# Summary Chapter 12 - 1912 - The Montessori Method ### **Short Summary** In Chapter 12 of "The Montessori Method," Maria Montessori emphasizes the importance of sensory education in pedagogy. She describes her method of using didactic objects to stimulate the senses and promote self-correction and auto-education in children. The aim is to develop the energies and refine the differential perception of stimuli through repeated exercises.  ### **Facts** * 🧒 The education of the senses is of great importance in pedagogy and experimental psychology. * 🤔 The selection of didactic materials is crucial, and they should divert and engage the child without causing fatigue. * 🎯 The method involves making pedagogical experiments with didactic objects and observing the child's spontaneous reactions. * 🌈 Montessori's didactic materials differ from psychometric instruments in that they focus on sensory education rather than measurement. * 👥 Normal children show a spontaneous interest in the didactic materials and engage in self-correction, while deficient children require different approaches. * 🔄 Repetition of sensory exercises is key to refining the differential perception of stimuli and developing concentration. * 👩‍🏫 The teacher's role is to observe, direct the children's psychic activity, and create an environment conducive to auto-education. ### **Reference** "The Montessori Method, 2nd Edition - Restoration, Chapter 12 - Education of the senses" (source: **[Montessori International](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+12+-+Education+of+the+senses)**) --- ## Summary of Chapter 12 - Education of the Senses ### 12.1 The Goal is to Foster Energy Development In a teaching style that's hands-on, teaching the senses is incredibly important. This isn't about measuring the senses, like psychometry does, but instead about training them. This might be a simple concept, but it's often misunderstood. While children can't directly use tools for measuring senses, they can certainly develop them. In this teaching style, we don't start from what experimental psychology tells us about average sensory abilities of children at certain ages. Rather, we begin with a method, and psychology might actually learn from this pedagogical approach. My method is to use a teaching object in an experiment and see how the child naturally reacts. This is very much like experimental psychology. I use materials that could be confused with those used in psychometry. But while psychometry is about measuring, my objects are meant to help children practice their senses. For teaching materials to work, they need to be fun and not boring for the child. This is a challenge when picking the right materials. Pizzoli tried to use psychometry tools to teach the senses but failed because the children found them boring and tiring. But teaching should be about fostering energy, not draining it. With young children, we need to try out different materials to see which ones they are interested in. I did this in the first year of the "Children's Houses" using a range of stimuli, some of which I had tested in the school for deficient children. Many of these materials were modified or abandoned, but I believe I found a set of objects necessary for practical sense education. ### 1.2.2 The Reactions of Normal and Deficient Children to Graded Stimuli There is a noticeable difference in the reaction between normal and deficient children when it comes to didactic material made up of graded stimuli. For example, deficient children may need active guidance to interact with an exercise where they match different-sized cylinders to their corresponding holes. However, normal children are typically enthusiastic and self-guided, often correcting their own mistakes. These errors and self-corrections actually help children to compare and understand dimensions, which is the key psycho-sensory exercise. Unlike other teaching methods, here, the teacher should not interfere. It's like physical education; a teacher can't exercise for the student – the student must do it themselves. It's the same for sensory education. It can be hard for traditional teachers to resist helping, but when a child overcomes a difficulty on their own, they feel a sense of joy and accomplishment. Normal children usually repeat these exercises several times, with the frequency varying from child to child. The teacher's role becomes more about observing than teaching. The teacher, or "directress" as I prefer to call her, guides the children's mental and physical development. This requires a scientific understanding of psychology and child development, as the directress's job is to guide the life and soul of the children. ### 1.2.3 Education of the senses has as its aim the refinement of the differential perception of stimuli through repeated exercises This extensive passage discusses the critical role that the education of the senses plays in a child's development. Sensory education, as outlined here, refers to the methodical training of a child's sensory perceptions through specific exercises. The main goal is to sharpen the child's ability to differentiate between various stimuli, thereby refining their perception and understanding of the world around them. The methodology provided here revolves around the concept of self-education, where the child learns through interacting with didactic materials that progressively present stimuli of varying degrees. In essence, the teacher's role is not to instruct directly but to guide the child's spontaneous interaction with these didactic materials, thereby fostering a self-driven learning experience. One example given is a series of ten cubes of different sizes, which children must stack in order of size. This exercise is not only enjoyable for the children, but it also trains their spatial and size perception. The author further elaborates that, given the same test, children trained in this methodology would perform better than those not trained, indicating the effectiveness of this method in sensory education. Furthermore, the author insists on the clear distinction between sensory education and the acquisition of concrete ideas from the environment or the learning of language related to these perceptions. The education of the senses is primarily about refining the perception of sensory stimuli, not about acquiring knowledge or language skills. The role of the educator in this process is likened to that of a music teacher training a student to play the piano. The teacher provides the initial instruction and direction, but the child must engage in repeated exercises to gain skill and fluency. The educator's art lies in knowing when and how to intervene, guiding the spontaneous education of the child and imparting necessary notions when appropriate. The author uses an example of a child who had excellent perception and judgment skills but struggled with naming colors to highlight the importance of incorporating language with sensory perception education. In essence, while allowing children to learn spontaneously through sensory exercises is crucial, it's also necessary to guide them in associating these perceptions with language. In summary, sensory education as outlined in this passage focuses on refining a child's perception of the world around them through the use of methodically arranged stimuli and self-guided interaction with these stimuli. The educator's role is to guide this process, knowing when to intervene and how to incorporate language learning with sensory perception. ### 12.4 Three Periods of Seguin It appears that this is an extract from an educational document, seemingly inspired by the methodologies of Édouard Séguin, a French physician known for his work in educating children with intellectual disabilities. This approach is then compared and contrasted with the methods of Jean Itard, another French physician famous for his work with Victor of Aveyron, a feral child. Séguin's three-step method mentioned here involves associating a sensory perception with a name (First Period), recognizing the object corresponding to the name (Second Period), and remembering the name corresponding to the object (Third Period). This method aims to solidify a child's understanding and recognition of a concept or object. In this example, it is used for teaching colors. However, it is then argued that a preceding period exists for normal children. This is the acquisition of a fine differential perception, achievable only through auto-education. The extract also highlights the importance of sensory isolation in education, for example, using a blindfold to focus the child's attention on the task at hand or to test the acuity of the child's hearing. An interesting point made here is the differing reactions of normal children and deficient children to sensory isolation. It's argued that while normal children find the experience interesting and engaging, deficient children can react negatively, either by becoming disordered or focusing on the blindfold rather than the task. The example provided by Itard's attempts to teach sounds to Victor demonstrates the challenges in sensory education for children with special needs. Itard's unsuccessful use of a blindfold led him to conclude that the barrier in Victor's progress was not merely a physical or sensory one, but also emotional and psychological. Finally, the extract briefly mentions the importance of how stimuli are presented to children, with the suggestion that education should start with easily contrasting stimuli and gradually introduce more subtle differences. This entire extract highlights the importance of sensory education, differential approaches to learning for normal and deficient children, and the significance of progressively challenging stimuli in education. --- > ##### **The License of this page:** > > This page is part of the “**Montessori Restoration and Translation Project**”.\ > Please [support](https://ko-fi.com/montessori) our “**All-Inclusive Montessori Education for All 0-100+ Worldwide**” initiative. We create open, free, and affordable resources available for everybody interested in Montessori Education. We transform people and environments to be authentic Montessori worldwide. Thank You! > > [](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) > > **License:** This work with all its restoration edits and translations is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). > > Check out the **Page History** of each wiki page in the right column to learn more about all contributors and edits, restorations, and translations done on this page. > > [Contributions](https://ko-fi.com/montessori) and [Sponsors](https://ko-fi.com/montessori) are welcome and very appreciated! * [The Montessori Method, 2nd Edition](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/+Chapter+Index+-+The+Montessori+Method%2C+2nd+Edition+-+Restoration+-+Open+Library#the-montessori-method%2C-2nd-edition---restoration---open-library) - English Restoration - [Archive.Org](https://archive.org/details/montessorimethod00montuoft/) - [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7089223M/The_Montessori_method) * [Chapter Index](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/+Chapter+Index+-+The+Montessori+Method%2C+2nd+Edition+-+Restoration+-+Open+Library) * [Chapter 00 - Dedication, Acknowledgements, Preface to the American Edition, Introduction](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+00+-+Dedication%2C+Acknowledgements%2C+Preface+to+the+American+Edition%2C+Introduction) * [Chapter 01 - A critical consideration of the new pedagogy in its relation to modern science](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+01+-+A+critical+consideration+of+the+new+pedagogy+in+its+relation+to+modern+science) * [Chapter 02 - History of Methods](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+02+-+History+of+Methods) * [Chapter 03 - Inaugural address delivered on the occasion of the opening of one of the “Children’s Houses”](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+03+-+Inaugural+address+delivered+on+the+occasion+of+the+opening+of+one+of+the+%E2%80%9CChildren%E2%80%99s+Houses%E2%80%9D) * [Chapter 04 - Pedagogical Methods used in the “Children’s Houses”](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+04+-+Pedagogical+Methods+used+in+the+%E2%80%9CChildren%E2%80%99s+Houses%E2%80%9D) * [Chapter 05 - Discipline](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+05+-+Discipline) * [Chapter 06 - How the lesson should be given](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+06+-+How+the+lesson+should+be+given) * [Chapter 07 - Exercises for Practical Life](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+07+-+Exercises+for+Practical+Life) * [Chapter 08 - Reflection the Child’s diet](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+08+-+Reflection+the+Child%E2%80%99s+diet) * [Chapter 09 - Muscular education gymnastics](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+09+-+Muscular+education+gymnastics) * [Chapter 10 - Nature in education agricultural labor: Culture of plants and animals](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+10+-+Nature+in+education+agricultural+labor%3A+Culture+of+plants+and+animals) * [Chapter 11 - Manual labor the potter’s art, and building](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+11+-+Manual+labor+the+potter%E2%80%99s+art%2C+and+building) * [Chapter 12 - Education of the senses](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+12+-+Education+of+the+senses) * [Chapter 13 - Education of the senses and illustrations of the didactic material: General sensibility: The tactile, thermic, basic, and stereo gnostic senses](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+13+-+Education+of+the+senses+and+illustrations+of+the+didactic+material%3A+General+sensibility%3A+The+tactile%2C+thermic%2C+basic%2C+and+stereo+gnostic+senses) * [Chapter 14 - General notes on the education of the senses](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+14+-+General+notes+on+the+education+of+the+senses) * [Chapter 15 - Intellectual education](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+15+-+Intellectual+education) * [Chapter 16 - Method for the teaching of reading and writing](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+16+-+Method+for+the+teaching+of+reading+and+writing) * [Chapter 17 - Description of the method and didactic material used](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+17+-+Description+of+the+method+and+didactic+material+used) * [Chapter 18 - Language in childhood](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+18+-+Language+in+childhood) * [Chapter 19 - Teaching of numeration: Introduction to arithmetic](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+19+-+Teaching+of+numeration%3A+Introduction+to+arithmetic) * [Chapter 20 - Sequence of exercise](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+20+-+Sequence+of+exercise) * [Chapter 21 - General review of discipline](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+21+-+General+review+of+discipline) * [Chapter 22 - Conclusions and impressions](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+22+-+Conclusions+and+impressions) * [Chapter 23 - Illustrations](https://montessori-international.com/s/the-montessori-method/wiki/Chapter+23+-+Illustrations)