Introduction to Maria Montessori
Association Montessori Internationale
From Dr. Montessori’s “A New World and Education”
By Dr. Maria Montessori First published in 1947
Dr. Maria Montessori spent the years between 1939 and 1946 in the Indian SubContinent. During those seven years she gave a number of courses and public lectures, including a course in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) in 1944. Her lecture “A New World and Education” was edited by A. Gnana Prakasam and published under the auspices of AMI, Ceylon in 1947. In his introduction, A. Gnana Prakasam said: ‘This address of Dr. Montessori contains fundamental ideas on education which may appear to be revolutionary but after careful study and consideration will, I am sure, be accepted as correct by thinking persons who have the interests of their own country and of mankind at heart.’ From the extract chosen, it is evident that what Dr. Montessori had to say then is still relevant today; in fact, it is not only relevant - it has become imperative to heed her call to enlightened action if civilisation is to survive and flourish. ...Today the progress of civilisation has made formidable conquests of unlimited extensions, which no one can own and which, therefore, belong to all. It would be absurd for anyone to attempt to own the atmosphere, electricity, the cosmic rays, or the vibrations of the ether. Yet it is these powers that form the world of today. It is upon these powers that our civilisation, which tends to expand with vertiginous progress, is based. The danger is very real. It is not the energies of the new world that are dangerous. It is the lack of development in man. If there is one task which will make the new world a beneficial reality, that task is the help which has to be given for the development of man. For humanity must acquire a new consciousness and thus realise a psychic adaptation suited to the new world in which it lives. The tragic absurdity of old sentiment in these new conditions is revealed by those groups of men who,
From Dr. Montessori’s “A New World and Education”
By Dr. Maria Montessori First published in 1947
Dr. Maria Montessori spent the years between 1939 and 1946 in the Indian SubContinent. During those seven years she gave a number of courses and public lectures, including a course in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) in 1944. Her lecture “A New World and Education” was edited by A. Gnana Prakasam and published under the auspices of AMI, Ceylon in 1947. In his introduction, A. Gnana Prakasam said: ‘This address of Dr. Montessori contains fundamental ideas on education which may appear to be revolutionary but after careful study and consideration will, I am sure, be accepted as correct by thinking persons who have the interests of their own country and of mankind at heart.’ From the extract chosen, it is evident that what Dr. Montessori had to say then is still relevant today; in fact, it is not only relevant - it has become imperative to heed her call to enlightened action if civilisation is to survive and flourish. ...Today the progress of civilisation has made formidable conquests of unlimited extensions, which no one can own and which, therefore, belong to all. It would be absurd for anyone to attempt to own the atmosphere, electricity, the cosmic rays, or the vibrations of the ether. Yet it is these powers that form the world of today. It is upon these powers that our civilisation, which tends to expand with vertiginous progress, is based. The danger is very real. It is not the energies of the new world that are dangerous. It is the lack of development in man. If there is one task which will make the new world a beneficial reality, that task is the help which has to be given for the development of man. For humanity must acquire a new consciousness and thus realise a psychic adaptation suited to the new world in which it lives. The tragic absurdity of old sentiment in these new conditions is revealed by those groups of men who,