Making Montessori History In a Long Island Village by the Sea

Montessori Life, Summer 2004 by Raphael, Marcy

By the time American women had woken up and smelled the espresso, Switzerland had already passed a law establishing the Montessori Method in all its public schools. This was 1911,4 years after Maria Montessori opened the first of her case dei Bambini in Rome. It was then that Americans began to book passage for Italy.

One of the first American teachers to visit classes and hold discussions with Dr. Montessori and her teachers was Ellen Yale Stevens, principal of the Brooklyn Heights Seminary in Brooklyn, NY. Convinced Montessori was "a genius," and that her principles would apply to American children despite differences in temperament, Stevens came back to the States and-like many others who have had an epiphany-wrote a book.

A Guide to the Montessori Method was published in 1913. It is now, sadly, out of print, and only to be sought on the Internet. However, if you have the wherewithal to track it down, you will find that it is well worth the effort, for it is a fascinating work.

In carefully detailed chapters, Stevens describes key points of Montcssori's philosophy, and the environment and materials that give it life. She circles back to the big picture and to Montessori's real goal: the reformation of society and the further perfection of the species. She outlines a continuity of home and school and the unity of purpose between them. Further, she writes about communization of household tasks in order to free women to work outside the home or to allow them to use their talents for the good of others.

My favorite chapter comes near the end of the book. "A Suggestion for the Summer" describes the summer of 1912, during which Stevens gathered around her a group of neighbors' children, aged 3 to 7, "in a Long Island village by the sea."

Together they set up a class in a small house in her garden. Originally intended as an ice house and long used for storage, the cottage was fronted by a windmill and a vegetable garden. "We covered the floor with canvas on which we threw down each morning a Navajo rug," wrote Stevens. "Chests around the wall covered with a Baghdad curtain held the Montcssori materials very nicely, while two bridge tables and some empty boxes covered with felting served as tables and seats for the children. Boughs of pine and bunches of goldenrod decorated the walls, and some nails driven into them at the proper height gave each child a place for his hat and coat."

Near the door was a birdhouse the starlings had deserted the summer before-an ideal apartment house for several families of paper dolls.

There, every morning, Nancy, John, Caleb, Ira, andBilly gathered. Fuji, the red setter, slept at the door until needed to join the group games. He made an excellent sheep for acting out nursery rhymes. First they swept the rooms, laid the carpet, and dusted the materials. Then they played the Silence Game. "Those warm summer days in the heart of nature seemed formed for nature teaching, so I modified somewhat the game as I saw it played in Italy while keeping it to its spirit," said Stevens (1913, no page number available).

Most of the children responded quickly to the Montessori discipline. Stevens noted the choices each child made, usually gravitating toward a material suited to a need. Ira, for example, decided he could draw better when he had the cinnamon box open so that he could smell it. John, who was "in some ways the most interesting, because [he was] the most difficult to deal with...would choose the Tower, Big Stair or Long Stair but wished to use them in his own way to build a railroad track or train or cars."

Much of the work was done out-ofdoors, on rugs spread on the grass. The children made paper doll families to live in the birdhouse. This was seen as preparation for writing, like the metal insets. Before going home, Stevens and the children made the house and the materials ready for the next day.

Stevens saw value in this summer endeavor. "They learned respect for and care of the material... They learned self-control and power of inhibition through the various games of silence. They learned to enjoy intelligent, organized play...They learned to enjoy their senses through isolation... [and].. .power of observation developed spontaneously...."

Three-year-old Nancy showed this at home. Her grandmother, seated on the porch with friends, invited Nancy to "join our circle." Nancy glared at the arrangement and said, "That is not a circle," and moved the chairs it make it one.

Subsequently, Stevens wrote an article forMcClure's Magazine (which referred to her, in the introduction, as "one of the most thoughtful, clear-sighted, and experienced American educators") about her observations of the children of the Casa dei Bambini and her appreciation of Dr. Montessori: "I believe fully in her genius," she said.

One last word from Ellen Yale Stevens:

"Let us study Dr. Montessori 's controlling ideas and then test them by modern child psychology. Lettin useherwonderful material....with flexibility and freedom while keeping fast hold of the principles it embodies" (1913, no page number available).