Chapter 2 Summary: History of Methods
Core Method Requirements
⢠Experimental pedagogy needs its own unique method - Cannot simply borrow from other sciences
"Our problem then, is this: to establish the method peculiar to experimental pedagogy. It cannot be that used in other experimental sciences."
⢠Liberty as the fundamental principle - Children must be free to manifest their natural development
"The fundamental principle of scientific pedagogy must be, indeed, the liberty of the pupil;âsuch liberty as shall permit a development of individual, spontaneous manifestations of the child's nature."
⢠Observation without preconceptions - True scientific method requires abandoning all prejudices
"He who experiments must, while doing so, divest himself of every preconception."
Montessori's Personal Journey
⢠From medical work to special education - Started with mentally deficient children in asylums
"About fifteen years ago, being assistant doctor at the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Rome, I had occasion to frequent the insane asylums to study the sick"
⢠Pedagogical rather than medical problem - Believed deficiency was primarily educational, not medical
"I felt that mental deficiency presented chiefly a pedagogical, rather than mainly a medical, problem"
⢠Two years of intensive practice - Worked 11 hours daily with deficient children at the Orthophrenic School
"I was more than an elementary teacher, for I was present, or directly taught the children, from eight in the morning to seven in the evening without interruption. These two years of practice are my first and indeed my true degree in pedagogy."
Historical Foundations: Itard and SĂŠguin
⢠Itard: The pioneer of observation - First to observe students like patients in hospitals
"Itard, was the first educator to practise the observation of the pupil in the way in which the sick are observed in the hospitals"
⢠SÊguin: Developer of the physiological method - Created systematic education for deficients
"Edward SĂŠguin had carefully defined his method of education, calling it the physiological method"
⢠Spiritual preparation essential - SÊguin emphasized that teachers must have attractive spirit and manner
"The first didactic material used by him was spiritual... They must render themselves attractive in voice and manner, since it is their task to awaken souls which are frail and weary"
Key Insights from Experience
⢠Methods work beyond deficiency - The techniques had broader educational value
"From the very beginning of my work with deficient children (1898 to 1900) I felt that the methods which I used had in them nothing peculiarly limited to the instruction of idiots"
⢠Normal children were being held back - Traditional education suppresses natural development
"I found myself thinking that if, some day, the special education which had developed these idiot children in such a marvellous fashion, could be applied to the development of normal children"
⢠The miracle was artificial - Deficient children could compete with normal ones because they were taught differently
"The boys from the asylums had been able to compete with the normal children only because they had been taught in a different way. They had been helped in their psychic development, and the normal children had, instead, been suffocated, held back."
The Children's Houses Origin
⢠Chance opportunity in 1906 - Invited to organize schools in tenement buildings
"It was near the end of the year 1906... A great opportunity came to me, for I was invited by Edoardo Talamo, the Director General of the Roman Association for Good Building, to undertake the organisation of infant schools in its model tenements"
⢠First Casa dei Bambini opened January 6, 1907 - Revolutionary approach to early childhood education
"This new kind of school was christened by Signora Olga Lodi... under the fortunate title of Casa dei Bambini or 'The Children's House'"
⢠Parallel between young normal and deficient children - Both lack coordination and stability
"If a parallel between the deficient and the normal child is possible, this will be during the period of early infancy when the child who has not the force to develop and he who is not yet developed are in some ways alike"
Philosophical Foundation
⢠Fifty years of preparation - Built on the work of three generations of physicians
"Thus my ten years of work may in a sense be considered as a summing up of the forty years of work done by Itard and SĂŠguin... fifty years of active work preceded and prepared for this apparently brief trial"
⢠Revolutionary social impact - Children's Houses solve both social and pedagogical problems
"As definite factors in the civilisation of the people, the 'Children's Houses' deserve a separate volume. They have, in fact, solved so many of the social and pedagogic problems in ways which have seemed to be Utopian"