Chapter II: Preface: v

I. SOME INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ABOUT PARENTS 1

II. A DAY IN A CASA DEI BAMBINI 7

III. MORE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS IN A CASA DEI BAMBINI 29

IV. SOMETHING ABOUT THE APPARATUS AND ABOUT
THE THEORY UNDERLYING IT 48

V. DESCRIPTION OF THE REST OF THE APPARATUS AND
THE METHOD FOR WRITING AND READING 67

VI. SOME GENERAL REMARKS ABOUT THE MONTESSORI
APPARATUS IN THE AMERICAN HOME 91

VII. THE POSSIBILITY OF AMERICAN ADAPTATIONS OF,
OR ADDITIONS TO, THE MONTESSORI APPARATUS 105

VIII. SOME REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE SYSTEM 117

IX. APPLICATION OF THIS PHILOSOPHY TO AMERICAN HOME LIFE 127

X. SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATURE OF “DISCIPLINE” 141

XI. MORE ABOUT DISCIPLINE, WITH SPECIAL REGARD TO OBEDIENCE 153

XII. DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF A UNIVERSAL ADOPTION
OF THE MONTESSORI IDEAS 165

XIII. IS THERE ANY REAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE
MONTESSORI SYSTEM AND THE KINDERGARTEN? 171

XIV. MORAL TRAINING 195

XV. DR. MONTESSORI’S LIFE AND THE ORIGIN OF THE
CASA DEI BAMBINI 210

XVI. SOME LAST REMARKS 232

INDEX 239

ILLUSTRATIONS

Maria Montessori _Frontispiece_

The schoolroom in the convent of the Franciscan
nuns in the Via Giusti page 8

The meal hour “ 22

The morning clean-up “ 26

Waiter carrying soup “ 26

Exercises in practical life “ 56

Building “the Tower” “ 56

Buttoning-frames to develop co-ordinated movements
of the fingers and prepare the children for exercises
of practical life “ 68

Solid geometrical insets “ 70

The broad stair “ 74

The long stair “ 74

Insets which the child learns to place both by sight
and touch “ 78

Tracing sandpaper letters “ 86

Tracing geometrical design “ 86

Training the “stereognostic sense”--combining
motor and tactual images “ 100

Color boxes comprising spools of eight colors and
eight shades of each color “ 116

Materials for teaching rough and smooth “ 138

Counting boxes “ 162

Insets around which the child draws, and then fills
in the outline with colored crayons “ 188

Word building with cut-out alphabet “ 224

A MONTESSORI MOTHER