Dr. Maria Montessori was an Italian scientist (1870-1952) whose name has now come to be inextricably linked to preschool education. Her experiments and observation of young children at the beginning of the twentieth century has radically changed the way we look at the child today.
In I947 Dr. Maria Montessori wrote a letter which she sent to all governments of all countries in the world. Her commitment to peace was clear. To her the road to peace was the nurture of the young in carefully prepared environments.
From November 1939 to February 1940 Dr. Montessori ran the First AMI Montessori Training Course in India. The lectures were transcribed and set into galleys overnight and distributed to the students every day. The lectures were edited into The Creative Development of the Child Vols 1 & 2 in 1999 at Kalakshetra Publications, Chennai.
Dr. Montessori exchanged several letters with the great poet from 1926 onwards. In 1939 Rabindranath Tagore wrote a letter to Dr. Montessori, who visited Shantiniketan the same year.
Dr. Montessori arrived in India in 1939. This account of her sojourn in India aims to put her contribution to education in India in the context of the tumultuous decade, and put it into perspective in terms of the creation of nation.
Dr. Arundale published a message sent by Maria Montessori in The Theosophist. Vol. L.X, Part I, Oct 1938- Mar 1939, On the Watch Tower, The Theosophical Publishing House.
On October 28, 1931 Gandhi spoke at the Montessori Training College, London where Dr. Montessori was also in attendance. The following is the text of Gandhi’s Speech, which was published in the weekly newspaper, Young India , on November 19, 1931.
We hardly write or receive letters any more. Life has moved on and we now have new and instant ways of communicating with one another. A little trip down memory lane takes us to a time when to hear from a loved one you waited for a postman who brought a letter with the familiar handwriting and a colourful postage stamp.
Observing a tiny seed sprouting and growing into a plant that provides food is an amazing experience at any age, more so in an urban setup where it doesn’t seem to be part of our daily living. Watching a cormorant drying its wings by the lake side, a squirrel running up and down the tree nibbling on a nut, the smell of the earth when fresh rain falls on dry land, the breathtaking formations of birds in flight
