Dr. Maria Montessori’s work has considerably influenced modem educational theory and practice, especially in case of children at nursery school stage. Her gospel of love, respect and sympathy for the child has been accepted all over the world.
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Her system of child education has become so popular that the word “Montessori” became synonymous with “child”. All values her system have been absorbed and put into practice by the modem nursery school. Her main contribution is as follows:
(a) Scientific Concept of Education
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Dr. Montessori started life as a doctor and, as such formulated her method of teaching young children in the light of her experience and experiment.
She gave us observation, experimentation and other scientific methods in education. She never insisted on material and method as the last words in the field of child education. She rather gave a scientific approach to education by breaking away from old traditions.
(b) Emphasis on Individual Teaching
As against collective and class reading, Montessori stresses individual treatment of each child. Because of individual differences in physical and mental make-up, each pupil should be observed, studied and handed in a different manner. Thus, like the modern educators, she made child as the “unit of teaching” in place of class.
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(c) Psychological Approach to Education
Like Froebel, she has also given emphasis on sense training, which is based on psychological principles.
By introducing exercises for practical life, she has enabled children to meet everyday situations themselves. She has advocated auto-education in an atmosphere of freedom and in the spirit of play.
She has also emphasized child’s development from within through his own efforts. All these principles have made learning more important than teaching, which is universally accepted today.
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(d) Love and Respect for Small Children
Montessori often said that child-education was the most important problem of humanity. It is, therefore, that it should receive the best attention of the Government and the public. In her own words, “The child’s soul which is pure and very sensitive requires our most delicate care”.
For her “child was God, her school was the temple and deity of the temple was the essence of childhood.”
The profound love for children that she had compelled her to travel from one corner of the world to another to start institutions for them, based on her system she also stayed in India from 1939 to 1951 and conducted a number of training courses for teachers in her system of child education.
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes of Citizen (OBCs).
Emergency Provisions
Finally, Indian Constitution also foresaw that there could be situations of danger when government could not be run as in ordinary times. To cope with these difficult times, it lays down some emergency provisions. In case of national emergency fundamental right can be restricted.