The Absorbent Mind (Rediscovered Books). Maria Montessori Montessori

      Chapter I

      The Child and the World Reconstructed

      In modern times the psychic life in the new-born child has called forth great interest. Many scientists and psychologists have made observations of children from 3 hours to the 5th day from birth. Others, after having studied children carefully, have come to the conclusion that the first two years are the most important of life. Education during this period must be intended as a help to the development of the psychic powers inherent in the human individual. This cannot be attained by teaching because the child could not understand what a teacher would say.

       Unexploited Riches

      Observation, very general and wide-spread, has shown that small children are endowed with a special psychic nature. This shows us a new way of imparting education! A different form which concerns humanity itself and which has never been taken into consideration. The real constructive energy, alive and dynamic, of children, remained unknown for thousands of years. Just as men trod upon the earth first and cultivated its surface in later times, without knowing of or caring for the immense riches that lay hidden in the depth, so is man now-a-days progressing in civilization without knowing of the riches that lie buried inside the psychic world of the child and indeed, for thousands of years, from the very beginning of humanity itself, man has continued repressing these energies and grinding them into the dust. It is only today that a few have begun to suspect their existence. Humanity has begun to realize the importance of these riches which have never been exploited something more precious than gold; the very soul of man.

      These first two years of life furnish a new light that shows the laws of psychic construction. These laws were hitherto unknown. It is the outer expression of the child that has revealed their existence. It shows a type of psychology completely different from that of the adult. So here begins the new path. It is not the professor who applies psychology to children, it is the children themselves who teach psychology to the professor. This may seem obscure but it will become immediately clear if we go somewhat more into detail: the child has a type of mind that absorbs knowledge and instructs himself. A superficial observation will be sufficient to show this. The child of two speaks the language of his parents. The learning of a language is a great intellectual acquisition. Now who has taught the child of two this language? Is it the teacher? Everyone knows that that is not so, and yet the child knows to perfection the names of things, he knows the verbs, the adjectives etc. If anyone studies the phenomenon he will find it marvelous to follow the development of language. All who have done so agree that the child begins to use words and names at a certain period of life. It is as if he had a particular time-table. Indeed, he follows faithfully a severe syllabus which has been imposed by nature and with such exactitude that even the most pains-taking school would suffer in comparison. And following this time-table the child learns all the irregularities and different syntactical constructions of the language with exacting diligence.

       The Vital Years

      Within a child there is a very scrupulous teacher. It is he who achieves these results in every child, no matter in what region he is found. The only language that man learns perfectly is acquired at this period of childhood when no one can teach him. Not only that, but no matter what help and assistance he will get later in life if he tries to learn a new language, he will not be able to speak it with the same exactitude as he does the one acquired in childhood. There is a psychic power in the child that helps him. It is not merely a question of language. At two years he is able to recognize all the things and persons in his environment. The more one thinks about it the more it becomes evident that the construction the child achieves is immense: for all that we possess has been constructed by the child we once were, and the most important faculties are built in the first two years of life. It is not merely a question of recognizing what it is around us or understanding and dealing with our

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