Spontaneous Activity in EducationMontessori, Maria
Science
Spontaneous Activity in Education
Montessori, Maria
Montessori method of education
Other types of clever pupils are those who are helped at home by
tutors, or educated mothers who devote themselves to their
advancement; while other types of dull pupils, often punished, are
poor children who are not made welcome in their homes, but are left to
themselves, sometimes in the streets; or who are already working for
their bread in the early hours of the morning, before coming to
school. In an inquiry I made, the children who were praised and passed
without examination were in the category of those who brought a good
luncheon with them; the children at the bottom of the class, who
incurred punishments, were those who brought no provisions, or only a
piece of bread.
It must not be supposed that the above is an exhaustive enumeration of
the causes which contribute to the deceptive phenomenon connected with
prizes and punishments; but it is obvious that a clearly defined road
has been marked out which should lead us to comprehension of the
facts.
Prizes and punishments are not merely final episodes, they are
exponents of the moral organization of the school. Just as the
annulment of the examination of a pupil who has helped a companion is
but the extreme instance of "an education" which tends to isolate the
individual in his egotism; so the prize and the punishment are the
extreme incidents of the constant principle on which the organism of
the school is based: emulation. The principle is that children, seeing
others cleverer than themselves, who get high marks, praises and
prizes, will be stimulated to imitate these, to do better, to overtake
their companions. Thus what may be described as a kind of mechanism is
evolved, which uplifts the whole school, not merely towards work, but
towards effort. It is the moral purpose to accustom children to
"suffer."
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