Dr. Maria Montessori
DR. MONTESSORI’S
OWN HANDBOOK
BY
MARIA MONTESSORI
AUTHOR OF “THE MONTESSORI METHOD” AND
“PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY”
WITH FORTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1914, by
Frederick A. Stokes Company
All rights reserved, including that of translationinto foreign languages
May, 1914
TO MY DEAR FRIEND
DONNA MARIA MARAINI
MARCHIONESS GUERRIERI-GONZAGA
WHO
DEVOTEDLY AND WITH SACRIFICE
HAS GENEROUSLY UPHELD
THIS WORK OF EDUCATION BROUGHT TO BIRTH IN
OUR BELOVED COUNTRY
BUT OFFERED
TO THE CHILDREN OF HUMANITY
NOTE BY THE AUTHOR
As a result of the widespread interest that hasbeen taken in my method of child education, certainbooks have been issued, which may appear to thegeneral reader to be authoritative expositions of theMontessori system. I wish to state definitely thatthe present work, the English translation of whichhas been authorised and approved by me, is the onlyauthentic manual of the Montessori method, and thatthe only other authentic or authorised works of minein the English language are “The MontessoriMethod,” and “Pedagogical Anthropology.”
If a preface is a light which should serve toillumine the contents of a volume, I choose, notwords, but human figures to illustrate this littlebook intended to enter families where children aregrowing up. I therefore recall here, as an eloquentsymbol, Helen Keller and Mrs. Anne SullivanMacy, who are, by their example, both teachersto myself––and, before the world, living documentsof the miracle in education.
In fact, Helen Keller is a marvelous example ofthe phenomenon common to all human beings: thepossibility of the liberation of the imprisonedspirit of man by the education of the senses. Herelies the basis of the met