All really good teachers have always been, as much as they were allowed to be, some variety of what is called in this book “Montessori teacher.” But as the State and private systems of education have swollen10 to more and more unmanageable proportions, and have settled into more and more exact and cog-like relations with each other, teachers have found themselves required to “turn out a more uniform[233] product,” a process which is in its very essence utterly11 abhorrent12 to anyone with the soul of an educator.
Our State system of education has come to such an exalted13 degree of uniformity that a child in a third grade in Southern California can be transported to a third grade in Maine, and find himself in company with children being ground out in precisely14 the same educational hopper he has left. His temperament15, capacity, tastes, surroundings, probable future and aspirations16 may be what you will, he will find all the children about his age of all temperaments17, tastes, capacities, probable futures18 and aspirations practically everywhere in the United States, being “educated” exactly as he was, in his original graded school, wherever it was. School superintendents19 hold conferences of self-congratulation over this “standardizing” of American education, and some teachers are so hypnotized by this mental attitude on the part of their official superiors, that they come to take pride in the Procrustean20 quality of their schoolroom where all statures are equalized, and to labor21 conscientiously22 to drive thirty or more children slowly and steadily23, like a flock of little sheep, with no stragglers and no advance-guard allowed, along the straight road to the next division, where another shepherdess, with the same training, takes them in hand. There is a significant anecdote24 current in school-circles, of an educator rising to address an educational convention[234] which had been discussing special treatment for mentally slow and deficient25 children, and solemnly making only this pregnant exclamation26, “We have special systems for the deficient child, and the slow child and the stupid child ... but God help the bright child!”
Now it is only fair to state that this mechanical exactitude of program and of organization has been in the past of incalculable service in bringing educational order out of the chaos27 which was the inevitable28 result of the astoundingly rapid growth in population of our country. Our educational system is a monument to the energy, perseverance29, and organizing genius of the various educational authorities, city, county, and state superintendents and so on, who have created it. But like all other complicated machines it needs to be controlled by master-minds who do not forget its ultimate purpose in the fascination30 of its smoothly-running wheels. That there is plenty of the right spirit fermenting31 among educators is evident. For, even along with the mighty32 development of this educational machine, has gone a steadily increasing protest on the part of the best teachers and superintendents, against its quite possible misuse33.
Few people become teachers for the sake of the money to be made in that business; it is a profession which rapidly becomes almost intolerable to anyone who has not a natural taste for it; and, as a consequence of these two factors, it is perhaps, of all the[235] professions, the one which has the largest proportion of members with a natural aptitude34 for their lifework. With the instinctive35 right-feeling of human beings engaged in the work for which they were born, a considerable proportion of teachers have protested against the tacit demand upon them by the machine organization of education, to make the children under their care, all alike. They have felt keenly the essential necessity of inculcating initiative and self-dependence in their pupils, and in many cases have been aided and abetted36 in these heterodox ideas by more or less sympathetic principals and superintendents; but the ugly, hard fact remains37, not a whit38 diminished for all their efforts, that the teacher whose children are not able to “pass” given examinations on given subjects, at the end of a given time, is under suspicion; and the principal whose school is full of such teachers is very apt to give way to a successor, chosen by a board of business-men with a cult39 for efficiency. To advise teachers under such conditions to “adopt Montessori ideas” is to add the grimmest mockery to the difficulties of their position. All that can be hoped for, at present, in that direction, is that the strong emphasis placed by the Montessori method on the necessity for individual freedom of mental activity and growth, may prove a valuable reinforcement to those American educators who are already struggling along towards that goal.
This general state of things in the formal education[236] of our country is one of the many reasons why this book is addressed to mothers and not to teachers. The natural development of Montessori ideas, the natural results of the introduction of “Children’s Homes” into the United States, without this already existing fixed educational organization convinced of its own perfection, would be entirely40 in accord with the general, vague, unconscious socialistic drift of our time. Little by little, various enterprises which used to be private and individual, are being carried on by some central, expert organization. This is especially true as regards the life of women. One by one, all the old “home industries” are being taken away from us. Our laundry-work, bread-making, sewing, house-furnishing, and the like, are all done in impersonal41 industrial centers far from the home. The education of children over six has already followed this general direction and is less and less in the hands of the children’s mothers. And now here is the Casa dei Bambini, ready to take the younger children out of our yearning42 arms, and sternly forbidding us to protest, as our mothers were forbidden to protest when we, as girls, went away to college, or when trained nurses came in to take the care of their sick children away from them, because the best interests of the coming generation demand this sacrifice.
But as things stand now, we mothers have a little breathing-space in which to accustom43 ourselves gradually to this inevitable change in our world. At some time in the future, society will certainly recognize[237] this close harmony of the successful Casa dei Bambini with the rest of the tendencies of our times, and then there will be a need to address a detailed44 technical book on Montessori ideas to teachers, for the training of little children will be in their hands, as is already the training of older children.
And then will be completed the process which has been going on so long, of forcing all women into labor suitable to their varying temperaments. The last one of the so-called “natural,” “domestic” occupations will be taken away from us, and very shame at our enforced idleness will drive us to follow men into doing, each the work for which we are really fitted. Those of us who are born teachers and mothers (for the two words ought to mean about the same thing) will train ourselves expertly to care for the children of the world, collected for many hours a day in school-homes of various sorts. Those of us who have not this natural capacity for wise and beneficent association with the young (and many who love children dearly are not gifted with wisdom in their treatment) will do other parts of the necessary work of the world.
But that time is still in the future. At present our teachers can no more adopt the utter freedom and the reverence45 for individual differences, which constitute the essence of the “Montessori method,” than a cog in a great machine can, of its own volition46, begin to turn backwards47. And here is the opportunity for us, the mothers, perhaps among the last[238] of the race who will be allowed the inestimable delight and joy of caring for our own little children, a delight and joy of which society, sooner or later, will consider us unworthy on account of our inexpertness, our carelessness, our absorption in other things, our lack of wise preparation, our lack of abstract good judgment48.
Our part, during this period of transition, is to seize upon regenerating49 influences coming from any source, and shape them with care into instruments which will help us in the great task of training little children, a complicated and awful responsibility, our pathetically inadequate50 training for which is offset51 somewhat by our passionate52 desire to do our best.
We can collaborate53 in our small way with the scientific founder54 of the Montessori method, and can help her to go on with her system (discovered before its completion) by assimilating profoundly her master-idea, and applying it in directions which she has not yet had time finally and carefully to explore, such as its application to the dramatic and ?sthetic instincts of children.
Above all, we can apply it to ourselves, to our own tense and troubled lives. We can absorb some of Dr. Montessori’s reverence for vital processes. Indeed, possibly nothing could more benefit our children than a whole-hearted conversion55 on our part to her great and calm trust in life itself.
The End
The End
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1
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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flexibility
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| n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性 | |
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hierarchic
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| 等级制的，按等级划分的 | |
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rigidity
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| adj.钢性，坚硬 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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embittering
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| v.使怨恨，激怒( embitter的现在分词 ) | |
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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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abhorrent
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| adj.可恶的，可恨的，讨厌的 | |
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exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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temperaments
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| 性格( temperament的名词复数 )； （人或动物的）气质； 易冲动； （性情）暴躁 | |
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futures
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| n.期货，期货交易 | |
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superintendents
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| 警长( superintendent的名词复数 )； （大楼的）管理人； 监管人； （美国）警察局长 | |
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procrustean
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| adj.强求一致的 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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conscientiously
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| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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fermenting
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| v.（使）发酵( ferment的现在分词 )；（使）激动；骚动；骚扰 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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misuse
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| n.误用，滥用；vt.误用，滥用 | |
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aptitude
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| n.(学习方面的)才能，资质，天资 | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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abetted
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| v.教唆（犯罪）( abet的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；怂恿；支持 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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whit
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| n.一点，丝毫 | |
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cult
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| n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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impersonal
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| adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的 | |
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42
yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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accustom
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| vt.使适应，使习惯 | |
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detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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volition
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| n.意志；决意 | |
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backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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49
regenerating
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| v.新生，再生( regenerate的现在分词 )；正反馈 | |
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50
inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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51
offset
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| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
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52
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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53
collaborate
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| vi.协作，合作；协调 | |
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54
Founder
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| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
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conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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