At the beginning of the 20th century the reform movement of new upbringing , which showed respect to child´s individuality and accepted his natural development stages, interests and needs, spread. One of the schools which belonged to this movement was also Maria Montessori’s pedagogical system. Maria Montessori was an Italian dotor. In the 19th century women were seen as legally incapacitated and totally dependent human beings. Women were perceived as mothers, wives and daughters whose only task was to stand faithfully by the man. They couldn´t interfere in social life and political life and they couldn´t reach higher education. (Pinčíková, 2004). In those, for women hard, times a woman, whom we could call ´The only “man“ of Italian pedagogic generation´ , was born. (Cipro, 1984) Maria Montessori was born on 31st August 1870 in Chiravalle, province Ancona, Italy. She was born to the family of the office worker Allesandro Montessori and Renilde Stoppani. Maria Montessori first graduated at Technical High School. In the years 1886 - 1890 she attended Technical Institute of Leonardo da Vinci. In this period of time her dream was to become an engineer. When she finished her technical studies she changed her mind and decided for medical studies at the university in Rome, which was accessible only to men. She was accepted and in 1896 she became the first woman who graduat from medical studies and became a doctor.

After her graduation she started to work as an assistant at the mental asylum. Here she came up with the idea that mentally handicaped children could be educated. She was inspired by the thesis of two major French doctors Jean Itard and Eduard Sequina (Cipro, 1984). In 1902 Maria Montesori finished her studies of pedagogy, experimental psychology and anthropology at university in Rome. In the years 1904 – 1908 she worked as a professor of antropology and biology there. (Šebestová – Švarcová 1996). In 1906 she started to work with the group of 60 children. In the same year Maria elaborated her educational methods. She came to the decision that methods she used with the mentally handicaped children could also develop individualities of healthy but neglected children. (Cipro, 1984). In 1907 Maria Montessori founded Casa dei Bambini in San Lorenzo, where she created such an environment which provided lots of opportunities for children´s free development. In 1909 Maria organized her first course where she introduced the participants into pedagogic theory and practical training. Along the way of following decades Maria organized courses in London, Barcelona and India. She wrote many books which were translated into several languages. In 1926 Montessori Association Internationale was founded. In 1949, 1950 and 1951 Maria Montessori was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Her son Mario became Maria´s major follower and successor. Maria Montessori died on 6th May 1952 in the dutch village Nordwiik –aan-Zee where is also burried. (Šebersotvá, Švarcová 1996).

Basic principles of Maria Montessori pedagogical system;

At the time of Maria Montessori the childhood question was out of spotlight. At the turn of the 19th and 20th century the reform movement of new upbringing became to form and childhood question became more and more popular. Studies aimed at childhood research presented new facts about children´s lives. Children´s mental powers were depleated of the hard work at schools. Later, after several years of various surveys and researches, adults started to realize, that children are human beings with the need to be spent time with by their parents. But parents often didn´t have any spare time for their children because there were many “urgent“ things to be done. This actuality has survived up till now. Adults didn´t pay much attention to the creation of natural environment for their children. At the beginning of the 20th century the point of view of child´s life has completely changed. Schools were refurbished, and in both – school and family – environments new educational methods and principles (based on love, patience and tolerance) were accepted. Childhood was percieved as a relevant phenomenon in the life of the society. The society strated to realize that the question of childhood must penetrate into the “spirit“ of the whole society. It must arouse adults´ awareness and trigger their activitiy . Childhood remains the most important period in the life of an adult because throughout the first three years of life the man is formed for the rest of his life. (Montessori 1998). Maria Montessori created coherent pedagogical system which emphasizes the uniquieness of every child. This system is based on fixed principles. (Helmingová, 1996). The basic principles of Maria Montessori pedagogical systém are following:

• Prepared Environment
• Attention polarization
• Free Choice
• Sensitive Periods
• Multi-age grouping
• Absorbent Mind

The prepared environment. School should be the place where children can freely live and, at the same time, can be socially developed. Maria Montessori intensively explored the optimal conditions which lead children to certain actions. She considered the environment according to respect of the didactic principles and the school organization as a place of mutual friendship and collaboration of children. (Zelinková 1997). The principe of the prepared environment is the main motive in theory as well as in practice of Maria Montessori‘s pedagogy. Without prepared environment no constructive activities , no implementation of demands or free choice are possible. (Helmingová, 1996). The major premise of a prepared environment creation is the room. The room must be airy and bright and should fulfill the need of “right tiny home of childhood“. It means to have small tables, small chairs, miniturized toilet accessories, small rugs, small cutlery, containers, tableclothes. They should be lightweight so that children can manipulate with them easily. (Rýdl, 1999). Typical feature of the prepared environment is tidiness. In the space there shouldn´t be any extra unnecessary materials cause it can have disruptive impact on children. Only things that serve on children´s development have the place in the prepared environment. Everything that might have stand against it, even the unimportant things, should be excluded. (Rýdl, 1999). The prepared environment is usually divided into 5 sections according to the educational areas. (Šebestová – Švarcová, 1996):

• Practical life
• Sensorial area
• Language
• Mathematics
• Cultural area

Every piece of material can be found only in a single copy which makes it important and more attractive. In case more children are intersted in the same tool, the child who took it the first has the priority. The rest of the children must wait untill the child is done with his work. (Helmingová, 1996). In the prepared environment also the pedagogue plays very important role. The pedagogue meets „ambivalent“ tasks. He/she is in charge of developing children in the prepared environment. The educator himself/herself becomes a part of the environment. He/she is ready to help children whenever they need. The educator doesn´t force anything on children but becomes their more experienced friend. (Rýdl, 1999). Polarization of attention is a very important principle, Maria Montessori discovered that while observing children working with different materials. This phenomenon became the foundation stone of her whole pedagogic system. It´s a major discovery, which has shown how effectively we are able to support natural development of children. (Zelinková 1997) . Polarized attention means maximal concentration of a child on one particular activity. Doing this – concentrating - child becomes more thoughtful and observant and he/she seems to be more comfortable too. (Šebestová- Švarcová 1996). Maria Montessori perceives this as a fusion of physical and mental powers which leads towards deep concetration on a particular activity. Maria Montesori realized this for the first time when she was observing three-year old girl who was fully absorbed by pushing the rollers in and out of the round holes. These rollers had a different sizes so it was necessary to find correct holes for them. It was surprising for her how long this girl repeated the action again and again with unfailing inerest. (Montesori 1998). Child can stick with activitiy only when he/she can choose it freely. The basic characteristic feature of the whole mechanism is work. Work, which is freely chosen, can stimulate and develop the child instead of tiring him/her. This work supplies children with energy, develops their mental powers and leads them to self-control, because within work love is materalized. (Montessori, 2003)

Polarization is dividend into 3 stages: (Zelinková 1997)

1. Introductory stage:

The characteristic feature of this stage is restlessness, searching and expectations. Child is looking for stimulation that is corresponding with his/her inner needs. Child must be given an opportunity to move, handle things and return them back. This stage lasts briefly when compared with the following ones.

2. Stage of conscientious work

In this stage child pays all his/her attention to the activity he/she has chosen and can´t be distracted from anybody or anything. The child repeatedly carries out the activity and by doing this he/she overcomes the difficulties and solves the problems. The characteristic feature of this stage is a deep concentration on work. There is a dialogue between the child and the things he/she is using. The child is concentrated and by this he/she learns new knowledge which depends on the degree of concetration.

3. Stage of tranquility

The last stage is a stage of calming down and processing the new information and sensations. The need of cognition is fulfilled. The child is calm and experiences pleasure and satisfaction. The specific display of satisfation is putting the used materials back to its place. Very important is to finish up the whole cycle of acitivites because only the processed result of the last stage brings children the intrinsic knowledge. This is show the child can peacefully and freely build up the most important spiritual function – concentration. (Rýdl, 1999). With this phenomenon another highly important term in Maria Montessori‘s pedagogy is related – normalization of a child. Normalized child is mentally healthy and can develop harmoniously according to his/her own development impulses. (Rýdl, 1999). Normalized child shows his/her intelligence very soon, he/she can control himself/herself and prefers systematic activities. This child shares feelings for others a is empathetic. (Montessori, 1998). A child becomes normalized at the moment he/she devotes his/her undivided attention to the certain repeated series of movements. Once a child discovers a suitable activity his/her personality disorders disappear. In case that prepared environment affects a child to such an extent, that the child is motivated to some constructive activity, he/she devotes all his energy to it. New type of a child appears and that´s when we talk about normalized child.(Montessori 2003). In conjunction with polarization, silence plays a huge role. Silence cannot be connected only with the absence of noise or hum. In life close to nature and in prepared environment silence rises by itself. (Helmingová, 1996). In Maria Montessori pedagogical system there is a sort of special exercises called exercises of silence. While practising exercises of silence it´s necessary to remove much of the tones out of the environment.( Cipro, 1984). First teacher asks cildren if they are ready for the exercises of silence. Then she asks children to sit comfortably and to stop making noise, even the slightest movement. At the moment of complete silence childrn can hear the sounds they usually don´t pay any attention to – tick-tacking of clocks, birds singing, fly buzzing, rain (Helmingová, 1996). Maria Montessori realized that children are not only sensitive to silence but also to the voice which is whispering to them in this silence. Children are walking very slowly on tip-toes and they act very carefully not to touch anything which might cause noise. (Montessori, 1998). Exercises of silence help children to learn mutual communication. The real dialog is not only about talking, but also about listening and being silent. In Montessori classes silence reminds buzzing of cluster of bees, which brings the spirit of work into it. (Helming, 1996). Free choice. Even pedagogist like Jean Jacques Rousseau, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi or Friedrich Fröbel emphasized the value of freedom and liberty in their thesis. (Cipro, 1984). To guarantee free development of a child is the fundamental demand of Maria Mntessori pedagogical theory and practice. There is credo of this pedagogical system coming out of this demand: “Help me to do it by myself.“(Zelinková, 1997). According to Maria Montessori, freedom is created through permanent activities which she called work. Independence and freedom of body and spirit aren´t static. They are gained through work.Independence is an initial phase of freedom and freedom means to be „master of your own“ .Montessori emphasizes that child could perform of own volition in the world where free choice rights count. (Rýdl, 1999)

According to E. Bodnárová free choice is concerning:

• Choice of activity (a child will be occupied with)
• Place (where the activity will be done)
• Time (when the activity will be done)
• Number of repetitions (how long a child will work with the materials)
• With whom a child will work (on his own or with partner)

Assumption of free choice is the prepared environment. Appropriate working materials must be at disposal. Child must get to know materials he will work with and every single tool has its own place. (Helmingová, 1996).

It is important to realize that free choice has also its restrictions. A lot of people understand freedom in the way that we let children do what they want. (Montessori, 2003). But in Maria Montessori’s pedagogical system freedom is not percieved as that we do what we want. There are some limits to our actions. When a child chooses a tool, he/she cannot do with it what he/she wants. He/she only works with it in an appropriate way. We have to realize that Montessori materials cannot be used as toys. (Helmingová, 1996)If we talk about freedom, we have to talk also about discipline. Freedom and discipline are linked together. These are two different sides of one coin. During the activity a child recognizes his/her possibilities as well as his/her limits – limits of his/her intellect, limits of time and limits set by teachers and parents. (Rýdl, 1999)Freedom is a big issue and it´s difficult to gain. We cannot reach freedom by only removing the tyrant and breaking the chains. Freedom is a construction we must build up and which we must cherish in the whole world and in each an everyone of us. That´s what we teach our children. (Zelinková, 1997). Sensitive periods are defined periods of time, periods of special sensitivity and responsiveness of a child. It is a special disposition to gain a certain ability. At the time child gains this ability, this increased sensitivity dissapears.(Montessori, 1998). The task of a teacher is to recognize these sensitive periods of time. Maria Montessori talks about positive and negative features. Positive features appear if the child is given freedom of action in prepared environment. Child reacts positively and cheerfully and he/she starts to devote his/her time to a certian activity which leads towards the polarization of attention. Negative features come when there are some barriers in the environment which might cause angry outburst of a child and his/her despair can be seen as gratuitous. Child behaves aggressively, he/she is frustrated and moody. This can deeply affect the point of view of a child on the world. (Rýdl, 1999) The process of the sensitive period is divided into three stages. The first stage is characteristic of its slow start, in the second stage the single periods reach the top which can be very well observed and typical of the last stage is slow fading of sensitive period. (Šebestová – Švarcová 1996).

We distinguish following sensitive periods: (Šebestová – Švarcová 1996)

• Sensitivity to language (0 – 6 years)
• Sensitivity to order (0 – 3 years)
• Sensitivity to refining of sences (0 – 6 years)
• Sensitivity to details ( 0 – 2 years)
• Sensitivity to social relations development (2 – 6)
• Sensitivity to movement (1 – 4 years)

Universal features of sensitive periods are (Šebestová –Švarcová 1996):

• universality (sensitive periods appears in all nations and races)
• dominance (despite the fact that some periods proceed parallel, they don´t reach the top at the same time)
• time linking (every sensitive period has its individual time of duration)
• visibility (sensitive periods can be very well observed)

Multi-age grouping

According to Maria Montessori mixing of children of different age groups is very important. In Montessori classes children from 3 to 6 years old work together and these groups they form naturally. It has been proved that children of different ages help to each other willingly. Younger children see what the older ones do and they are very inquisitive. There is a special spirit of communication and harmony between the younger and older children which cannot be seen between the children and adults. Three-year-old child is interested in what is five-year-old child doing. Older children love turning into “teachers“ of younger ones. (Montesori, 2003).

While observing older classmates doing different activities, younger children are mentally preparing for their future tasks. There are more opportunities for cooperation.(Rýdl, 1999) Multi-age groups prevent intellectual competition and blur differences between them. (Balážová, 2001) Maria Montessori characterizes this issue: “ In our classes small children don´t feel embarassed because older children can do more things. They feel that their time will come top when they grow up a bit. On both sides we can see love, admiration and true brotherhood.“(Montessori, 2003, p. 153). “Not only there are no traces of envy but any success in the classroom evocate enthusiatic response.“ (Montessori, 2003, p. 155). Three age groups in one stage of development is optimal (Rýdl, 1999). Maria Montessori gave the importance to multi-age groups but the same value she gave to the presence of children of the same age. Children of the same age are important to each other as same as younger children are important to them. Among the peers children often choose their friends with whom they share the experiences. It´s comparable with the fact that girls like playing with girls and boys are playing with boys. (Rýdl, 1999) . Multi-age groups are unambiguously favourable as the examples above show. Children learn mutual cooperation, they are loyal to each other, they are more interested in the success of the whole group than in the success of their own, they are not jealous with others, they display courteous manners. (Montessori, 2003). This is the way they prepare themeselves for adulthood and for the real life.

Absorbent mind

Absorbent mind appears only in the period of early childhood; from birth to six years. It enables a child to “absorb“ the incentives from the environment he/she is surrounded as easy as a sponge soaks wanter. This “absorbing“ is happening unconsciously and independently. (Rýdl, 1999) . The nature of absorbent mind lies in easy and unconscious acquiring of information whose existence is permanent. Maria Montessori says that absorbent mind accepts everything, believes everything, accepts poverty and wealth, every religion, prejudice, cystome in its surroundings. (Rýdl, 1999). Maria Montessori devided the period of time when absorbent mind appears into two parts. The first part lasts from birth up to three years and the second part lasts from three to six years. These two parts differ from each other on one distinctive developmental quality whichis cognition. At about three years of age cognition appears. Before age three a personality of a child is incomplete so that is why we often cannot remember the things that had happened before we reached age three. Together with cognition appears unity of personality which gives us the ability to remember and recall memories. (Montessori, 2003). A child from three to six years now can fully use the new ability of conscious intentional reaction to the environment and he/she lives through very active period of time. Thanks to the opportunities for conscious activities the hidden abilities can be displayed. The activity of a child is not only a game or sequence of random movements. It is a work, which is necessary to be done for a man to grow up. A child absorbs the world with special subconscious kind of intelligence and then he/she grabs it into his/her hands. (Montessori, 2003). A child has still the ability to absorb his/her surroundings but he/she already starts to gather experience actively. He/she not only uses his/her senses but he/she also involves his/her hand. While before a child was absorbing the world through sight and the others were carrying him/her from room to another, now he/she wants to touch with hands. He/she is all the time attracted to many things, happy and his/her hands are still in motion. His/her intellect doesn´t anymore develop only because it simply exists. This period of time is sometimes called “blessed age of games“. (Montessori, 2003). Absorbent mind effect is limited only to the period of early childhood so that why it is necessary to use it whenever it´s possible. It´s important for a child to gather knowledge in this “unconscious“ form. For this reason Maria Montessori offers materials such as geometrical shapes and forms, golden and pearl materials or three-dimensional materials in early childhood. (Rýdl, 1999)

Characteristic of Maria Montessori Pedagogical system

Maria Montessori created a system which emphasizes terrific potential of a child and need of its full use. Human personality starts to form at the moment of birth. It means that upbringing and education must be started immediately after the birth. In this early stage upbringing is understood as a coherent support of inborn abilities of a child. (Montessori, 2003) There is a child in the centre of Maria Montessori Pedagogy – this approach is called “pedocentrism“ . The educational goal is aimed at the character of a child, who develops himslef/herself. (Šebestová – Švarcová 1996) . It was already said that child should be enabled to choose freely what he/she wants to do. With small children it´s usually a game. Changeover from game to work is very obscure and it´s difficult to set the borders between game and work. (Šebestová – Švarcová 1996). Montessori sees WORK as an activitity which was chosen by a child and which satisfies his/her needs while repeating it again and again. A child doesn´t work because he/she wants to reach a specific goal , his/her goal is to work. When a child interrupts the work it´s not because he/she feels tired, converely he/she leaves his work fresh and full of energy (Helmingová, 1996). Another important characteristic of this system is the signification of hand. Montessori calls the hand “an organ of the spirit“ and values it highly. She points out the beauty of hands which were working. (Helmingová, 1996). Children “conquer“ the environment just through hands. Children want to touch everything, to feel everything and they want to manipulate with it. The hands of children explore, gather information and also copy the movements of adults. The hand wants to carry things and to manipulate with them correctly (Helmingová, 1996). Movements of a child´s hand should fill adults with amazement. But instead of pure admiration they put the things away a repeat constantly: “Don´t touch it!“ (Montessori, 1998) . Adults have no clue how bad mistake they make. Children must be enabled to use hands. With their help a child can develop his/her sences and also hands cause the polarity of attention. The hand is, after the language, the most important expressing organ. Hand also connects a man wirh another man. It greets, offers places to sit and enables a child to become a member of the society (Helmingová, 1996) . Another highly important part of Montessori policy is physical education. It is said that movement is an aid and through this aid the personality can be shown. The gist of movement is the coordination of all muscle groups. The human body has got so many muscle groups that there exists no movement human body wouldn´t be able to learn. But, of course, this needs training. A child must learn to co-ordinate his/her movements (Montessori, 2003) . The ability to move is the basis of child´s development. Being on the move is the source of joy and entertainment of each child. He/She is inspired by the activities he/she sees around. He/She wants to wash, clean, cook. Small child has got a special memory for movements. But if he/she needs to understand a certain activity, all the movements in slow-motion must be shown without unnecessary words) . When a child masters the movements, he/she feels happy and he/she repeats the movement again and again. By mastering more and more movements he/she builds up his/her own independence. Through the physical education a child learns self-control and independence. Maria Montessori aimed at development of the sense organs activities in her pedagogical system. For this reason the special didactic materials were made. Also special tasks for using those materials were prepared. Child does the activity which is coming from his/her inner needs. He/She can choose not only from the “standard“ didactic materials but also from the supplement tools and toys. Material is a part of prepared environment and it is meant to develop sensory and motor skills. Teaching materials are considered as a “nourishment“ for mental development. Their task is to support independence of a child and his/her activity. Material becomes the “key to the world“ but it cannot replace the real world. By manipulating things of daily use a child learns how to be independent and he/she has the sense of fulfillment (Šebestová – Švarcová, 1996) . It is highly important for us to realize the significance of the knowledge Maria Montessori reached during the long time of observation. When upbringing and educating our children we must respect their needs and help them to do everything themeselves.

Methodology of Maria Montessori educational system

Methodology of work is in Maria Montessori educational system divided into following cardinal fields: (Šebestová – Švarcová, 1996)

• Practical liife exercises
• Sensory materials
• Language education
• Mathematics
• Cosmic education

All those fields cover about one hundred basic demo exercises, each exercise has got its logical process. The exercises are done in the way which was demonstrated before. Each of the demo exercise contains: (Šebestová – Švarcová, 1996)

• material
• aim
• demonstration
• control through mistakes
• word list
• age

Practical life exercises is the field which develops kinetic skills of children and teaches them working habits. First of all we need to familiarize children with “pre-exercise“. Here belongs:

• Walking
• Carrying
• Sitting down and getting up
• Opening and closing

Practical life exercises are divided into: (Šebestová – Švarcová, 1996)

Care of yourself: eating with spoon, pouring the water, putting on and taking off the clothes (wooden frames are used for this purpose), hand washing and nails cleaning, teeth brushing, hair combing, clothes holding and so on.

Care of the environment: dusting, washing up and drying up, mirror polishing, caring of flowers, garden, feeding domestic animals.

Good manners: how to greet, express thanks, ask for something, excuse, congratulate, dine, children are led to respect old people and courtesy while working.

Sensory materials:

The development of psyche of pre-school aged children depends on gathering of experience through the sensory perception, manipulation with the tools and movement as such. Because a child can manipulate with the objects, he/she can turn them around, bend them, explore them, listen to them, but also taste them,and smell them, he/she follows the way from “grasping to understanding.“ Maria Montessori created special materials for sensory development. Typical features of this didactic material are: (Šebestová – Švarcová, 1996)

• contrast
• separating of one feature
• matching
• control through mistake
• decima system
• three-grades lesson

This material is divided according to the sense it develops into: - visual perception

• tactile perception - auditory perception - weight perception - sense of temperature
• sense of taste - sense of smell - stereognostic perception use of muscles of a hand

Language is a man´s basic means of communication with other people and it serves to the mutual sharing of information. The language is not an inborn issue, but a man has to learn it from his environment. Essential precondition for speech creation is perfect sense of hearing. A child absorbs language from the environment in which sensitively perceives every speech exposure (Šebestová – Švarcová, 1996).

Maria Montessori divided language into: (Šebestová – Švarcová, 1996)

• speaking (0 – 3,5 years)
• writing ( 3,5 – 4,5 years)
• reading ( 4,5 – 5,5 years)

One of the main aims is that child would be able to express himself/herself and to formulate his/her thoughts. He/She should be able to inform others understandably but he/she is supposed to understand what other people are saying. A child needs to believe in himself/herself. We need to give him/her enough opportunities such as talking to his mother, peers, teachers, siblings or friends. The task of an adult is to listen. It is important for an adult to find some time when a child wants to talk to him/her. The adult becomes a model for the child (Šebestová–Švarcová,1996) . Maria Montessori created several educational toys for language development. For example we can find letters made from sandpaper, set of cards meant for language development, metal panels with single geometrical shapes here (Šebestová – Švarcová,1996) .

Mathematics: According to Maria Montessori the human sense of hearing is a mathematical sense. It acts in the whole life of humans. Maria Montessori expects a “mathematical spirit“ within a child and she demads it is supported. She came to the recognition that the way mathematics is introduced to chidlren cause troubles – so no abstraciton or numbers can be blamed. This way can completely destroy the pleasure a child might have from mathematical operations. The environment should give a child an opportunity to work with such a material which enables him to get into mathematical field without even noticing it. While developing mathematical spirit we need to care for: absorbent mind, learning through moving, and education with didactic materials. (Šebestová – Švarcová, 1996) . Maria Montessori mathematical material helps to distinguish forms, regularly grades relations a ratio of size. It forms a sense of differences and increases a liking for accuracy within a child. Most of the materials form a subconscious of mathematical knowledge (Šebestová – Švarcová,1996). The mathematical materials include: blue-and-red numerical poles, numbers made from sandpaper, pearl material, spindles.

Cosmic education provides harmony imagination of single components of the whole, by this is meant animated and inanimated nature and mankind. Children gather the knowledge about the world in different subjects such as geography, astronomy, biology, history, physics and chemistry. Even pre-school children gain some information about the nature through the practical experiments. They get to know birds, beetles and tiny animals. They learn how to distinguish trees and bushes, they take care of flowers and pet animals. Also they can use various Montessori materials, for example boards with the continents, states and their symbolism, globes and so on. Through this they gain perception of the nature and world connection (Šebestová – Švarcová, 1996) .The part of cosmic education is so-called “peace education“. Maria Montessori wished people all over the world live in peace, friendship, understanding and love (Šebestová – Švarcová, 1996)