Shanza Qayyum D14702

Q No.1: Discuss the life and works of Dr. Maria Montessori and
why is she referred to as a lady of much ahead of her time?
LIFE AND WORKS OF DR. MARIA MONTESSORI:
Dr. Maria Montessori is a founder of Montessori Method of Teaching. She
was a very confident and strong lady of her time. She is well known of
introducing the Montessori Method and also the early
childhoodeducation.
She was born on 31stAugust 1870 to an educated
middleclass family in Ancona, Italy. Her father was
aconservative military man and her mother
was liberal ladywho always encouraged her
daughter to pursuit hereducation. Maria Montessori,
An only child, she wasavivacious, strong-willed girl.

EDUCATION:
Her early education was in Florence and then Rome. At the age of
thirteen, shewent to secondary, technical school. In those days Europe
was very conservation inits attitude toward and treatment of women, but
Montessori pursed medical and scientific education. After that, she
graduated with highest honors from medical school of the University of
Rome. She became the first lady doctor in the history ofItaly in 1896. She
was a brilliant student throughout her academic career.

WORK WITH SPECIAL CHILDREN:

Montessori was well known for her contributions in education. She
became the director of the “deficient and insane” children in the
University of Rome. She started working with these mentally disabled
children. She discovered that her children need purposeful activities to do
in order to get sense and mind and she successfully achieved her goals.
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Inspiration from Itard and Seguin:

Maria was so much inspired by the work of two French doctors who had
also worked with children who had some physical and mental disorders.
They attempted basic skills in their work for example reading, writing or
alternative methods which were helped full for children. Maria had
keenly observed their methodology and figure out that children could
learn the same things as the normalchildren. After the success, she
started working with normal children.

Casa dei Bambini:

Montessori started her first school with normal children named Casa dei
Bambini (the house of children) which was inaugurated in 1907. At the
beginning of the school, there were only fifty students and one untrained
teacher. In her school, she introduced exercises of practical day living for
example cleaning, dressing,gardening etc. She noticed that children took
great interest in doing these kinds of activities. These kinds of activities
made the independent and more efficient. Whenshe found out that the
job of the teacher is to serve the children, she believed that the urges of
the children are universal and that is in the nature of the child to perform
such activities. The children of the school of Casa dei Bambini had
showed outstanding progress in their academic and practical work. They
learnt a lot of activities related to writing and reading etc. her school
became famous due tothe progress of these young angel whom people
consider they can’t do anything until they sent to public schools.

WORLDWIDE RESPONSE:
Her school became famous all over the world in a very short time. After
first school, she started numerous schools. People from all over the world
visited her and appreciated her effort and discoveries. Her methodology
was started to practiceall over the world.

HIGHEST RECOGNITION AND AWARDS:

She became so much successful as she was nominated for Nobel Peace
Prize thrice. She was even pictured on the Italian 200 lire coins and
through 1990s on the1000 lire bills.
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DEATH:
Dr. Maria Montessori died on 1952 in the Netherlands. Her name would
always alive becauseof her extraordinary contribution in the field of
education.

LADY A HEAD:
Montessori is referred to lady a head because her discoveries are being
practiced all over the world. She is immortal through her methods which
are still being practiced now and will in future also. She lived in old days
but was definitely “A woman much Ahead of her time”.
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Q No.2: Which are the main requirements to be considered to

start a House of Children? How to you implement them?

The natural urges during childhood are universal and every child
experiences them.However the behavioral experiences children undergo
during sensitive periods mayvary from child to child. Homes are designed
according to the adult’s needs, so they cannot fulfill the natural urges of
children as the children are being restricted and forbidden by elders to
meet their natural urges. Children cannot access anything freely and
comfortably.

Montessori is the place where children can do whatever they want and
meet their needs and interest. Therefore, one has to be very particular
and consider numerous things when start the house of children. It is the
most difficult task to start it. There are several requirements which one
should be keeping in mind.

1) Class room design is the most important place where children have
to stay. Montessori educational apparatus, tables and shelving, and
related activities equipment should be appropriate and several in
number so that children could approach them.
2) The number of students in the classroom should not be exceeding
more than 30 students.
3) The size of the classroom should allow minimum of 20 square feet
per students at the early level, 30 squares for the elementary level
and 40 squares would be for secondary level.
4) Montessori house should be child-sized where he could enjoy his
age. A child sized kitchen, science lab, an art studio, bath rooms,
hobby workshop, everything should be according to the size of a
child. They lead him to fulfill his desires and enjoy his own world.
5) A house should be design in such a way that the child could face
outdoor environment. There must be window through which the
children could face sunlight at a daytime and become a natural
source of ventilation.
6) There must be the children garden where child can grow vegetables
and fruits of their choice. It leads them to close to their natural
environment.
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7) There should not be any prohibition of doing something which the

student is not allowed at his home. “Prohibition is sweet or bitter,
prohibition is prohibition.”
8) Children are usually not allowed to do by themselves what they
want at their home so Montessori room should provide them this
opportunity.
These are some factors which should consider while starting any house of
children.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT:

Considering requirements are very important but implementation is more

importantthan them because implementation is something which we
have to implement and how it works is based on it. There must be a lot of
things which should be implement those are:

 Respect for the children.

 Focus on individual child.
 The prepared environment.
 Polite behavior of the teacher.
 Parent- Teacher Meeting.

RESPECT FOR THE CHILDREN:

Respect is the basic thing which everybody requires. Every child needs
respect. Parents try to force them to follow the parents without regarding
their needs and interest. Therefore, first we should take great care of the
respect of the child.

FOCUS ON INDIVIDUAL CHILD:

Every child is different from one another. Teacher should focus on
individual child as his learning progress, growth and understanding is
different from other children.

THE PREPARED ENVIRONMENT:

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Prepared environment is very important. When they have prepared

environment, they are able to do what they want. The material is
available for the child which they can easily access and do whatever their
interest.

POLITE BEHAVIOR OF THE TEACHER:

The teacher is the role model for the student. Her behavior should be
polite towards students. As the teacher is the spiritual mother of the
students, they learn a lot from them after their mother. So, her behavior
and attitude should be very good.

PARENT- TEACHER MEETING:

There must be parent-teacher meeting as parents should know the
progress and development of their student and the most important about
the attitude and the nature of the student. Montessori teacher can guide
them according to the nature oftheir children.

CONCLUSION:
To sum up, the house of the children is the place where children can
meet their needs and interests. So, these requirements should keep in
mind when starting the school.
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Q No.3: What are the discoveries made by Dr. Maria

Montessori by observing the child?

Dr. Maria Montessori's discoveries :

Maria Montessori made a lot of discoveries by observing the children. She
is a founder of Montessori education. She conducted a lot of experiments
and observed children by spending a lot of time with them. She
discovered several aspects of children. She has specified some of the
discoveries she had made during her work.

According to Maria Montessori children work until they reach to their

goal. They are very enthusiastic about the work which makes them select
and concentrate on different activities which lead them to make them
perfect in their inner development. Children love to work purposefully;
they work out of the natural drive, which makes them select and
concentrate on tasks which are appropriate for development.

The teacher or an adult should follow the child rather them to motivate
him to do work. When a child works in different areas of human activity
at specific time thatlead them to develop the awareness and usage of
doing. The teacher should not ignore their inner urge of doing activities.

When a child does activities again and again or when there is a

spontaneous repetition of an activity is done with great interest the result
is concentration .The child concentrates more when they found right
conditions. And condition is just a beginning not an end.

Maria discovered that children really need an order in their life. She
found out when she saw her children putting their things back to their
places; same in the case of values, functions and other human activities.
The child wants to learn by practice that is the truth, the need to see it
being practiced. Montessori students in this age, built up their
personalities, they needed consistency in all aspects of environment.
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Normality refers to human power working in unison or in collaboration.

Dr. Maria says that during the early childhood it is possible to rectify any
development error and bring the child back to normality. The child should
work individually and with freedom. All activities are very important to
bring child back to normality.

A child needs those activities which help him to develop sensorial

concepts, language, arithmetic art, and culture. These are very important
for building of child’s personality. Montessori found that these activities
can bring intelligence in the children as they love to perform these
activities.

A child could assimilate that the knowledge which people think that this
kind of knowledge is too complex for the children but according to Maria
Montessori if that knowledge present in rightful manner or condition,
that would be easy for them to digest.

Montessori figure out that discipline should not be imposed on children.

If a child is satisfied, he would start respect others. He may learn
discipline unintentionally. Real discipline comes along with freedom.

If a child is satisfied he or she starts respect elders because real

obedience is based on love, respect and faith.

She was confident that the child’s behaviors rely on the environment. If a
child couldn't get the environment for development, when his or her
inner needs do not fulfill, he becomes stubborn, disobedient and
destructive. So we should provide him or her suitable environment and
condition for development and Montessori is the right place for that.

She discovered that children love to do their household work. They

believe in a statement that “Help me Do it myself” but parents don’t pay
any heed towards this. So, she says we should trust the child.

Maria had a view that we should provide a very good environment to the
student inorder to attain good result. For this purpose, she used child size
table and chair rather than heavy desk. She discovered the child wants
everything according to its size. Tables were so small and light in weight
so two children could easily move it.
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Another very important point which she had discovered is traffic pattern.
She figure out that a room where children had to stay, it should not be
congested and overloaded.

The children love to sit on the floor so that’s why she put a lot of rugs and
mats for children where they sit and do activities.
Maria observed that the building and outside environment should be
according to the size of a child. For instance toilet, low sink, windows,
shelves, garden tools etc. designed in child sized.

Q No.4: What does “PILES” stand for when we talk of human

development? Discuss the Physical, Lingual and Intellectual
development taking place during3 to 6 years of age?

PILES stand for:

P = Physical
I = Intellectual
L = Lingual
E = Emotional
S = Social

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT:
Physical development takes place during 3 to 6 years of age.
The child feels certain strong urges at specified time periods. Which
lead him to development as shown in the figure:
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