The American Montessori Society ( AMS ) is a New York City -based, member-supported nonprofit organization which promotes the use of the Montessori teaching approach in private and public schools.
172-545: AMS advocates for the Montessori method (popularized by Maria Montessori ) throughout the United States, and publishes its own standards and criteria for its accredited member schools. AMS supports research and public policy that advocate for Montessori education. In the 1950s, the cultural climate around American education was changing as people become discontent with the status quo. Among those seeking alternatives
344-741: A New World and To Educate the Human Potential . While in India, Montessori observed children and adolescents of all ages and turned to the study of infancy. In 1944, she gave a series of 30 lectures on the first three years of life, and a government-recognized training course in Sri Lanka. These lectures were collected in 1949 in the book What You Should Know About Your Child . In 1944, the Montessoris were granted some freedom of movement and traveled to Sri Lanka. In 1945, Montessori attended
516-475: A best seller. British and Swiss editions followed. A revised Italian edition was published in 1913. Russian and Polish editions came out in 1913, and German, Japanese, and Romanian editions appeared in 1914, followed by Spanish (1915), Dutch (1916), and Danish (1917) editions. Pedagogical Anthropology was published in English in 1913. In 1914, Montessori published, in English, Doctor Montessori's Own Handbook ,
688-449: A certain subject should be included in the curriculum because it serves one of the aims of education. While many positions about what subjects to include in the curriculum are controversial, some particular issues stand out where these controversies go beyond the academic discourse to a wide public discourse, like questions about sexual and religious education . Controversies in sex education involve both biological aspects, such as
860-518: A classical education embraced study of literature, poetry, drama, philosophy, history, art, and languages. In the 20th and 21st centuries it is used to refer to a broad-based study of the liberal arts and sciences, as opposed to a practical or pre-professional program. Classical Education can be described as rigorous and systematic, separating children and their learning into three rigid categories, Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric. According to educational essentialism, there are certain essential facts about
1032-407: A common good. An important and controversial issue in the philosophy of education concerns the contents of the curriculum , i.e. the question of what should be taught to students. This includes both the selection of subjects to be taught and the consideration of arguments for and against the inclusion of a particular topic. This issue is intimately tied to the aims of education: one may argue that
1204-490: A competitive advantage over others. One difficulty with this demand, when understood in a wide sense, is that there are many sources of educational inequality and it is not always in the best interest to eliminate all of them. For example, parents who are concerned with their young children's education may read them bedtime stories early on and thereby provide them with a certain advantage over other children who do not enjoy this privilege. But disallowing such practices to level
1376-449: A concept current in the study of education at the time. She called for not just observation and measurement of students, but for the development of new methods which would transform them. "Scientific education, therefore, was that which, while based on science, modified and improved the individual." Further, education itself should be transformed by science: "The new methods if they were run on scientific lines, ought to change completely both
1548-475: A form of education based in the traditions of Western culture, with a particular focus on education as understood and taught in the Middle Ages. The term "classical education" has been used in English for several centuries, with each era modifying the definition and adding its own selection of topics. By the end of the 18th century, in addition to the trivium and quadrivium of the Middle Ages, the definition of
1720-538: A great assistant in her research. After graduating from the University of Rome in 1896, Montessori continued with her research at the university's psychiatric clinic. In 1897, she was accepted as a voluntary assistant there. As part of her work, she visited asylums in Rome where she observed children with mental disabilities, observations that were fundamental to her future educational work. She also read and studied
1892-494: A less radical and more common criticism concerns specific compulsory topics in the curriculum, for example, in relation to sexuality or religion. Another contemporary debate in the United States concerns the practice of standardized testing: it has been argued that this discriminates against certain racial, cultural, or religious minorities since the standardized test may implicitly assume various presuppositions not shared by these minorities. Other issues in relation to power concern
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#17327804731562064-487: A lot on how "indoctrination" is to be defined. Most definitions of indoctrination agree that its goal is to get the student to accept and embrace certain beliefs. It has this in common with most forms of education but differs from it in other ways. According to one definition, the belief acquisition in indoctrination happens without regard for the evidential support of these beliefs, i.e. without presenting proper arguments and reasons for adopting them. According to another,
2236-411: A more feminine approach based on emotion and intuition. A related criticism holds that there is an overemphasis on abilities belonging to the public sphere , like reason and objectivity , in contrast to equally important characteristics belonging to the private sphere , like compassion and empathy . The philosophy of education is also interested in the epistemology of education . This term
2408-543: A more theoretical side as well, which includes the examination of the fundamental concepts and theories of education as well as their philosophical implications. These two sides are sometimes referred to as the outward and the inward looking nature of the philosophy of education. Its topics can range from very general questions, like the nature of the knowledge worth teaching, to more specific issues, like how to teach art or whether public schools should implement standardized curricula and testing . The problem of education
2580-619: A practical guide to the didactic materials she had developed. In 1911 and 1912, Montessori's work was popular and widely publicized in the US, especially in a series of articles in McClure's Magazine . The first North American Montessori school was opened in October 1911, in Tarrytown, New York . The inventor Alexander Graham Bell and his wife became proponents of the method and a second school
2752-419: A preferential treatment for high performers in order to help them fully develop their exceptional abilities and thereby benefit society at large. A similar problem is the issue of specialization. It concerns the question of whether all students should follow the same curriculum or to what extent they should specialize early on in specific fields according to their interests and skills. Marxist critiques of
2924-461: A social context in which the learner must confront others' views to clarify his or her own. Character development emphasizes individual responsibility for decisions. Real answers come from within the individual, not from outside authority. Examining life through authentic thinking involves students in genuine learning experiences. Existentialists are opposed to thinking about students as objects to be measured, tracked, or standardized. Such educators want
3096-520: A son named Mario Montessori (31 March 1898 – 1982) was born. Mario Montessori was born out of her love affair with Giuseppe Montesano, a fellow doctor who was co-director with her of the Orthophrenic School of Rome. If Montessori married, she would be expected to cease working professionally. Instead of marriage, Montessori decided to continue her work and studies. Montessori wanted to keep the relationship with her child's father secret under
3268-437: A spontaneous self-discipline emerge. Based on her observations, Montessori implemented a number of practices that became hallmarks of her educational philosophy and method. She replaced the heavy furniture with child-sized tables and chairs light enough for the children to move, and placed child-sized materials on low, accessible shelves. She expanded the range of practical activities such as sweeping and personal care to include
3440-424: A theory about education is true or false, but how one can arrive at the knowledge to answer such questions. Normative theories, on the other hand, try to give an account of how education should be practiced or what is the right form of education. Some normative theories are built on a wider ethical framework of what is right or good and then arrive at their educational normative theories by applying this framework to
3612-669: A training course at the Theosophical Society in Madras in 1939, and had intended to give a tour of lectures at various universities, and then return to Europe. When Italy entered WWII on the side of Germany in 1940, Britain interned all Italians in the UK and its colonies as enemy aliens. In fact, only Mario Montessori was interned, while Montessori herself was confined to the Theosophical Society compound, and Mario
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#17327804731563784-487: A value-neutral description of what education is, and normative theories, which investigate how education should be practiced. A great variety of topics is discussed in the philosophy of education. Some studies provide a conceptual analysis of the fundamental concepts of education. Others center around the aims or purpose of education, like passing on knowledge and the development of the abilities of good reasoning , judging, and acting. An influential discussion concerning
3956-408: A vast population, a population without rights which is being crucified on school-benches everywhere, which – for all that we talk about democracy, freedom and human rights – is enslaved by a school order, by intellectual rules, which we impose on it. We define the rules which are to be learnt, how they should be learnt and at what age. The child population is the only population without rights. The child
4128-665: A vital underpinning of the organization, along with a belief in the need for adaptability. The American Montessori Society Archives are housed at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut. The multi-media collection reflects the activities of the AMS going back to its earliest days, and also provides historical information about Montessori education. Teacher education programs affiliated with
4300-550: A wide range of Montessori institutions. From 1930 on, Montessori and the Italian government came into conflict over financial support and ideological issues, especially after Montessori's lectures on Peace and Education. In 1932, she and her son Mario were placed under political surveillance. In 1933, she resigned from the Opera Montessori, and in 1934 she left Italy. The Italian government ended Montessori activities in
4472-791: A wide variety of exercises for the care of the environment and the self, including flower arranging, hand washing, gymnastics, care of pets, and cooking. She also included large open-air sections in the classroom encouraging children to come and go as they please in the room's different areas and lessons. In her book she outlines a typical winter's day of lessons, starting at 09:00 am and finishing at 04:00 pm: She felt by working independently children could reach new levels of autonomy and become self-motivated to reach new levels of understanding. Montessori also came to believe that acknowledging all children as individuals and treating them as such would yield better learning and fulfilled potential in each particular child. She continued to adapt and refine
4644-424: A woman at the time. By the time she graduated in 1890 at the age of 20, with a certificate in physics–mathematics, she had decided to study medicine, a more unlikely pursuit given cultural norms at the time. Montessori moved forward with her intention to study medicine. She appealed to Guido Baccelli, the professor of clinical medicine at the University of Rome but was strongly discouraged. In 1890, she enrolled in
4816-540: Is a theory of learning and school governance in which students and staff participate freely and equally in a school democracy. In a democratic school, there is typically shared decision-making among students and staff on matters concerning living, working, and learning together. Educational progressivism is the belief that education must be based on the principle that humans are social animals who learn best in real-life activities with other people. Progressivists , like proponents of most educational theories, claim to rely on
4988-432: Is also reflected on the level of the philosophy of education, which encompasses the study of the philosophical presuppositions and issues both of education as a process and as a discipline. Many works in the philosophy of education focus explicitly or implicitly on the education happening in schools. But in its widest sense, education takes place in various other fields as well, such as at home, in libraries, in museums, or in
5160-400: Is best understood and whether it is applicable in all cases. An initial problem concerns what is meant by " equality ". In the field of education, it is often understood as equality of opportunity . In this sense, the demand for equality implies that education should open the same opportunities to everyone. This means, among other things, that students from higher social classes should not enjoy
5332-580: Is in use today in many public and private schools globally. Montessori was born on 31 August 1870 in Chiaravalle , Italy. Her father, Alessandro Montessori, age 33, was an official of the Ministry of Finance working in the local state-run tobacco factory. Her mother, Renilde Stoppani, 25 years old, was well-educated for the times and was the niece of Italian geologist and paleontologist Antonio Stoppani . While she did not have any particular mentor, she
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5504-483: Is no universally correct form of reasoning. According to them, education should focus more on teaching subject-specific skills and less on imparting a universal method of thinking. Other objections focus on the allegation that critical thinking is not as neutral, universal, and presuppositionless as some of its proponents claim. On this view, it involves various implicit biases, like egocentrism or distanced objectivity, and culture-specific values arising from its roots in
5676-461: Is often cited as one of the central aims of education. There is no generally accepted definition of critical thinking. But there is wide agreement that it is reasonable, reflective, careful, and focused on determining what to believe or how to act. It has clarity and rationality as its standards and includes a metacognitive component monitoring not just the solution of the problem at hand but also ensuring that it complies with its own standards in
5848-417: Is often used to talk about the epistemic aims of education, i.e. questions like whether educators should aim at transmitting justified true beliefs rather than merely true beliefs or should additionally foster other epistemic virtues like critical thinking. In a different sense, the epistemology of education concerns the issue of how we arrive at knowledge on educational matters. This is especially relevant in
6020-588: Is relevant to how funding budgets are spent on research, which in its turn has important implications for policymaking. One question concerns how the learners are to be conceptualized. John Locke sees the mind as a blank slate or a tabula rasa that passively absorbs information and is filled with contents through experience . This view contrasts with a more pragmatist perspective, which in its emphasis on practice sees students not as passive absorbers but as active learners that should be encouraged to discover and learn things by themselves. Another disputed topic
6192-529: Is starting to change in the 21st century due to decolonization and related movements. The starting point of many philosophical inquiries into a field is the examination and clarification of the fundamental concepts used in this field, often in the form of conceptual analysis . This approach is particularly prominent in the analytic tradition . It aims to make ambiguities explicit and to uncover various implicit and potentially false assumptions associated with these terms. Theorists in this field often emphasize
6364-458: Is that the modern states compel children to attend school, so-called compulsory education . The children and their parents usually have few to no ways of opting out or changing the established curriculum. An important question in this respect is why or whether modern states are justified to use this form of power. For example, various liberationist movements belonging to the fields of deschooling and unschooling reject this power and argue that
6536-402: Is the neglected citizen. Think of this and fear the revenge of this populace. For it is his soul that we are suffocating. It is the lively powers of the mind that we are oppressing, powers which cannot be destroyed without killing the individual, powers which tend either towards violence or destruction, or slip away into the realm of sickness, as Dr. Stern has so well elucidated. 10 December 1951
6708-454: Is the role of testing in public education. Some theorists have argued that it is counterproductive since it puts undue pressure on the students. But testing also plays various critical roles, such as providing feedback on the learning progress both to the student, their parents, and their teachers. Concrete discussions on the role of testing often focus less on whether it should be done at all and more on how much importance should be ascribed to
6880-407: Is whether the aim of education is to mold the mind of the pupil or to liberate it by strengthening its capacity for critical and independent inquiry. An important consequence of this debate concerns the problem of testimony , i.e to what extent students should trust the claims of teachers and books. It has been argued that this issue depends a lot on the age and the intellectual development of
7052-532: Is wide consensus concerning certain general aims of education, like that it should foster all students, help them in the development of their ability to reason, and guide them in how to judge and act. But these general characteristics are usually too vague to be of much help and there are many disagreements about the more specific suggestions of what education should aim for. Some attempts have been made to provide an overarching framework of these different aims. According to one approach, education should at its core help
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7224-459: The Aristotelian tradition , on the other hand, focus more on moral habituation through the development of virtues that concern both perception, affect, and judgment in regard to moral situations. A related issue, heavily discussed in ancient philosophy , is the extent to which morality can be taught at all instead of just being an inborn disposition. Various discussions also concern
7396-590: The Association Montessori Internationale or AMI "to oversee the activities of schools and societies all over the world and to supervise the training of teachers". AMI also controlled rights to the publication of Montessori's works and the production of authorized Montessori didactic materials. Early sponsors of the AMI included Sigmund Freud , Jean Piaget , and Rabindranath Tagore . In 1932, Montessori spoke on Peace and Education at
7568-596: The Catalan independence movement began to demand that Montessori take a political stand and make a public statement favoring Catalan independence, and she refused. Official support was withdrawn from her programs. In 1924, a new military dictatorship closed Montessori's model school in Barcelona, and Montessori education declined in Spain, although Barcelona remained Montessori's home for the next twelve years. In 1933, under
7740-713: The Second Spanish Republic , a new training course was sponsored by the government, and government support was re-established. In 1934, she published two books in Spain, Psicogeometrica and Psicoarithemetica . With the onset of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, political and social conditions drove Montessori to leave Spain permanently. In 1917, Montessori lectured in Amsterdam , and the Netherlands Montessori Society
7912-603: The St. Nicholas Training Centre . Also in 1947, she returned to Italy to re-establish the Opera Nazionale Montessori and gave two more training courses. Later that year she returned to India and gave courses in Adyar and Ahmedabad . These courses led to the first English edition of the book The Absorbent Mind , which was based on notes taken by students during the courses. During these courses, Montessori described
8084-411: The philosophy of science or the philosophy of law , study their topics. A central task for the philosophy of education is to make explicit the various fundamental assumptions and disagreements at work in its field and to evaluate the arguments raised for and against the different positions. The issue of education has a great many manifestations in various fields. Because of this, both the breadth and
8256-438: The qualitative or ethnographical approach . The quantitative approach usually focuses on wide experimental studies and employs statistical methods to uncover the general causal factors responsible for educational phenomena. It has been criticized based on the claim that its method, which is inspired by the natural sciences , is inappropriate for understanding the complex cultural and motivational patterns investigated by
8428-409: The social sciences . The qualitative approach, on the other hand, gives more weight to particular case studies for reaching its conclusions. Its opponents hold that this approach lacks the methodological rigor to arrive at well-warranted knowledge. The mixed-method research is a recent contemporary approach in which the methods of both camps are combined. The question of the most promising approach
8600-652: The 8th International Montessori Congress in Sanremo , Italy, where a model classroom was demonstrated. The same year, the first training course for birth to three years of age, called the Scuola Assistenti all'infanzia (Montessori School for Assistants to Infancy) was established. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize . Montessori was also awarded the French Legion of Honor , Officer of
8772-885: The American Montessori Society provide courses for people who want to be Montessori teachers. In 1967, the US Patent Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled that "the term 'Montessori' has a generic and/or descriptive significance." Therefore, in the United States and around the world, the term can be used freely without giving any guarantee of how closely, if at all, a program applies Montessori's work. The ruling has led to "tremendous variation in schools claiming to use Maria Montessori's methods." Maria Montessori Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori ( / ˌ m ɒ n t ɪ ˈ s ɔːr i / MON -tiss- OR -ee , Italian: [maˈriːa montesˈsɔːri] ; 31 August 1870 – 6 May 1952)
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#17327804731568944-707: The Child ), and was again nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1951, she participated in the 9th International Montessori Congress in London, gave a training course in Innsbruck , was nominated for the third time for the Nobel Peace Prize. Montessori was directly involved in the development and founding of the UNESCO Institute for Education in 1951. She was present at the first preliminary meeting of
9116-621: The Dutch Order of Orange Nassau , and received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Amsterdam. In 1950, she visited Scandinavia, represented Italy at the UNESCO conference in Florence, presented at the 29th international training course in Perugia , gave a national course in Rome, published a fifth edition of Il Metodo with the new title La Scoperta del Bambino ( The Discovery of
9288-736: The Family . Between 1913 and 1936, Montessori schools and societies were also established in France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, Serbia, Canada, India, China, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand. In 1929, the first International Montessori Congress was held in Elsinore , Denmark, in conjunction with the Fifth Conference of the New Education Fellowship. At this event, Montessori and her son Mario founded
9460-664: The Laboratori i Seminari de Pedagogia, a research, training, and teaching institute. A fourth international course was given there in 1916, including materials and methods, developed over the previous five years, for teaching grammar, arithmetic, and geometry to elementary school children from six to twelve years of age. In 1917, Montessori published her elementary work in L'autoeducazionne nelle Scuole Elementari (Self-Education in Elementary School) , which appeared in English as The Advanced Montessori Method . Around 1920,
9632-649: The National League and was appointed as a lecturer in hygiene and anthropology at one of the two teacher-training colleges for women in Italy. In 1900 the National League opened the Scuola Magistrale Ortofrenica , or Orthophrenic School, a "medico-pedagogical institute" for training teachers in educating children with learning difficulties, with an attached laboratory classroom. Montessori was appointed co-director. 64 teachers enrolled in
9804-492: The Orthophrenic School and her private practice, and in 1902 she enrolled in the philosophy degree course at the University of Rome; philosophy at the time included much of what is now considered psychology. She studied theoretical and moral philosophy, history of philosophy, and psychology as such, but she did not graduate. She also pursued independent study in anthropology and educational philosophy, conducted observations and experimental research in elementary schools, and revisited
9976-514: The Orthophrenic School in 1900–1901, used the methods of Itard and Séguin, training children in physical activities such as walking and the use of a spoon, training their senses by exposure to sights, smells, and tactile experiences, and introducing letters in tactile form. These activities developed into the Montessori "Sensorial" materials. Montessori considered her work in the Orthophrenic School and her subsequent psychological studies and research work in elementary schools as "scientific pedagogy",
10148-771: The Rights of the Child " stating in part, "in truth, the [Universal] Declaration of Human Rights appears to be exclusively dedicated to adult society." Montessori died of a cerebral hemorrhage on 6 May 1952 at the age of 81 in Noordwijk aan Zee , the Netherlands. Montessori's theory and philosophy of education were initially heavily influenced by the work of Jean Marc Gaspard Itard , Édouard Séguin , Friedrich Fröbel , and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi , all of whom emphasized sensory exploration and manipulatives. Montessori's first work with children with learning difficulties, at
10320-884: The Second International Montessori Congress in Nice , France. This lecture was published by the Bureau International d'Education, Geneva , Switzerland. In 1932, Montessori spoke at the International Peace Club in Geneva, Switzerland, on the theme of Peace and Education. Montessori held peace conferences from 1932 to 1939 in Geneva, Brussels , Copenhagen , and Utrecht , which were later published in Italian as Educazione e Pace , and in English as Education and Peace . In 1949, and again in 1950 and in 1951, Montessori
10492-560: The UK. By 1912, Montessori schools had opened in Paris and many other Western European cities, and were planned for Argentina, Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Switzerland, Syria, the US and New Zealand. Public programs in London, Johannesburg, Rome, and Stockholm had adopted the method in their school systems. Montessori societies were founded in the United States (the Montessori American Committee) and
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#173278047315610664-594: The UNESCO Governing Board in Wiesbaden , Germany on 19 June 1951 and delivered a speech. She used the address as an opportunity to redouble her advocacy for the rights of the child, whom she often referred to as the "forgotten citizen", or "neglected citizen", by declaring: Remember that people do not start at the age of twenty, at ten or at six, but at birth. In your efforts at solving problems, do not forget that children and young people make up
10836-822: The US in 1915, sponsored by the National Education Association , to demonstrate her work at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California, and to give a third international training course. A glass-walled classroom was installed at the Exposition, and thousands of observers came to see a class of 21 students. Montessori's father died in November 1915, and she returned to Italy. Although Montessori and her educational approach were popular in
11008-590: The US, she was not without opposition and controversy. Influential progressive educator William Heard Kilpatrick , a follower of American philosopher and educational reformer John Dewey , wrote a dismissive and critical book titled The Montessori Method Examined , which had a broad impact. The National Kindergarten Association was critical as well. Critics charged that Montessori's method was outdated, overly rigid, overly reliant on sense-training, and left too little scope for imagination, social interaction, and play. In addition, Montessori's insistence on tight control over
11180-671: The United Kingdom (the Montessori Society for the United Kingdom). In 1913 the first International Training Course was held in Rome, with a second in 1914. Montessori's work was widely translated and published during this period. Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica was published in the US as The Montessori Method: Scientific Pedagogy as Applied to Child Education in the Children's Houses , where it became
11352-505: The United States since the initial flurry of interest in the early 20th century. The board selected Rambusch as head of school. Rambusch was appointed the American representative of the Association Montessori Internationale by Mario Montessori . Six months later, Rambusch founded the American Montessori Society. The goals of AMS mirrored those of AMI: to support efforts to create schools, develop teacher education programs, and publicize
11524-526: The University of Rome in a degree course in natural sciences, passing examinations in botany, zoology, experimental physics, histology, anatomy, and general and organic chemistry, and earning her diploma di licenza in 1892. This degree, along with additional studies in Italian and Latin, qualified her for entrance into the medical program at the university in 1893. She was met with hostility and harassment from some medical students and professors because of her gender. Because her attendance of classes with men in
11696-405: The University of Rome, as her educational work was increasingly absorbing her time and interest. As early as 1909, Montessori's work began to attract the attention of international observers and visitors. Her work was widely published internationally and spread rapidly. By the end of 1911, Montessori education had been officially adopted in public schools in Italy and Switzerland and was planned for
11868-404: The age of 16, she continued at the technical institute Regio Istituto Tecnico Leonardo da Vinci, studying Italian, mathematics, history, geography, geometric and ornate drawing, physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, and two foreign languages. She did well in the sciences and especially in mathematics. Initially, she intended to pursue the study of engineering upon graduation, an unusual aspiration for
12040-440: The ages of two or three and six or seven. At first, the classroom was equipped with a teacher's table and blackboard, a stove, small chairs, armchairs, and group tables for the children, and a locked cabinet for the materials that Montessori had developed at the Orthophrenic School. Activities for the children included personal care such as dressing and undressing, care of the environment such as dusting and sweeping, and caring for
12212-405: The aims of education concerns the question of who is the primary beneficiary of education: the individual educated or the society having this individual as its member. In many cases, the interests of both are aligned. On the one hand, many new opportunities in life open to the individual through education, especially concerning their career. On the other hand, education makes it more likely that
12384-413: The authority and responsibility teachers have towards their students. Postmodern theorists often see established educational practices as instruments of power used by elites in society to further their own interests. Important aspects in this regard are the unequal power relation between the state and its institutions in contrast to the individual as well as the control that can thus be employed due to
12556-437: The beliefs are instilled in such a way as to discourage the student to question or assess for themselves the believed contents. In this sense, the goals of indoctrination are exactly opposite to other aims of education, such as rationality and critical thinking. In this sense, education tries to impart not just beliefs but also make the students more open-minded and conscious of human fallibility . An intimately related issue
12728-405: The best available scientific theories of learning. Most progressive educators believe that children learn as if they were scientists, following a process similar to John Dewey's model of learning known as "the pattern of inquiry": 1) Become aware of the problem. 2) Define the problem. 3) Propose hypotheses to solve it. 4) Evaluate the consequences of the hypotheses from one's past experience. 5) Test
12900-456: The better. These characteristics can then be used to distinguish education from other closely related terms, such as "indoctrination". Other fundamental notions in the philosophy of education include the concepts of teaching , learning , student , schooling , and rearing . A central question in the philosophy of education concerns the aims of education, i.e. the question of why people should be educated and what goals should be pursued in
13072-591: The children themselves, facilitated by the adults. Unschooling differs from conventional schooling principally in the thesis that standard curricula and conventional grading methods, as well as other features of traditional schooling, are counterproductive to the goal of maximizing the education of each child. Contemplative education focuses on bringing introspective practices such as mindfulness and yoga into curricular and pedagogical processes for diverse aims grounded in secular, spiritual, religious and post-secular perspectives. Contemplative approaches may be used in
13244-492: The children's welfare is best served in the absence of compulsory schooling in general. This is sometimes based on the idea that the best form of learning does not happen while studying but instead occurs as a side-effect while doing something else. This position is often rejected by pointing out that it is based on overly optimistic presuppositions about the children's natural and unguided development of rationality . While some objections focus on compulsory education in general,
13416-528: The classroom, especially in tertiary or (often in modified form) in secondary education. Parker Palmer is a recent pioneer in contemplative methods. The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society founded a branch focusing on education, The Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education . Contemplative methods may also be used by teachers in their preparation; Waldorf education was one of
13588-465: The close connection between power and knowledge , specifically the knowledge passed on through education. A recurrent demand on public education is that all students should be treated equally and in a fair manner. One reason for this demand is that education plays a central role for the child's path and prospects in life, which should not be limited by unfair or arbitrary external circumstances. But there are various disagreements about how this demand
13760-428: The concepts and presuppositions of education theories. It is an interdisciplinary field that draws inspiration from various disciplines both within and outside philosophy, like ethics , political philosophy , psychology , and sociology . Many of its theories focus specifically on education in schools but it also encompasses other forms of education. Its theories are often divided into descriptive theories, which provide
13932-475: The conclusion that the children's spontaneous activity in this environment revealed an internal program of development, and that the appropriate role of the educator was to remove obstacles to this natural development and provide opportunities for it to proceed and flourish. Philosophy of education The philosophy of education is the branch of applied philosophy that investigates the nature of education as well as its aims and problems. It also examines
14104-492: The condition that neither of them would marry anyone else. When the father of her child was pressured by family to make a more advantageous social connection and subsequently married, Montessori was left feeling betrayed and decided to leave the university hospital. She was forced to place her son in the care of a wet nurse living in the countryside, distraught to miss the first few years of his life. She would later be reunited with her son in his teenage years, where he proved to be
14276-676: The country in 1936. Montessori’s antifascist views caused her to be forced into exile from Italy during Mussolini’s premiership. During her exile, she developed her work Education for Peace in which she expressed her ideal that children are peacemakers and education is the only true means to eliminate war. She said: "Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war." Montessori lectured in Vienna in 1923, and her lectures were published as Il Bambino in Famiglia , published in English in 1936 as The Child in
14448-405: The creativity and effectiveness of teachers. The existentialist sees the world as one's personal subjectivity, where goodness, truth, and reality are individually defined. Reality is a world of existing, truth subjectively chosen, and goodness a matter of freedom. The subject matter of existentialist classrooms should be a matter of personal choice. Teachers view the individual as an entity within
14620-425: The departments of education and health, civic leaders, and prominent figures in the fields of education, psychiatry, and anthropology from the University of Rome. The children in the model classroom were drawn from the asylum and ordinary schools but considered "uneducable" due to their deficiencies. Some of these children later passed public examinations given to so-called "normal" children. In 1901, Montessori left
14792-651: The development of the child from birth onwards and presented her concept of the Four Planes of Development. In 1948 Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica applicato all'educazione infantile nelle Case dei Bambini was revised again and published in English as The Discovery of the Child . In 1949, she gave a course in Karachi , Pakistan and the Pakistan Montessori Association was founded. In 1949, Montessori returned to Europe and attended
14964-422: The domain of philosophy. While there is wide agreement on the general topics discussed in the philosophy of education, it has proven difficult to give a precise definition of it. The philosophy of education belongs mainly to applied philosophy. According to some definitions, it can be characterized as an offshoot of ethics. But not everyone agrees with this characterization since the philosophy of education has
15136-418: The educational experience to focus on creating opportunities for self-direction and self-actualization. They start with the student, rather than on curriculum content. Perennialists believe that one should teach the things that one deems to be of everlasting importance to all people everywhere. They believe that the most important topics develop a person. Since details of fact change constantly, these cannot be
15308-473: The elaboration of her method, the training of teachers, the production and use of materials, and the establishment of schools became a source of conflict and controversy. After she left in 1915, the Montessori movement in the US fragmented, and Montessori education was a negligible factor in education in the US until 1952. In 1916, Montessori returned to Europe and took up residence in Barcelona , Spain. Over
15480-408: The epistemic aims of education is whether education should focus mainly on the transmission of true beliefs or rather on the abilities to reason and arrive at new knowledge. In this context, many theorists emphasize the importance of critical thinking in contrast to indoctrination . Another debate about the aims of education is whether the primary beneficiary is the student or the society to which
15652-472: The epistemic aims of education. According to the epistemic approach, the central aim of education has to do with knowledge , for example, to pass on knowledge accumulated in the societal effort from one generation to the next. This process may be seen both as the development of the student's mind as well as the transmission of a valuable heritage. Such an approach is sometimes rejected by pragmatists , who emphasize experimentation and critical thinking over
15824-768: The example of the natural sciences by using wide experimental studies. Others prefer a qualitative approach, which is closer to the methodology of the social sciences and tends to give more prominence to individual case studies . Various schools of philosophy have developed their own perspective on the main issues of education. Existentialists emphasize the role of authenticity while pragmatists give particular prominence to active learning and discovery. Feminists and postmodernists often try to uncover and challenge biases and forms of discrimination present in current educational practices. Other philosophical movements include perennialism , classical education , essentialism , critical pedagogy , and progressivism . The history of
15996-426: The field of child development , learning , and motivation can provide important general insights. More specific questions about the curriculum of a particular subject, such as mathematics , are often strongly influenced by the philosophy of this specific discipline, such as the philosophy of mathematics . The problem of power is another issue in the philosophy of education. Of specific interest on this topic
16168-452: The field of educational research, which is an active field of investigation with many studies being published on a regular basis. It is also quite influential in regard to educational policy and practice. Epistemological questions in this field concern the objectivity of its insights. An important methodological divide in this area, often referred to as the "paradigm wars", is between the quantitative or statistical approach in contrast to
16340-543: The field would have serious negative side-effects. A weaker position on this issue does not demand full equality but holds instead that educational policies should ensure that certain factors, like race , native language , and disabilities , do not pose obstacles to the equality of opportunity. A closely related topic is whether all students, both high and low performers, should be treated equally. According to some, more resources should be dedicated to low performers, to help them get to an average level, while others recommend
16512-623: The first All India Montessori Conference in Jaipur , and in 1946, with the war over, she and her family returned to Europe. In 1946, at the age of 76, Montessori returned to Amsterdam, and she spent the next six years travelling in Europe and India. She gave a training course in London in 1946, and in 1947 opened a training institute there, the Montessori Centre. After a few years this centre became independent of Montessori and continued as
16684-429: The first class, studying psychology, anatomy, and physiology of the nervous system, anthropological measurements, causes and characteristics of mental disability, and special methods of instruction. During her two years at the school, Montessori developed methods and materials which she later adapted to use with mainstream children. The school was an immediate success, attracting the attention of government officials from
16856-420: The first international course in Rome, and students throughout the 1920s and 1930s had come back to India to start schools and promote Montessori education. The Montessori Society of India was formed in 1926, and Il Metodo was translated into Gujarati and Hindi in 1927. By 1929, Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore had founded many "Tagore-Montessori" schools in India, and Indian interest in Montessori education
17028-456: The first time and gave an international training course which was received with high interest. Montessori education continued to spread in the UK, although the movement experienced some of the struggles over authenticity and fragmentation that took place in the US. Montessori continued to give training courses in England every other year until the beginning of World War II. In 1922, Montessori
17200-480: The following year. In 1903 and 1904, she conducted anthropological research with Italian schoolchildren, and in 1904 she was qualified as a free lecturer in anthropology for the University of Rome. She was appointed to lecture in the Pedagogic School at the university and continued in the position until 1908. Her lectures were printed as a book titled Pedagogical Anthropology in 1910. In 1906, Montessori
17372-409: The foundation of her educational method. She noted episodes of deep attention and concentration, multiple repetitions of activity, and a sensitivity to order in the environment. Given a free choice of activity, the children showed more interest in practical activities and Montessori's materials than in toys provided for them and were surprisingly unmotivated by sweets and other rewards. Over time, she saw
17544-632: The functioning of sex organs , and social aspects, such as sexual practices and gender identities . Disagreements in this area concern which aspects are taught and in which detail as well as to which age groups these teachings should be directed. Debates on religious education include questions like whether religion should be taught as a distinct subject and, if so, whether it should be compulsory. Other questions include which religion or religions should be taught and to what degree religious views should influence other topics, such as ethics or sex education. Another prominent topic in this field concerns
17716-458: The garden. The children were also shown the use of the materials Montessori had developed. Montessori, occupied with teaching, research, and other professional activities, oversaw and observed the classroom work, but did not teach the children directly. Day-to-day teaching and care were provided, under Montessori's guidance, by the building porter's daughter. In this first classroom, Montessori observed behaviors in these young children which formed
17888-505: The importance of this form of investigation since all subsequent work on more specific issues already has to assume at least implicitly what their central terms mean to demarcate their field. For example, in order to study what constitutes good education, one has to have a notion of what the term "education" means and how to achieve, measure, and evaluate it. Definitions of education can be divided into thin and thick definitions. Thin definitions are neutral and descriptive. They usually emphasize
18060-534: The individual lead a good life. All the different more specific goals are aims of education to the extent that they serve this ultimate purpose. On this view, it may be argued that fostering rationality and autonomy in the students are aims of education to the extent that increased rationality and autonomy will result in the student leading a better life. The different theories of the aims of education are sometimes divided into goods-based , skills-based , and character-based accounts. Goods-based accounts hold that
18232-436: The influence of the philosophy of education are significant and wide-ranging, touching many other branches of philosophy, such as ethics , political philosophy , epistemology , metaphysics , and philosophy of mind . Its theories are often formulated from the perspective of these other philosophical disciplines. But due to its interdisciplinary nature, it also attracts contributions from scholars belonging to fields outside
18404-430: The intellectual capacities to evaluate the reasons for and against certain claims and thus to critically assess them. In this sense, one can distinguish unavoidable or acceptable forms of indoctrination from their avoidable or unacceptable counterparts. But this distinction is not always affirmed and some theorists contend that all forms of indoctrination are bad or unacceptable. A recurrent source of disagreement about
18576-485: The interdependence of all the elements of the natural world. Children worked directly with plants and animals in their natural environments, and the Montessoris developed lessons, illustrations, charts, and models for use with elementary aged children. Material for botany, zoology, and geography was created. Between 1942 and 1944 these elements were incorporated into an advanced course for work with children from six to twelve years old. This work led to two books: Education for
18748-413: The likeliest solution. [1] Unschooling is a range of educational philosophies and practices centered on allowing children to learn through their natural life experiences, including child directed play , game play, household responsibilities, work experience, and social interaction , rather than through a more traditional school curriculum. Unschooling encourages exploration of activities led by
18920-500: The main issues of education. They often include normative theories about how education should or should not be practiced and are in most cases controversial. Another approach is to simply list all topics discussed in the philosophy of education. Among them are the issues and presuppositions concerning sex education , science education , aesthetic education, religious education , moral education , multicultural education , professional education , theories of teaching and learning,
19092-504: The materials and quickly gained a proficiency in writing and reading far beyond what was expected for their age. This attracted further public attention to Montessori's work. Three more Case dei Bambini opened in 1908, and in 1909 Italian Switzerland began to replace Froebellian methods with Montessori in orphanages and kindergartens. In 1909, Montessori held the first teacher training course in her new method in Città di Castello , Italy. In
19264-515: The materials she had developed earlier, altering or removing exercises which were chosen less frequently by the children. Based on her observations, Montessori experimented with allowing children free choice of the materials, uninterrupted work, and freedom of movement and activity within the limits set by the environment. She began to see independence as the aim of education, and the role of the teacher as an observer and director of children's innate psychological development. The first Casa dei Bambini
19436-505: The measurement of learning, knowledge and its value, cultivating reason, epistemic and moral aims of education, authority , fallibilism, and fallibility . Finally, yet another way that philosophy of education is often tacitly divided is in terms of western versus non-western and “ global south ” perspectives. For many generations, philosophy of education has maintained a relatively ethnocentric orientation, with little attention paid to ideas from outside Europe and North America, but this
19608-528: The methods and forms of evidence responsible for verifying existing beliefs and arriving at new knowledge. It promotes the epistemic autonomy of students and may help them challenge unwarranted claims by epistemic authorities. In its widest sense, the epistemic approach includes various related goals, such as imparting true beliefs or knowledge to the students as well as teaching dispositions and abilities, such as rationality, critical thinking, understanding, and other intellectual virtues . Critical thinking
19780-452: The most important. Therefore, one should teach principles, not facts. Since people are human, one should teach first about humans, not machines or techniques. Since people are people first, and workers second if at all, one should teach liberal topics first, not vocational topics. The focus is primarily on teaching reasoning and wisdom rather than facts, the liberal arts rather than vocational training. The Classical education movement advocates
19952-576: The movement. Mario urged Rambusch to take coursework in Montessori education and to bring the Montessori method to the United States. Within a few years, Rambusch was conducting Montessori classes for her own children and others, in her New York City apartment. In 1956, the Rambusch family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut. There, Rambusch became involved with a group of parents who wanted to be involved with their children's education. In 1958, they founded Whitby School —the first Montessori school to open in
20124-540: The national program. A pre-war group of Montessori supporters, the Societa gli Amici del Metodo Montessori (Society of Friends of the Montessori Method) became the Opera Montessori (Montessori Society) with a government charter, and by 1926 Mussolini was made honorary president of the organization. In 1927, Mussolini established a Montessori teacher training college, and by 1929 the Italian government supported
20296-570: The next 20 years, Montessori traveled and lectured widely in Europe and gave numerous teacher training courses. Montessori education experienced significant growth in Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, and Italy. On her return from the US, Montessori continued her work in Barcelona, where a small program sponsored by the Catalan government begun in 1915 had developed into the Escola Montessori, serving children from three to ten years old, and
20468-524: The number of American Montessori schools and students. From the beginning, Rambusch and AMS worked to advance Montessori education into mid-20th-century American culture. AMS insisted that all teacher educators have a college degree so that the coursework could, potentially, be recognized by state education departments. AMS also broadened the curriculum for teachers and sought to connect with mainstream education by offering Montessori coursework in traditional teacher preparation programs. Rambusch believed there
20640-746: The pediatric consulting room and emergency service, becoming an expert in pediatric medicine. Montessori graduated from the University of Rome in 1896 as a doctor of medicine. Her thesis was published in 1897 in the journal Policlinico . She found employment as an assistant at the university hospital and started a private practice. From 1896 to 1901, Montessori worked with and researched "phrenasthenic children"—in modern terms, children experiencing some form of cognitive delay, illness, or disability. She also began to travel, study, speak, and publish nationally and internationally, coming to prominence as an advocate for women's rights and education for children with learning difficulties. On 31 March 1898, her only child –
20812-408: The person becomes a good, law-abiding, and productive member of society. But this issue becomes more problematic in cases where the interests of the individual and society conflict with each other. This poses the question of whether individual autonomy should take precedence over communal welfare. According to comprehensive liberals , for example, education should emphasize the self-directedness of
20984-499: The philosophical movement of the European Enlightenment . The problem of critical thinking is closely connected to that of indoctrination . Many theorists hold that indoctrination is in important ways different from education and should be avoided in education. But others contend that indoctrination should be part of education or even that there is no difference between the two. These different positions depend
21156-419: The philosophy of education started in ancient philosophy but only emerged as a systematic branch of philosophy in the latter half of the 20th century. The philosophy of education is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, aims, and problems of education . As the philosophical study of education, it investigates its topic similar to how other discipline-specific branches of philosophy, like
21328-426: The pioneers of the latter approach. In this case, inspiration for enriching the content, format, or teaching methods may be sought through various practices, such as consciously reviewing the previous day's activities; actively holding the students in consciousness; and contemplating inspiring pedagogical texts. Zigler suggested that only through focusing on their own spiritual development could teachers positively impact
21500-542: The possibility of objectivity in general. They use this claim to argue against universal forms of education, which they see as hiding particular worldviews , beliefs, and interests under a false cover. This is sometimes utilized to advance an approach focused on more diversity, for example, by giving more prominence in education to the great variety of cultures, customs, languages, and lifestyles without giving preference to any of them. Different approaches to solving these disputes are employed. In some cases, psychology in
21672-477: The practice of education. But the descriptive and the normative approaches are intertwined and cannot always be clearly separated since descriptive findings often directly imply various normative attitudes. Another categorization divides topics in the philosophy of education into the nature and aims of education on the one hand, and the methods and circumstances of education on the other hand. The latter section may again be divided into concrete normative theories and
21844-434: The presence of a naked body was deemed inappropriate, she was required to perform her dissections of cadavers alone, after hours. She resorted to smoking tobacco to mask the offensive odor of formaldehyde . Montessori won an academic prize in her first year, and in 1895 secured a position as a hospital assistant, gaining early clinical experience. In her last two years, she studied pediatrics and psychiatry , and worked in
22016-427: The process of education. This issue is highly relevant for evaluating educational practices and products by assessing how well they manage to realize these goals. There is a lot of disagreement and various theories have been proposed concerning the aims of education. Prominent suggestions include that education should foster knowledge, curiosity , creativity , rationality , and critical thinking while also promoting
22188-534: The process. In this sense, education is not just about conveying many true beliefs to the students. Instead, the students' ability to arrive at conclusions by themselves and the disposition to question pre-existing beliefs should also be fostered, often with the goal of benefitting not just the student but society at large. But not everyone agrees with the positive role ascribed to critical thinking in education. Objections are often based on disagreements about what it means to reason well. Some critics argue that there
22360-470: The public media. Different types of education can be distinguished, such as formal and informal education or private and public education . Different subdivisions of the philosophy of education have been suggested. One categorization distinguishes between descriptive and normative issues. Descriptive theories aim to describe what education is and how to understand its related concepts. This includes also epistemological questions, which ask not whether
22532-399: The relation between education and power , often specifically regarding the power used by modern states to compel children to attend school. A different issue is the problem of the equality of education and factors threatening it, like discrimination and unequal distribution of wealth . Some philosophers of education promote a quantitative approach to educational research , which follows
22704-477: The role of art and aesthetics in public education. It has been argued that the creativity learned in these areas can be applied to various other fields and may thereby benefit the student in various ways. It has been argued that aesthetic education also has indirect effects on various other issues, such as shaping the student's sensibilities in the fields of morality and politics as well as heightening their awareness of self and others. Some researchers reject
22876-420: The role of the transmission of knowledge and understanding in education. Thick definitions include additional normative components, for example, by stating that the process in question has to have certain positive results to be called education. According to one thick definition, education means that the person educated has acquired knowledge and intellectual skills, values these factors, and has thus changed for
23048-465: The role of upholding this inequality and thereby reproduces the capitalist relations of production . Other criticisms of the dominant paradigms in education are often voiced by feminist and postmodern theorists. They usually point to alleged biases and forms of discrimination present in current practices that should be eliminated. Feminists often hold that traditional education is overly man-oriented and thereby oppresses women in some form. This bias
23220-718: The same year, she described her observations and methods in a book titled Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica Applicato All'Educazione Infantile Nelle Case Dei Bambini ( The Method of Scientific Pedagogy Applied to the Education of Children in the Children's Houses ). Two more training courses were held in Rome in 1910, and a third in Milan in 1911. Montessori's reputation and work began to spread internationally. Around that time she gave up her medical practice to devote more time to her educational work, developing her methods, and training teachers. In 1919, she resigned from her position at
23392-689: The school and its methods, ought to give rise to a new form of education." Working with non-disabled children in the Casa dei Bambini in 1907, Montessori began to develop her own pedagogy. The essential elements of her educational theory emerged from this work, described in The Montessori Method in 1912 and in The Discovery of the Child in 1948. Her method was founded on the observation of children at liberty to act freely in an environment prepared to meet their needs. Montessori came to
23564-463: The school systems in capitalist societies often focus on the inequality they cause by sorting students for different economic positions. While overtly this process happens based on individual effort and desert, they argue that this just masks and reinforces the underlying influence of the preexisting social class structure . This is sometimes integrated into a wider Marxist perspective on society which holds that education in capitalist societies plays
23736-444: The social domain, such as fostering a sense of community and solidarity and thus turning the individual into a productive member of society while protecting them from the potentially negative influences of society. The discussion of these positions and the arguments cited for and against them often include references to various disciplines in their justifications, such as ethics , psychology , anthropology , and sociology . There
23908-444: The spiritual development of students. Plato 's educational philosophy was grounded in a vision of an ideal Republic wherein the individual was best served by being subordinated to a just society due to a shift in emphasis that departed from his predecessors. The mind and body were to be considered separate entities. In the dialogues of Phaedo , written in his "middle period" (360 BCE), Plato expressed his distinctive views about
24080-403: The student belongs. Many of the more specific discussions in the philosophy of education concern the contents of the curriculum . This involves the questions of whether, when, and in what detail a certain topic, like sex education or religion , should be taught. Other debates focus on the specific contents and methods used in moral , art, and science education . Some philosophers investigate
24252-428: The student. In the earlier stages of education, a high level of trust on the side of the students may be necessary. But the more their intellectual capacities develop, the more they should use them when trying to assess the plausibility of claims and the reasons for and against them. In this regard, it has been argued that, especially for young children, weaker forms of indoctrination may be necessary while they still lack
24424-402: The students. On this view, it is up to the student to choose their own path in life. The role of education is to provide them with the necessary resources but it does not direct the student with respect to what constitutes an ethically good path in life. This position is usually rejected by communitarians , who stress the importance of social cohesion by being part of the community and sharing
24596-550: The study of the conceptual and methodological presuppositions of these theories. Other classifications additionally include areas for topics such as the role of reasoning and morality as well as issues pertaining to social and political topics and the curriculum. The theories within the philosophy of education can also be subdivided based on the school of philosophy they belong to. Various schools of philosophy, such as existentialism , pragmatism , Marxism , postmodernism , and feminism , have developed their own perspective on
24768-548: The subject of moral education . This field is sometimes referred to as "educational ethics". Disagreements in this field concern which moral beliefs and values should be taught to the students. This way, many of the disagreements in moral philosophy are reflected in the field of moral education. Some theorists in the Kantian tradition emphasize the importance of moral reasoning and enabling children to become morally autonomous agents who can tell right from wrong. Theorists in
24940-589: The teacher acts as the authority figure guiding the learning activity while students are expected to follow their lead. Critical pedagogy is an "educational movement, guided by passion and principle, to help students develop consciousness of freedom, recognize authoritarian tendencies, and connect knowledge to power and the ability to take constructive action." Based in Marxist theory , critical pedagogy draws on radical democracy , anarchism , feminism , and other movements for social justice . Democratic education
25112-468: The tendency to think, feel, and act morally. The individual should thereby develop as a person, and achieve self-actualization by realizing their potential . Some theorists emphasize the cultivation of liberal ideals , such as freedom , autonomy , and open-mindedness , while others stress the importance of docility, obedience to authority, and ideological purity, sometimes also with a focus on piety and religious faith . Many suggestions concern
25284-434: The test results. This also includes questions about the form of testing, for example, whether it should be standardized . Standardized tests present the same questions and scoring system to all students taking the test and are often motivated by a desire for objective and fair evaluations both of students and schools. Opponents have argued that this approach tends to favor certain social groups over others and severely limits
25456-515: The theme of peace. In 1937, the 6th International Montessori Congress was held on the theme of "Education for Peace", and Montessori called for a "science of peace" and spoke about the role of education of the child as a key to the reform of society. In 1938, Montessori was invited to India by the Theosophical Society to give a training course, and in 1939 she left the Netherlands with her son and collaborator Mario. An interest in Montessori had existed in India since 1913 when an Indian student attended
25628-421: The transmission of knowledge. Others have argued that this constitutes a false dichotomy : that the transmission of knowledge and the development of a rational and critical mind are intertwined aims of education that depend on and support each other. In this sense, education aims also at fostering the ability to acquire new knowledge. This includes both instilling true beliefs in the students as well as teaching
25800-511: The ultimate aim of education is to produce some form of epistemic good, such as truth, knowledge, and understanding. Skills-based accounts, on the other hand, see the development of certain skills, like rationality as well as critical and independent thinking as the goal of education. For character-based accounts, the character traits or virtues of the learner play the central role, often with an emphasis on moral and civic traits like kindness , justice , and honesty . Many theories emphasize
25972-716: The university courses in pedagogy and read "all the major works on educational theory of the past two hundred years". In 1897, Montessori spoke on societal responsibility for juvenile delinquency at the National Congress of Medicine in Turin. In 1898, she wrote several articles and spoke again at the First Pedagogical Conference of Turin, urging the creation of special classes and institutions for children with learning difficulties, as well as teacher training for their instructors. In 1899, Montessori
26144-644: The value of Montessori education. In 1961, Time magazine featured Rambusch, Whitby School, and the American Montessori revival in its May 12 issue. Parents turned to AMS for advice on starting schools and study groups. Additional publicity in the media, including Newsweek , the New York Times , and the Saturday Evening Post , as well as the publication in 1962 of Rambusch's book, Learning How to Learn , led to growth in
26316-535: The work of Itard and Séguin, translating their books into handwritten Italian. During this time, she began to consider adapting her methods of educating children with learning difficulties to mainstream education. Montessori's work developing what she would later call "scientific pedagogy" continued over the next few years. In 1902, Montessori presented a report at a second national pedagogical congress in Naples. She published two articles on pedagogy in 1903, and two more
26488-507: The works of 19th-century physicians and educators Jean Marc Gaspard Itard and Édouard Séguin , who greatly influenced her work. Montessori was intrigued by Itard's ideas and created a far more specific and organized system for applying them to the everyday education of children with disabilities. When she discovered the works of Jean Itard and Édouard Séguin they gave her a new direction in thinking and influenced her to focus on children with learning difficulties. Also in 1897, Montessori audited
26660-400: The world that every student needs to learn and master. It is a form of traditional education that relies on long-standing and established subjects and teaching methods. Essentialists usually focus on subjects like reading, writing, mathematics, and science, usually starting with very basic skills while progressively increasing complexity. They prefer a teacher-centered approach, meaning that
26832-513: Was Nancy McCormick Rambusch , a young teacher from New York City. In 1953, Rambusch's quest for a better approach to educating American children took her to Paris, France for the Tenth International Montessori Congress, where she met Mario Montessori, Maria Montessori's son. Mario worked in the movement, as head of the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), an organization she had founded to support
27004-462: Was a need for cultural accommodation. Professor John J. McDermott, a colleague and friend, agreed, arguing that the popular idea of the universality of children displayed a basic naiveté about the interrelationships between a culture and the child's development of consciousness. McDermott also stressed the need to move Montessori into the public sector so that it would be available to all children, regardless of their circumstances—a conviction that remains
27176-538: Was a success, and a second was opened on 7 April 1907. The children in her programs continued to exhibit concentration, attention, and spontaneous self-discipline, and the classrooms began to attract the attention of prominent educators, journalists, and public figures. In the fall of 1907, Montessori began to experiment with teaching materials for writing and reading—letters cut from sandpaper and mounted on boards, moveable cutout letters, and picture cards with labels. Four- and five-year-old children engaged spontaneously with
27348-402: Was already an important topic in ancient philosophy and has remained so to the present day. But it only emerged as a distinct branch of philosophy in the latter half of the 20th century, when it became the subject of a systematic study and analysis. The term "education" can refer either to the process of educating or to the field of study investigating education as this process. This ambiguity
27520-614: Was an Italian physician and educator best known for her philosophy of education (the Montessori method ) and her writing on scientific pedagogy . At an early age, Montessori enrolled in classes at an all-boys technical school, with hopes of becoming an engineer. She soon had a change of heart and began medical school at the Sapienza University of Rome , becoming one of the first women to attend medical school in Italy; she graduated with honors in 1896. Her educational method
27692-518: Was appointed a councilor to the newly formed National League for the Protection of Retarded Children, and was invited to lecture on special methods of education for children with intellectual disabilities at the teacher training school of the College of Rome. That year Montessori undertook a two-week national lecture tour to capacity audiences before prominent public figures. She joined the board of
27864-444: Was awarded certificates for good behavior in the first grade and for lavori donneschi , or "women's work", the next year. In 1883, or 1884, at the age of 13, Montessori entered a secondary, technical school, Regia Scuola Tecnica Michelangelo Buonarroti, where she studied Italian, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, accounting, history, geography, and sciences. She graduated in 1886 with good grades and examination results. That year, at
28036-483: Was founded. She returned in 1920 to give a series of lectures at the University of Amsterdam . Montessori programs flourished in the Netherlands, and by the mid-1930s there were more than 200 Montessori schools in the country. In 1935 the headquarters of the Association Montessori Internationale , or AMI, moved permanently to Amsterdam. Montessori education was met with enthusiasm and controversy in England between 1912 and 1914. In 1919, Montessori came to England for
28208-558: Was invited to Italy on behalf of the government to give a course of lectures and later to inspect Italian Montessori schools. Later that year, Benito Mussolini 's Fascist government came to power in Italy. In December, Montessori returned to Italy to plan a series of annual training courses under government sponsorship, and in 1923 the minister of education Giovanni Gentile expressed his support for Montessori schools and teacher training. In 1924, Montessori met with Mussolini, who extended his official support for Montessori education as part of
28380-518: Was invited to oversee the care and education of a group of children of working parents in a new apartment building for low-income families in the San Lorenzo district in Rome. Montessori was interested in applying her work and methods to children without mental disabilities, and she accepted. The name Casa dei Bambini , or Children's House, was suggested to Montessori, and the first Casa opened on 6 January 1907, enrolling 50 or 60 children between
28552-448: Was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize , receiving a total of six nominations. In 1936, Montessori and her family left Barcelona for England, and soon moved to Laren , near Amsterdam. Here Montessori and her son Mario continued to develop new materials, including the knobless cylinders, the grammar symbols, and botany nomenclature cards. In the context of rising military tensions in Europe, Montessori increasingly turned her attention to
28724-682: Was opened in their Canadian home. The Montessori Method sold quickly through six editions. The first International Training Course in Rome in 1913 was sponsored by the American Montessori Committee, and 67 of the 83 students were from the US. By 1913 there were more than 100 Montessori schools in the country. Montessori traveled to the United States in December 1913 on a three-week lecture tour which included films of her European classrooms, meeting with large, enthusiastic crowds wherever she traveled. Montessori returned to
28896-433: Was present to severe degrees in earlier forms of education and a lot of progress has been made towards more gender-equal forms of education. Nonetheless, feminists often contend that certain problems still persist in contemporary education. Some argue, for example, that this manifests itself in the prominence given to cognitive development in education, which is said to be associated primarily with masculinity in contrast to
29068-470: Was reunited with his mother after two months. The Montessoris remained in Madras and Kodaikanal until 1946, although they were allowed to travel in connection with lectures and courses. During her years in India, Montessori and her son Mario continued to develop her educational method. The term "cosmic education" was introduced to describe an approach for children aged from six to twelve years that emphasized
29240-543: Was strongly represented at the International Congress in 1929. Montessori herself had been personally associated with the Theosophical Society since 1899 when she became a member of the European Section of the Society, although her membership would eventually lapse. The Theosophical movement, motivated to educate India's poor, was drawn to Montessori education as one solution. Montessori gave
29412-610: Was the third anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in observance of this UNESCO held a celebration. Montessori was one of the invited guests who would also deliver a speech to commemorate and memorialize the momentous occasion. As with her speech six months previously – in front of the UNESCO Board of Governors in Wiesbaden – Montessori once again highlighted the lack of any " Declaration of
29584-420: Was very close to her mother who readily encouraged her. She also had a loving relationship with her father, although he disagreed with her choice to continue her education. The Montessori family moved to Florence in 1873, then to Rome in 1875 because of her father's work. Montessori entered a public elementary school at the age of 6 in 1876. Her early school record was "not particularly noteworthy", although she
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