Name: Muniba Farid

Roll no: D15

PMC Assignment Module 1

“Introduction to Montessori”

1. Discuss life and work of Dr. Maria Montessori and why is

she referred to as a lady much ahead of her time?

Dr. Maria Montessori was born in Italy in 1870. Most of her life was spent in Rome.
Her father Ale Jandro was an accountant in government services. Her mother,
Renilde, had good education for a woman of her time and was more open to the
many transformations that affected daily life at the end of the 19th Century.
Maria Montessori, an only child, she was a vivacious, strong-willed girl. Her
mother encouraged her curiosity, which the rigid schools of her time did not.
Maria Montessori’s quest for knowledge lasted lifelong. Maria Montessori attended
male technical secondary school instead of traditional one and her favorite subject
there was mathematics. Initially she wanted to pursue a degree in engineering but
she later pursueda degree in Medicine and became the first lady in Italy to do so.
Maria Montessori graduated at the top of her class in 1896 with a diploma that had
to behind edited to reflect her gender. A month after graduation, she was chosen as
part of a small Italian delegation to attend the Berlin Women’s Congress that had
delegates from all over the world. Extremely pretty and well spoken, Dr. Montessori
made a big splash with her speeches about women’s education and work conditions
in Italy. In her second speech, she advocated an issue that still has not entirely been
resolved in our own times: equal pay for equal work.
Later, Dr. Montessori developed her medical career. She became involved with the
neediest of patients. The neediest, she soon found, were what were then called
“idiot children.” They were the mentally retarded who were kept in horrific conditions
in asylums along with adults suffering severe mental illnesses. With her usual
energy, she researched methods of helping them and soon gained fame for her
remarkable successes.
Maria Montessori later returned to university to study Philosophy and Physical
Anthropology and became absorbed with the desire to change educational practice.
Reflecting on her extremely successful work with the mentally retarded, she thought
how similar activities would benefit normal children. But as a scientist, she needed to
test her ideas. She had a chance in 1907. She took on the directorship of a daycare
center for preschool children in a newly built housing project in the slums of Rome.
Montessori called this center the “Casa De Bambini” or “Children’s House.” Offering
Name: Muniba Farid
Roll no: D15

some of the materials she had used with the older mentally deficient children, she
soon discovered the normal children ignored the fancy toys and became
independently absorbed in more meaningful tasks.
She believed that the child constructs knowledge from experiencing the world.
Learning, she said, was not something that needed to be forced or motivated.
Instead, learning is something that humans do naturally. The early years especially
are ones of great mental growth. Throughout the early years of life, the child absorbs
impressions from the world around him. Not with his mind, but with his life.
A unification of mental and physical energies comes about when a child becomes
absorbed in work. Montessori called this “normalization.” And concentration, she
said, was the key. The carefully prepared environment at Montessori schools
provides the opportunity for children to grow intellectually and emotionally. There are
several hallmarks of these environments:-
 They are aesthetically pleasing using lovely materials. The materials are
readily available and children choose from among them during a long block of
unscheduled class time.-
 Activities take place outside as well as inside. Gardening is often a part of the
Montessori experience.-
 Children with a 3 year age span work together in the same room and learn
from each other. In what Montessorians call primary classes, there are
children from ages 3 to 6. Dr. Montessori experimented with activities and
materials throughout her lifetime in order to find which ones engaged the
children easily and repeatedly allowing them to integrate the physical and
mental energies.-
 The practical life exercises first developed from Dr. Montessori’s desire to
improve the hygiene and nutrition of her slum children. They proved their value
over the years helping children gain self-confidence as they learned to take
care of themselves. The child develops logical thought patterns as she follows
through an activity, in this case washing from the beginning to middle (rinsing
and drying) to the end (cleaning up). A child becomes able to control his
impulses and concentrate on the task at hand. Normalization often first takes
place with practical life experiences.-
 The Montessori approach is based on a delicate balance of freedom and
discipline. Children are free to move about in their classroom and yet their
movements are limited to the confines of the room. By the structure of the
exercises, the scientifically designed materials, and by the requirements of the
social group of which they are a part, the children work at their own pace. They
can work at their own pace, but they cannot work with the materials they do
Name: Muniba Farid
Roll no: D15

not know how to use. They are not free to disrupt others or misuse materials.
They learn to return the material to its correct place and in its srcinal condition
so that it will be there ready for the next child.-
 Freedom and discipline go hand in hand. The freedom to work undisturbed
results in a kind of discipline that could never be brought about by threats
or rewards; which brings us to the roll of the trained adult in Montessori
classrooms. The adult in a Montessori classroom has a task that is
much different from a traditional teacher. While a teacher in a traditional
classroom is active and the child is passive, in the Montessori approach, the
child assumes the active role and the adult often appears passive. This is
because Montessori saw the aim of education is to free the child from adult
domination and allow him to develop along more natural pathways. It is the
child who teaches himself when he works with the materials in the prepared
environment.

Montessori understood the need for involvement, Mental, Physical, and Emotional,
on the part of the child in order to construct knowledge. About 100 years later, the
ideas she developed in Rome about the process of learning and how environments
and adults ideally supported still remain at the core of Montessori
educational practice.

Americans became interested in the Montessori vision of education. She made two
well publicized lecture tours through the United States. She was greeted as a
celebrity by the notables of her time. The Philosopher and educator, John Dewey,
introduced the lectures she gave to an audience at New York’s Carnegie Hall. But
an even greater opportunity for Montessori to demonstrate her form of education
was the celebrated World’s Fair of 1915 in San Francisco. There she was invited to
set up a model classroom in the Palace of Education. Fair goers could watch
the children at work from bleachers outside the glass walls.

Over the next decades, Montessori schools multiplied and she gave training courses
throughout Europe and even lectured in Argentina. In Vienna, the young Erik
Erickson attended the training program and created a Montessori inspired school.

In the remaining years of her life, she received many honors and remained a heavy
travel schedule to deliver lectures and training sessions across Europe and even in
India. Maria Montessori died at age 81 – just an hour after actively discussing a trip
to Africa to train teachers there.

Her schools are her greatest legacy. All over the world, her ideas shaped schools
whose teachers have been trained in her Philosophy. Her work has also greatly
Name: Muniba Farid
Roll no: D15

influenced educational practice outside the Montessori world. The critical importance
of the first 6 years of life or the formation of intellectual and emotional constructs is
Montessori ideas that all accept and is now being demonstrated by Brain
Tomography. All early education classrooms now have the child-size furniture with
the open shelving she first designed and often some of the same materials. Multi-
age grouping and the provision of non-scheduled blocks of time for independent
work are legacies of Montessori’s contributions to educational practice – seldom
credited to her.

Dr. Montessori leaves behind not only an outstanding body of research work and
observation of children and their abilities to grow and learn, but also a system
of education which promotes the freedom of the child to become more concentrated,
creative and imaginative as he develops intellectually and emotionally. Her lifetime
work studying child development and education remains well known internationally,
numerous organizations promote her methods and Montessori schools are prevalent
in both the United States and many other countries, the reason why she is referred
to as “A lady a head of her time”.

2. Which are the main requirements to be considered to start a

House of Children? How to you implement them?

The natural urges during childhood are universal and every child experiences them.
However the behavioral experiences children undergo during sensitive periods may
vary from child to child. Homes are designed according to the adult’s needs, so they
cannot fulfill the natural urges of children as the children are being restricted and
forbidden by elders to meet their natural urges. Children cannot access anything
freely and comfortably. Montessori is the place where children can do whatever they
want and meet their needs and interest. Therefore, one has to be very particular and
consider numerous things when start the house of children. It is the most difficult
task to start it. There are several requirements which one should be keeping in mind.
1) Class room design is the most important place where children have to stay.
Montessori educational apparatus, tables and shelving, and related activities
equipment should be appropriate and several in number so that children could
approach them.
2) The number of students in the classroom should not be exceeding more than
30 students.
3) The size of the classroom should allow minimum of 20 square feet per
students at the early level, 30 squares for the elementary level and 40 squares
would be for secondary level.
4) Montessori house should be child-sized where he could enjoy his age. A child
sized kitchen, science lab, an art studio, bath rooms, hobby workshop,
Name: Muniba Farid
Roll no: D15

everything should be according to the size of a child. They lead him to fulfill his
desires and enjoy his own world.
5) A house should be design in such a way that the child could face outdoor
environment. There must be window through which the children could face
sunlight at a daytime and become a natural source of ventilation.
6) There must be the children garden where child can grow vegetables and fruits
of their choice. It leads them to close to their natural environment.
7) There should not be any prohibition of doing something which the student is
not allowed at his home. “Prohibition is sweet or bitter, prohibition is
prohibition.”
8) Children are usually not allowed to do by themselves what they want at their
home so Montessori room should provide them this opportunity.
These are some factors which should consider while starting any house of children.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT:
Considering requirements are very important but implementation is more important
than them because implementation is something which we have to implement and
how it works is based on it. There must be a lot of things which should be implement
those are:
 Respect for the children.
 Focus on individual child
 The prepared environment
 Polite behavior of the teacher
 Parent- teacher meeting.

RESPECT FOR THE CHILDREN:

Respect is the basic thing which everybody requires. Every child needs respect.
Parents try to force them to follow the parents without regarding their needs and
interest. Therefore, first we should take great care of the respect of the child.

FOCUS ON INDIVIDUAL CHILD:

Every child is different from one another. Teacher should focus on individual child as
his learning progress, growth and understanding is different from other children.

THE PREPARED ENVIRONMENT:

Prepared environment is very important. When they have prepared environment,
they are able to do what they want. The material is available for the child which they
can easily access and do whatever their interest.

POLITE BEHAVIOR OF THE TEACHER:

Name: Muniba Farid
Roll no: D15

The teacher is the role model for the student. Her behavior should be polite towards
students. As the teacher is the spiritual mother of the students, they learn a lot from
them after their mother. So, her behavior and attitude should be very good.

PARENT- TEACHER MEETING:

There must be parent-teacher meeting as parents should know the progress and
development of their student and the most important about the attitude and the
nature of the student. Montessori teacher can guide them according to the nature of
their children.

CONCLUSION:
To sum up, the house of the children is the place where children can meet their
needs and interests. So, these requirements should keep in mind when starting the
school.

3. What are the discoveries made by Dr. Maria Montessori by

observing the child?

Maria Montessori's discoveries:

Maria Montessori made a lot of discoveries by observing the children. She is a
founder of Montessori education. She conducted a lot of experiments and observed
children by spending a lot of time with them. She discovered several aspects of
children. She has specified some of the discoveries she had made during her work.
According to Maria Montessori children work until they reach to their goal. They are
very enthusiastic about the work which makes them select and concentrate on
different activities which lead them to make them perfect in their inner development.
Children love to work purposefully, they work out of the natural drive, which makes
them select and concentrate on tasks which are appropriate for development.

The teacher or an adult should follow the child rather them to motivate him to do
work.
When a child works in different areas of human activity at specific time that lead
them to develop the awareness and usage of doing. The teacher should not ignore
their inner urge of doing activities.

When a child does activities again and again or when there is a spontaneous
repetition of an activity is done with great interest the result is concentration .The
child concentrates more when they found right conditions. And condition is just a
beginning not an end.
Maria discovered that children really need an order in their life. She found out when
she saw her children putting their things back to their places; same in the case of
values, functions and other human activities. The child wants to learn by practice
Name: Muniba Farid
Roll no: D15

that is the truth, the need to see it being practiced. Montessori students in this age,
built up their personalities, they needed consistency in all aspects of environment.

Normality refers to human power working in unison or in collaboration. Dr. Maria

says that during the early childhood it is possible to rectify any developmental error
and bring the child back to normality. The child should work individually and with
freedom. All activities are very important to bring child back to normality.

A child needs those activities which help him to develop sensorial concepts,
language, arithmetic art, and culture. These are very important for building of child’s
personality. Montessori found that these activities can bring intelligence in the
children as they love to perform these activities.

A child could assimilate that the knowledge which people think that this kind of
knowledge is too complex for the children but according to Maria Montessori if that
knowledge present in rightful manner or condition, that would be easy for them to
digest.
Montessori figure out that discipline should not be imposed on children. If a child is
satisfied, he would start respect others. He may learn discipline unintentionally.
Real discipline comes along with freedom.

If a child is satisfied he or she starts respect elders because real obedience is based
on love, respect and faith.
She was confident that the child’s behavior rely on the environment. If a child
couldn't get the environment for development, when his or her inner needs do not
fulfill, he becomes stubborn, disobedient and destructive. So we should provide him
or her suitable environment and condition for development and Montessori is the
right place for that.

She discovered that children love to do their household work. They believe in a
statement that “Help me Do it myself” but parents don’t pay any need towards this.
So, she says we should trust the child.

Maria had a view that we should provide a very good environment to the student in
order to attain good result. For this purpose, she used child size table and chair
rather than heavy desk. She discovered the child wants everything according to its
size. Tables were so small and light in weight so two children could easily move it.

Another very important point which she had discovered is traffic pattern. She figure
out that a room where children had to stay, it should not be congested and
overloaded.
The children love to sit on the floor so that’s why she put a lot of rugs and mats for
children where they sit and do activities.
Name: Muniba Farid
Roll no: D15

Maria observed that the building and outside environment should be according to
the size of a child. For instance toilet, low sink, windows, shelves, garden tools etc.
designed in child sized.

4. What does “PILES” stands for when we talk of human development?

Discuss the physical, lingual and intellectual development taking the
place during 3 to 6 years of age?

PILES stand for:

P = Physical
I = Intellectual
L = Language
E = Emotional
S = Social

The age from 3 to 6 is the first phase of a child development.

In this phase, the child needs proper environment and freedom to practice his
activities which he has learns, observes and watches. Now he wants to put them in
action.
Children are very curious and want to explore the world in this age. In this phase,
there is a great development in their lingual, physical, and intellectual development.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT:
Physical development is very important and rapid in the phase. A child is very active,
imaginative and energetic. He wants to conquer the world in this phase of age. Their
muscles get strength first then gradually develop coordination. In this age, the
physical activity involves many energetic activities. The physical development
progresses with the age.

At the age of 3 years:

1. A child is Skilled at running, jumping, walking on tiptoes and kicking balls.
2. He can move his tricycle by the use of pedals and steers it well.
3. He jumps off or upstairs in an adult style.
4. He is able to sits at the bottom with crossed ankles.

At the age of 4 years:

1. He can bend down and climb up trees in this age.
2. He becomes more good in kicking and catching balls and playing other games.
3. In this age, he is able to run upstairs with full efficiency.
4. He can cross his legs and balances one foot for a long time.
Name: Muniba Farid
Roll no: D15

At the age of 5 to 6 years:

1. At the age of five a child becomes more strong and energetic.
2. He can dance and play all kinds of games.
3. His balance is improved and he is able to walk along a thin line.
4. He can swim, climb, and slide.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT:
Language starts developing when a child is born. But in this age, his language
develops and achieves more sense more efficiently. He can easily make full
sentences. He becomes advance in development in this age group. The child is able
to understand about objects and relationships.

At the age of 3 years:

1. A child can ask many questions and recite names, age and sex.
2. Their sentences are easily understandable and they have simple conversations
with others.
3. Their grammar is not development totally but they have an understanding of
I, you, me, him, her etc.
4. They can recite songs and rhymes of different poems and want to read stories
over and over.

At the age of 4 years:

1. Their grammar becomes perfect in this age.
2. Loves to have jokes
3. They not only like stories but also love to tell to others.
4. They are still confused in pronouncing the letters K with T And
R with W, or TH with F

At the age of 5 to 6 years:

1. They start asking meanings of different words as their vocabulary builds up.
2. They start reciting the address, name and age.
3. They start to sing more songs and rhymes.
4. They now, in this age only confuse with S with TH, or F with TH.
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT:
The child’s intellect also improves with the passage of time. In different age, the
child strengthens his intellectual power.

At the age of 3:
1. He can name all colors.
2. He uses child’s scissors for cutting
3. He can hold pencil properly in this age.
4. Can copy a circle.
Name: Muniba Farid
Roll no: D15

At the age of 4:
1. He can draw a house
2. He is able to build ten bricks tower.

At the age of 5 to 6 years:

1. Now able to draw figures with all features including head, body, arms etc.
2. He can copy a square, circle, a triangle etc.
3. He is now able to relate time of day corresponding to everyday activities.

All is all; a child develops his physical, intellectual, social, emotional, and lingual in
the age of 3 to 6 years

5. Write a comprehensive note on the role of teacher in a

Montessori classroom?

A Montessori teacher is considered to be a guide, facilitator or a directress. Her role

in teaching Montessori students is very distinct and significant. In order to have a
better understanding of a role of teacher we have two types of art of teaching.
1. Productive Art
2. Cooperative Art

PRODUCTIVE ART:
It refers to an “art in which the activity of an artist is the principle and the only cause
of production” i e. shoemaker or tailor. They both have end product as shoemaker
have shoes and tailor stitches the clothes.

COOPERATIVE ART:
In this type of art, the end product is not predefined. There are three cooperative arts
which are: farming, healing, and teaching. Montessori teacher’s main concern is with
teaching under this art.

ROLE OF A TEACHER IN MONTESSORI CLASS:

There are numerous roles of a teacher in the Montessori classroom. She has to be a
role model for children as they imitate her actions. The important Roles of the
teacher in a classroom are given below.

PREPARATION OF ENVIRONMENT:
A Montessori mentor should prepare the best learning environment where a child
could easily select his own work which is according to his interest. It should be put in
low shelves where the child could easily explore and place it in order.

PROVIDE APPROPRIATE MATERIALS:

Name: Muniba Farid
Roll no: D15

A Montessori directress should provide appropriate material which meets the needs
of the Montessori students to develop their interest in different fields of education
and practical life.

OBSERVING THE CHILDREN:

A directress should observe all children individually. She should deal with them
according to their interest and provide materials or activities but there must be a
dynamic link between children and the prepared environment. She should observe
her student very keenly in order to interpret his need.

GIVING LESSONS:
Montessori teacher’s lesson should be brief and interesting therefore their attention
should not be diverting elsewhere. She should provide simple and necessary
information to the child to do the work on their own pace.

EVALUATE A STUDENT:
A directress should evaluate her student in such a way; she should able to know
about the needs and effectiveness of her student. She should evaluate her children
performance individually.

A GOOD COMMUNICATOR:
As we know that a teacher is a role model for a student; she should be a very good
communicator and help the children to learn how to be a good communicator and
communicate their thoughts to adults.

MORAL SENSE DEVELOPER:

The role of Montessori guider is to develop moral sense in children. She should
develop the sense of courtesy, calm, grace and respect.

DIAGNOSTICIAN:
Diagnostician’s mean concerns are with psycho-educational assessment. A
Montessori teacher is a diagnostician as she can figure out the growth,
development, and behavior of the children and guide their parents about their
children habits.

PROTECT STUDENT’S INDEPENDENCE:

A directress should give space to students and let them to work according to their
own interest. She should respect and protect their freedom. She may present
interesting and relevant lesson and then free them to work according to their interest
and generate new ideas and meet their needs.

SUPPORTIVE:
Name: Muniba Farid
Roll no: D15

The teacher should be supportive, offering warmth, security, stability, and non-
judgment acceptance to each child. She should support her student to learn or
generate new ideas and work independently.
To sum up, Montessori directress is more than a teacher. Her ultimate goal is to
facilitate Montessori children. She works as a guide, directress, and teacher or
mentor in order to retain curiosity, creativity and intelligence in students