The Montessori Method Part 18

The games played in this way are excellent for children of four or five years; while the simple work of arranging the pieces in order upon the same carpet where they have been mixed is more adapted to the little ones between three and four years of age. The construction of the tower with the pink cubes is very attractive to little ones of less than three years, who knock it down and build it up time after time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A FEW OF THE MANY GEOMETRIC INSETS OF WOOD USED TO TEACH FORM

_Copyright, 1912, by Carl R. Byoir_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: (A) GEOMETRIC INSETS OF WOOD, AND FRAME. The frame furnishes the control necessary for exactness of work. (B) CABINET.

(For storing geometric inset frames.)

_Copyright, 1912, by Carl R. Byoir_]

_II. Differential Visual Perception of Form and Visual-tactile-muscular Perception_

_Didactic Material._ Plane geometric _insets of wood_: The idea of these insets goes back to Itard and was also applied by Seguin.

In the school for deficients I had made and applied these insets in the same form used by my ill.u.s.trious predecessors. In these there were two large tablets of wood placed one above the other and fastened together.

The lower board was left solid, while the upper one was perforated by various geometric figures. The game consisted in placing in these openings the corresponding wooden figures which, in order that they might be easily handled, were furnished with a little bra.s.s k.n.o.b.

In my school for deficients, I had multiplied the games calling for these insets, and distinguished between those used to teach colour and those used to teach form. The insets for teaching colour were all circles, those used for teaching form were all painted blue. I had great numbers of these insets made in graduations of colour and in an infinite variety of form. This material was most expensive and exceedingly c.u.mbersome.

In many later experiments with normal children, I have, after many trials, completely excluded the plane geometric insets as an aid to the teaching of colour, since this material offers no control of errors, the child's task being that of _covering_ the forms before him.

I have kept the geometric insets, but have given them a new and original aspect. The form in which they are now made was suggested to me by a visit to the splendid manual training school in the Reformatory of St.

Michael in Rome. I saw there wooden models of geometric figures, which could be set into corresponding frames or placed above corresponding forms. The scope of these materials was to lead to exactness in the making of the geometric pieces in regard to control of dimension and form; the _frame_ furnishing the _control_ necessary for the exactness of the work.

This led me to think of making modifications in my geometric insets, making use of the frame as well as of the inset I therefore made a rectangular tray, which measured 30 20 centimetres. This tray was painted a dark blue and was surrounded by a dark frame. It was furnished with a cover so arranged that it would contain six of the square frames with their insets. The advantage of this tray is that the forms may be changed, thus allowing us to present any combination we choose. I have a number of blank wooden squares which make it possible to present as few as two or three geometric forms at a time, the other s.p.a.ces being filled in by the blanks. To this material I have added a set of white cards, 10 centimetres square. These cards form a series presenting the geometric forms in other aspects. In the _first_ of the series, the form is cut from blue paper and mounted upon the card. In the _second_ box of cards, the _contour_ of the same figures is mounted in the same blue paper, forming an outline one centimetre in width. On the _third_ set of cards the contour of the geometric form is _outlined by a blank line_. We have then the tray, the collection of small frames with their corresponding insets, and the set of the cards in three series.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Some of the Card Forms used in the exercises with the three series of cards.

_Copyright, 1912, by Carl R. Byoir_]

I also designed a case containing six trays. The front of this box may be lowered when the top is raised and the trays may be drawn out as one opens the drawers of a desk. Each _drawer_ contains six of the small frames with their respective insets. In the first drawer I keep the four plain wooden squares and two frames, one containing a rhomboid, and the other a trapezoid. In the second, I have a series consisting of a square, and five rectangles of the same length, but varying in width.

The third drawer contains six circles which diminish in diameter. In the fourth are six triangles, in the fifth, five polygons from a pentagon to a decagon. The sixth drawer contains six curved figures (an ellipse, an oval, etc., and a flower-like figure formed by four crossed arcs).

_Exercise with the Insets._ This exercise consists in presenting to the child the large frame or tray in which we may arrange the figures as we wish to present them. We proceed to take out the insets, mix them upon the table, and then invite the child to put them back in place. This game may be played by even the younger children and holds the attention for a long period, though not for so long a time as the exercise with the cylinders. Indeed, I have never seen a child repeat this exercise more than five or six times. The child, in fact, expends much energy upon this exercise. He must _recognise_ the form and must look at it carefully.

At first many of the children only succeed in placing the insets after many attempts, trying for example to place a triangle in a trapezoid, then in a rectangle, etc. Or when they have taken a rectangle, and recognise where it should go, they will still place it with the long side of the inset across the short side of the opening, and will only after many attempts, succeed in placing it. After three or four successive lessons, the child recognises the geometric figures with _extreme_ facility and places the insets with a security which has a tinge of nonchalance, or of _slight contempt for an exercise that is too easy_. This is the moment in which the child may be led to a methodical observation of the forms. We change the forms in the frame and pa.s.s from contrasted frames to a.n.a.logous ones. The exercise is easy for the child, who habituates himself to placing the pieces in their frames without errors or false attempts.

The first period of these exercises is at the time when the child is obliged to make repeated _trials_ with figures that are strongly contrasted in form. The _recognition_ is greatly helped by a.s.sociating with the visual sense the muscular-tactile perception of the forms. I have the child touch[12] the contour of the piece with the _index finger_ of _his right hand_, and then have him repeat this with the contour of the frame into which the pieces must fit. We succeed in making this a _habit_ with the child. This is very easily attained, since all children love to _touch_ things. I have already learned, through my work with deficient children, that among the various forms of sense memory that of the muscular sense is the most precocious. Indeed, many children who have not arrived at the point of recognising a _figure by looking at it_, could recognise it by _touching it_, that is, by computing the movements necessary to the following of its contour. The same is true of the greater number of normal children;--confused as to where to place a figure, they turn it about trying in vain to fit it in, yet as soon as they have touched the two contours of the piece and its frame, they succeed in placing it perfectly. Undoubtedly, the a.s.sociation of the _muscular-tactile_ sense with that of _vision_, aids in a most remarkable way the perception of forms and fixes them in memory.

[12] Here and elsewhere throughout the book the word "touch" is used not only to express contact between the fingers and an object, but the moving of fingers or hand over an object or its outline.

In such exercises, the control is absolute, as it was in the solid insets. The figure can only enter the corresponding frame. This makes it possible for the child to work by himself, and to accomplish a genuine sensory auto-education, in the visual perception of form.

_Exercise with the three series of cards. First series._ We give the child the wooden forms and the cards upon which the white figure is mounted. Then we mix the cards upon the table; the child must arrange them in a line upon his table (which he loves to do), and then place the corresponding wooden pieces upon the cards. Here the control lies in the eyes. The child must _recognise_ this figure, and place the wooden piece upon it so perfectly that it will cover and hide the paper figure. The eye of the child here corresponds to the frame, which _materially_ led him at first to bring the two pieces together. In addition to covering the figure, the child is to accustom himself to _touching_ the contour of the mounted figures as a part of the exercise (the child always voluntarily follows those movements); and after he has placed the wooden inset he again touches the contour, adjusting with his finger the superimposed piece until it exactly covers the form beneath.

_Second Series._ We give a number of cards to the child together with the corresponding wooden insets. In this second series, the figures are repeated by an outline of blue paper. The child through these exercises is pa.s.sing gradually from the _concrete_ to the _abstract_. At first, he handled only _solid objects_. He then pa.s.sed to a _plane figure_, that is, to the plane which in itself does not exist. He is now pa.s.sing to the _line_, but this line does not represent for him the abstract contour of a plane figure. It is to him the _path which he has so often followed with his index finger_; this line is the _trace_ of a _movement_. Following again the contour of the figure with his finger, the child receives the impression of actually leaving a trace, for the figure is covered by his finger and appears as he moves it. It is the eye now which guides the movement, but it must be remembered that this movement was _already prepared_ for when the child touched the contours of the solid pieces of wood.

_Third Series._ We now present to the child the cards upon which the figures are drawn in black, giving him, as before, the corresponding wooden pieces. Here, he has actually pa.s.sed to the _line_; that is, to an abstraction, yet here, too, there is the idea of the result of a movement.

This cannot be, it is true, the trace left by the finger, but, for example, that of a pencil which is guided by the hand in the same movements made before. These geometric figures in simple outline _have grown out_ of a gradual series of representations which were concrete to vision and touch. These representations return to the mind of the child when he performs the exercise of superimposing the corresponding wooden figures.

_III. Differential Visual Perception of Colours:--Education of the Chromatic Sense_

In many of our _lessons on the colours_, we make use of pieces of brightly-coloured stuffs, and of b.a.l.l.s covered with wool of different colours. The didactic material for the _education of the chromatic_ sense is the following, which I have established after a long series of tests made upon normal children, (in the inst.i.tute for deficients, I used as I have said above, the geometric insets). The present material consists of small flat tablets, which are wound with coloured wool or silk. These tablets have a little wooden border at each end which prevents the silk-covered card from touching the table. The child is also taught to take hold of the piece by these wooden extremities, so that he need not soil the delicate colours. In this way, we are able to use this material for a long time without having to renew it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: (A) LACING. (B) SHOE b.u.t.tONING. (C) b.u.t.tONING OF OTHER GARMENTS. (D) HOOKS AND EYES. Frames ill.u.s.trating the different processes of dressing and undressing.

_Copyright, 1912, by Carl R. Byoir_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TABLETS WOUND WITH COLOURED SILK

Used for educating the chromatic sense. The tablets are shown in the boxes in which they are kept.

_Copyright, 1912, by Carl R. Byoir_]

I have chosen eight tints, and each one has with it eight gradations of different intensity of colour. There are, therefore, sixty-four colour-tablets in all. The eight tints selected are _black_ (_from grey to white_), _red_, _orange_, _yellow_, _green_, _blue_, _violet_ and _brown_. We have duplicate boxes of these sixty-four colours, giving us two of each exercise. The entire set, therefore, consists of one hundred twenty-eight tablets. They are contained in two boxes, each divided into eight equal compartments so that one box may contain sixty-four tablets.

_Exercises with the Colour-tablets._ For the earliest of these exercises, we select three strong colours: for example, _red_, _blue_, and _yellow_, in pairs. These six tablets we place upon the table before the child. Showing him one of the colours, we ask him to find its duplicate among the mixed tablets upon the table. In this way, we have him arrange the colour-tablets in a column, two by two, pairing them according to colour.

The number of tablets in this game may be increased until the eight colours, or sixteen tablets, are given at once. When the strongest tones have been presented, we may proceed to the presentation of lighter tones, in the same way. Finally, we present two or three tablets of the same colour, but of different tone, showing the child how to arrange these in order of gradation. In this way, the eight gradations are finally presented.

Following this, we place before the child the eight gradations of two different colours (red and blue); he is shown how to separate the groups and then arrange each group in gradation. As we proceed we offer groups of more nearly related colours; for example, blue and violet, yellow and orange, etc.

In one of the "Children's Houses," I have seen the following game played with the greatest success and interest, and with surprising _rapidity_.

The directress places upon a table, about which the children are seated, as many colour groups as there are children, for example, three. She then calls each child's attention to the colour each is to select, or which she a.s.signs to him. Then, she mixes the three groups of colours upon the table. Each child takes rapidly from the mixed heap of tablets all the gradations of his colour, and proceeds to arrange the tablets, which, when thus placed in a line, give the appearance of a strip of shaded ribbon.

In another "House," I have seen the children take the entire box, empty the sixty-four colour-tablets upon the table and after carefully mixing them, rapidly collect them into groups and arrange them in gradation, constructing a species of little carpet of delicately coloured and intermingling tints. The children very quickly acquire an ability before which we stand amazed. Children of three years are able to put all of the tints into gradation.

_Experiments in Colour-memory._ Experiments in colour-memory may be made by showing the child a tint, allowing him to look at it as long as he will, and then asking him to go to a distant table upon which all of the colours are arranged and to select from among them the tint similar to the one at which he has looked. The children succeed in this game remarkably, committing only slight errors. Children of five years enjoy this immensely, taking great pleasure in comparing the two spools and judging as to whether they have chosen correctly.

At the beginning of my work, I made use of an instrument invented by Pizzoli. This consisted of a small brown disk having a half-moon shape opening at the top. Various colours were made to pa.s.s behind this opening, by means of a rotary disk which was composed of strips of various colours. The teacher called the attention of the child to a certain colour, then turned the disk, asking him to indicate the same disk when it again showed itself in the opening. This exercise rendered the child inactive, preventing him from controlling the material. It is not, therefore, an instrument which can promote the _education_ of the senses.

EXERCISE FOR THE DISCRIMINATION OF SOUNDS

It would be desirable to have in this connection the didactic material used for the "auricular education" in the princ.i.p.al inst.i.tutions for deaf mutes in Germany and America. These exercises are an introduction to the acquisition of language, and serve in a very special way to centre the children's discriminative attention upon the "modulations of the sound of the human voice."

With very young children linguistic education must occupy a most important place. Another aim of such exercises is to educate the ear of the child to noises so that he shall accustom himself to distinguish every slight noise and compare it with _sounds_, coming to resent harsh or disordered noises. Such sense education has a value in that it exercises aesthetic taste, and may be applied in a most noteworthy way to practical discipline. We all know how the younger children disturb the order of the room by shouts, and by the noise of over-turned objects.

The rigorous scientific education of the sense of hearing is not practically applicable to the didactic method. This is true because the child cannot _exercise himself through his own activity_ as he does for the other senses. Only one child at a time can work with any instrument producing the gradation of sounds. In other words, _absolute silence_ is necessary for the discrimination of sounds.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Signorina Maccheroni, Directress, first of the "Children's House" in Milan and later in the one in Franciscan Convent at Rome, has invented and has had manufactured a series of thirteen bells hung upon a wooden frame. These bells are to all appearances, identical, but the vibrations brought about by a blow of a hammer produce the following thirteen notes:

The set consists of a double series of thirteen bells and there are four hammers. Having struck one of the bells in the first series, the child must find the corresponding sound in the second. This exercise presents grave difficulty, as the child does not know how to strike each time with the same force, and therefore produces sounds which vary in intensity. Even when the teacher strikes the bells, the children have difficulty in distinguishing between sounds. So we do not feel that this instrument in its present form is entirely practical.