Project Gutenberg's Spontaneous Activity in Education, by Maria Montessori

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Title: Spontaneous Activity in Education

Author: Maria Montessori

Release Date: March 2, 2008 [EBook #24727]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_THE
ADVANCED MONTESSORI METHOD_

SPONTANEOUS ACTIVITY
IN EDUCATION

BY

MARIA MONTESSORI

AUTHOR OF "THE MONTESSORI METHOD," "PEDAGOGICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY," ETC.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY
FLORENCE SIMMONDS

[Illustration: company logo]

NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

_Copyright, 1917, by_
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

_All rights reserved, including that of translation into
foreign languages_.

Printed in the U.S.A.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

A SURVEY OF THE CHILD'S LIFE

Laws of the child's psychical life paralleled by those of its physical.

Current objections to a system of education based upon "liberty"

Hygiene has freed the infant from straps and swaddling clothes
and left it free to develop

Education must leave the soul free to develop

Principle of liberty in education not a principle of abandonment

The liberty accorded the child of to-day is purely physical.
Civil rights of the child in the twentieth century.

Removal of perils of disease a step toward physical liberation

Supplying the child's physical needs is not sufficient

Child's social rights overlooked in the administration of
orphan asylums

Poor child's health and property confiscated in the custom
of wet nursing

We recognize justice only for those who can defend themselves

How we receive the infants that come into the world.

Home has no furnishings adapted to their small size

Society prepares a mockery for their reception in the shape
of useless toys

Child not allowed to act for himself

Constant interruption of his activities prevents psychica