With Repubblica you go back to being children: on newsstands the new series on the Montessori method

Among the first women to graduate in Medicine in Italy, at the end of the nineteenth century, with a specialization in neuropsychiatry, also an educator and philosopher, a feminist who already supported wage equality, fought against discrimination, for example in science, and fought against world illiteracy, creator of a method at the basis of infant-toddler centers and schools all over the world: Maria Montessori, born in 1870, died on May 6, 1952, seventy years ago. The best way to remember her is to reflect on her legacy and apply it to the challenges of contemporaneity, the purpose of a new series of Republic“Il mondo Montessori”, conceived by Claudia Arletti: five unpublished volumes in collaboration with the Montessori National Opera, on newsstands from today for five weeks at 9.90 euros plus the price of the newspaper to which they are attached.

A proposal, designed for schools and families, to help and support girls and boys, girls and boys in the thousand challenges of growth. The works were signed by teachers, experts from the world of schools and universities, scholars, scientists, in a perfect Montessori mood.

“The child is not weak and poor; the child is the father of humanity and civilization, he is our teacher also in regard to his education. This is not an outsize exaltation of childhood, it is a great truth” said the scientist , who considered the 0-3 age group to be the golden age of the human being as regards movement, language, thought, that freedom at the basis of the Montessori Method. “From the beginning of my experience, I recommended and outlined the conditions of freedom for children. Freedom of choice was the first of the essential conditions in my concept of education” again Montessori. The series therefore begins today with “Help them grow up” by Raniero Regni on “Children in the conquest of independence”, starting with “Help me to do it alone!”, One of the phrases that most contributed to making world the teaching of Maria Montessori.

A message still considered revolutionary today, with adults who must not limit themselves to indicating to the little ones what to do or to put them in front of a screen but must help them to learn, to act rather than react, in a society rich in stimuli that however tends too often to consider them a category of consumers. A perfect reading to enhance, as the author points out, the main resources of every child: creativity and the desire to do.
On 13 May it will be Bendetto Scoppola’s “Better than what we think” on “Mathematics, child’s play”, second book of “The Montessori World”, always with a colored cover, as the great scholar would have liked. An essay that takes its cue from this fact: about half of adults do not master the basic concepts of mathematics, necessary to solve the small problems of everyday life. In reality, as Scoppola points out, each individual has a sort of innate perception of numbers, which however needs to be revived and supported from early childhood, for example with the use of geometric shapes as “bridges” for teaching ‘arithmetic. Montessori herself was a passionate student of physics and mathematics. Even now, in their modern version, her tools – the numerical rods, the figures on sandpaper, the signs, the tokens – are the basis for bringing girls and boys closer to the world of numbers with joy.

The third issue of the series is scheduled for May 20 with “Tutti basso per terra” by Pietro Lucisano on “Spaces for children”. “Unleash the children; indulge them: they run outside when it rains; they scream and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning, as it wakes up every living creature” declared Montessori, advocate of a healthy mind in a healthy body and therefore also education in movement, also exploiting the opportunities offered by nature and making our homes increasingly suitable for the psychophysical development of the very young. On May 27 will be released “Touch, run, learn” by Leonardo Fogassi on “Apprendere con il Movimento”, fourth work of the series. A volume to learn the secrets, in the light of the most recent scientific discoveries, of the link between movement and learning from the first days of life, regarding this very important topic. The latest title on the program is “Guys, what a class!” by Milena Piscozzo, on June 3. A method dedicated to adolescents, which applies Maria Montessori’s innovative philosophy to girls and boys, to make them citizens and citizens prepared and passionate, as wanted by the one who has always defied conventions and who was considered “the most interesting woman in Europe. “.