La Maestra

Graduating from an AMI course is just the first step in a very challenging but rewarding process, as is clearly indicated in this lecture given by Maria Montessori on an international course in Rome, in the early thirties of the last century.

By taking a different stance from what is generally common in education, the directress allows the child to develop according to his own inner directives. But it is not only the child who develops. In the words of Maria Montessori ‘this school is both for the teacher and for the child...in which the one contributes to the development of the other’. In 2002/1 we ran lecture 1. From lecture 2 we now quote…

‘The actual task of education is shared between the teacher and the environment. The latter plays the greater part in the teaching of notions since, in order to absorb them, special materials are used by the children. It is clear that the ones to be active are the children and not the teacher.

The teacher is, however, not eliminated; only her task is changed. In our concept of self-education the teacher's activity becomes prudent, delicate and multiform. Her words, her energy, her severity, are no longer necessary; they are replaced by a watchful wisdom and by spreading her attention to the whole of the community. Her task consists in serving, in going to assistance and in retiring; in talking or being silent according to the case. As you see, to do this she must acquire a moral essence which has never been asked of her by any other method: she must be calm, patient, charitable, humble. In the old method her preparation was the use of instructing words. Here it is the mastery and possession of virtue.

…The teacher's task is however easy. She is the means of putting the child in relation to its responses. Therefore, she must know how to choose the proper material and know how to awaken a deep interest in the child. In order to do this, the teacher must have a thorough knowledge of the use of the material, the exact technique of the presentation and be able to recognise when the child is ready for this material so that using it will be of really efficient help.

…Another very essential attribute the teacher must acquire is to have very clear in her mind what is the “sequence of the material” and which are the “parallel exercises”. Besides the attitude, the knowledge of the material and how and when to present it, there is a third essential for the teacher. She must take vigilant care of the order. The teacher must also put the child into contact with a sense of order. To do this, she must give the child some external rules of discipline. These are very simple - but sufficient to guarantee peaceful work to the whole class. …

Above all, the teacher must take care that the child who is absorbed in his work is not disturbed by any other child. She must be as a guardian angel for those souls who are concentrated in an effort that will uplift them.’