Montessori pilot project
During the recent seminars organized by the new Ukrainian ministry for youth and sports, the Nikolaiev Baby House has received the mandate to carry out a pilot project of a Montesorri class.
The Montessori classes are based on the teaching method elaborate by Maria Montessori of which you will find a short biography below.
In short, the philosophy of this pedagogy is to let the child learn by itself at his rate/rhythm in a suitable environment and with specific toys.
This represents a drastic change (in other words a 180° turn) of the educational methods in Ukrainian orphanages. We can thus only greet this initiative, even if it is only one pilot project, and we certainly will support the director during the realization.
A good part of the trip planned for September could, in addition to other things, be dedicated to this project.
There is a Montessori association in Switzerland which is affiliated with the international association.
Who was Maria Montessori?
Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in Chiaravalle in Italy.
By 1907 Montessori had established the first Casa dei Bambini, or Children’s House, in Rome. By 1913, there was an intense interest in her method in North America, which later waned. (Nancy McCormick Rambusch revived the method in America by establishing the American Montessori Society in 1960.) From the Netherlands–where she lived since 1936–Montessori travelled to India on invitation by the Theosophical Society. She gave courses on various sites like Madras and Karachi and conducted her own school in Kodaikanal, for the duration of World War II. After her stay in India, Montessori lived out the remainder of her life in the Netherlands. The AMI, or Association Montessori Internationale, which she founded in 1929, has its headquarters in the Netherlands. She died in Noordwijk aan Zee, her final resting place.
The above text and more about Maria Montesori and her life can be found here.
