Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori Imagination and Creativity By: Becky Harris, Moira Hyde, and Jane Desmond

Maria Montessori:A Brief Biography • Born in Ancona Region of Italy in 1870 • First female to graduate from the University of Rome Medical School (1896) • Studied psychiatry, education, and anthropology • Opened Casa dei Bambini in 1907 • Exiled by Mussolini during World War II; worked in India, Spain, and The Netherlands • Nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize • Invited to the USA by Alexander Graham Bell in 1917, spoke at Carnegie Hall and set up sample classroom in San Francisco. • Died in 1952

The Montessori Method • Montessori viewed children as competent beings, who think and learn differently than adults. • Each child is a unique individual • Environments in which children can fulfill to their greatest potential in all aspects. • Children learn with other children by interacting with peers through mixed age groups • According to Montessori, children learn best during Sensitive Periods of Development

Goal Of Education To assist children to independently master certain experiences for which they are ready. Give the child opportunities for independent mastery. Teachers are passive observers, presenting material once realizing a child’s readiness in Sensitive Periods.

Sensitive Periods:A Window in Development of the Child • Children’s minds are naturally absorbent and quick to learn • Children learn best during Sensitive Periods • Children can learn more material and learn at a higher quality when the lessons match natural interest and ability. • This is a genetic component, available to ALL humans, regardless of cultural background. Genetically programmed blocks of time during which a child is eager and able to master certain tasks.

Sensitive Periods • Order • Details • Use of Hands • Walking • Language

Montessori Says… Imagination is the result of sensory experience. Therefore, older children with more sensory experience will have a better developed imagination than younger children. The Problem This theory contradicts with the majority of society, who believe that younger children are more imaginative than older children.

Our Study Included children from two different tutoring programs and baby-sitting. The children were asked to imagine they had been given 1 million dollars to create their ideal bedroom, and to draw a picture of it

Our Question Are children with more sensory experience better able to use their imaginations? How does the amount of sensory experience a person has correlate with his ability to imagine?

Hypothesis • The mind cannot conceive that which it does not know. • Older children will have more developed imaginations than younger children because they have more sensory experience.

Understanding Montessori and ImaginationKey Terms: • Sensory experience • Reality • Fantasy • Imagination • Creativity

Sensory Experience • Knowledge and development that is based on the five senses direct contact with environment, and experience.

Reality • the quality or state of being actual or true. • According to Montessori, reality and truth are very much the same. (e.g. that is why she does not want us to lie to children or engage them in fantasy.) • It is what is real and actual, and the sum total of all things possessing existence or essence. • Human beings interpret reality through sensory experience and this, according to Montessori, is indispensable to child development.

Fantasy Fantasy: An unreal or implausible assumption. A sequence of mental images that fulfill a psychological need. “The product of a mind that has lost its tie to reality.” • A young child’s mind has a tendency toward fantasy and has difficultly distinguishing fantasy from reality. • Adults confuse this tendency and consider it proof of the child’s superior imagination. • Fantasy play should; therefore, be postponed until the child has a firm understanding of reality.

Imagination • A child must be able to distinguish fact and fantasy to engage in imagination. • Imagination is rooted in sensorial experience. • It is the ability to see fixed objects within one’s mind even when it is no longer physically there and to hear what is no longer there. • “That spontaneous work of the infant mind by which children attribute desirable characteristics to objects that do not possess them.”

Think of the presents you've broughtAny merry little thoughtThink of Christmas, think of snowThink of sleigh bells Here we go!Like a reindeer in the skyYou can fly! You can fly!You can fly! You can fly!Peter Pan uses sensory experience in order to Imagine!!!

Santa Claus The Tooth Fairy Easter Bunny Adults tell these tales to children in the hope of encouraging a child’s imagination.Does it? NO! This doesn’t help the child form their OWN imagination. The child is receiving impressions, rather than developing their own individual ability to imagine constructively. 22

Fantasy is devoid of reality. It does not require memory of sensorial experience. It is the product of an undeveloped mind. Imagination is rooted in reality It relies on memory. It necessitates sensorial experience. He or she has to be able to differentiate between Reality and Fantasy in order to imagine. Fantasy vs. Imagination

Creativity • The abilityto fashion an original idea or thing using his or her imagination. • Creativity is an inventive process by which one uses imagination in order to produce a distinctive result. • When people are creative they are building something new based on imagination, which is rooted in sensory experience. • A person cannot create without imagination, but he or she can imagine without creativity.

Criteria: • We looked at the ability of the child to hold within their memory past sensory experience. • This was determined based on the number of objects within their drawing. • When looking at the drawings, we determined creativity based on the definition: the ability to use one’s imagination to create an original product. This largely helped us analyze the pictures in order to determine if children with more sensory experience are more imaginative.

Sample Drawings Collected From Mentoring and Babysitting

Meg Age 5 • The is an example of a child on the verge of imagination.

Emily age 5 Emily shows fantasy in her drawing. Her drawing has no basis in reality; therefore, it is unimaginative.

Anar Age 11 • Anar’s picture shows imagination. He recalls his sensorial experience in the drawing. He takes his room and fills it with desired objects from his memory.

TJ age 11 • TJ’s picture shows imagination!

Mary Sweeney Age 22 • Mary’s picture is both imaginative and creative!!

“The mind basis itself on the imagination, which brings things to a higher level, that of abstraction. But the imagination has need of support. It needs to be built, organized. Only then may man attain a new level. He is penetrating the infinite.” -Maria Montessori To Educate the Human Potential

The kids liked the project!!

Results

Age corresponds with Ability to Imagine: • This chart shows the studies combined and is a good visual depiction of our findings

The data shows the correlation between age and imagination

Evaluation of Study • Limits to our observation • Was our hypothesis correct? • Conclusion

Limits in observation -Time -Resources: we could have had more participants. -Many of the children have limited English skills, so part of the task could have been lost in translation -Unable to clearly interpret all drawings.

Was our hypothesis Correct? YES!!!!!!!

Our hypothesis was correct! Older children with more sensory experience have better imaginations. Imagination depends on the ability of a child to differentiate between reality and fantasy. One must be able to remember sensory experience in order to Imagine Creativity depends on the ability to imagine. One uses their imagination as a basis for all creativity. Conclusion:

Nature v. Nurture Montessori Kohlberg Gilligan Locke Rousseau Vygotsky Nature Nurture Piaget Erikson

Any Questions?

Maria Montessori