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In: Bestsellers, American, 1895-1923·Teaching & Education
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #39863.
The book is a scholarly translation of Maria Montessori’s own exposition of her scientific pedagogy, first published in Italian and now presented for an English‑speaking audience. It opens with a series of acknowledgments that locate the work within a network of collaborators, Mrs. Guy Baring, Mrs. John R. Fisher (Dorothy Canfield), and the House of Childhood, Inc., and then offers a preface addressed to the American edition. In this preface Montessori recounts how a Harvard professor’s suggestion led to the translation, frames the Italian volume as a prelude to a larger project, and explains that the present text incorporates revisions and new chapters drawn from recent classroom experience. The detailed contents list that follows outlines a systematic treatment of topics ranging from the philosophical underpinnings of “Scientific Pedagogy” to concrete lessons on reading, writing, gymnastics, and the senses, giving a clear sense of the book’s comprehensive, method‑by‑method approach.
Written in the formal, didactic style of early‑20th‑century academic prose, the work reflects Montessori’s blend of scientific observation, social reform, and personal conviction. Its tone is earnest and occasionally polemical, positioning the “Children’s Houses” as laboratories for both child development and the emerging science of education. Readers who appreciate historical educational theory, scholars of early childhood pedagogy, or practitioners interested in the original articulation of Montessori’s ideas will find the text rewarding. Those drawn to the intellectual climate of the Progressive Era, its emphasis on liberty, observation, and the integration of manual and intellectual work, will especially enjoy the depth and rigor of this foundational treatise.
The opening · free to read
In February, 1911, Professor Henry W. Holmes, of the Division of Education of Harvard University, did me the honour to suggest that an English translation be made of my Italian volume, "_Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica applicato all' educazione infantile nelle Case dei Bambini_." This suggestion represented one of the greatest events in the history of my educational work. To-day, that to which I then looked forward as an unusual privilege has become an accomplished fact.
The Italian edition of "_Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica_" had no preface, because the book itself I consider nothing more than the preface to a more comprehensive work, the aim and extent of which it only indicates. For the educational method for children of from three to six years set forth here is but the earnest of a work that, developing the same principle and method, shall cover in a like manner the successive stages of education. Moreover, the method which obtains in the Case dei Bambini offers, it seems to me, an experimental field for the study of man, and promises, perhaps, the development of a science that shall disclose other secrets of nature.
In the period that has elapsed between the publication of the Italian and American editions, I have had, with my pupils, the opportunity to simplify and render more exact certain practical details of the method, and to gather additional observations concerning discipline. The results attest the vitality of the method and the necessity for an extended scientific collaboration in the near future, and are embodied in two new chapters written for the American edition. I know that my method has been widely spoken of in America, thanks to Mr. S. S. McClure, who has presented it through the pages of his well-known magazine. Indeed, many Americans have already come to Rome for the purpose of observing personally the practical application of the method in my little schools. If, encouraged by this movement, I may express a hope for the future, it is that my work in Rome shall become the centre of an efficient and helpful collaboration.
To the Harvard professors who have made my work known in America and to McClure's Magazine, a mere acknowledgment of what I owe them is a barren response; but it is my hope that the method itself, in its effect upon the children of America, may prove an adequate expression of my gratitude.
MARIA MONTESSORI.
ROME, 1912.
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