To understand what is education, we need not catalogue all the definitions but then we are supposed to ‘know the important trends in education in the preceding ages. Education today is not what it was in the past. With the change in time, every aspect of life has undergone a terrible change and so is the case with education. The stamp of modernity of life can be safely traced in education too.
To the ancients education meant “Imitation and getting things by heart.” To Aristotle, it was ‘reasoning’ after some time, it was “discussion” and “speech-method”. To Plato, it was “formation of suitable habits”. Rousseau found education in “nature”. Pestalogy and Herbart psychologised education on the basis of Rousseau’s philosophical approach to education.
To Froebel’s education provides “the ways and means which will help the mind to develop according to the laws of its own being. To Froebel “storing up of ideas in the mind” is no education. His “Kindergarten method” is child- garden—method.
To Rabindra Nath Tagore, it was “Auto-education”. Gandhi never restricted education to three R’s i.e. reading, writing and arithmetic. Development on similar lines of kindergarten method, by Maria Montessori. This was later on named after her.
Maria Montessori has exerted tremendous influence on the education of the children of what are called the per-school ages.
This was partly due to her zeal and energy and partly because she, in spite of her old age, visited many countries such as America, India, the Netherlands and Britain and gave personal directions to her disciples.
She, as a doctor in the department of mental diseases of the Roman universities, had the opportunities to study the mental growth of the children.
This also gave her an insight into the psychological study of those children.
This method is very much suitable for teaching infants because it is primarily based on play-way method. She, like Rabindra Nath Tagore, believed in giving an environment to the children in which there should be physical freedom. She, like Froebel advocated for such school which had a playground and space for garden to which access could be made directly from the class room.
In this modern age, so many methods of teaching are prevalent which aim at the conversion of work to play. These methods are designated as play way methods of teaching. In these methods, learning emerges from play.As in correlation, we find knowledge emerging form works so in play way Method, we find knowledge emerging from play. In play, the child gets sufficient opportunity for self-expression and this “self-expression” is education.
The premise which is basic to Maria Montessori ’s educational ideology and practices, is that of giving the child “Perfect liberty” to develop. For her worth-while education is “auto-education”, that is once the child is familiar with the general nature of the task, he is able to proceed by him-self. Montessori did not want to see her children as passive listeners. She wanted them to learn many things by themselves. The teacher is there only to help and guide him. The Teacher should neither be a rule framing nor a living phonograph. He should not treat the children with harshness. There should be neither any repression nor any suppression from the teacher’s side. The child will discover and correct the mistakes that he may commit. If he fails in a task, it is , Montessori believed, because the child is not yet ready to do it. Perfect-freedom to develop does not, however , lessen the importance of the teacher or directness as the Montessori ans call her. Instead of being redundant, as it were, the teacher becomes an observer of individuals who select their activities and decide for themselves when to change. The teacher should not only impart instruction, dole out knowledge and develop certain skills. But he has to carefully organize such environment for the child so as to enable him to achieve something on his own.
For ‘auto-education’, Montessori introduced special materials known as the ‘didactic’ materials, through the graded use of which children are to gain skills of manipulation and judgment through the senses, as well as physical and intellectual development.
Sense and muscle training receive special emphasis in her system. In this method, teachers are not to give formal class instruction but they are to treat the students individually. They patiently wait and see. They are never impatient with the rate of the progress of the child.
Among all the five play-way methods(Kindergarten, Montessori, Dalton, Heuristic and Dramatization), Montessori method ranks supreme mainly because of the following facts.Firstly, it is an improvement on Froebel’s Kindergarten Method (Popularly accepted method of the present age).
Secondly, it psychologise education in the lines of Rousseau, Locke, Pestalozy, and Herbert. Thirdly, the ultimate end of teaching is realized through “Play” (through which the child feels great enjoyment in learning).
Fourthly the child is always handled as an individual unit. Fifthly, the teacher or the directness is to be only a guide and companion and never a disciplinarian or a dictator. Sixthly and Lastly Montessori never believed in framing of any “Routine” or “Fixed-Routine”. The child’s interest alone reigns supreme in Montessori method.
This method has become so much popular among the general mass that in almost all the big cities, towns and villages of the country, a number of schools of this name has been started. But we must not forget that opening of an institution is not everything. It all resets on how we stick to the principles, aims and objectives of the Montessori and then alone it can be a success. Otherwise, it will be just like “Basic Education” of Gandhijee, “Little understood, less practiced and most volubly talked about”.
“Patience coupled with Prudence always pays”