Discovering Your Child: New Ways to Understand and Love Them

Author: Maria Montessori (Italy)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-01-01
Features: This book reveals new concepts and methods for cultivating children. Montessori believed that every child has the need to observe, react to the outside world, learn, concentrate, and even be alone with themselves. For this reason, she has been committed to breaking away from existing educational traditions and seeking new methods to understand and love children. In this book, she describes the characteristics of children and the methods to fully awaken their enthusiasm for learning. As she said: "Even when educating very young children, our goal should not be to prepare them for school, but for their lives."
The reason Montessori's educational method has influenced the entire world's education system lies in the fact that, based on summarizing the naturalistic educational thoughts of Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, and others, she formed her own revolutionary concept of children. She believed that children have an innate inner vitality," which is an active, dynamic, and developing existence with boundless power. The task of education is to stimulate and promote the development of children's inner potential," allowing them to grow naturally and freely according to their own laws. She that children should not be treated as objects but as individuals. Children are not containers to be filled by adults and teachers; they are not wax or clay that can be molded at will; they are not blocks that can be carved freely; nor are they flowers or animals cultivated or raised by parents and teachers—they are living, active, and developing human beings. Educators, teachers, and parents should carefully observe and study children, understand their inner world, and discover the secrets of childhood." They should love children, respect their individuality, and promote the natural development of their intellect, spirit, body, and personality. She also used observations from the Hand Observation Materials and Children's Houses to propose a series of laws related to children's development.
Montessori believed that every child needs to observe, react to the outside world, learn, concentrate, and even be alone with themselves. For this reason, Montessori has been committed to breaking away from existing educational traditions and seeking new methods to understand and love children. In this book, she describes the characteristics of children and teaches how to fully awaken their enthusiasm for learning. As Montessori said: "Even when educating very young children, our goal should not be to prepare them for school, but for their lives."