Happy 100 Years Maria!

05/25/2007

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
Theodore Roosevelt

When I was just toying with the idea of making a career move into early childhood, two books sealed the deal. The first was In the Early Years by Elwyn Richardson (sadly out of print), a creative New Zealander who sparked children's curiosity and joy of learning by exploring the out of doors. The second was The Montessori Method by Maria Montessori. When I read this book I wanted to go right out and set up a school and do it right. More than 30 years later, I still view this book as must reading for all arrriving in the early childhood world.

Maria Montessori, an Italian physician, founded her celebrated school in Rome in 1907. At the World Forum on Early Care and Education in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Madam Liew Sau Pheng led us in celebrating this 100 Year milestone. Montessori's philosophy of education continues to this day as an important influence in early childhood. Montessori schools exist around the world from Malaysia to Minnesota.

Yet I wonder what Maria would think if she took a tour of schools bearing her name. Some of the schools would fill her with pride, schools that take the core ideas she promoted and adapt them creatively to today's challenges and opportunities. Others would upset her greatly — schools that simply trade on her name but offer none of her inspirational thinking; as well as schools that take the methods and learning tools that she employed 100 years ago and rigidly impose them without change.

In another of her famous books, The Absorbent Mind, Montessori observes, "She (the directress) understands and believes that the children must be free to choose their own occupations just as they must never be interrupted in their spontaneous activities. No work may be imposed — no threats, no rewards, no punishments." A century later, in a time when rigid academic instruction is being championed, when schools are being judged by test results not by joy and curiosity, when the value of play is being questioned, what better words to live by.

Contributed by Roger Neugebauer, Editor of ExchangeEveryDay

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