Listing of AMI 'Communications' 

Contents

Message from AMI’s President
Renilde Montessori

Communiqué on 8th International Montessori Congress
Maria Montessori

In Memoriam: Connie Corbett
Annette Haines

Grace and Courtesy Lessons and the Birth of Social Life
Ginni Sackett

Annual General Meeting of the Association Montessori Internationale
Agenda and Venue

Nominations for the AMI Board

Secretarial Report for 2002

Meditation on Silence
Mario M. Montessori

This year 90 years ago…
Focus on important events of 1913

Question and Answer:
The Environment for the Six-to-Twelve Year-Old Child

An Environment for Adolescents: ‘Erdkinder’

Announcements:

Membership Fees

 Listing of AMI 'Communications' 

Highlights from 'Communications 2003/1'

In a Press Conference (1948) Maria Montessori announced her plans for a new Congress. We quote from the pertinent Communiqué on 8th International Montessori Congress.

Dr. Maria Montessori, the world-famous Educator, stated (…) ‘My life has been spent in the research of truth. I have scrutinised human nature at its origins, both in the East and in the West, through the study of the children and, though it is forty years now since I began my work, childhood seems to be an inexhaustible source of revelations and—let me say it—of hope…’

‘In my new effort to illustrate the contribution of a better humanity or society, I have asked the Association Montessori Internationale to organise a Congress in San Remo, Italy. The congress will take place from the 7-14 November* on the theme “Man's Formation in World Reconstruction” and I aim to invite all those interested in peace to take part in it. I feel the urgency that all forces should be united and used to avert from humanity the repetition of these catastrophes which become ever more terrible.’

*The 8th International Montessori Congress did not take place on the date mentioned, but was held from 22-29 August, 1949.

AMI is planning to publish the lectures delivered by Maria Montessori herself at that Congress in future issues of Communications.

Communiqué can be read in full in the Montessori Article's section.

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In her article “Grace & Courtesy Lessons and the Birth of Social Life” Ginni Sackett, an AMI Teacher Trainer at the Primary Level, explores the underlying philosophy and practice of this very important aspect in Montessori education. As she points out ‘the lessons are an essential component of the Practical Life Area of the Casa: offered when and as needed to all children from the time they enter the Casa until they leave. As a part of Practical Life, offered to children in the First Plane of Development, these lessons specifically address the development and refinement of order and of movement by an emergent personality, and provide raw material for the child’s adaptation to her culture and society. They isolate and model controlled and orderly movements that have a social effect or a social significance in the community, including the controlled and orderly movement which is spoken language. The extent of Grace and Courtesy is wide. They guide each child’s participation in the real social life of the Casa and facilitate skills to meet the everyday challenge of ‘solving social problems, behaving properly, and pursuing aims acceptable to all’.

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From This year 90 years ago…
Focus on important events of 1913

Time Lines are one facet of children’s work in a Montessori class. They provoke research and they provide tangible personal links with people and events from the children’s own past and present. This new feature is an extension of that idea, charting, year by year, the milestones, developments, achievements, and encounters which combined to make the rich and colourful fabric of Maria Montessori’s work and life. This item is launched with highlights from 1913, with special emphasis on the International Training Course in Rome, the first in a series of courses spanning almost forty years.

January: First International Training Course in Rome
Dr. Montessori gave her first ever training course in 1909 in Città di Castello. By 1911 and 1912, many people in education across many countries and continents had heard of this new and revolutionary method. There was avid interest in finding out more about the Casa dei Bambini, the ideas behind it and the woman who had developed and brought about this ‘miracle’. Interested people from all over the world were writing to Dr. Montessori, literally queuing on her doorstep, requesting to be trained so that they could take back the method to their home country. Less than five years after the first course, Dr. Montessori held an international course in Rome, under the patronage of the Queen Mother Margherita of Savoy and under the auspices of the National Montessori Committee. On January 15, the course opene with a splendid welcome reception organised by her great friend, admirer and supporter Marchesa Maria Maraini Guerieri-Gonzaga.

…Giacomo Boni (…) took the students on a guided tour of the excavations he had carried out on the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. These excavations had brought to light Roman ruins dating back not only to the Republican period but also to the early period when Rome was ruled by kings. This seemingly rather modern introduction to the course was one much desired by Dr. Montessori herself, who wished to give her students a taste of Italian art and culture since most of them were visiting Italy for the very first time.

On Monday, January 20 Maria Montessori began her own lectures for the course. (…) All of the ninety students enrolled on the course were foreign and three-quarters were American. From the English language weekly newspaper the Roman Herald (January, 1913) we quote ‘(…) heads of schools both public and private, inspectors of education, teachers [from] all kinds [of] kindergartens, (...) physicians, psychologists, in fact all who have a close interest in little children and their welfare, have flocked to the Dotteressa (sic) (…) Last year a few students from America, England and France studied with the Dotteressa (sic) and since then they have started experimental schools. Other countries represented [were] Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, India, China, Japan, Brazil, Chile, The Argentine Republic, Canada, Mexico, etc.’

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This issue’s Question and Answer Section addresses in detail the desirability of dividing the Environment for the Six-to-Twelve Year-Old Child: whether we should subdivide the Second Plane by having separate environments for the six-nine year-olds and the nine-twelve year-olds. Or whether we should have just one environment for the entire six-twelve group? Camillo Grazzini and Baiba Krumins, Directors of Training at the International Centre for Montessori Studies Foundation of Bergamo, provide ample arguments from Maria Montessori’s writings pertaining to this particular question.

Question and Answer
AMI invites questions for this section of Communications. Just send an e-mail to info@montessori-ami.org.

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An Environment for Adolescents: ‘Erdkinder’

A plan for this environment has been outlined by Maria Montessori in a pamphlet entitled “The Erdkinder and the Function of the University”. In the section dedicated to the Erdkinder, the three pivotal elements included are a farm, a hostel and a shop. These are the bare bones of an environment which can become rich, versatile and productive and, as the need arises, may expand into a veritably self-sustaining working community. Side by side with an academic education suited to young people who have gone through ‘the advanced method’ mentioned by Maria Montessori, this multifaceted environment will provide for young adolescents, side by side with academic instruction, apprenticeships in a variety of arts, crafts, trades, professions and vocations taught by experts in their field. Young people of this age, therefore, are not condemned to the anxieties of intellectual achievement as an ultimate end. They can continue to make purposeful use of ‘the hand —instrument of the intelligence’ thereby not only enhancing their intellect but, more pragmatically, enhancing their possibilities. The self-assurance acquired will allow them to develop hardiness and equanimity with which to face life’s vicissitudes.

The qualifications of the teacher of adolescents should be those required to teach in secondary/high school. There could also be vocational experts and professionals in their own field. In view of this there is no specific Montessori training required. The adolescents are provided with a prepared environment, not a school. Dr. Maria Montessori outlined the syllabus and methods without going into specific detail.

The Pedagogical Committee does not intend to establish training programmes or offer specific guidelines other than those contained in the writings of Dr. Maria Montessori herself.

For further reading on ‘Erdkinder’ the Committee recommends Appendices A & B of Montessori’s book From Childhood to Adolescence (currently published in English in the Clio Series and by Kalakshetra).

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