Maria Montessori was a revolution in itself. Italian educator, educator, scientist, physician, psychiatrist, philosopher, anthropologist, biologist and psychologist, with strong Catholic and feminist convictions, finally graduated in 1986 as the first female physician in Italy, was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud and developed her own classification of mental illness.
Between 1898 and 1900 she worked with children considered mentally ill, she realized that some of the children had simply not developed their potential, hence their vocation to study the skills of children, which she has achieved for 50 years.
- One of his most controversial claims is that.
- During the first 3 years of life.
- Learning is effortless.
- Of course; his method contrasts with the Prussian classical teaching model.
- Born of the industrial revolution and carried in the West to this day.
- The method sees (in many ways) the child as a future worker who receives orders.
However, Maria Montessori conceived education differently. In this article, we’ll talk about some of your most important ideas.
The Montessori method is committed to taking advantage of the most favorable development periods, for this it is necessary to carefully prepare the environment and adapt it to the physical characteristics of children, as far as possible it is necessary to maintain the maximum similarity with the natural spaces that this teacher has dedicated so much to children.
“When the child exercises according to the need for his ‘sensitive gift’, he progresses and reaches levels of perfection that are imitable at other times in life”?Maria Montessori-
This educational model focuses on heterogeneous groups of children, respecting personal rhythms and styles. Some of the secrets of the Montessori method are interest in periods of sensitive growth and an emphasis on the existence of an absorbing spirit in childhood that must be fully enjoyed.
Next, we’ll look at some of the most important components of this method.
Maria Montessori’s model has several points for the discovery of the world by the child to be the most natural, autonomous and adapted to his age, this is especially important until the age of 3, when these components play an even more decisive role.
One of the fundamental ideas of this model is that there are different types of psychs and minds at different periods of life. These stages have different characteristics and have been widely studied by the psychology of development.
Sensitive periods are another of the most important ideas, they are steps in which you can learn in the simplest way possible, if the child does not take this opportunity, then it will be much more difficult to acquire certain knowledge or skills.
During the period between 0 and 3 years, the student has no memory or reasoning capacity, but they must be generated, however, at this stage, the child is able to perform a lot of learnings because his brain is extremely sensitive.
All objects in the class must be specifically selected for their usefulness, students should be able to choose all kinds of tools and stimuli to make their development as complete as possible.
Children need maximum freedom in the classroom, this stimulates their autonomy and their desire to learn.
Structure and order must be reflected in the class, so that each child can develop his or her own intelligence and mental organization, the materials used in teaching must be categorized according to the difficulty they present.
According to Maria Montessori, it is necessary to encourage the child to come into contact with nature, so that he understands and appreciates his order, harmony and beauty, the main objective is for the child to understand natural laws, which are the principle of all. Sciences.
In the Montessori philosophy, the educator acquires the role of facilitator of learning; in this educational model, its role is not to convey knowledge that children must memorize, on the contrary, it should give them the freedom to explore their own interests.
In this sense, its role is complex, because it must foster children’s desire to learn without interfering too much with them.
Maria Montessori incorporates into her methodology the use of songs in the classroom, these spaces are designed to create an atmosphere of order that stimulates the motor skills and involvement of children in the execution of tasks that are of great use to their daily life. We will see some examples of spaces used in this methodology.
These are spaces with personal belongings of the students that give them security and privacy. These areas of the class are necessary for good organization and to ensure stability and order.
Space to encourage speech, where there are mattresses or pillows for children. There are also shelves available to children, where you can find stories and reading materials.
Color, sound, touch and coordination area. This space can be used with musical instruments, cards of different colors, materials of different textures or different games.