While there are several aspects that have contributed to Dr. Montessori’s discoveries in the field of education, the biggest contributor is the lady’s basic nature itself. Dr. Montessori had a very powerful blend of three key factors that are essential to creating a new movement: Research , Teaching and Enterprise. She did her research based on systematically designed experiments. She applied her research findings to practical application in teaching. Once she realized that her research findings have the potential to dramatically improve the current practice, she began the process of persuasion to make the experiments known everywhere, which in turn attracted the attention and contributions of others who were equally committed to the cause. . This persuasion is attributable to her enterprise. This intellectual portrait of Dr. Montessori, I believe, is the biggest contributor to why the Montessori discoveries have taken root and stood the test of time.
Besides the three above mentioned factors, some of the other contributing factors could be the following :
Her spirit of inquiry and curiosity: Her curiosity about the nature of the child and the conditions that will facilitate early childhood learning led her down a path where she developed a passion to discover the underlying principles that govern the early childhood years. This provided the foundational reason for her discovery.
Her belief in nature: Dr. Maria Montessori recognized the role played by nature during the physio-embryonic stage and psycho-embryonic stage. She knew that nature was doing its job of helping the child through a series of developmental phases whereby the child spontaneously absorbs wisdom from the environment without any sort of prodding from the adults. This realization provided the basis for her to start on the path of investigating what led to this wisdom absorption.
Her belief in the importance of latent talents over skill acquisition: Dr. Maria Montessori believed every child comes into this world with an inner drive. The child has the potential to acquire knowledge and expertise in those areas that correspond with this inner calling. She believed that when the child recognizes these inner drives, follows the calling and also receives the right guidance from the adults around him, latent potentialities get established. She believed that recognizing these potentialities are more important than cramming the child with knowledge and skills because knowledge and skills can be acquired anytime later, but if the early childhood phase is missed, the opportunities for the child to follow his inner drive is lost. This belief made her place more emphasis on the principles of freedom, order and discipline than on the conventional pedagogical practice of teaching the child various pieces of knowledge.
Her fresh perspective at looking at a child: Dr. Montessori did not see the child as a miniature version of the adult. She saw the child a whole different entity from that of the adult. She believed that the child and adult were two different forms of human being. This belief stemmed from her observation of how nature works on children to help them acquire wisdom from the environment whereas it does not work that way with adults. This fresh perspective of looking at the child contributed to her belief that the child needs to be treated differently and this in turn contributed to her investigations around what makes the child so special and what are the conditions that will form an ideal developmental environment for the child.
Her ‘turnaround’ question: When Dr. Montessori worked with mentally challenged children in Italy she observed how creating a developmentally conducive environment can cause dramatic improvements in such children. She asked herself a ‘turnaround question’. “Why not study what would be the results if such a developmentally conducive environment is presented to a mentally healthy, normal child”. This ‘turnaround’ question led her to design a series of experiments and observations and thus contributed to the development of her principles and philosophy.
Her recognition of the limitations of the prevalent childhood teaching philosophies: Dr. Montessori had felt a restless discontent over the pedagogical practices for children. She felt that it was designed to suit adults but did not make the child the central focus. She also felt that the teaching practices did not allow the child to explore his true yearnings and potentialities but rather focused on ‘filling him up’ with information. She felt that this kind of education – with too much focus on knowledge, skills and information but without an equal emphasis on the person’s true yearnings – would lead to a very lopsided development of a human being. She felt that this kind of education would not do justice to the spiritual and moral fiber of mankind. This dissatisfaction with the prevalent teaching philosophy led her to strike out in search of a better philosophy.
Thus, Dr. Montessori’s discoveries were essentially attributable to her mental make-up and passion. Her passion and rigorous research later persuaded many others to supplement her efforts in refining the discoveries and spreading the science and art of the Montessori philosophy.
