Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work

This is my favorite book about Dr. Montessori by far. She served as such an inspiration to people who want to live Montessori out loud! It's very unfortunate more people don't know about this method and that it truly works! I am a Montessori Directress and I have taught traditionally as well. Let's just say I'll never go back to traditional teaching. God has made these children and as if we need to feel some type of accomplishment by investing in them.... No, God doesn't create emptiness its up to us as the Montessori parent or educator to allow God to show us through the child what we can learn from them!

I have read this work for many years and still find something new about this genius who was far ahead of her times. Generations of children have had a better life because of her unique way of "following the child." She wrote pamphlets on ecology, protecting the corals, protecting the ecosystems, water cycles, education for peace, reality education, time lines many, many years before anyone else.

I had previously read another book about the Montessori method, and also the English translation of "The Montessori Method".

But only this authorized biography by standing gives a good picture of how important, and how influential she was.

Montessori(1870-1952)was an extremely attractive, intelligent, and complicated person. Although she claimed to be only interested in "the child", and not at all in politics, her writings are shot full of socialist and pacifist ideas. She believed her education methods,through "the child's self directed manual activities" would abolish such tendencies as selfishness, acquisitiveness and the desire for status.

Montessori also claimed in was a great mistake for people to assume that her insistence on the child's "freedom" dis not equate with a lack of discipline. Quite to the contrary, she insisted the teacher's (or "directress's")responsibility was to "destroy evil" in the classroom. And what is "evil"?

Of course, "evil" is anything contrary to Montessori's personal belief.

But Maria Montessori also had some wonderful educational ideas. She believed in "epochs of sensitivity" during which opportunities for the acquisition of certain skills could be most advantageously instilled. She believed the best time to teach literacy was from age 3 1/2 to 4 1/2, and that writing led automatically to reading. She turned out to be right about this, and also said that "absolute musical pitch" could also easily be acquired at the same ages. No one has ever prooved this to be true, so I think I'll do so. My name is Bob and my email address is [email protected]

This book is technically a biography, but it contains a very dense summary of Montessori practice and philosophy. E.M. Standing worked closely with Maria Montessori in the writing of it and she read much of the manuscript. Although not written by Maria Montessori, much of it sounds as if it could be her words. This book is heavy on philosophy and includes elements that I have not previously seen in other books such as the sensitive periods for "Learning Good Manners" and "Grammar."

I have not finished this book. From what I have read Maria Montessori had a unique calling and mission--to bring to the world the understanding that the years of childhood are indeed in many ways the most important years of a person's life.

She was an incredible woman. This book arrived promptly and is well written. I wish my children had gone to a Montessori school,

nice

Great for anyone who wants to know more about Dr. Montessori's life and work.

Great book for anyone going through Montessori training!

One of the best...and it has an index in the back for easy reference of terms.