Maria Montessori.
The interesting side of our pedagogical roots.
“Scientific observation has established that education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and it is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences upon the environment. The task of the teacher becomes that of preparing a series of motives of cultural activity, spread over a specially prepared environment, and then refraining from obtrusive interference. Human teachers can only help the great work that is being done, as servants help the master. Doing so, they will be witnesses to the unfolding of the human soul and to the rising of a New Man who will not be a victim of events, but will have the clarity of vision to direct and shape the future of human society”.
Dr Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori is universally known for being the creator of the Casa dei Bambini (Children’s Home), and for being a scientist devoted to childhood and to the development of cognitive abilities in the child.
Often referred to simply as a “pedagogist”, Montessori was beyond that a researcher whose work contained infinite depths and significantly contributed to the theory of man. She was the first major theorist to espouse the belief in the psychic transformation of the human being, whom she believed to be capable of freeing himself from total subjugation to the laws of heredity and of actively developing his most authentic ego.
“… Inheritance is not determinism, as human development is a constructive (…), creative act. It is the result of the activity that humans exert on the environment, and not the result of a simple bio-psychic maturation. “(Comberiati, 1997).
The Montessori pedagogy must necessarily be built on a methodology that uses the objective observation of the subject as its main instrument of research.
A scientific observation that is aimed at capturing the salient elements in the development of human beings, which takes place where there is a measured balance between material, psychological and environmental elements.
You can’t argue with it: transformation involves study and research.
For this reason it has been necessary for Flowerssori to start from the very basics: only by doing this could we hope to develop an alternative proposal to those existing on the market today, by transforming the general attitude of school planning into an effective and focused approach.
Maria Montessori has inspired us over these five years of research with her texts and thoughts, but most of all with her facts: not only was she the psychiatrist who studied children through scientific praxis, precisely evaluating their behaviour, she was also the earliest inspiration for a company nursery (in Germany during the 20’s).
Montessori has created a movement capable of overcoming all physical and cultural barriers (the method is widely practiced in the United States, in Asia, and Oceania), and has written books that are of extraordinary relevance even today, such as her famous “Peace and Education “.
An intelligent, strong and interesting woman, Maria Montessori’s work paved the way for a true pedagogical and philosophical revolution. All this she did by traveling around the world and by absorbing the energies, the thoughts and intellectual trends of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Europe.
The example she gave us was, in short, incredibly fascinating!
