The Montessori Method Part 13

By free gymnastics I mean those which are given without any apparatus.

Such gymnastics are divided into two cla.s.ses: directed and required exercises, and free games. In the first cla.s.s, I recommend the march, the object of which should be not rhythm, but poise only. When the march is introduced, it is well to accompany it with the singing of little songs, because this furnishes a breathing exercise very helpful in strengthening the lungs. Besides the march, many of the games of Froebel which are accompanied by songs, very similar to those which the children constantly play among themselves, may be used. In the free games, we furnish the children with b.a.l.l.s, hoops, bean bags and kites. The trees readily offer themselves to the game of "p.u.s.s.y wants a corner," and many simple games of tag.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DR. MONTESSORI IN THE GARDEN OF THE SCHOOL AT VIA GIUSTI]

[Ill.u.s.tration: (A) CHILDREN THREE AND ONE-HALF AND FOUR YEARS OLD LEARNING TO b.u.t.tON AND LACE. (B) RIBBON AND b.u.t.tON FRAMES. These are among the earliest exercises.]

EDUCATIONAL GYMNASTICS

Under the name of educational gymnastics, we include two series of exercises which really form a part of other school work, as, for instance, the cultivation of the earth, the care of plants and animals (watering and pruning the plants, carrying the grain to the chickens, etc.). These activities call for various co-ordinated movements, as, for example, in hoeing, in getting down to plant things, and in rising; the trips which children make in carrying objects to some definite place, and in making a definite practical use of these objects, offer a field for very valuable gymnastic exercises. The scattering of minute objects, such as corn and oats, is valuable, and also the exercise of opening and closing the gates to the garden and to the chicken yard. All of these exercises are the more valuable in that they are carried on in the open air. Among our educational gymnastics we have exercises to develop co-ordinated movements of the fingers, and these prepare the children for the exercises of practical life, such as dressing and undressing themselves. The didactic material which forms the basis of these last named gymnastics is very simple, consisting of wooden frames, each mounted with two pieces of cloth, or leather, to be fastened and unfastened by means of the b.u.t.tons and b.u.t.tonholes, hooks and eyes, eyelets and lacings, or automatic fastenings.

In our "Children's Houses" we use ten of these frames, so constructed that each one of them ill.u.s.trates a different process in dressing or undressing.

One: mounted with heavy pieces of wool which are to be fastened by means of large bone b.u.t.tons--corresponds to children's dresses.

Two: mounted with pieces of linen to be fastened with pearl b.u.t.tons--corresponds to a child's underwear.

Three: leather pieces mounted with shoe b.u.t.tons--in fastening these leather pieces the children make use of the b.u.t.ton-hook--corresponds to a child's shoes.

Four: pieces of leather which are laced together by means of eyelets and shoe laces.

Five: two pieces of cloth to be laced together. (These pieces are boned and therefore correspond to the little bodices worn by the peasants in Italy.)

Six: two pieces of stuff to be fastened by means of large hooks and eyes.

Seven: two pieces of linen, to be fastened by means of small hooks and worked eyelets.

Eight: two pieces of cloth to be fastened by means of broad coloured ribbon, which is to be tied into bows.

Nine: pieces of cloth laced together with round cord, on the same order as the fastenings on many of the children's underclothes.

Ten: two pieces to be fastened together by means of the modern automatic fasteners.

Through the use of such toys, the children can practically a.n.a.lyse the movements necessary in dressing and undressing themselves, and can prepare themselves separately for these movements by means of repeated exercises. We succeed in teaching the child to dress himself without his really being aware of it, that is, without any direct or arbitrary command we have led him to this mastery. As soon as he knows how to do it, he begins to wish to make a practical application of his ability, and very soon he will be proud of being sufficient unto himself, and will take delight in an ability which makes his body free from the hands of others, and which leads him the sooner to that modesty and activity which develops far too late in those children of to-day who are deprived of this most practical form of education. The fastening games are very pleasing to the little ones, and often when ten of them are using the frames at the same time, seated around the little tables, quiet and serious, they give the impression of a workroom filled with tiny workers.

RESPIRATORY GYMNASTICS

The purpose of these gymnastics is to regulate the respiratory movements: in other words, to teach the _art of breathing_. They also help greatly the correct formation of the child's _speech habits_. The exercises which we use were introduced into school literature by Professor Sala. We have chosen the simple exercises described by him in his treatise, "Cura della Balbuzie."[11] These include a number of respiratory gymnastic exercises with which are co-ordinated muscular exercises. I give here an example:

[11] "Cura della Balbuzie e del Difetti di p.r.o.nunzia." Sala.

Ulrico Hoepli, publisher, Milan, Italy.

Mouth wide open, tongue held flat, hands on hips.

Breathe deeply, lift the shoulders rapidly, lowering the diaphragm.

Expel breath slowly, lowering shoulders slowly, returning to normal position.

The directress should select or devise simple breathing exercises, to be accompanied with arm movements, etc.

Exercises for proper use of _lips, tongue, and teeth_. These exercises teach the movements of the lips and tongue in the p.r.o.nunciation of certain fundamental consonant sounds, reinforcing the muscles, and making them ready for these movements. These gymnastics prepare the organs used in the formation of language.

In presenting such exercises we begin with the entire cla.s.s, but finish by testing the children individually. We ask the child to p.r.o.nounce, _aloud_ and with _force_, the first syllable of a word. When all are intent upon putting the greatest possible force into this, we call each child separately, and have him repeat the word. If he p.r.o.nounces it correctly, we send him to the right, if badly, to the left. Those who have difficulty with the word, are then encouraged to repeat it several times. The teacher takes note of the age of the child, and of the particular defects in the movements of the muscles used in articulating.

She may then touch the muscles which should be used, tapping, for example, the curve of the lips, or even taking hold of the child's tongue and placing it against the dental arch, or showing him clearly the movements which she herself makes when p.r.o.nouncing the syllable. She must seek in every way to aid the normal development of the movements necessary to the exact articulation of the word.

As the basis for these gymnastics we have the children p.r.o.nounce the words: _pane_--_fame_--_tana_--_zina_--_stella_--_rana_--_gatto_.

In the p.r.o.nunciation of _pane_, the child should repeat with much force, _pa_, _pa_, _pa_, thus exercising the muscles producing orbicular contraction of the lips.

In _fame_ repeating _fa_, _fa_, _fa_, the child exercises the movements of the lower lip against the upper dental arch.

In _tana_, having him repeat _ta_, _ta_, _ta_, we cause him to exercise the movement of the tongue against the upper dental arch.

In _zina_, we provoke the contact of the upper and lower dental arches.

With _stella_ we have him repeat the whole word, bringing the teeth together, and holding the tongue (which has a tendency to protrude) close against the upper teeth.

In _rana_ we have him repeat _r_, _r_, _r_, thus exercising the tongue in the vibratory movements. In _gatto_ we hold the voice upon the guttural _g_.

CHAPTER X

NATURE IN EDUCATION--AGRICULTURAL LABOUR: CULTURE OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS

Itard, in a remarkable pedagogical treatise: "_Des premiers developpements du jeune sauvage de l'Aveyron_," expounds in detail the drama of a curious, gigantic education which attempted to overcome the psychical darkness of an idiot and at the same time to s.n.a.t.c.h a man from primitive nature.

The savage of the Aveyron was a child who had grown up in the natural state: criminally abandoned in a forest where his a.s.sa.s.sins thought they had killed him, he was cured by natural means, and had survived for many years free and naked in the wilderness, until, captured by hunters, he entered into the civilised life of Paris, showing by the scars with which his miserable body was furrowed the story of the struggles with wild beasts, and of lacerations caused by falling from heights.

The child was, and always remained, mute; his mentality, diagnosed by Pinel as idiotic, remained forever almost inaccessible to intellectual education.

To this child are due the first steps of positive pedagogy. Itard, a physician of deaf-mutes and a student of philosophy, undertook his education with methods which he had already partially tried for treating defective hearing--believing at the beginning that the savage showed characteristics of inferiority, not because he was a degraded organism, but for want of education. He was a follower of the principles of Helvetius: "Man is nothing without the work of man"; that is, he believed in the omnipotence of education, and was opposed to the pedagogical principle which Rousseau had promulgated before the Revolution: "_Tout est bien sortant des mains de l'Auteur des choses, tout degenere dans les mains de l'homme_,"--that is, the work of education is deleterious and spoils the man.

The savage, according to the erroneous first impression of Itard, demonstrated experimentally by his characteristics the truth of the former a.s.sertion. When, however, he perceived, with the help of Pinel, that he had to do with an idiot, his philosophical theories gave place to the most admirable, tentative, experimental pedagogy.

Itard divides the education of the savage into two parts. In the first, he endeavours to lead the child from natural life to social life; and in the second, he attempts the intellectual education of the idiot. The child in his life of frightful abandonment had found one happiness; he had, so to speak, immersed himself in, and unified himself with, nature, taking delight in it--rains, snow, tempests, boundless s.p.a.ce, had been his sources of entertainment, his companions, his love. Civil life is a renunciation of all this: but it is an acquisition beneficent to human progress. In Itard's pages we find vividly described the moral work which led the savage to civilisation, multiplying the needs of the child and surrounding him with loving care. Here is a sample of the admirably patient work of Itard as _observer of the spontaneous expressions_ of his pupil: it can most truly give teachers, who are to prepare for the experimental method, an idea of the patience and the self-abnegation necessary in dealing with a phenomenon which is to be observed:

"When, for example, he was observed within his room, he was seen to be lounging with oppressive monotony, continually directing his eyes toward the window, with his gaze wandering in the void. If on such occasions a sudden storm blew up, if the sun, hidden behind the clouds, peeped out of a sudden, lighting the atmosphere brilliantly, there were loud bursts of laughter and almost convulsive joy. Sometimes, instead of these expressions of joy, there was a sort of frenzied rage: he would twist his arms, put his clenched fists upon his eyes, gnashing his teeth and becoming dangerous to those about him.

"One morning, when the snow fell abundantly while he was still in bed, he uttered a cry of joy upon awaking, leaped from his bed, ran to the window and then to the door; went and came impatiently from one to the other; then ran out undressed as he was into the garden. There, giving vent to his joy with the shrillest of cries, he ran, rolled in the snow, gathered it up in handfuls, and swallowed it with incredible avidity.

"But his sensations at sight of the great spectacles of nature did not always manifest themselves in such a vivid and noisy manner. It is worthy of note that in certain cases they were expressed by a quiet regret and melancholy. Thus, it was when the rigour of the weather drove everybody from the garden that the savage of the Aveyron chose to go there. He would walk around it several times and finally sit down upon the edge of the fountain.

"I have often stopped for _whole hours_, and with indescribable pleasure, to watch him as he sat thus--to see how his face, inexpressive or contracted by grimaces, gradually a.s.sumed an expression of sadness, and of melancholy reminiscence, while his eyes were fixed upon the surface of the water into which from time to time he would throw a few dead leaves.

"If when there was a full moon, a sheaf of mild beams penetrated into his room, he rarely failed to wake and to take his place at the window.