Elena Hiltunen read Maria Montessori’s book The Absorbing Mind of a Child for us.
“The main books of Maria Montessori have long been translated into Russian — “Children’s House. The method of scientific pedagogy” (AST: Astrel, 2005), “Self-education and self-education in elementary school” (Karapuz, 2009), “Help me do it myself” (Karapuz, 2004) and others. Until recently, it remained a mystery to us only how she understands the very first period of the life of children — from birth to three years.
The book The Absorbent Mind of a Child deals with this very topic. Maria Montessori argues that adults are mistaken when they seek, first of all, to teach a child, to pass on their life experience to him. For the development of children, something else is needed, she writes, to skillfully observe their life, patiently wait for the disclosure of talents and help them manifest. Montessori argues that the goal of education should be the development of the latent abilities of children (and not the authoritarian teaching of knowledge developed by mankind, as is now, for example, in Russia). And the first two years of a child’s life are the most important. But how do you teach young children? “What lessons can we teach this tiny creature that does not understand the meaning of what we are saying?” Montessori asks.
And he doesn’t give advice. But it inclines us to closely study the mental life of the child, which is fundamentally different from the mental life of adults. How does a child gain independence? How does he master human language and at what point does he begin to think? What are the visible manifestations of the spiritual life in him? How exactly can we help him on the path of growing up? These are the main questions answered in this book.
It is important not to teach children, but to skillfully observe their life and help their talents to appear.
One can complain about the fact that the text was written half a century ago and many new discoveries have been made in the science of man during this time. Or doubt the excessive biological and psychological, and even a certain religiosity of Montessori’s approaches. But the author’s ability to subtly and accurately describe his observations of the lives of many children that Montessori led in different parts of the world — in Africa, in Europe, in America, does not cease to amaze. The scientific interpretation of these observations is the main outline of the book.