,mario rescued it from the ruthless baby fingers4 ,holding the fragile stem between forefinger and chubby thumb1 he ran the other forefinger lightly over the surface of the velvet-soft petals of the poppy4 ,then he ran to baby ,valia and touched her leaf-soft cheek with the finger that taught him how like a flower petal in softness is the flesh of a child4 ,it was so daily an application of newly-gained knowledge as to be unnoticed save by a wondering onlooker4 ,it was the mind enrichment through sense-training denied ,mario by his home and offered him by ,montessori4 ,illustration3 ,a fineness of perception is developed by discriminating different textiles blindfolded4 ,the frames for geometric insets enthralled ,mario next4 ,to take out of its place1 fit in again1 and refit a dozen1 twenty times the different sizes of flat wooden circles1 squares1 triangles1 rectangles1 and other forms kept the little fingers busy and the opening mind concentrated for long spaces4 ,the wooden insets are large1 shining with polish1 and easy to handle because of the brass knob attached to each4 ,as ,mario lifted one out of its place in the form board1 he ran his fingers around the edge1 then around the empty place in the board4 ,soon he could do this with closed eyes1 fitting wooden figures of many different shapes and sizes correctly in the form board4 ,he matched these forms to corresponding paper forms mounted on cards and then to outlined forms4 ,here was a circle like the top of the red copper bowl1 and a smaller circle like the top of the yellow majolica mug that held his milk in the morning4 ,here was a rectangle like the kitchen window at home and a triangle like the glittering one the band man struck to make music4 ,kitchen utensils and home furnishings and the street band are as vastly interesting to all children as they were to little ,mario1 interesting because they are things of color and texture and shape and sound4 ,one morning ,mario showed his teacher one of the rectangular geometric insets4 8,the window in the church10 he explained4 ,then he picked up a rectangular inset4 8,this is like the flower-bed in the ,gardens10 he announced4 ,your child struggles to educate himself through his senses as did ,mario4 ,you1 too1 perhaps1 not seeing the inspiration in the active little fingers1 say1 8,he gets into mischief all the time40 ,it is our privilege to turn child mischief into education4 ,instead of taking away from children the objects which they select for handling1 we must study those objects and substitute for them didactic materials for education of the tactile sense1 the sense of weight1 the sense of form and contour4 ,a little girl whose spirit is so sensitively attuned that a breath1 almost1 will snap the too-taut strings was allowed to be present at a dinner her mother was giving4 ,through a wearisome round of courses1 the little one sat in her uncomfortable chair1 quiet1 good1 and tracing with one finger the design of her cut-glass tumbler4 ,sometimes the blue eyes closed as she tried to retrace the design in the air or on the table linen4 ,at last her mother saw what she was doing4 8,leave the table immediately60 she commanded4 8,you are a very impolite child40 ,she thought that she was a good mother1 but the tear-brimming eyes of the little one1 disgraced1 hurt1 should have mirrored her cruelty4 ,we can't allow children to finger cut glass1 but we ought to furnish them with a substitute for sense-training that will remove the necessity4 ,illustration3 ,perfecting the sense of touch with the geometric insets4 ,our children are born into a world of which they know nothing4 ,they are discoverers1 travelers touching an unknown shore1 and the first business of their new-found life is to adjust themselves to their environment4 ,like valiant explorers they plunge into the wilderness in which they find themselves4 ,we furnish them with food and clothing for the journey1 but we have quite neglected to offer them at the beginning any chart or compass4 ,because of this1 the way of a child of two and a half to four years is a stumbling way in our homes4 ,he is hedged in by a wilderness of furnishings and bric--brac and household appliances and mechanical devices and different kinds of materials and strange forms and varied colors4 ,it is the business of being a child to notice and handle and smell and test and use these different objects1 but we continually thwart him in his attempts to make these social adjustments4 ,in so doing we turn the child into a militant instead of a discoverer4 ,he must conquer his wilderness4 ,prevented from learning through the medium of his senses1 he fights to learn1 and we say that he is destructive and wilful and lacking in thoughtfulness4 ,dr4 ,montessori offers our children in the didactic material for sense-training a valuable guide for adjusting himself to his environment4 ,the solid insets1 the tower1 the broad and long stair teach him through his own experiment and discovery the qualities which all the objects in his world possess2 height1 breadth1 length1 thickness in all their combinations and gradations4 ,the color spools give him a chance to recognize and learn practically all the various tints and shades that surround him in his colorful world4 ,the geometric insets bring to him1 through his senses of touch and vision1 the many and wonderful combinations of line with line and with curves which constitute the form of the world4 ,by means of the ,montessori textiles and other appliances for exercising the sense of touch1 he learns to detect and discriminate the most minute gradations of softness and roughness1 smoothness and coarseness4 ,the ,montessori sense-training apparatus guides the child on his spiritual trip through his environment4 ,it is the guide1 however1 for the very young child whose senses are hungry4 ,we are so used to waiting on our one1 two1 and three-year-old babies2 we are so busy taking out of their hands our own precious belongings and substituting for them a toy1 that the ,montessori idea of guiding children1 mentally1 from the cradle1 is strange to us4 ,the average five or six-year-old child completes the ,montessori sense-training quickly4 ,what next8 we ask4 ,to be able to1 blindfolded1 fit a polished wood rectangle in a corresponding rectangular frame is1 to the minds of some of us1 the climax of a ,montessori exercise4 ,to ,montessori herself it is only the beginning of education in form2 we must help the child to see1 feel1 recognize form in various combinations2 to draw1 to love as pure form in the world about him as he has learned with this geometric inset4 ,the ,montessori sense-training appliances should be used as the genetic psychologist uses his various instruments and mental tests4 ,they are to arouse and awake into activity habits of quick perception1 keen appreciation1 and constructive invention4 ,the greatest thing we can do for a child is to so educate it that it knows its environment and can adjust itself to social conditions4 ,we do this when we teach our children to see1 to hear1 to touch intelligently4 ,the lure of the senses is a spiritual spell in childhood4 ,if we catch it1 then1 and turn it into channels of knowledge1 we may develop a ,marconi1 conqueror of space2 a ,rodin1 conqueror of form2 a ,burbank1 conqueror of life--a ,carrel1 conqueror of death4 ,at least we will have developed an observer who knows how to use his senses in the practical living of life4 ,,raffaelo',s ,,hunger ,color ,teaching4 ,its ,value ,raffaelo's grandfather had been a shepherd in the ,roman hills1 not so much because he liked to tend the dull1 white creatures1 but on account of the blue roof beneath which he sat all day and the carpet of green splashed with poppy crimson and primrose gold and lupin blue that lay at his feet1 and the sunset that he waited for every night4 ,it was never the same1 that sunset2 like a beautiful ,roman ribbon it spread itself before his eyes1 and he would rather see it than go home to eat4 ,tucked under his long1 wool cloak1 he carried a pigment-daubed palette and a patch of canvas4 ,as the lambs and their mothers grazed1 he watched1 hungrily1 for picture stuff3 a bright yellow cart taking its slow way along the white dust of the ,via ,appia1 the flower girl walking in to ,rome with her arms full of roses1 the gold edges of a distant wheat field--these fed his soul and satisfied his hunger4 ,because the ,state was blind and thought that to fight is more vital than to paint beautiful pictures1 the grandfather of ,raffaelo was forced into the ,italian army4 ,the day that they substituted a gun for his crook and threw away his palette1 they killed his soul4 ,the grandfather of ,raffaelo made a very poor soldier1 indeed4 ,the little boy that he left at home on the ,campagna grew up1 and was a poor soldier1 too2 and when he had finished military service he married and went to live in a tenement in ,rome1 and in due time little ,raffaelo was born4 ,it was all quite commonplace1 and like the story of many other families4 ,but it had1 too1 its element of the unusual4 ,with those long-ago1 shepherding days on the ,roman ,campagna1 a gnawing hunger had begun4 ,it wasn't a body hunger1 but a hunger of the spirit4 ,it killed the body of the grandfather of ,raffaelo--spirit hunger is more destructive than a hunger for bread4 ,down through the years it took its gnawing way4 ,it killed the youth in the father of ,raffaelo and it took possession of him in the gray streets of the city and stifled his manhood4 ,then the hunger pierced the spirit of little ,raffaelo1 and that was where it stopped--a cruel1 unsatiated thing4 ,with the gathered strength of all those years1 it starved the baby4 ,he couldn't have explained in words just what he was hungry for4 ,in fact he couldn't explain anything very well1 being not quite three years old4 ,only1 he was continually unsatisfied when he looked at the ugliness of the dull walls of his home1 and when his mother took him along the hard1 gray streets of the city he tugged and pulled at her hand whenever he passed a corner flower stand1 or a cart piled high with a mass of colored vegetables4 ,raffaelo was beauty hungry1 as his father had been and his grandfather4 ,and no one knew it2 and no one would have cared if they had known4 ,no one8 ,little ,raffaelo trudged across the court one morning to the ,children's ,house in the ,scuola ,famagosta1 near which he lived1 and there found a kind welcome and a happy1 busy community of children like himself4 ,neat1 in his clean apron1 and with big1 questioning eyes1 he sat apart from the others in one corner of the room1 watching4 ,certain of the children were writing big1 plain script on the blackboard2 others sat quietly reading to themselves from big picture books4 ,raffaelo's glance shifted from these to a child who stood near him1 working at a low table4 ,what had he brought from the white shelves in that big wooden box8 ,raffaelo wondered4 ,why was he turning the box over8 ,but the table was suddenly covered with a mass of color1 such as only the ,romans know how to dye4 ,from the box came reel upon reel of ravishingly colored silks1 every color that tints sky and field and garden--crimson1 orange1 lemon1 the deep green of the grass1 and the gray green of the olive leaf2 the blue that makes wild iris and children's eyes1 the purple of grapes when the sun shines on the vineyards4 ,if ,raffaelo could have counted1 he would have known that there were sixty-four of these flat1 white wooden spools1 wound with eight colors and eight of each color1 showing almost all the grading of color that makes this old earth of ours so lovely4 ,illustration3 ,to match the colors two by two is the first exercise4 ,the colors trickled like a life-giving stream into ,raffaelo's starved senses4 ,he reached for the color spools1 snatching a great fistful away from the other child4 8,mio2 mio6 ,me2 me60 he cried4 ,they were his4 ,some of us steal bread when we are hungry4 ,some of us steal love when we are famished for it4 ,children steal because we or the world have starved them of something which they crave for their natural1 best development of body1 mind1 or soul4 ,the habitual public school teacher1 the average mother of to-day1 would have said3 8,give those colors back4 ,it's wicked to take something that is not yours60 ,the directress of this ,montessori school1 in which teaching and mothering are practiced in new ways1 watched ,raffaelo for a moment1 asking herself3 8,why does this child steal8 ,is he blind to law because his need is so great80 ,then she crossed to ,raffaelo1 bringing with her a handful of color spools--two red1 two blue1 two yellow4 8,these are yours10 she said4 8,will you give your little neighbor's colors back to him1 because it was not right to take them8 ,when you have carried to him every one of the spools1 return to me and ,i will tell you about your colors40 ,happily1 ,raffaelo did as he was told1 receiving his first lesson in ethics before he had his first color lesson4 ,returning1 he stood1 wide-eyed and fascinated1 beside the directress as she held out to him two of the color spools4 8,this is red10 she explained1 laying the red spool on the white table in front of him1 and waiting a moment or two1 that he might make the mental association between the name of the color and the color itself4 ,then she showed him a blue wound spool4 8,this is blue10 she said1 laying his spool at the opposite side of the table from the red one1 and again waiting for ,raffaelo to make the association of name and color4 ,taking the next step in this ,montessori teaching1 she pointed to the red wound spool1 and asked3 8,what is this1 ,raffaelo80 8,red10 he laughed back4 8,and this80 pointing to the other one4 8,blue60 ,raffaelo almost shouted in his delight at acquiring knowledge4 ,then came the last step in ,raffaelo's lesson4 ,holding out the remaining tablets in the palm of her hand1 the directress said3 8,show me red1 ,raffaelo4 ,and show me blue40 ,with no mistake1 the little color lover selected the red1 the blue1 and placed each on his table1 matching them to the corresponding spools4 8,these are yellow10 the directress explained to him1 giving him the two remaining spools4 ,then she left him1 having given him the food for clear1 colorful thought for which two generations of thwarted painters had made him long4 ,all the morning ,raffaelo played with his six color spools1 gathering them together into a pile1 handling them1 holding them up to the light1 that he might watch the play of sunshine and shade upon their beauty1 pairing them upon his table1 repeating to himself3 8,red1 blue1 yellow60 ,sometimes he watched his small neighbor1 who had grown very expert in color lore and could name all the colors and lay the spools in chromatic order on his table1 eight rows headed1 severally1 by black1 red1 orange1 yellow1 green1 blue1 violet1 and brown1 and each row containing eight gradations of its color4 ,when this child completed his series of orderly color scales he went to the window and looked out at the ,roman hill rising back of the school4 ,to the child who had not received ,montessori color teaching1 the hill would have been a shapeless1 colorless bit of earth4 ,to this child1 who could see color in its finest gradation1 it was a landscape where one could trace the gold outline of orange and lemon1 the red tiling of a vine-tender's house near the top and back of it a sky that was violet--not blue4 ,he looked at the hill for a long time4 ,then he selected an outlined picture of a tree1 and looking intently at a box of colored pencils1 selected one that was just the color of a cedar and proceeded to fill in the outline4 ,illustration3 ,grading each standard color and its related colors in chromatic order4 ,illustration3 ,all the colors of nature may be found4 ,to ,raffaelo1 the child was a spellworker4 ,watching this fascination1 the directress gave ,raffaelo a box of color spools1 emptying them out and allowing him to try and differentiate the colors1 putting each back in its right compartment in the box4 ,she did not burden his mind with names4 ,he was feeding his senses by just handling and feeling the colors1 and he was unspeakably happy4 ,when the noon hour came1 he did not want to go home4 ,when his bedtime came1 that night1 he escaped from his mother and ran to the window1 looking out4 ,the night before1 he had looked down at the soiled1 unbeautiful street2 to-night he looked up4 ,the sun was just setting1 a ruby ball in a sea of amber4 8,see60 ,raffaelo shouted1 pointing to the sunset4 8,red2 yellow60 ,as his mother picked him up and carried him away from the window1 he looked deep down into her eyes4 8,blue10 he said1 seeing them for the first time in all their beauty4 ,the hunger of ,raffaelo was fed4 ,every child is color hungry4 ,your child may be a painter in the making1 heir to a century-old talent that somebody had to bury1 but which would not die and rose and haunted4 ,or he may be an average child who will be happier and better all his life if he can see each fine gradation of color that tints the sunset and can feed his soul on a beautiful ,titian or a ,fra ,angelico4 ,we have thought that we were teaching our children color when we called their attention to a colored object4 ,a child is much more apt to associate taste with the apple which we show him when we try to give him a color lesson1 and quite possibly we make a false statement when we say that the apple is red4 ,very few apples are red2 they are dark red1 light red1 orange1 or yellow in tint4 ,why not begin the other way round1 as ,dr4 ,montessori does1 and teach pure color1 giving the child the joy that comes from discovering for himself just what pigment nature used in painting the apple4 ,in teaching children color1 we will use1 if possible1 ,dr4 ,montessori's own box of sixty-four color spools that include almost all the tints and shades of the prismatic colors1 black to gray1 and the scale of browns4 ,if we are not so fortunate as to be able to use this apparatus1 which is a most careful and scientific analysis of color1 we can try to study color ourselves1 and point it out to children as it is found in the home in textiles1 silk and worsted1 papers1 flowers1 and colored crayons and paints4 ,in teaching color at home we may all follow ,dr4 ,montessori's own simple method4 ,the ,montessori directress might have tried to teach ,raffaelo color as we1 in ,america1 teach our children1 saying3 8,see the ball2 it is red4 ,the forget-me-not is blue4 ,see the pretty robin redbreast10 and in making these statements confusing in the child's mind the concepts of toy1 flowers1 birds1 and colors when all he needs is color4 ,every child wants to make his own application of knowledge4 ,instead1 the girl who had been trained under ,dr4 ,montessori had followed the only true method of teaching any fact1 the method that lies at the basis of ,montessori education miracles4 ,dr4 ,montessori says that teaching must be simple and objective4 ,there hasn't been enough of 8calling a spade a spade0 in our ,american schools and homes4 ,show your child red1 or the letter ,a1 or a moral fact--it doesn't matter much which--and name it red1 or ,a1 or right4 ,ask him to tell you just what you told him about it4 ,ask him to pick out red from other colors1 or ,a from other letters1 or a moral act from immoral acts4 ,this is ,montessori teaching reduced to ,a ,b ,c1 but it is teaching that is successful4 ,our homes may be made as full of color and beauty for little children as are the ,children's ,houses4 ,the use of the prism1 the ,montessori color spools1 the color top1 our beautifully graded colored crayons and water colors for filling in outlined pictures1 a study of the colored papers to be had for paper dolls' clothes1 the daily watching of the color changes in sunrise and sunset--all these open the spirit eyes of the child4 ,then we will lead children to notice and appreciate harmonious blending of tints and shades in our walls1 our rugs1 our gardens1 our picture galleries4 ,of what value is it that the child's chromatic sense be trained by learning to know and discriminate between red1 blue1 and yellow1 and from this to acquire a facility in knowing the scale of grays and browns8 ,it means more for the child than just the soul-satisfaction that comes from learning how to use the eyes4 ,it means starting the brain machine and then looking out for the switch4 ,the first morning that ,i met little ,mario1 one of my child ,montessori friends in ,rome1 he looked me over from head to foot1 ran to a color box1 selected a color spool of the exact shade of gray blue of my suit and showed it to me joyfully4 ,in almost the same second that he made this mental decision1 he saw that the quick movements of little ,valia were threatening the safety of a glass vase that stood1 holding flowers1 on a table at the opposite end of the room4 ,like a flash1 ,mario ran1 held the vase1 and prevented the catastrophe4 ,to be able to think down the color scale from blue to a blue that is mixed with gray2 to be able to think in another kind of mental scale from cause to effect--these are both chromatic mind operations4 ,to know color means satisfying your child's beauty hunger4 ,it means1 also1 starting him on the road to logical thinking4 ,,the ,,going ,,away ,,of ,,antonio ,directing the ,child ,will ,antonio had a longing to do4 ,since babyhood1 he had watched the madre doing about the house1 the padre who left each morning and returned each night after a day of doing somewhere4 ,all of ,antonio's most interesting world of little things revolved about a circle of persistent activity4 ,the earth in the garden moved with its life of roots and bulbs1 the very small ant creatures crept about from sunrise to sunset with their sand burdens1 the gray branches of the olive opened to show their hidden treasures of leaves2 the birds built2 ,luigi1 the old farmer beyond the garden1 continually loaded and unloaded his creaking yellow cart4 ,antonio absorbed this life energy with as much hunger as he ate his soup and figs4 8,i will1 also1 do all day10 he decided1 ready to try the adventure4 8,i will make a little garden10 he chose one morning4 ,the spade was too huge for baby fingers1 the frost-hardened ground demanded force in digging4 ,some hyacinth stalks1 just pushing their odorous1 purple way up through the mold1 were broken by ,antonio's eager effort4 ,still1 the little boy persisted1 endeavoring to accomplish the task that his imagination pictured--a little round flower-bed of his own1 made by his hands1 and in which flowers of all colors might raise their heads overnight4 ,now he smelled them2 now he could feel their velvet-soft petals4 8,stop6 ,come here1 naughty ,antonio4 ,you cannot make a garden2 you are too small4 ,and you dirty your clean apron40 ,antonio dropped the spade as the words of his madre shrilled through the air4 ,he sat down in a discouraged heap on the edge of the path4 ,always1 his madre could persist in tasks1 but he was continually interfered with4 ,why8 ,but with the buoyancy of childhood1 the little man suddenly jumped up4 ,a rattle of tin bells and a strident shriek of protesting1 ungreased wheels were the prelude to ,luigi's approach4 ,in his cart of oranges and lemons1 with bunches of poppy and wheat stuck in the chinks1 ,luigi rode down the lane4 ,his smiling face was as russet and wrinkled as an old nut1 bits of miracle-hiding clod stuck to his blue smock4 ,as he passed1 he tossed an orange to ,antonio4 8,i will be a farmer4 ,how fine to earn money for my family1 as ,luigi does10 little ,antonio decided4 ,he ran to the house and1 pulling out his little cart1 loaded it with some of the vegetables that stood in baskets in the kitchen4 ,he trundled it up and down1 calling his wares as he had heard ,luigi4 ,at first his madre laughed4 ,then1 watching him1 her smile furrowed itself into a frown4 8,why play that you are ,luigi1 who is only a farmer80 she expostulated4 8,be a great general4 ,here are your toy soldiers40 ,she pulled his little cart away from ,antonio and pushed into his arms a box of gaudy tin soldiers4 8,drill them2 command them10 the madre urged ,antonio4 ,antonio watched1 sadly1 the demolition of the little cart which stood for playing into breadwinning4 ,his soldiers were painted manikins1 not very steady on their legs and only slightly interesting4 ,he tried to stand them in rows and they all tumbled down4 ,he changed them for his ball1 and his madre suggested that a picture book would be a better plaything for the house1 taking the ball away from him4 ,when he was absorbed in the book1 she tore him from it for a walk with her in the streets4 ,so it always happened with ,antonio4 ,no one allowed him to persist in an occupation1 no one allowed him to choose what he should do1 and each day's activities were decided for him4 ,from a strong-willed baby whose impulses were all good1 ,antonio drifted into weak-willed little boyhood4 ,it was as if he were daily followed by a spirit of indecision4 8,shall ,i concentrate on this play80 ,antonio would ask himself1 and in reply the spirit which had risen from his babyhood influences whispered in his ear1 8,no40 ,then came his manhood1 and he asked himself the same question4 8,why persist8 ,it is easier to shift1 continually1 from one occupation to another1 not doing anything long1 or well4 8,why trouble to choose8 ,my mother made decisions for me when ,i was a little boy2 the public school teachers chose my studies for me2 now that ,i am a man1 let other men think for me4 ,i have no power to control my will40 ,how simple a solution of the life question6 ,the fingers of ,antonio that had itched in babyhood to make the earth bloom and to earn bread closed quiescently about a dagger handed him by a man who said1 8,come with me2 do as ,i decide for you40 ,the crime ,antonio did was not his fault1 nor the fault of his accomplice4 ,it was the fault of his madre4 ,dr4 ,montessori tells the story of the child whose will is misdirected in babyhood4 ,he is the child whom his mother and the public school system mold into a lump of putty by thinking for him4 ,the greatest problem of to-day in child-training is1 how shall we help our little ones to strength of will8 ,civilization is being sapped by our weaklings4 ,home-training1 the public schools do not develop character4 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us that this is because parents and teachers do not know what will1 fundamentally1 is4 ,dr4 ,montessori says1 8,to will is to be able4 ,the little child who persistently struggles to pile block upon block until a miniature tower or castle rises under his fingers1 persisting until he completes the labor1 is taking his first step toward will-training4 8,family life1 trade life are built up on this persistency4 ,whether it shows itself in loving1 or giving or working1 constancy makes the social will4 ,every motor activity is an act of will1 and constancy in right activities makes character40 ,other great teachers have said the study of mathematics and the dead languages1 the military discipline of the army1 mortification of the flesh1 make character4 ,to train a child's will we feel we must crucify it upon the cross of our desires4 ,a child must obey us1 we say1 follow our caprices and chisel himself into a likeness to us1 because we wish him to be like us4 ,why should children be little men and women8 ,are we so sure of our own perfection that we have a right to force our personality upon that of our children8 ,dr4 ,montessori gives us a new rule for developing character in children4 ,she says3 8,seek the child's first longings if you would train his will4 ,give him the foundation of will by helping him to concentrate on something he instinctively craves to be busy about and so lay the foundation stones of his character40 ,the little child's first impulses to be active are good4 ,he wants to be about his father's business by taking part in the activities of the home4 ,we make our children weak-willed by our own capriciousness in interfering with their attempts to be active4 ,we dress them1 we feed them1 we wait on them1 we drive them to play1 we lead them2 we put them in kindergartens where they flit from one occupation to another without an opportunity to concentrate on one2 we put them in schools where their days are cut up into little bundles of study1 tied with the iron chains of ,schedule that make prisoners of children2 we continually decide for our little ones and kill their characters with the sword of misdirected kindness4 ,some children are born with the color of painters in their souls1 and we punish them for soiling our pictures and mussing our tapestries and trampling upon our gardens4 ,may we not look beyond their impotent acts to the spirit-longing that prompted them and put into their hands the best in the way of color3 paints1 crayons1 books1 flowers that will satisfy their desires and give them an opportunity to concentrate on the activity they instinctively crave4 ,so they gain will power4 ,other children are born with a vision of the builder in their eyes1 and we thwart them when they try to use the furnishings of the home in a process of reconstruction4 ,may we not equip our little architects with materials for building1 call their attention to the classic in architecture and art1 give them a chance to build their own characters8 ,most children are born little cosmopolites--small world citizens who explore with the greatest interest the strange1 new environment in which they find themselves4 ,these are the children whom our present system of coercion in home and school hurts most4 ,we crush their wills by not giving them an opportunity to follow their instinctive interests in babyhood4 ,the innate impulses of such children are good4 ,they must explore and produce around themselves4 ,they must be helped to wise choice and right decisions4 ,so they grow to willed man and womanhood4 ,is this following of personal impulse1 as shown in ,montessori-trained children1 productive of better concentration than we find in our public schools to-day8 ,part of the ,montessori didactic material for teaching numbers consists of a cardboard case into which cards bearing big black figures may be slipped1 giving the child an opportunity to work out number combinations4 ,a little lad of five discovered one morning1 when ,i was observing at the ,via ,giusti ,montessori school in ,rome1 that he could slip into his case cards in regular succession that would count to one hundred by fives4 ,he spread out his cards upon the sunny floor1 provided himself with the polished counting sticks for verifying each operation2 then kneeling in front of his counting frame1 he went to work1 alone1 concentrated4 ,it was visiting day at the ,school4 ,tourists1 teachers1 students lined the room to the number of forty or fifty1 leaving the children scant space to work1 and as the little boy's numerical adventure began1 they crowded closer to watch him4 ,an ,american public school child would have grown restive and self-conscious1 but this little ,montessori lad might have been alone in the ,sahara1 so quiet1 so unheeding of anything but his own occupation was he4 ,the number cards are large1 and it took a good many to reach one hundred4 ,the little fellow spread them out in the center of the floor1 then carried the row under the chairs of the visitors1 not seeming to notice the presence of the grown-ups4 ,the morning grew gold with noon1 and the other children1 quietly putting away their materials1 spread the low tables for the midday meal4 ,little white bowls1 snowy napkins1 carefully laid spoons--then the steaming chicken broth4 ,still the little counter did not move4 ,he had reached seventy-five1 after verifying every number he had registered in the case4 ,one of the wee waitresses for the day carried his red and green luncheon basket and set it down on the floor in front of him2 he did not heed it4 8,why doesn't somebody stop that child's counting and make him eat his lunch10 expostulated a nervous ,american school teacher1 watching4 8,children should be made to do certain things at certain times10 she explained4 ,just then the boy slowly and with great pains fitted a figure one and two ciphers into the counting case4 ,like a little conqueror he stood up1 folded his arms1 and looked at the perfect result of two hours' willed1 concentrated work4 ,a smile broke the baby face into dimples1 and running out into the garden1 he began to play like a little colt4 ,he was not tired4 ,he was not hungry4 ,he was only joyful at this conquest of his will4 ,montessori will-training proves itself in results4 ,the practical life and gymnastic exercises of the method have a peculiar value in relation to the strengthening of the child will4 ,once a child has learned to inhibit his scattering muscular disorder in such co-ordinations as are involved in dressing and undressing1 feeding himself1 bathing1 taking part in the everyday work of the home as far as possible2 in walking1 running1 marching1 skipping1 dancing to music1 and the other rhythmic and gymnastic exercises involved in the ,montessori system1 he has fixed a permanent habit of muscular control which establishes1 also1 mental control4 ,to be able to place dishes and silver in an orderly way on a table1 to carry and balance a tray containing several filled cups or glasses1 to be responsible for a certain drawer or cupboard shelf or case in which are contained play materials is to be able to control mind as well as body4 ,the muscular education of ,montessori that has a direct bearing upon the direction and development of the child's will is included in the primary activities of everyday life1 in walking1 greeting1 rising1 and handling objects gracefully2 in the proper care of the person1 in taking part in the management of the household1 in gardening1 in such handwork as clay modeling and drawing and in all properly co-ordinated gymnastic and rhythmic movements4 ,this new and direct will-training is possible in any home4 ,a more subtle but quite as important phase of control of the will through doing is seen in connection with the child's use of the didactic apparatus1 especially the solid and geometric insets1 the tower1 and the broad and long stair4 ,in the use of each of these there lies for the child a very important quality of self-correction4 ,a broad cylinder will not fit into a narrow hole2 the plain rectangular inset cannot be made to slip into the outline of the board intended for a square2 a misplaced block or rod spoils the sequence of form and number in the tower or the stairs4 ,after being shown the perfect way of carrying on each of these exercises1 the child experiments with them alone4 ,he discovers that the material admits of two possibilities3 error and success4 ,the success possibility is the greater1 however2 it is easier to drop a solid inset into an opening that fits than to endeavor to crush it into a hole that is too small4 ,so1 by persistent and repeated experiment1 the child attains a habit of correcting his own mistakes4 ,this habit he carries over into the other willed activities of his life4 ,the ,montessori method presents three steps in the home development of the child's will4 ,first1 we must give our children as wide and free an opportunity as possible to be active1 especially with their hands1 along those lines which will lead to muscular control4 ,second1 we must not interfere with a little child's concentrated occupation through play4 ,last1 whatever task we set for him to do1 we must outline a right way in which it should be accomplished and encourage him to correct his own errors in it4 ,a mother said to me recently1 8,i keep the children in bibs still1 although ,i suppose they have outgrown them4 ,we can't have our meals delayed while we wait for three active youngsters to fold napkins40 ,dr4 ,montessori would have patiently and painstakingly instituted the napkin habit1 realizing that in even so simple and homely an operation as folding a square of linen neatly lie undreamed possibilities of strengthening a child's will4 ,,andrea',s ,,lily ,the ,nature-,training of the ,method 8,if you put it to sleep in the good brown earth1 ,andrea1 if you tend it and wait with patience10 explained the ,signorina1 8you will see a wonder40 ,andrea turned the brown lump over and over in his hand4 ,he rubbed it on the sleeve of his apron4 ,he held it up to the light4 ,it had no appearance of wonder2 it was cold1 it did not shine1 it would not reflect the light4 ,did the ,signorina1 after all1 know1 ,andrea wondered1 as his big1 wistful eyes looked out from the warm cheerfulness of the schoolroom to the chill1 wind-swept spaces of the ,convent garden4 ,memories of great banks of gold daisies1 roses so heavy with crimson petals that they bent as low as the little green winding paths1 winds sweet with perfume of the grape filled ,andrea's imagination4 ,these had made the garden of the ,children's ,house yesterday4 ,but how different it was to-day6 ,could the dead bulb which was his1 now1 to tend1 to watch1 to believe in1 make for itself life and bloom8 ,andrea1 the matter-of-fact little man of four1 was skeptical4 8,of what use is it to plant80 he queried4 8,try it6 ,i will help you dig a hole10 ,bruno1 the helpful1 volunteered4 8,we will not let any child take it out of its bed2 we will protect it for you1 ,andrea10 assured ,piccola1 flashing eyes full of the fire of anticipated battle4 8,cover it carefully with earth1 and only be patient10 reiterated the ,signorina4 8,believe me4 ,it will make for you a surprise40 ,it was a momentous morning that marked ,andrea's planting4 ,his fat fingers1 holding the trowel1 trembled4 ,like a circle of small acolytes1 ,bruno1 ,little ,brother1 ,piccola1 and the rest1 white aprons fluttering in the wind1 watched the sacrifice4 ,covered out of vision in its winter grave1 the bulb disappeared and the children1 now almost as skeptical as ,andrea of its possible germ of life1 ran back to their work in the schoolroom4 ,all1 save ,andrea4 ,his baby hands1 like two warm1 brown leaves1 fluttered over the earth prison of his bulb4 ,kneeling down on the frosty path1 he bent low1 listening1 as if he hoped that he might perhaps hear the groping of new roots4 ,it was all very cold1 and perfectly still about the place where he had buried his little dead hope1 but ,andrea whispered to it3 8,i will wait10 he promised4 ,the bleak ,roman winter spent its chill days4 ,flurries of snow shrouded the garden and the wide doors of the ,convent1 open so many days of the year1 were closed4 ,andrea did not forget his bulb1 though4 ,every day he ran out to the place where he had buried it1 eagerly watching for the slim green fingers he had been told would push their way through the frosty earth4 ,as the weeks drifted by1 and while the garden was still bare1 a strange thing happened to the soul of little ,andrea4 ,the patience that was necessary for keeping alive his hope in the brown bulb began to show itself in other ways4 8,andrea no longer frowns when the little brother of ,bruno takes away his letters10 the ,signorina exclaimed4 8,instead1 he goes to the cabinet and fetches a buttoning frame1 offering it to the little one instead of the letters for which he is not ready40 ,illustration3 ,every child should have a pet4 ,in other ways ,andrea proved his patience4 ,a bit of drawing that he had finished1 hastily1 a month before and with crooked lines1 now held him concentrated for an hour1 and was completed with exquisite neatness and exact contour of line4 ,at the midday meal of the children ,andrea did not1 as formerly1 beg to be served first1 nor did he open his little green basket of luncheon before the other children4 ,it was as if the slow-growing bulb which was working its sure way up through the bare ground to the sun had its counterpart in the unfolding root of patience it had planted in the heart of a little child4 ,after a little1 the winter melted into a spring of yellow lilies and long sunny noons and laughter at all the gray street corners4 ,andrea came earlier than the other little ones to the ,children's ,house each morning1 that he might spend a half hour with his little green watering pot in the garden4 ,he met ,bruno and ,piccola with an air of assurance that set him apart from them4 ,he held his head very high in those days because of realized hope which he had made his own4 8,andrea is our little gardener10 the children said to each other1 watching his triumph4 ,then came a visitor's morning at the ,children's ,house of the ,via ,giusti ,convent4 ,the children's greatest happiness was to welcome these grown-up friends who came to learn of the little ones the truths of life4 ,among the throng of students1 tourists1 curiosity seekers1 earnest thinkers1 a woman whom the children knew entered and slipped into a waiting chair4 ,she had been during the winter a frequent visitor1 quiet1 sympathetic1 with deep1 smiling eyes4 ,then she had not come to the ,children's ,house for many days4 ,but they remembered her still4 ,as flowers turn to meet the sun1 they twined about her1 feeling her soft1 strong hands1 touching with eager finger tips the dull1 clinging garment that draped her4 ,ah1 they drew back1 consulting together in little questioning groups4 8,she wears now a black dress40 8,her eyes are full of sorrow10 they said4 8,the ,signorina tells us that1 now1 she has no madre40 ,andrea1 apart from the others1 listened1 sympathetic1 wondering4 ,sorrow should be replaced by happiness1 of this he was quite sure4 ,was not the most unhappy child in the ,children's ,house the one most loved1 most helped by his ,signorina8 ,had he anything to offer this friend that would give her joy8 ,he ran to her1 grasped her hand in his2 dragged her from her chair1 across the threshold1 into a luring little green path dented with many child footprints4 8,see60 he exclaimed4 8,i waited40 ,where ,andrea had laid away his hope1 a tall1 straight stalk of heavily odorous lily bloom pointed skyward4 ,the earth that it had scattered in its bulb-bursting still surrounded the strong1 green stalk4 ,it was a chalice of the spring1 a symbol of life that is eternal4 8,i planted it and ,i waited10 ,andrea repeated4 8,all the children waited with me4 8,it blooms10 he finished1 laughing up into the joyful eyes that smiled back1 comforted1 into his4 ,life is a phenomenon in which no force is wasted and out of whose apparent death there continually confronts us the wonder of new life4 ,some of us are blind to the lessons ,nature teaches1 but little children may be led to feel nature facts that spell for them faith and hope and sympathy for all time4 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us the place of nature in education4 ,we will put the planting and tending of little gardens1 which are the child's own1 above the place which such work has held1 formerly1 as a part of manual education4 ,we will make gardening a means of leading our little ones to observe the phenomena of life1 to be patient in waiting for that life to manifest itself1 and to be very sure in the hope that fruition will come4 ,does your little ,andrea1 your child who has come to you with such a divine curiosity about life and so quick a sense to feel it1 have a chance to be1 himself1 a part of the miracle by helping something to grow8 ,to plant a seed1 to surround it with all the best conditions for growth1 to tend it1 to wait for its flowerings--this is ,montessori development possible for any child4 ,illustration3 ,the loving care of a dumb animal results in child sympathy4 ,many of us feel that we are bringing our little ones into a nearness with nature when we show them beautiful pictures of flowers1 lead them to exquisite gardens in which they must not pick the flowers1 or take them to walk in our parks4 ,this is not making nature a force in the life of a child as ,dr4 ,montessori would have us4 ,children must touch and feel and act to know4 ,the flower that is too beautiful for little fingers to gracefully pick and give to a friend as an offering of love should have no place in our gardens4 ,the grass that is too soft to bear the prints of little feet is not the right kind of grass for an ,american park4 ,to plant a bean in a clay pot that stands on a city window sill2 to tend the plant that grows from the seed1 saying with surety1 8,some day there will be beans on this plant10 means more to a child than to be told the life story of an orchid4 ,it is the difference between thinking and feeling4 ,a rake1 a shovel1 a little basket1 a cart1 a watering pot--these are all ,montessori didactic materials that any child in any home may have4 ,a flower pot in a window1 a window box1 a tiny plot of earth in which to plant1 one of these is possible for each of our children1 and the flowers and fruits that result from the nurture of child hands mean1 for the child1 flowers and fruits of the spirit4 ,the world of every day is full of gardens for our children to plant1 and helpless1 dumb animals to be fed and cared for by child hands4 ,it has been so easy for us to do these things ourselves that we have not stopped to think what it means in the life of a child to have helped something to live4 ,there is the bare seed1 without shape or body or hint of promise4 ,there is the green1 groping plant that appears4 ,then comes the sure blooming that rewards child patience4 ,some plants are more slow to sprout than others2 there is the fruit tree that did not sprout in the child's life but whose pink blooms he now sees4 ,so it may be that the good hope planted in his own heart while he is still a little fellow may not fructify for a long time1 but he will wait1 with patience and faith4 ,caring for plants and dumb animals has further life application for children4 ,we continually serve our little ones4 ,because we love them1 we do too much for children2 we take from their eager hands all works of service for others which would do much to develop the latent sympathy that buds in every child's heart1 only waiting for the slightest stimulus which will make it expand and develop4 ,illustration3 ,to feel that something is dependent upon him for care and food helps a child to reverence life4 ,your child needs one plant that is dependent for life upon his care4 ,he needs one pet that demands his daily forethought and vigilance to safeguard its life4 ,as he waters the plant1 watching it and providing for it the best conditions of light and freedom2 as he feeds his pet1 your child feels and is able to image the watchfulness of his father and mother who feed and care for him1 who gave him life4 ,he will form a habit of feeling and helping1 and will grow up loving1 sympathetic1 and with a reverence for the phenomena of life4 ,there are also the rewards that nature gives children1 coming as marvelous surprises1 unexplainable mysteries1 beyond the work of hands4 ,the little ones at the ,via ,giusti ,children's ,house in ,rome may be often seen clustered about a blossom that has unfolded while they were at home and waits to greet them in the morning--so different1 so vastly more beautiful than the tiny seed which they sowed4 ,these children would not care for a crude toy1 given them as a reward for their labors4 ,the toy can be explained2 it is made of wood1 or iron2 it has no connection with the child's work for which it is given as a prize4 ,but here is a lily1 the reward of their work1 but unexplainable2 the product of a force that is miracle working4 ,its petals are like wax4 ,with their sensitized little fingers the children touch them2 no1 they are not wax4 ,no one can tell of what texture these petals are made4 ,the flower has its own perfume1 haunting1 individual4 ,andrea did not plant those petals1 he did not smell that perfume when he buried his hope4 ,it found its own body4 ,so with the greatest simplicity1 ,dr4 ,montessori brings to children the truths learned from the cultivation of life4 ,,the ,,miracle ,,of ,,olga ,reading and ,writing as ,natural for ,your ,child as ,speech 8,i have something strange in my pocket10 ,olga exclaimed to the group of little ones who clustered about her1 twittering1 poised in excitement like a flock of baby birds4 ,it was just after the luncheon hour in the ,children's ,house1 and the babies filled the sunshiny paths of the garden or loitered in happy groups in the cool stone cloister of the ,convent4 8,my mother told me the story of ,pinocchio1 the wooden marionette1 who had so many adventures with a cricket for his friend1 and also a fairy with blue hair4 ,it is too wonderful a story to have been born in the mind of my mother4 ,she found it4 ,i have it now1 with me60 ,there was a breathless hush among the little ones4 ,pairs of blue and hazel eyes fixed every motion of the little brown maid in the bright pink apron4 ,with slow dignity and an effect of great mystery ,olga thrust one chubby hand into the depths of her pocket4 ,the fingers fumbled a bit1 then pulled out a crumpled1 printed page torn from a book4 ,dropping1 cross-legged1 to the stone floor of the cloister1 ,olga unfolded and spread out the page in her lap4 ,the others bent over her with all the curiosity and reverence that would be stimulated by a conjurer4 8,here is the mystery10 ,olga announced1 indicating the printed words4 8,i have discovered that this is the hiding place of ,pinocchio4 ,i have torn it out of the book that ,i may carry it1 always1 in my pocket40 8,olga will carry ,pinocchio in her pocket10 the others exclaimed in hushed whispers1 scattering to talk over the matter4 8,is it possible that we1 too1 could find ,pinocchio1 as ,olga has1 and carry him in our pockets80 ,so it happened that the mothers of the children of the ,via ,giusti ,school began to miss pages from their newspapers1 their magazines1 their books4 8,we have very bad1 destructive children10 they decided1 not stopping to question the reason for their little ones' sudden interest in written language4 ,so it happened1 also1 that the directress of the school1 always alert to watch the mind phenomena of her children1 noticed that many children in the school had torn bits of printed pages hidden in their apron pockets1 in the soles of their shoes1 in their caps4 ,in the midst of their most fascinating work1 they would stop1 take out these scraps of print1 smooth them1 and trace the letters with baby fingers4 8,we have stories with us all the time2 ,pinocchio is ours10 they said4 8,my little discoverers60 the far-seeing directress exclaimed4 8,they are not wilfully destructive4 ,they are ready1 now1 to create a new language that will carry them farther than spoken words can4 ,their longings shall be satisfied40 ,one morning the directress gave ,olga new materials with which to work4 ,there was a big1 white wood box divided into twenty-six compartments1 and in each compartment there was a huge letter of the alphabet cut from pink or blue cardboard4 ,the blue letters were consonants2 the pink letters were vowels4 ,seated on a soft green rug on the floor1 ,olga spent hours taking the letters out of their places1 piling them in a colored heap of many fascinating curves and angles1 then sorting them and putting each back in a compartment in the box4 ,sometimes1 as ,olga worked1 the slim girl directress dropped down on the rug beside her4 ,picking up one of the cardboard letters1 she would say3 8,this is ,a1 ,olga40 8,this is ,a10 ,olga would repeat4 8,can you show me another ,a80 the directress would then ask4 ,and ,olga would1 readily1 pick out a similar letter4 8,where is ,a1 ,olga80 was the last question in this teaching as ,olga selected from the twenty-six letters another ,a4 ,so the little maid of four years soon knew all the letters by name and sound4 ,and presently she was combining them to make words and short sentences4 ,illustration3 ,building words with the movable alphabet4 ,as she laid together the letters that made up each word1 the words that combined to make sentences1 the directress analyzed each word for her1 phonetically4 ,soon1 by hearing a word1 distinctly pronounced1 ,olga could select from her box of pink and blue symbols which represented sounds to her now those letters which were necessary to spell the word4 ,the directress presented to her smooth white cards1 on which were mounted large black letters cut from coarse black emery cloth1 as rough as sandpaper4 ,these letter cards ,olga held in one hand1 tracing the outline of the letters with the fingers of her other hand and saturating her senses with the feeling of the letter shapes4 ,soon1 she could name any letter1 her eyes closed1 by the sense of touch4 ,at the same time that ,olga was learning to see and feel letters1 she was being helped to the muscular control involved in writing4 ,upon a sheet of white paper she laid one of the ,montessori geometric insets1 a square1 and selecting a brightly colored pencil1 she drew the outline of the square upon the paper4 ,then1 with the slanting lines used in writing1 ,olga filled in the outline of the square4 ,at first1 the lines were crooked1 extending beyond the boundary lines of the square2 but as she repeated the exercise1 filling in with color other forms1 outlined triangles1 rectangles1 circles1 leaves1 flowers1 trees1 and figures of children and animals1 her muscles strengthened and she could control her pencil with the utmost precision4 ,two months after her first interest in a printed page had shown itself1 through no training save these sensory and muscle exercises1 ,olga made the miracle of graphic art her own4 ,she went to the blackboard and wrote in clear1 flowing script3 8,i read1 ,i write40 ,your baby tears picture books and magazines2 he leaves great1 unbeautiful scrawls upon wall paper1 woodwork1 and sidewalk4 ,he upsets the ink and breaks the pens in his father's study4 ,he wishes to handle all the books upon the library shelves4 ,we punish him for these acts because we think them wanton4 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us that these child activities indicate an instinctive interest in the symbols of that new art1 human speech1 which he is making his own in the first years of his life4 ,they tell us that we have made a mistake in not giving children an opportunity to teach themselves to read and write at the same time that they are mastering spoken language4 ,the two interests present themselves simultaneously in our little ones4 ,children who tear books and scribble upon walls and interfere with the immaculate order of our home secretaries are not little mischief makers4 ,like ,olga1 and the other babies in the ,children's ,house1 they are trying to make their own the story that you read them4 ,even the tools of writing for little children are gilded with the same air of mystery that touches the untranslatable black print4 ,the wonder teaching of ,montessori1 by means of which1 after two or three months of preliminary exercises1 little ones 8explode0 into reading and writing1 may begin at home4 ,any watchful mother may lay the foundations for this educational marvel4 ,have you watched the process by means of which the little ,stranger who came to you from the unknown masters the strange speech of the home in which he found himself8 ,are you helping or hindering him in his struggles to make language his own8 ,the beginnings of speech in the baby consist in repetition of syllabic sounds which he hears in his home environment4 ,his vocal cords and tongue educate themselves through pronouncing articulate sounds4 ,first come the labials4 ,then the little one combines consonants and sounds1 saying3 8,ma-,ma4 ,pa-,pa40 ,the mechanism by means of which the sense of hearing combines with the vocal cords in helping the two-year-old to speak makes it possible for a child to learn several foreign languages in the first five years of his life4 ,the child is making his own dictionary in babyhood and at a phenomenal rate of speed4 ,dr4 ,montessori says that we may help a child to beautifully phonetic speech and a large vocabulary if we will eliminate all baby talk from our nurseries1 and see that the little one hears only good models of speech4 ,clear-cut1 carefully pronounced words1 well-planned and euphonious sentences1 rhythmic poems and classic stories read to our children1 these will train the sense of hearing and lead to a large vocabulary and beautiful pronunciation4 ,suppose you were learning a foreign language1 wouldn't it discourage you to have your interpreter mispronounce1 baby talk ,french or ,german or ,italian to you8 ,our babies find themselves in a land more strange to them than any foreign country we have ever visited4 ,we are their interpreters2 let us not put stumbling blocks in their road to language4 ,illustration3 ,learning the form of letters by the sense of touch4 ,illustration3 ,filling in outlines with color to gain the muscular control necessary for writing4 ,then1 sometimes at three years1 four1 or five comes the tearing and scribbling stage4 ,every mother knows it1 but ,dr4 ,montessori helps us to a new recognition of its meaning4 ,it isn't a development of the old ,adam in your child4 ,it's a guide signal for every mother4 ,it tells you that the intricate human mechanism that makes up the child spirit is ready to learn written language naturally1 without undue nerve strain1 if only the right stimulus be offered4 ,it is because we have waited until the instinctive interest in spoken language grows dull and because we have depended upon only one sense1 the sense of vision1 that teaching a child to read and write has not been the natural1 quick process nature means it to be4 ,if the nursery equipment includes the movable alphabet and the sandpaper letters of the ,montessori didactic materials1 your little one1 instead of tearing letters1 may feel them1 his sense of touch carrying to his mind a telegraphic message of letter form that is registered permanently on his brain4 ,after handling these large1 stiff1 pink and blue letters for a month or two1 after tracing with his sensitized finger tips the rough black letters mounted on the smooth white cards1 they are so indelible a part of his mental life that they must burst forth into writing without previous training4 ,don't you remember how your baby by fingering his raised letters on his alphabet-bordered bread-and-milk bowl1 by feeling of the raised letters on his alphabet blocks1 by building words with the cut-out wooden letters of his letter game1 learned without effort on your part how to print8 ,so1 by touching the beautiful script letters of ,montessori1 a child teaches himself to write4 ,but there is another process involved in the ,montessori method of helping very little children to an early mastery of reading and writing4 ,in the public schools a pencil is put into the child's untrained fingers and we expect him to use it in writing with no preliminary help in handling it4 ,we couldn't use a needle in fine embroidery if we had not learned1 first1 how to thread it4 ,we are not able to paint a picture of a landscape until we learn how to use a brush in outlining perspective4 ,so we make a mistake when we expect that to hold a pencil means to be able to write4 ,we must help children to the muscular control of this tool of writing first4 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us that drawing precedes writing4 ,the ,montessori didactic materials for developing in children the muscular control necessary for writing include small wooden tables2 flat metal forms cut in various shapes1 squares1 rectangles1 circles1 and triangles2 plenty of white drawing paper1 and good colored pencils of the standard colors and brown and black4 ,laying a form on a piece of paper1 the children draw its outline4 ,removing the form1 they fill in the outline1 using long1 vertical1 parallel lines of any color they like1 keeping within the contour of the outline4 ,so the child educates his muscles for writing without actually writing4 ,the little ones at ,rome soon experiment with combining these forms to make colored borders and flat designs1 which they fill in with their colored pencils in very harmonious color combinations4 ,later1 they fill in outlined pictures1 using the same free1 regular pencil strokes4 ,the ,montessori method of starting reading and writing saves time in most instances4 ,whether or not1 however1 it is at four years or five years or five and one-half that the 8explosion0 into written expression of thought occurs1 the process by means of which it is brought about is sure to give the child a firm perceptive basis for reading and writing4 ,our ordinary method of teaching reading and writing is a utilization of the sense of sight1 alone4 ,in some instances the children in the primary grades of our schools begin writing by a system of tracing letters and words offered them in large script4 ,this is purely a muscular process and rarely absolutely successful1 because it involves fine muscular co-ordination for which the child of five or even six years is not ready4 ,the ,montessori sandpaper letters and movable alphabet offer the child a chance to utilize his sense of touch in learning the symbols of thought4 ,formerly we showed him a word or a letter as a means for gaining so vivid a mental image of that letter that he would be able to recognize it and write it4 ,the method of ,montessori sends a telegraphic message by two wires to the child mind1 a visual and a tactile impression4 ,the tactile message is peculiarly valuable in strengthening the mental image of the word or letter because of the fact that the child is in a strong sensory motor stage of his mental development4 ,to touch gives him stronger mental images than to see4 ,to feel gives him1 also1 an impulse to imitate and to express4 ,this is why1 after touching and naming and differentiating and recognizing blindfold and building words and sentences with letters1 the ,montessori child spontaneously writes4 ,because we are so anxious for immediate educational results with our little ones1 the spontaneous reading and writing of the ,montessori method has seemed to parents one of its most important developments4 ,if1 in our home ,montessori experiments1 children do not read and write very early1 we are disappointed4 ,we wonder if the system has the value we attached to it4 ,we must change this state of mind4 ,there is the toddler of three who evinces an instinctive longing to read and write4 ,he experiments with pencil and paper2 he shows an interest in the home books1 newspapers1 and periodicals2 he asks what the signs in the street cars and on the billboards say4 ,there is also the child1 no less promising1 but more interested in objects than in symbols1 who does not show these manifestations until the age of five and five and a half years4 ,we must recognize these signs according to the child's age and take advantage of them4 ,the part of the mother is to watch for the dawning of the interest in reading and writing and to give the child an opportunity to perfect the physical and mental mechanism for it4 ,our homes and the educational helps to be bought for children now furnish accessory material for the ,montessori process of teaching the graphic art4 ,the first tracing of the sandpaper letters should be preceded by exercises whose object will be the refining of the tactile sense2 dipping the fingers into cold1 hot1 cool1 and lukewarm water2 differentiating blindfolded rough1 smooth1 hard1 soft substances2 recognizing with the finger tips alone many different materials1 paper1 iron1 wood1 velvet1 cotton1 silk1 linen1 satin1 lace1 needlework1 and possible combinations of these textiles4 ,these exercises form a most fascinating game for the child1 and1 through them1 he brings to the exercise of tracing the sandpaper letters an exquisitely sensitized touch which results in a clear impression of their form4 ,as the child uses the movable alphabet upon his play table or builds words and sentences upon a bright rug spread out on the nursery floor1 all the activities of the home in which he has a part and all his play life may be used as the basis of his first reading4 ,his favorite toys may be placed about him as he constructs their names and little word stories about them4 ,large colored pictures of simple design may be laid on the floor as the child combines letters to spell the objects contained in them4 ,the mother may write in large script simple instructions which the child may read and follow3 8,run to me40 8,bring me your ball40 8,close the door40 ,innumerable helps are to be procured for the drawing by means of which ,montessori establishes the muscular control preliminary to writing4 ,our art stores and kindergarten supply shops offer beautifully colored crayons and drawing paper at nominal cost4 ,blocks1 the tin utensils of the kitchen1 and box covers offer geometric surfaces about which the child may draw1 if the drawing board and forms of ,montessori are not included in the home equipment4 ,these outlines the child will delight in filling with color1 using the diagonal strokes that form a direct preparation for the muscular control involved in writing4 ,following this coloring of geometric forms is the filling in1 similarly1 of simple outlined pictures4 ,we find such outlined pictures in large variety in the school and kindergarten supply shops4 ,the toy dealers supply books of really beautiful designs and pictures for coloring4 ,it is also possible to procure sets of cardboard figures1 animals1 paper dolls1 and soldiers which the home child may draw around and color4 ,one day1 after having made his own1 through the sense of touch1 the form of letters1 and after having learned muscular control in drawing form1 your child will write4 ,how can he help it8 ,you will have established artificial conditions1 muscle and sense1 similar to the conditions through which he learns to talk4 ,the baby hears speech1 and because heredity perfected his vocal cords for reacting upon mental stimulus of the sound--he talks4 ,in the ,montessori method1 he feels letters1 and through the perfecting of the muscles involved in reproducing those letters which he has made his own by feeling--he writes4 ,,clara--,,little ,,mother ,the ,social ,development of the ,montessori ,child ,clara always saw me before ,i caught the outline of her cherubic chubby person4 ,she had constituted herself the little four-year-old hostess of the ,trionfale ,children's ,house4 ,her limpid brown eyes shone with welcome to a friend or stranger4 ,her lips were overflowing with sweetly liquid words of greeting4 ,her fat arms reached out1 her fat legs were winged with her friendliness4 ,she was the motherly1 hen type of child1 never so full of joy as when she was greeting someone or organizing a game or taking care of a child younger than herself4 ,an intensely feminine little person was ,clara1 who would grow up into a kindly1 gracious woman1 forceful in her own tactful1 woman way if she were surrounded by the right influences in childhood or---- ,i very curiously watched the social development of the chubby little girl in the bright pink frock4 ,little ,roman babies have the most fascinating play fancies1 ,i believe1 of any in the world4 ,given a cart and a faded flower or so1 and ,otello was transformed in a second's space into a busy flower vender calling his posies up and down the school yard1 offering imaginary bunches and twining imaginary wreaths4 ,a pile of stones left by the architects in a corner of the playground2 ,mario was suddenly fired with the building zeal of his ,roman ancestors4 ,gathering a group of boys to help him carry and lift the stones1 he would construct small models of the immortal walls of the ,csars and a possible arch of ,titus4 ,clara played1 too1 but not so much with things1 as with groups4 ,her play had the social quality so important in the all-round development of the individual4 ,she would gather together a group of little ones for a festival procession or a folk dance1 apportioning strong partners for the weaker ones and older ones for the babies4 ,she played house daily1 but in a different1 lavish kind of way4 ,she had1 always1 eight or ten make-believe children2 found room in her house of sticks and stones for the fruit seller1 the cheese man1 the porter1 and a stray musician or two4 ,her strongest instinct seemed to be a collective one4 ,she wanted to brood4 ,she wanted to be1 also1 a leader4 ,the ,montessori directress let ,clara very much alone1 smiling upon and encouraging her play1 but not trying to mold her instincts4 ,if ,clara industriously swept out her domicile with a stick1 the directress did not run to her1 offering her a toy broom4 ,when ,clara was a little slow about going into the schoolroom when the out-of-door period was ended1 the directress did not fret at the little maid4 ,she realized that ,clara had merged her own personality in the personalities of the group of children with whom she had been playing4 ,she had been so busy preparing her imaginary family for going to school that she did not heed the call herself4 ,how would the social instinct so prominent in ,clara and in several other of the children find vent inside the four walls of the ,children's ,house1 ,i wondered8 ,would the ,montessori system1 which has for its basic principle auto-education1 this system of perfecting the individual through self-direction1 give ,clara and the others a chance to develop group activities8 ,for some time the cool1 white schoolroom was the scene of individual work and personal endeavor4 ,otello worked alone with the solid insets2 ,mario's fascinated fingers sorted colors4 ,clara sat on the floor in the sunshine and constructed the tower1 but her keen eyes followed almost every movement of the other children4 ,then1 for the school was in its inception and the children were new1 came a transition period1 when the peace was broken by perfectly normal1 healthy brawls4 ,someone overturned ,otello's cylinders and ,otello kicked the offender4 ,several children wanted the same box of color spools at the same time4 ,the directress kindly interfered and gave the colors to ,clara1 who had been first upon the scene4 ,clara motioned the crowd to follow her4 ,now had come her chance4 ,she organized her group4 ,she selected a red spool and spread out upon a white table its beautiful gradations from deepest crimson to palest rose pink4 ,then she offered the blue spools to ,mario1 showing him how to grade the varying shades4 ,it was fascinating1 ,mario thought1 to have ,clara for his little teacher4 ,he motioned to several of the other children to join them4 ,tables were drawn up2 brown and golden heads bent close together as the little ones dabbled in the colors1 advising1 helping1 learning from each other4 ,the directress hovered outside of the group1 suggesting but not forcing herself upon the children4 ,they turned to her when they needed her1 but their greatest interest lay in the joy and power of working and learning together4 ,as one watched the phenomenon of this natural unfolding of the social instinct in the method1 there were daily examples of its spontaneity4 ,the children1 from a collection of units1 had been transformed into a small community in which there were groups of workers1 some large1 some small1 but all co-operative4 ,the children carried on the sense exercises and took bold adventures into the fields of reading and writing together4 ,the ,montessori directress was always their captain and guide1 but the grouping and working with some other child or children was the result of childish initiative4 ,it developed in this way4 ,the children learned to live together4 ,they found that the integrity of ,clara's group1 of ,mario's1 or ,otello's1 was preserved only if the individuals in it gave themselves up to the good of the whole4 ,it was pleasanter to move tables and chairs softly1 to wait one's turn1 and to avoid jostling one's neighbor4 ,so kindness and neighborliness and gentleness were learned by the children through their own endeavor4 ,the children learned together4 ,there were groups of various grades of age and mental ability4 ,here the children of three and four emptied out an entire box of color spools and1 each choosing a color1 helped each other grade4 ,there1 a trio of energetic babies slopped in their basins1 endeavoring to wash each other to a common cleanliness4 ,in a quiet corner an older child taught less advanced children to spell with the movable alphabet or to work out arithmetic calculations with the rods4 ,this group learning was carefully watched and safeguarded by the directress1 but she never forced her personality upon the children4 ,the children1 left to their own efforts1 found a stimulus to a wholesome kind of competition4 ,they tried to outstrip each other in learning1 and put forth more effort than if they had been urged by the teacher4 ,and1 best of all1 the children were good together4 ,if one child did anything that interfered with the rights of the others he was kindly but effectually isolated4 ,he was denied nothing save his privilege of being an active1 happy member of the child republic4 ,to be allowed to go back to it was his ultimate joy4 ,the ,montessori ,house of the ,children is a place of more unusual development of group activities among little children than we have realized4 ,there is a larger opportunity for making children into little citizens than in almost any other scheme of education4 ,we have thought that the present practice of the kindergarten1 in which group activities are organized and directed by the kindergartner1 gives little children the opportunity for the development of the social instinct which they so much need4 ,at a signal1 they rise and carry chairs1 or march in step1 or play a game1 but the signal was given by the teacher4 ,she directs the game4 ,we have wandered so far from the leading of the gentle ,froebel whose guiding star was the natural impulses of individual children in his garden of little ones4 ,it is vastly more difficult to lead a number of children safely through a first transition period1 when all their self-activity turns into channels of disorder1 than to check that disorder by force of adult will4 ,this is the task ,dr4 ,montessori sets for us1 however1 and she shows us1 as the result of our patient leading of the children into habits of self-directed order1 her peaceful1 industrious ,houses of the ,children4 ,like a hive of bees1 the little ones swarm in the flowering of their interests4 ,they are intent upon community welfare4 ,the problem of helping a child to be a perfect social unit is as pressing a problem for the home as for the school4 ,we are following the letter and not the spirit of ,montessori when we offer a home child the intellectual stimulus of her didactic apparatus and deny him companionship in the use of it4 ,it is eye-opening for a child to so learn form that he can detect slight variation of outline and is able to perceive the beautiful combination of lines which make a cathedral or an arch4 ,it is soul-opening for this same child to help another child to a perception of this beauty4 ,the three periods of the spontaneous developing of the ,montessori children into collective activity1 as ,i observed them1 have an even more direct bearing upon the home4 ,left alone1 offered the scientific apparatus for mental1 moral1 and physical growth1 the ,montessori children make these important social adjustments4 ,they learn to live together4 ,they learn together4 ,they are good together4 ,a great deal is involved in the development of each of these adjustments4 ,we must study the method of ,montessori by means of which success in group activity is made spontaneous4 ,to say to a child1 8,you must be polite4 ,you mustn't be rude4 ,it is ugly to be clumsy4 ,it isn't nice to be selfish10 was the part of the older decalogue in child-training4 ,to teach a child by careful physical and rhythmic exercise and through simple acts of home helpfulness1 so that he is naturally graceful and courteous1 is the ,montessori way4 ,to provide him with play or educational materials which have greater possibilities of interest if shared--blocks1 games1 handicraft materials--accomplishes unselfishness4 ,such community play as is found in imitating the activities of the childhood of the race--digging1 cooking1 collecting1 all kinds of building1 trade1 plays1 weaving1 gardening in groups1 and camping--is valuable because it helps children to merge their personalities in the interests and life of a group4 ,the center of these child activities is child interest1 not adult pressure4 ,dr4 ,montessori makes it possible for little children to learn together1 not according to schedule1 but in line with child interest4 ,a mother wrote me at great length and anxiously in regard to what seemed to her a little son's lack of adaptability to the home use of the ,montessori didactic apparatus4 ,the boy had toys1 books1 colored pencils1 blocks2 he was endowed with a vital interest in the world about him and an alert mind1 but he refused to play alone4 ,he preferred playing in the street with a group of other children1 their only play material being pebbles1 sand1 or bricks1 to playing at home with his own beautiful equipment4 8,how can ,i persuade ,harold to work alone with the ,montessori apparatus80 his mother queried4 ,it was important for this child and for all children not to work alone4 ,any child will make greater educational strides if the stimulus of other child minds helps his intellectual growth4 ,to set a group of children of different heredity1 different mental and emotional development1 and different interests the same task is not only futile but dangerous4 ,it is apt to mold their plastic minds to one line of thinking1 is bound to make them slaves of authority instead of free personalities4 ,but to offer a group of children the tools of knowledge as exemplified in the ,montessori didactic materials and give them the opportunity to gather in selected1 interested groups for competitive research and for helping where help is needed is the most fruitful kind of learning4 ,this may be brought about in any home where a few children from three to four or five years of age meet regularly under the same conditions for intellectual development that exist in the ,children's ,houses4 ,older children may be formed into a neighborhood home study club4 ,released from the bondage of the iron curriculum1 they may find in this club an opportunity for original research along those intellectual lines which interest them most2 nature1 the practical application of mathematics in measuring and constructing toys1 further study of history and literature through story-telling1 making and dressing dolls to illustrate historical characters1 and the writing and dramatizing of simple plays4 ,as a further development of the ,montessori group activities we see1 in imagination1 in every community a municipal ,children's ,house4 ,here1 children of all classes1 ages1 and degrees of intellectual growth might meet1 freely selecting from a large variety of materials for mental and constructive development those which they most need4 ,also1 we see them selecting their own social plane1 finding help and inspiration in collective work with other children4 ,in this municipal ,children's ,house we would find groups of child artisans1 fashioning boards and molding bricks to make the buildings for a toy village4 ,there would be little sculptors and painters1 and perhaps a child poet or dramatist4 ,we would see small modistes and milliners learning1 through designing doll costumes1 the finger deftness and artistic sense which come from combining beautiful colors and textiles4 ,such a ,children's ,house would have its own kitchen1 where the children could study foodstuffs and cook and serve simple meals4 ,music would be a development of the group activities4 ,this would constitute a laboratory for the most fruitful kind of child study on the part of physicians1 psychologists1 teachers1 and parents1 because child growth under these conditions would be quite spontaneous and along natural interest lines4 ,the last phase of ,montessori collective work is seen as a kind of flowering4 ,after children learn how to live together1 after they have worked out intellectual problems together1 they are suddenly discovered as being very kindly disposed toward each other4 ,it is as if the ultimate development of co-operation were the elimination of war4 ,it is not necessary to say to a group of ,montessori children1 8,be good40 ,they could not be otherwise than good4 ,,piccola--,,little ,,home ,,maker ,the ,helpfulness of the ,montessori ,child ,the visitor to a ,montessori school in ,rome is faced by an anomaly4 ,piccola1 the emotional1 eager little ,italian girl of five years1 who is more difficult to control at home than even the average ,american child1 is seen to be a self-controlled1 useful member of a child republic4 ,piccola's first work of the morning is to find her own pink apron that hangs on a peg on the wall1 and button herself into it with patient perseverance4 ,if the younger children have difficulty putting on their aprons1 ,piccola will patiently help them4 ,her next activity is1 also1 along lines of helpfulness4 ,she looks about the wide spaces of the big room1 where low white tables and chairs1 growing ivy plants1 and plain gray wall make a beautiful color scheme1 to determine if there is anything she1--wee ,piccola1--may do to help this beauty4 ,ah1 ,piccola sees a speck of dust in one corner of the white stone floor4 ,darting to the outer room1 where the children remove and hang their wraps and wash their hands before school1 ,piccola seizes a red broom that is just the right length for her chubby arms to handle easily and a shining little tin dustpan4 ,hastening back1 she brushes up the dust4 ,then she waters the ivy with a small green watering pot1 fetches a white basin and a little white scrubbing brush1 and slops gayly in an energetic attempt to wash off the tables4 ,last1 she takes some of the soft green and gray rugs that the children use for working on when they sit on the floor1 and beats them in the garden with much energy4 ,the other children have come1 now1 and having selected their materials from the white cupboards that line the wall1 are busily at work4 ,piccola1 too1 is busy1 piling pink blocks in orderly fashion1 one upon the other4 ,her active mind is busy1 though1 along another line as well2 she watches the other little ones furtively to see if there is anything which she can do to help them4 ,bruno drops his color spools2 ,piccola runs to help him gather them up in his apron4 ,little ,brother tumbles down in a trip from his table to the material cupboard2 ,piccola helps him to balance himself again on his fat legs1 and1 winding two tender little brown arms about him1 she steers him in safety on his way4 ,the hour for the midday luncheon comes4 ,piccola daintily helps to spread the white luncheon cloths1 to lay the spoons in regular order at each child's place1 to sort and place the bright baskets in which the children have brought their sandwiches and fruit4 ,not until all the others are served does ,piccola slip into her own empty place and partake of her own luncheon4 ,piccola's mother marvels at the change that has been wrought in ,piccola by a few months in the ,montessori ,house of the ,children4 ,she reports her observations to the ,montessori directress who has ,piccola's education in charge4 8,piccola dusts the home now1 without my bidding4 8,she picks up her dolls and her toys when she has finished playing with them4 8,she helps me lay the table for the noon meal4 8,how did you teach these things to my wayward little ,piccola1 ,signorina80 ,it is the query of the ,american mother who finds her little one who has spent a day in a good ,montessori school more helpful in the home than before4 ,she also asks herself3 8,how may ,i teach helpfulness to my child80 ,dr4 ,montessori has discovered for us the marvel that to bring helpfulness to a very little child is not so much a matter of teaching as of fostering4 ,she shows us the instinct to help which manifests itself in the very little child which we must detect1 watch1 and foster until we form a habit of usefulness in children4 ,after all1 to be useful to oneself and to others is the greatest value of education for life4 ,dr4 ,montessori puts this education for utility on a very high plane4 ,the mother who carefully observes and analyzes all the acts of the child of two and a half or three years of age will discover that the baby has a great desire to be busy1 continually1 and in imitation of his mother's busy-ness about the home4 ,he handles with the greatest eagerness and interest his shoes1 his father's neckties1 his mother's brush and comb1 the family silver1 the kitchen utensils1 the door latches and knobs1 the window fastenings4 ,he is more interested in the tools of grown-up housekeeping than he is in his toys4 ,why is this8 ,a baby of twenty months spent an entire morning collecting all the shoes he could find in his mother's room and carrying them about from one room to another4 ,he climbed up in a chair and pulled a button hook off a dressing table4 ,his mother substituted his dolls1 his rubber toys1 a ball for these1 but the baby refused them4 ,finally his mother snatched away the huge boot of his father's1 which he was lovingly tugging about from room to room and slapped his hands because he cried at giving it up4 ,the little man cried again1 and struggled against the brutal force of his mother1 who held him tightly in her lap and changed his shoes for going out in the afternoon4 ,again his hands were slapped4 ,the baby had not been in the least naughty4 ,he wanted to learn how to button his own shoes and his mother couldn't understand this longing which he had to express in action1 having no words with which to explain himself4 ,nearly all the instincts of babyhood are right instincts1 leading to good conduct4 ,the child's first longing is to be able to fit himself to his environment1 and this means that he must learn to handle those objects and do those things which he sees his family doing4 ,the average ,american child grows up rather helpless and useless when it comes to making social adjustments1 because we continually interfere with his first attempts to be useful4 ,we do for him those acts of utility which he should learn himself1 very early1 while he is still interested in them4 ,it is undoubtedly less time-taking to put on a small boy's shoes1 button and lace them for him1 button his under and outer clothes1 to tie his necktie1 and put on his rubbers1 than to slowly and patiently teach him to dress himself4 ,to bathe a child and brush and comb his hair is simpler than to allow the baby to splash in water and revel in soapsuds1 as he must in learning the intricate movements necessary for keeping himself tidy4 ,we wish to preserve1 also1 the immaculate order of our neat bathrooms4 ,we like to open and close doors for the toddler2 it is our privilege of service1 we feel4 ,we prefer to lay the table ourselves1 and keep our spotless kitchens free of child finger marks4 ,what about the baby1 though1 who finds his attempts to make himself useful thwarted at every turn until he forms the habit of being waited on8 ,this is a wrecking habit for childhood2 it is1 also1 a habit that leads to our present extravagantly high cost of adult living4 ,the little child who expects to be continually waited on is going to grow up into a man or woman who will expect to be waited on through life4 ,service is what doubles the grocer's1 the butcher's1 the landlord's1 the shopkeeper's bills4 ,the useful helpfulness of the ,montessori-trained child is easily explained4 ,the ,montessori schoolroom is so planned that there is nothing which a child can hurt and a good deal that he can help by his first clumsy1 baby attempts to be useful to himself and to others with his hands4 ,the children are free to move about as much as they like1 changing the position of the light little chairs and tables1 opening and closing the doors that lead into the garden1 unrolling and then rolling up again the rugs1 putting away the didactic materials in the cupboards after they are through with them1 washing the tables and blackboards1 caring for plants and animals1 and carrying on countless other activities that bring about hand and eye training4 ,the children learn1 also1 all the intricate activities involved in the care of their bodies4 ,they wash their faces and hands1 brush their hair1 clean their finger nails1 black their shoes1 put on and take off their aprons4 ,the dressing frames that are included in the ,montessori didactic materials include all the different fastenings of a child's clothing2 buttoning on red flannel1 buttoning on leather1 buttoning on drill with tapes1 lacing on cloth and on leather1 fastening hooks and eyes and snaps1 and tying bow knots4 ,it is quite amazing to see the eagerness with which the ,montessori children attack these very universal activities of everyday life4 ,the skill they obtain in them proves the truth of ,dr4 ,montessori's words3 8,we habitually serve children4 ,this is not only an act of servility toward them1 but it is dangerous because it tends to suffocate their useful1 spontaneous activity4 ,we are inclined to believe that children are like puppets1 and we wash them and feed them as if they were dolls4 ,we do not stop to think that the child who does not do1 does not know how to do4 8,our duty toward children is1 in every case1 that of helping them to make a conquest of such useful acts as nature intended man to perform for himself4 ,the mother who feeds her child without making the slightest effort to teach him to hold and use a spoon for himself is not a good mother4 ,she offends the fundamental1 human dignity of her son1--she treats him as if he were a doll4 ,instead1 he is a man1 confided for a time by nature to her care40 ,there are certain phases of the ,montessori method which a mother cannot apply in her home because she has not the preliminary training and the necessary teaching skill4 ,there is not a single activity of the ,montessori training for personal and community usefulness of the individual as carried out in the ,montessori school that may not be practiced in any home4 ,the ,montessori schoolroom is a working duplicate of the best conditions which should exist in every home where there is a baby4 ,it is significant that nations have been aroused by the education miracles wrought in the ,roman ,children's ,houses4 ,what1 pray1 is the matter with the ,american children's houses8 ,the home is a big workshop for turning out child cosmopolites1 small world citizens who will grow up into useful men and women4 ,in the home the child may learn how to care for his body1 how to care for pets1 plants1 and all the things that combine to fill the tool box of everyday living4 ,here the child may learn that consideration for others which will help him to be kind1 quiet1 unselfish1 and polite4 ,here1 also1 he may take a small part in the care of the big human family in preparing food1 laying the table1 learning household cleanliness and household order4 ,the child instinct to fetch and carry1 which shows itself very early in the life of the baby1 may be turned into channels of usefulness if the child is taught to happily wait on himself and others4 ,much emphasis has been laid upon the didactic apparatus of ,montessori which has for its aim the development of the several intellectual processes4 ,considering these appliances for direct stimulation and perfection of mental activity only1 the casual student of ,montessori says that the system is barren1 that it takes into account none of the emotional activities of the child1 that it eliminates educational play from the life of the little one4 ,as a matter of fact1 the play instincts of the child are so carefully met by ,dr4 ,montessori that they blossom into usefulness4 ,dr4 ,montessori knows more about the spontaneous play of the child from two and a half years to six than we do4 ,she sees that his play instincts are all1 at first1 a struggling to be like his elders1 to do the same utilitarian things that he sees them do1 to imitate on a child plane the work of his mother in the home or his father in the industrial world4 ,with this understanding of the possibilities of child play for developing into future usefulness1 ,dr4 ,montessori supplies children with those tools of play which turn child play into exercises of helpfulness4 ,in the ,trionfale ,school at ,rome the free play of the children has been especially safeguarded4 ,the toddlers utilize their instinct to fetch and carry objects by loading1 trundling1 and unloading the specially built1 stout little wheelbarrows provided for them4 ,very soon this play blossoms into the desire to fetch and carry with some more useful object in view4 ,the children begin to show great skill in removing and replacing their materials from the school cupboards and putting them back in an orderly fashion4 ,they attain perfect muscular control in laying the tables for luncheon and serving the food daintily4 ,in one corner of a sunlit room at ,trionfale there is a fascinating little salon4 ,soft rugs of small size1 diminutive green wicker easy-chairs1 sofa1 and round tea table1 books of colored pictures and large dolls' dishes make it possible for the children to 8play house0 under ideal conditions4 ,they learn through their play a sweet kind of hospitality1 and the little school 8drawing-room0 of ,montessori stands for a necessary development of the social instinct in children which is important4 ,dr4 ,montessori suggests to us those playthings and play activities which will lead our children into the art of being helpful and1 which is much more vital1 will start in them habits of wanting to be helpful4 ,her scheme of play is possible of adapting to almost any home1 and it has for its basis the instinctive longing of every child to be useful through his play4 ,a playroom should be a place1 as ,dr4 ,montessori expresses it1 where the children may amuse themselves with games1 stories1 possibly music1 and the furnishing should be done with as much taste as in the sitting-room of the adult members of the family4 ,small tables1 a sofa1 and armchairs of child size1 one or two casts1 copies of masterpieces of art1 and vases or bowls in which the children may arrange flowers should be included4 ,there should be many picture books1 blocks1 dolls1 and1 if possible1 a musical instrument of some kind in the nursery4 ,dr4 ,montessori suggests a piano or harp of small dimensions4 ,an important playroom accessory is a low cupboard1 with drawers in which the children may keep their completed drawings1 paper dolls1 scrap pictures1 and any precious collection of outside material such as seeds1 leaves1 twigs1 or pebbles which they long to keep and use in their play4 ,half of this cupboard should consist of shelves for bowls1 plates1 napkins1 doilies1 spoons1 knives1 forks1 a tray and tumblers for the children to use in preparing and serving their luncheon or in entertaining their friends4 ,stout pottery of quaint shapes and exquisite gay coloring may be obtained now4 ,it is much more attractive to the child of three and four years than inadequate1 tiny sets of dolls' dishes4 ,at least the necessary bowl1 plate1 pitcher1 and mug for serving the nursery supper should be supplied and the toddler taught to serve and feed himself at a very early age4 ,the child should have a little broom and dustpan and scrubbing brush4 ,he should have a low1 painted washstand with a basin1 soap1 and nail-brush4 ,he should be taught how to turn on and off a water tap1 filling a small pitcher1 pail1 or basin1 and carrying it1 full1 without spilling4 ,he should have low hooks for hanging his clothing for outdoor wear4 ,both small boys and girls should have bright little aprons1 not so much for purposes of cleanliness1 although this is important1 as to inspire them to the feeling that work is dignified and needs to be set apart by a uniform of service4 ,dr4 ,montessori urges that those toys which we buy be selected having in mind helping the child to be an actor in a little drama of home life4 ,a plaything1 she feels1 should be a work thing1 capable of bringing a life activity down to the primitive plane of the child's thinking4 ,our toy shops offer us now a very wide variety of such educational toys from which to choose4 ,we may find large dolls1 modeled from life1 and wearing clothes similar to children and requiring the same muscular co-ordination in fastening and unfastening4 ,there is large furniture for these dolls1 built on good lines and teaching a little girl to make a bed neatly and keep the doll's bureau drawers in order4 ,there are good-sized washing sets1 including tubs1 basket1 lines1 clothespins1 ironing board1 and sad irons2 we find very complete dolls' houses1 sewing materials with dolls' patterns and small sewing machines1 kitchens where the child can pretend to cook1 complete sets of cooking utensils1 and lifelike toy animals4 ,these toys ,dr4 ,montessori urges us to use1 realizing that the child's deepest play impulse is to dramatize in the theater of the home playroom the everyday utilitarian occupations of the race4 ,,mario',s ,,plays ,montessori and the ,child's ,imagination ,mario played a great deal1 and ,i noticed1 as ,i watched him critically1 that his play was of a very strongly imaginative kind4 ,he was one of the youngest of the little ones at the ,trionfale ,children's ,house1 and it had taken him a rather longer time than it had the other children to gain control of his impulsive hands1 his little truant feet1 his vagrant-tending mind4 ,during this first period of his ,montessori schooling1 when his attention was scattering and he found difficulty in making muscular co-ordination and differentiating form and color clearly1 he seemed also to have difficulty in amusing himself4 ,his play impulses at this time seemed to be very primitive2 he took pleasure in idling in some sunny spot1 kitten-like1 or he arranged and rearranged the pieces of wicker furniture which filled the salon corner of the schoolroom1 or he found entertainment in interfering with the work of the other little ones4 ,there seemed to be no element of creativeness or originality in his play4 ,presently1 however1 ,mario began to show a steady intellectual development in his work4 ,through the physical exercises of ,montessori1 through the rhythmic exercises carried on with music and through exercises of usefulness in keeping himself and the room neat and waiting upon others1 he learned an important lesson of muscular co-ordination4 ,he learned to make his body respond to the command of his brain4 ,through the sense exercises in recognizing fine differentiations of color and form and weight and sound and texture1 ,mario found a clear mental vision4 ,a month before1 the hill back of the school had been a blur to his mental vision4 ,now it was1 for him1 a clear percept made up of various component parts4 ,he saw it tall1 broad1 steep1 colored in varying tints of green and brown2 its outlines were broken for him by the sunshine1 the gardens1 the red and yellow tiled houses2 he could almost smell the sweet perfume from its orchards and vineyards4 ,the sense-training of the ,montessori system had quickened and clarified the little boy's perceptive faculties4 ,following side by side with ,mario's new mental development came as marked a development in his play4 ,his play impulses were no longer scattering but had objectivity4 ,he was1 in fancy1 a steam engine puffing along or the little father of a group of other children4 ,as he swung himself over the parallel bars in the school yard he felt that he was a famous acrobat entertaining an applauding audience4 ,in a second he slipped into another path of fancy2 as he piled stones into a pyramid1 he was a great builder4 ,more than this1 ,mario's newly-found play impulses carried him into a unique plane of idealism4 ,crouched in a sunny corner of the playground1 he was a sleeping seed2 slowly and with spontaneous grace the little body rose1 arms upstretched1 as ,mario felt in dreams the growth of root and branch and flower4 ,no one had taught four-year-old ,mario the skill of making real these fantasies4 ,how had he taken his way alone into the fertile fields of the imagination8 ,it has been suggested that the ,montessori system does not take into account the stimulating of the child's imagination4 ,daily instances of very original1 undirected imaginative play on the part of ,montessori children show a subtle force at work in the method which results in a spontaneous unfolding of the imagination4 ,the games and plays which we teach our children in kindergarten and primary school are carried on by the ,montessori-trained children without adult supervision4 ,leaving their work1 they run to the garden or playground1 imitating with great freedom and beauty of imagination the activities of the gardener1 the baker1 the artisan1 the street vender1 and the traveling musician4 ,they even impersonate in a more idealistic way1 playing1 as did little ,mario1 that they are birds and flowers4 ,this natural expression of imagination in very young children is an important development of the method1 and a suggestive one4 ,we are all familiar with the timid1 shrinking little child in the center of a game circle who doesn't want to be a chickadee1 but who is urged by the teacher in charge of the circle4 ,the child persists in her disinclination2 she is overawed by so large a ring of spectators2 it is possible that she has never seen a chickadee4 ,the teacher1 also1 persists4 ,she goes to the child and tries to teach her the motions of bird flight1 but the child sees only an adult running about and waving her arms in an unusual way4 ,she does not connect the spectacle in any way with the free flight of a bird1 and when she does take courage and tries to follow the directions of her teacher1 the little one is not giving expression to her own mental image1 but is endeavoring to imitate a rather ungainly adult4 ,is this play of the imaginative type8 ,it would seem as if we have lost sight of the real character of this elusive1 subtle1 unexplainable fruition of the mental faculties1 the imagination4 ,it is the unforeseen mind power which makes poets and painters and sculptors and conquerors4 ,it is a mind vision which sees success beyond defeat1 worth hidden in rags1 and good blossoming out of evil4 ,it makes us hear the piping of ,pan as the wind blows the reeds beside the river2 it promises us a pot of gold if we can build ourselves a rainbow bridge across every cloud of despair2 it shows us the lineaments of ,god in the guise of sorrow and poverty4 ,imagination in the child finds varied expressions4 ,there are a great many instances where a child who is lonely and longs for companionship sees and holds daily intercourse with an invisible playmate whom he can describe with great accuracy of detail4 ,in the majority of cases this invisible playmate in disposition1 appearance1 and tastes is unlike any member of the family or any friend of the child's4 ,where did the child find this fancy8 ,a child has the power of a seer to develop the unknown potentialities in apparently dead things4 ,this dry brown leaf1 frost-killed of the sap of life1 is1 in the child's fancy1 a gnome1 jumping along in the path in front of him to warn the birds of the coming of winter4 ,an acorn is a golden goblet brimming with fairy nectar2 a hollow tree is a magic place in which to set up a domicile4 ,no one schooled the child in these tricks of thought4 ,how did he find them8 ,dr4 ,montessori explains the growth of child imagination4 ,the child is born with a certain defined mental equipment4 ,he has instincts1 inherited memories they might be called1 and he struggles to feed these instincts4 ,he has capacities for acquiring good or bad habits very early4 ,he has a race-old longing to gain knowledge by means of his senses4 ,our part in the education of the child is to study his instinctive activities1 giving them opportunities for free expression where they are important for the child's best mental development4 ,a child likes to play in the dirt because his ancestors lived in caves and tilled the soil2 it is necessary for the child's best development that he play in sand and model in clay and plant little gardens4 ,a child instinctively fights because his ancestors survived only by warfare2 this child instinct we must inhibit4 ,we must establish good habits in a child early4 ,we must help him1 through various sense exercises1 to gain clear percepts of his environment4 ,we must try not to force our adult view-point upon the child1 but endeavor to establish in him a habit of independent self-active thought4 ,then1 after we have strengthened the general intellectual processes of the child mind1 ,dr4 ,montessori points to us a miracle4 ,dovetailing instinct and habit and perception1 the child intellect begins to build4 ,clear percepts become concepts2 mental images become ideals1 imagination appears1 building from the clay of everyday-mind stuff a golden castle of dreams4 ,imagination cannot be taught4 ,it can scarcely be defined4 ,it can never be prescribed and trained4 ,it is that flowering of the mind processes by means of which a bit of brown sod appears tinted with light and color to the artist1 full of potentialities of growth to the gardener1 smells of home to the wanderer4 ,if the three types of minds1 as children1 had been told that a similar piece of sod was a blanket for the sleeping seeds1 one questions if it would have been gilded for them in adult life with this glow of individual fancy4 ,on the contrary1 the painter has been trained to see color1 the gardener has experienced the cultivation of life in the earth1 the home lover's hungry senses grasped the memory of former sense stimuli4 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us that the imagination develops variously in different individuals4 ,there may be a child who will never be able to pierce the veil of reality and find his way into the court of fantasy4 ,there will be also the child who develops a seerlike quality of idealism4 ,he moves in a world of blissful unrealities2 he sees angels' wings in the clouds and angels' eyes in the stars4 ,our part in the education of little children is to build the tower for a possible poising of the child's wings of fancy4 ,then we will wait hopefully for the wonder flight4 ,the various parts of the didactic apparatus of ,montessori presented to a child in their proper relation to his stage of mental growth have a definite place in strengthening the mental processes which lie at the basis of imagination4 ,we are so unaccustomed to offering any sort of mind food to the child of two and a half or three that we have allowed the little child to go mind hungry4 ,at this early stage of a child's development the right kind of mental training will lay a foundation for the constructive and intellectual processes of imagination and reasoning4 ,the child of two and three years of age is at the sensory-motor stage of mind development4 ,he longs for experiences which he can turn into action2 his mind craves ideas which will express themselves in useful muscular co-ordination and the ability to adjust himself to his environment4 ,to put into a child's hands the materials for this sensory-motor education early is not to overtax his mind2 instead1 it satisfies his very important mind hunger4 ,the didactic materials of ,montessori that supply this sensory-motor need of the very young child and should be presented early include the various dressing frames1 the solid insets1 the sound boxes1 the blocks of the tower1 the broad stair and the long stair1 the latter without the use of the sandpaper numerals4 ,as soon as the little one has made his own the muscular co-ordination and ideas of form in relation to size involved in this material and has begun to find the will power to correct his own mistakes1 other home activities involving these mental faculties should be added to the use of the ,montessori apparatus4 ,the child may dress1 undress1 bathe himself1 dress and undress a doll1 build with large blocks1 sort various objects of different shapes and sizes1 as seeds1 nuts1 spools1 button molds2 handle and learn the uses of the furnishings and equipment of the home3 toilet utensils1 brush1 broom1 duster1 dustpan1 kitchen appliances1 and the like2 he should receive simple ear-training in discriminating different bell tones1 high and low1 loud and soft notes played on the piano1 and hear good models of speech1 both in diction and modulation4 ,at the age of three to four years1 the sensory element in the child's mental life is even more prominent1 but it is separated a little from motor activities4 ,if the child has had adequate training1 he has obtained a large degree of muscular control2 he can handle objects without breaking them1 he can run without falling down1 he can minister to his own bodily needs4 ,now his mind is hungry for sense images4 ,he wishes to study his environment with the aim of securing a series of definite mind pictures4 ,ideas are to be stored in the workshop of the child mind for future use in building the power of constructive imagination4 ,the ,montessori didactic apparatus suited to this ideo-sensory stage of the child's development includes the color spools1 the geometric insets1 the baric sense tablets1 the sandpaper boards1 and the textiles4 ,the sense-training involved in the child's use of these should be applied in various ways3 finding and matching home and outdoor colors1 noting the size1 shape1 and form of various everyday objects1 block building with an idea of form1 cutting form to line with blunt-pointed scissors1 clay-modeling1 and constructive sand-play4 ,the child from four years to five shows a dawning of the constructive imagination4 ,the spool with which he played like a kitten in baby days has new potentialities in his eyes4 ,having learned that it is wooden1 round1 and will roll1 and having made a mental comparison of it with the wheel of his toy cart1 which is also wooden1 round1 and will roll1 he calls the spool a wheel4 ,this is a very important break in the child's mental life4 ,it demonstrates to us that the child now has ideas in the abstract4 ,dr4 ,montessori meets this with those of her didactic appliances1 which will lead a child by natural1 easy steps from objective to abstract thinking4 ,she strengthens the sensory life of the child and guides him toward a grasp of the symbols of thought4 ,those parts of the didactic apparatus which should be presented at this point to the child are the long stair1 with the sandpaper letters1 and the various arithmetic exercises to be had with the rods2 the counting boxes and frame1 the sandpaper letters1 the movable alphabet1 and the drawing tablets4 ,now1 the child shows individualistic thinking4 ,the direct mental training of ,montessori has built a solid foundation for the growth and unfolding of the imagination4 ,our place is to watch for the special trend of his mind development and help this as far as lies in our power4 ,does the child show special interest in the symbols and combinations of number8 ,we should help him to play store1 provide him with numerical games1 give him a chance to spend and account for a weekly allowance1 do home errands1 use a tool box1 construct cardboard toys1 and learn any other possible application of number in its relation to life4 ,does he make a quick mastery of the symbols of language8 ,we should transfer him as quickly as possible into simple reading books1 offering him a great variety of these1 that he may feed his imagination with good stories4 ,it has been said that the average ,american child exhausts the possibilities of the ,montessori apparatus at the age of five years4 ,of course he does4 ,dr4 ,montessori planned it as a means of lighting the flame1 touching the torch1 opening the switch4 ,with a marvelous completeness it does this4 ,our part lies in keeping the flame burning1 guiding the express train of the child mind into the higher places of reason1 imagination1 and personal achievement4 ,,the ,,great ,,silence ,montessori ,development of ,repose ,it was an amazing fact1 but a significant one1 that four-year-old ,joanina had never been allowed to feel herself4 ,as she lay in her carved-wood cradle1 a bundle of cooing1 pink delight1 she felt for her toes1 that she might assure herself of her own identity as represented in those wriggling lumps of flesh4 ,but ,joanina's mother bound the little limbs in swaddling bands and the bambino lost her toes temporarily4 ,when she was a bit older1 and was allowed to bask1 kitten-like1 on a rug in the garden path1 she was charmed to hold her flower-like baby hands up to the light1 watching the ,roman sunshine trickle through outstretched fingers as she tried to count them4 ,but1 always1 her emotional1 kindly intentioned madre would toss a bright-colored ball into the reaching hands or1 bending over the baby1 would play pat-a-cake with her1 or she would suggest a romp up and down the garden4 ,her self-imposed quiet was always interrupted by her mother's unrest4 ,as ,joanina grew to a slim little girl of ,italy1 whose great1 wistful brown eyes reflected a large curiosity and awe at the surprises of the world in which she found herself1 she was daily surrounded by forces that drew her away from herself4 ,her home was full of glaring colored pictures hung on vividly dyed wall paper4 ,her mother and father talked together in high-pitched1 shrill voices1 and through the wide casement windows came the harsh sounds of traveling street musicians and brawling venders4 ,always1 as a treat on ,sunday or a festa1 ,joanina was taken to see a procession or to a band concert in one of the parks4 ,the crowded1 hot stone streets1 the noisy cracking of the cab-drivers' whips1 the struggle to make her own short legs keep up with the longer steps of the madre1 wearied and excited the little maid4 ,but she grew accustomed to noise and boisterousness in her days2 she grew to expect them as well4 ,then she came to depend upon outside forces for keeping the motor of her baby spirit going4 ,she begged for new toys1 exhausting quickly the pleasure to be found in old playthings4 ,she asked for new frocks1 aping the vanity of her mother and the other women she saw on the ,corso on feast days4 ,she allowed her child playmates to plan her games4 ,she cried to be taken into the turbid streets4 ,from a placid1 reposeful baby1 ,joanina developed into a restless1 passionate1 distraction-seeking little girl4 ,germs of discontent1 disquiet1 hysteria were planted in her child soul4 ,when ,joanina found herself one morning in the ,trionfale ,children's ,house1 she experienced an unconscious feeling of peace4 ,the very wide spaces of the two rooms where the little ones busily and happily worked2 the cool gray walls unbroken in their sweep save by a blue and white terra-cotta bas-relief here and there2 the plain brown linen curtains that softened and toned the yellow sunlight and rippled with a flower-scented breeze--these helped to make ,joanina's peace4 ,dropping into one of the little white chairs1 she looked about her with eyes that again melted into the calm wonder of her babyhood4 ,she could not have explained it1 but there was already at home in her life a new1 quiet repose4 ,surrounding her was a child republic that opened its heart to her4 ,some of the children1 in groups1 were sorting and grading with quiet skill scores of the silk-wound color spools4 ,others1 alone1 were testing their knowledge of dimension and form with the solid and geometric insets4 ,in a corner1 a determined baby was trying to button the apron of another baby4 ,all were entertained1 yet no one was entertaining them4 ,they were making their own content4 ,without warning1 the directress turned from the child whom she had been giving a lesson in numbers with the counting case1 moved to the front of the room1 and wrote upon the blackboard one word1 ,silence4 ,then she waited1 herself silent and facing the little ones4 ,joanina1 too1 waited4 ,she did not understand2 she was curious4 ,the children1 recognizing the written word1 one by one laid down their work1 dropped into positions of quiet repose1 their eyes closed4 ,some laid their heads upon their folded arms4 ,the room became so hushed that such faint sounds as the low ticking of the clock1 the hum of a buzzing fly1 the gentle rise and fall of breathing1 became vibrant4 ,the children's faces were full of calm joy1 their bodies were completely motionless4 ,they had gone away from their small republic of work and play for a space4 ,who could tell where they were8 ,each child was feeling himself2 for the time being he was listening to the call of his own personality4 ,joanina1 interested in the game of silence1 closed her eyes4 ,she folded her restless fingers4 ,she waited1 rapt1 immobile as a little chiseled cherub4 ,it was perhaps the first time in her four years' apprenticeship to ,life that she had been given an opportunity to listen to her own heart throbs1 feel the grip of her own personality4 ,the experience was satisfying to her4 ,she heard and felt a great many inner voices and mental forces that she had never listened to or obeyed before4 ,she heard the voices of happiness in her new1 peaceful environment and love for the other children and joy at the complete freedom that surrounded her4 ,she felt the impulse to do and learn as she had seen the other children doing and learning4 ,for several minutes1 the silence held the children in its spell4 ,then1 out of the stillness the whispered voice of the directress floated4 ,as a singing wind of a far-away forest1 a mountain echo1 or the low voice of a mother as it first makes itself audible to a new-born babe1 came the voice3 8,joanina40 ,the little girl opened her eyes1 meeting the smiling ones of the directress1 who made a gesture indicating that ,joanina should go to her quietly4 ,poised on tiptoe1 ,joanina crossed the room noiselessly1 threw herself into the outstretched arms of the directress4 8,mario1 ,otello10 softly the other children were called until all had1 as silently as ,joanina1 left their places and surrounded the directress4 ,their eyes shone1 their faces glowed as if they had been refreshed by an elixir bath4 ,yet the ,montessori silence game which had brought about this inspiration and refreshing in the life of soul-starved little ,joanina might have been a part of her home life4 ,your child needs it2 you need it4 ,there is1 perhaps1 no more significant phase of the ,montessori system of education than the calm1 quiet habit of self-contemplation aroused by the game of silence4 ,the self-control1 the poise1 the power of long concentration that one sees in the ,montessori children at ,rome amazes the world4 ,they are completely lacking in self-consciousness2 they ask for help in their work only when it is absolutely necessary2 they are sure of themselves4 ,in writing about the game of silence1 it has been suggested that the game has an hypnotic quality2 that the calm1 beautifully poised directress imposes her own personality upon the children1 controls them as the hypnotist controls his subject4 ,this is not true4 ,as the didactic materials furnish the right means for the child's mental development1 so the opportunity given by the game of silence makes possible the child's moral and spiritual development4 ,it gives him a chance to listen to the 8still1 small voice0 that is a speaking voice in childhood but which is drowned by the babel of world tongues that we allow to make our song of life in adult years4 ,the story of ,joanina1 the little ,roman girl1 is retold in almost every ,american home4 ,as we1 ourselves1 depend upon public opinion1 outside amusements1 entertaining friends1 the judgment of the press1 the fashions of the day for filling our lives1 so we make our children1 also1 dependent upon similar forces for forming their characters4 ,we surround children with gossip1 we teach them to depend upon excitement for their pleasure2 we build their ideals of conduct upon what the world will think instead of what their conscience dictates4 ,we make of our little ones modern ,babes in the ,woods who lose themselves in a forest of bewildering1 overgrown paths4 ,we give them no chance to blaze their own trails4 ,what is the application to the ,american home of the ,montessori game of silence8 ,it begins with the ,american mother who must cultivate a habit of quiet self-contemplation4 ,she must be able to shut out the world as did the stoics1 listening to the good voice of her own soul4 ,it means1 also1 that she will be less dependent upon her environment for her daily thinking and happiness and more adept at creating her own joys4 ,we are very restless1 to-day1 discontented unless we are surrounded by friends or obsessed by passion of some sort1 or we must go somewhere4 ,we will try to slip back into the simple living of our great-grandmothers1 who had resources in themselves and could be radiantly happy1 pottering over the lavender in their gardens or reading their ,bibles in the candlelight of some long-ago evening--alone4 ,the mother who cultivates in herself a habit of repose will have reposeful children4 ,the game of silence1 as it may be put into practice in the training of children1 begins with ear-training4 ,shut out harsh sounds from the home where there are little children4 ,to command a child in a loud voice often results in disobedience2 it makes him mentally deaf for the time being4 ,he does not hear what is said to him2 it dulls his senses4 ,we all know how the memory of some gentle voice that either sang or spoke to us in childhood comes back to us1 now1 as a forceful memory4 ,it was the softness of that voice that made the lasting record in our minds4 ,often a mother may whisper a sentence to a child1 or call softly from different parts of the house1 asking the little one to locate her by the sense of hearing4 ,this will quicken and cultivate the child's power to listen and concentrate upon the use of one sense4 ,and we should eliminate all unnecessary noises from our homes2 the slamming of doors1 the crashing of dishes1 harsh popular music1 and crude songs4 ,as the children's sense of hearing is refined1 we will lead them to listen to the very small sounds in the world about them1 the soft breathing of the sleeping baby1 the far-away ticking of a clock1 the hum of insects1 distant footsteps1 the patter of rain1 the song of the wind4 ,then when this fine power of listening has been cultivated1 we may introduce the game of silence itself4 ,the mother may show the child that she is able to sit quietly1 immobile1 relaxed for a short period of time--only thinking4 ,then the little ones may be encouraged to attempt the game1 waiting in perfect silence1 with closed eyes1 until mother calls them in a soft whisper to 8come back0 to the world again4 ,to darken the room a little during the game adds to its power4 ,gradually the periods of the silence may be lengthened1 and results will show in the child's life in greater control1 quiet1 and life balance4 ,in this repose and silence1 ,dr4 ,montessori tells us1 both adults and children gather strength and newness of life4 ,a little maid of three had been having her first birthday party4 ,light and music and romping games and many gifts had filled the afternoon with unexperienced delights for the child4 ,she was trembling with delight1 on tiptoe with excitement when the children marched out to the dining-room and were seated about the beautifully laid1 rose-strewn table4 ,at a signal the curtains were drawn and the children were told to be silent and close their eyes for a space4 ,there was a vibrant hush1 a space of time passed1 then one child after another raised her head and opened her eyes4 ,the room was still darkened1 but in the center of the table had been placed the huge1 white birthday cake surrounded by a wreath of flowers2 the only light was the starry shining of three white candles on the top4 ,the little birthday child looked in wonder4 ,then she drew a long breath and said in a whisper1 8,nearer1 my ,god1 to ,thee40 ,no one quite understood the little one4 ,it seemed to have been a vagary1 a precocity on her part4 ,it was an unusual manifestation1 but quite explainable as we grew to realize the inspirational possibilities of the ,montessori silence4 ,when it is not possible1 because we are dealing with an isolated child1 to put into practice the game of silence as it is used in the ,children's ,houses1 we can still lead the child to know and feel silence4 ,a quiet hour in the twilight after the work and play of the daytime are over1 a trip to some still1 lovely spot in the woods1 a few moments spent in the hushed interior of a church1 will remain as reposeful memories in the life of the child4 ,more than repose1 even1 they may be inspirational1 as1 shut away from the noise and activity of the world1 the child is able to hear the call of his own spirit4 ,we all know and love ,bastien-,lepage's painting of the maid1 ,jeanne d',arc1 listening to the voices in her garden4 ,the grass dotted with flowers1 the bending apple tree1 the other homely surroundings of the humble home that were all ,jeanne had known1 fade away as the voice of the prophetic soul speaks to her2 as she sees the vision of herself1 the saviour of ,france4 ,jeanne d',arc was only thirteen when she began to hear the voice of her spirit4 ,millet1 as a boy1 saw nature with his spirit eyes4 ,he showed his father colors playing over the rough sod of his home fields which no one else could see4 ,rousseau1 in boyhood1 declared that he was able to converse with his beloved trees and they told him the secrets of their beauty4 ,samuel was only a very little boy when he heard and interpreted his ,master's voice4 ,the boy ,christ heard a message that he was able to carry to the doctors4 ,may we not give our little ones an opportunity to step across the threshold of the present into that great silence which begins life and also ends it1 and which is melodious for those who are trained to listen8 ,,the ,,end ,by ,,dorothy ,,canfield ,,fisher ,author of ,the ,squirrel-,cage1 ,hillsboro ,people1 etc4 ,a ,,montessori ,,mother ,illustrated1 #hth printing1 #a4be net ,this authoritative book1 by a trained writer who has been most intimately associated with ,dr4 ,montessori1 tells just what ,american mothers1 and most teachers1 want to know about this system4 ,a simple1 untechnical account of the apparatus1 the method of its application1 and a clear statement of the principles underlying its use4 8,fascinating reading and likely to be the most interesting to the average mother of all the many books on the subject40--,primary ,plans4 8,what would ,i not give to have had at the beginning of my children's upbringing such a guide to the fundamental principles underlying their best growth and development40--,,mrs4 ,,robert ,m4 ,,la ,,follette in ,la ,follette's ,magazine4 ,,mothers ,,and ,,children ,just ready1 #a4be net ,after the publication of ,a ,montessori ,mother two years ago1 ,mrs4 ,fisher was overwhelmed with personal letters from all over the country asking special advice4 ,mothers and ,children1 running along its easy1 half-humorous way1 answers all these questions and gives the clue to the answer of ten thousand more4 8,the ,tarnishing ,eye of ,relations0 is the title of one chapter4 ,some other chapters are 8,the ,sliding ,scale for ,obedience02 8,a ,new ,profession for ,women3 ,question ,answerer02 8,when ,i ,am a ,grandmother02 8,nurse or ,mother02 8,mothers-by-,chance and ,mothers-by-,choice40 8,a book of help for the most complicated and important enterprise in the world--the rearing of children4 ,it gives the wisdom of an expert in the language of a friend #8just talking4'0--,new ,york ,evening ,post4 ,,henry ,,holt ,,and ,,company #cd ,,west #cc,,rd ,,street 7#aa'ad7 ,,new ,,york ,,books ,,on ,,and ,,of ,,school ,,plays ,by ,constance ,d',arcy ,mackay ,,how ,,to ,,produce ,,children',s ,,plays ,the author is a recognized authority on the production of plays and pageants in the public schools1 and combines enthusiastic sympathy with sound1 practical instructions4 ,she tells both how to inspire and care for the young actor1 how to make costumes1 properties1 scenery1 where to find designs for them1 what music to use1 etc41 etc4 ,she prefaces it all with an interesting historical sketch of the plays-for-children movement1 includes elaborate detailed analyses of performances of ,browning's ,pied ,piper and ,rosetti's ,pageant of the ,months1 and concludes with numerous valuable analytical lists of plays for various grades and occasions4 #a4bj net 7,feb41 #aiad74 ,,patriotic ,,plays ,,and ,,pageants ,,pageant ,,of ,,patriotism 7,outdoor and ,indoor ,versions73--,princess ,pocahontas1 ,pilgrim ,interlude1 ,ferry ,farm ,episode1 99,george ,washington's ,fortune1 99,daniel ,boone3 ,patriot1 ,benjamin ,franklin ,episode1 ,lincoln ,episode1 ,final ,tableau4 ,,hawthorne ,,pageant 7for ,outdoor or ,indoor ,production73--,chorus of ,spirits of the ,old ,manse1 ,prologue by the ,muse of ,hawthorne1 ,in ,witchcraft ,days1 ,dance ,interlude1 ,merrymount1 etc4 ,the portions marked with a star 7997 are one-act plays suitable for separate performance4 ,there are full directions for simple costumes1 scenes1 and staging4 #abmo4 #a4ce net4 ,,the ,,house ,,of ,,the ,,heart ,short plays in verse for children of fourteen or younger3--8,the ,house of the ,heart0 7,morality ,play7--8,the ,enchanted ,garden0 7,flower ,play7--8,a ,little ,pilgrim's ,progress0 7,morality ,play7--8,a ,pageant of ,hours0 7,to be given ,out of ,doors7--8,on ,christmas ,eve40 8,the ,princess and the ,pixies40 8,the ,christmas ,guest0 7,miracle ,play471 etc4 #a4aj net4 8,an addition to child drama which has been sorely needed40--,boston ,transcript4 ,,the ,,silver ,,thread ,,and ,,other ,,folk ,,plays4 8,the ,silver ,thread0 7,cornish72 8,the ,forest ,spring0 7,italian72 8,the ,foam ,maiden0 7,celtic72 8,troll ,magic0 7,norwegian72 8,the ,three ,wishes0 7,french72 8,a ,brewing of ,brains0 7,english72 8,siegfried0 7,german72 8,the ,snow ,witch0 7,russian74 #a4aj net4 ,,henry ,,holt ,,and ,,company ,,publishers ,,new ,,york ,,books ,,to ,,make ,,elders ,,young ,,again ,by ,,inez ,,haynes ,,gillmore ,,phoebe ,,and ,,ernest ,with #cj illustrations by ,r4 ,f4 ,,schabelitz4 #a4ce net4 ,parents will recognize themselves in the story1 and laugh understandingly with1 and sometimes at1 ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,martin and their children1 ,phoebe and ,ernest4 8,attracted delighted attention in the course of its serial publication4 ,sentiment and humor are deftly mingled in this clever book40--,new ,york ,tribune4 8,we must go back to ,louisa ,alcott for their equals40--,boston ,advertiser4 8,for young and old alike we know of no more refreshing story40--,new ,york ,evening ,post4 ,,phoebe1 ,,ernest1 ,,and ,,cupid ,illustrated by ,r4 ,f4 ,,schabelitz4 #a4ce net4 ,in this sequel to the popular 8,phoebe and ,ernest10 each of these delightful young folk goes to the altar4 8,to all jaded readers of problem novels1 to all weary wayfarers on the rocky literary road of social pessimism and domestic woe1 we recommend #8,phoebe1 ,ernest1 and ,cupid' with all our hearts3 it is not only cheerful1 it's true40--,n4 ,y4 ,times ,review4 8,wholesome1 merry1 absolutely true to life40--,the ,outlook4 8,all delicious--humorous and true40--,the ,continent4 8,irresistibly fascinating4 ,mrs4 ,gillmore knows twice as much about college boys as ----1 and five times as much about girls40--,boston ,globe4 ,,janey ,illustrated by ,,ada ,c4 ,,williamson4 #a4be net4 8,being the record of a short interval in the journey thru life and the struggle with society of a little girl of nine40 8,our hearts were captive to #8,phoebe and ,ernest1' and now accept #8,janey4' ''' ,she is so engaging4 ''' ,told so vivaciously and with such good-natured and pungent asides for grown people40--,outlook4 8,depicts youthful human nature as one who knows and loves it4 ,her #8,phoebe and ,ernest' studies are deservedly popular1 and now1 in #8,janey1' this clever writer has accomplished an equally charming portrait40--,chicago ,record-,herald4 ,,henry ,,holt ,,and ,,company ,,publishers ,,new ,,york