Chapter 20: Reading The Montessori Method Together - Chapter by Chapter

In this podcast series, we read The Montessori Method by Dr. Maria Montessori—chapter by chapter—using the original English translation commissioned while she was still alive.

When I was starting my own Montessori school, I turned directly to Dr. Montessori’s writings because they were available in the public domain and, quite frankly, free. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was reading the 1912 English translation by Anne E. George, created with Dr. Montessori’s knowledge and approval. Later, I learned that many Montessorians in the U.S. encountered her work through later translations—especially the 1967 version—which helped spark a massive resurgence of Montessori education in America.

Both versions matter.
But they are not the same.

In the original translation, Dr. Montessori’s full voice comes through—her scientific rigor, her philosophical depth, and her spiritual understanding of the child. Some of that texture feels softened or missing in later editions. As Montessori education has grown, I’ve also noticed that the method is sometimes diluted or reshaped in ways that feel far removed from what Dr. Montessori originally envisioned.

This podcast is an experiment—and an adventure.

Each episode features a chapter-by-chapter reading of The Montessori Method, along with reflections and annotations that connect Dr. Montessori’s words to modern classrooms, families, and educational realities. I pause to offer context, raise questions, and explore how her ideas still challenge and inspire us today.

This is not a lecture or a final word. It’s a conversation.

If you have thoughts to add, questions to ask, or if you think I’ve gotten something wrong, I invite you to reach out and message me. I’m on a journey too—learning, re-learning, and listening carefully to Dr. Montessori’s voice alongside you.

Whether you’re a Montessori guide, school leader, parent, or simply curious about the foundations of this work, you’re welcome here.

Let’s begin—chapter by chapter.

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Chapters

00:09 Introduction to The Montessori Method & Reading
04:41 First Grade
Practical Life basics and introductory sensorial materials.
05:39 Second Grade
Controlled movement exercises and sensorial work with dimensions.
11:48 Third Grade
Growing independence, refined sensorial exploration, and preparation for writing.
13:16 Fourth Grade
Advanced Practical Life, expanded sensorial work, writing, and early arithmetic.
16:32 Fifth Grade
Continuation of previous work, rhythmic exercises, creative design, and early reading and writing.

#Montessori #MariaMontessori #MontessoriMethod #SchoolRefection   #1912Translation #HolisticEducation #PracticalLife #EarlyChildhoodEducation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to this chapter by chapter reading of the Montessori Method by Dr. Maria Montessori. When I was starting my Montessori school, I turned directly to Dr. Montessori's original writings, partly out of conviction and partly because they were available in the public domain and free. What I didn't realize at the time was that I was reading the original English translation commissioned while Dr. Montessori was still alive, translated in 1912 by Anne E. George. Later I discovered that many of us have encountered Montessori through later translations, especially the 1967 version, which helped spread the method widely in the US. And for which I'm personally grateful. But returning to the original text, I found something more: Dr. Manessori's full voice, her depth, her vision, and her spiritual and philosophical foundations. In this podcast, I'm reading the original translation chapter by chapter, adding reflections to help connect her words to today's classrooms and families. This is an experiment, an adventure, and a shared journey of learning. Let's begin. Hi, and welcome to reading the Montessori Method Together, chapter by chapter. Today we're doing chapter 19, teaching of numeration, introduction to arithmetic. My name is Melissa Rohan. I am the founder and head of school here at Waterfront Academy. We are reading from the 1912 translation by Anne E. George. There are other translations like the popular 1967 version. This one was commissioned by Dr. Montessori while she was alive and shortly after she wrote her book in 1909. So this is pretty close to where she was and thinking at the time that she had established uh the Montessori method. Anyways, so today's chapter is specifically she's introducing uh Montessori math. I can't tell you how many times as doing our social media, I'm like hashtag Montessori Math, whenever I put a picture of a child doing math work, it's a it's a thing. And it there's a reason why it's a thing. It's amazing, and it's it works with the way that humans learn, especially at this age, and then it's just in your head. But let me I I feel like I could go on and on and on about this because it it's just so amazing the way this works. We children, humans, when before we like using our hands, we use more of our brain when we use our hands. We've already discussed this in the chapters before. And when we're using our hands, more of our brain is being activated and we are learning things better, we're seeing things in 3D. There's a great study on 3D versus 2D learning, 3D so much better, exponentially better. And so we start moving from concrete using the manipulatives to abstract around third grade. We start kind of playing, like getting them to move away from using the concrete. But I always tell parents that I'm still in the adolescent classroom using the materials to introduce these really big concepts. And I'm doing pre-algebra, algebra, trigonometry, geometry. You know, we're doing really big works over there in the adolescent classroom, and so I like cementing it with the hands-on first, and it's using the exact same materials that they have used over and over and time and time again since they were three years old. And it is wonderful, and they really get these concepts quickly, and they can move, you know, from the the concrete through to the abstract, seamlessly, quickly, without hiccup. It's amazing. And if they have an issue, they'll actually grab out the materials themselves and kind of play with it, and then they're like, okay, and then move on. So this is it really is a thing. If you don't know it's a thing, it's a thing. And so this is where she really introduces it for the first time to us. And so we are seeing some really iconic the introductions to some of the iconic materials that we know and love. For example, like the number rods. I'm gonna go through all of this. It's not again, not another, it's not terribly long of a of a chapter, so we'll kind of easy breezy go through this pretty quickly. So, yeah, with that, we'll go ahead and do chapter 19, teaching of numeration introduction to arithmetic. Children of three years already know how to count as far as two or three when they enter our schools. They therefore very easily learn numeration, which consists in counting objects. A dozen different ways may serve toward this end. The daily life presents many opportunities when the mother says, for instance, there are two buttons missing from your apron, or we need three more plates at table. One of our first means used by me is that of counting with money. I obtain new money, and if it were possible, I should have good reproductions made in cardboard. I have seen such money used in school for de uh for deficience in London. The making of change is a form of numeration so attractive as to hold the attention of the child. I present the one, two, and four centime pieces and the children this way learn to count to ten. No form of instruction is more practical than that tending to make children familiar with the coins in common use, and no exercise is more useful than that of making change. It is so closely related to daily life that it inter it that it interests all children intensely. Having taught numeration in this empiric mode, I pass to more methodical exercises of these sets of blocks already used in the education of the senses, namely the series of ten rods heretofore used for the teaching of length. The shortest of these rods corresponds to a decimeter and the longest to a meter, while the intervening rods are divided into sections a decimeter in length. The sections are painted alternating red and blue. Someday when a child has arranged the rods placing them in order of length, we have him count the red and blue signs, beginning with the smallest piece that is one, one, two, one, two, three, etc. Always going back to one in the counting of each rod, starting from the side A. We then have his name, the single rod from the shortest to the longest, according to the total number of sections which each contain, touching the rods at the sides B on which side the stair ascends. So let me show you this diagram there, you see it? This results in the same numeration as when we counted the longest rod. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Wishing to know the number of rods, we count them from the side A and the same numerization. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. This correspondence of the three sides of the triangle causes the child to verify his knowledge, and as the exercise interests him, he repeats it many times. We now unite to the exercises in the numeration the earlier sensory exercises in which the child recognizes the long and the short rods. Having mixed the rods upon a carpet, the directress selects one and showing it to the child has him count the section, for example, five. She then asks him to give her the next one in length, he selects it by his eye, and the directress has him verify his choice by placing the two pieces side by side and by counting their sections. Such exercises may be repeated in great variety, and through them the child learns to assign a particular name to each one of the pieces in the long stair. We may now call them pieces them piece number one, piece number two, etc. And finally, for brevity, may speak of them in the lessons as one, two, three, etc. The numbers as represented by the graphic signs. At this point, if the child already knows how to write, we may present the figures cut in sandpaper and mounted upon cards. In presenting these, the method is the same used in teaching the letters. This is one, this is two, give me one, give me two. What number is this? The child traces the number with his finger as he did the letters. Exercises with numbers. Association of the graphic sign with the quantity. I have designed two trays, each divided into five little compartments. At the back of each compartment may be placed a card bearing a figure. The figures in the first tray should be zero, one, two, three, four, and in the second, five, six, seven, eight, nine. The exercise is obvious. It consists in placing within the compartments a number of objects corresponding to the pig figure indicated upon the card at the back of the compartment. We give the children various objects in order to vary the lesson, but chiefly make use of large wooden pegs so shaped that they will not roll off the desk. We place a number of these before the child whose part is to arrange them in their places, one peg corresponding to the card marked one, etc. When he has finished, he takes his tray to the directress that she may verify his work. The lesson on zero. We wait until the child pointing to the compartment containing the card marked zero asks and what must I put in here? We then reply nothing. Zero is nothing. But often this is not enough. It is necessary to make the child feel what we mean by nothing. To this end we make use of little games which vastly entertain the children. I stand among them and turning to one of them who already has used this material, I say Come, dear, come to me zero times. The child almost always comes to me and then runs back to his place. But my boy, you came one time, and I told you to come zero times. Then he begins to wonder. But what must I do then? Nothing. Zero is nothing. You must sit still. You must not come at all. Not any times, zero times, no times at all. I repeat these exercises until the children understand, and they are then immensely amused at remaining quiet when I call to them to come to me zero times, or to throw me zero kisses. They themselves often cry out zero is nothing, zero is nothing exercises for the memory of numbers. When the children recognize the written figure, and when this figure signifies to them the numerical value, I give them the following exercise. I cut the figures from old calendars and mount them upon slips of paper which are then folded and dropped into a box. The children draw out the slips, carrying them still folded to their seats where they look at them and refold them, conserving the secret. Then, one by one or in groups, these children, who are naturally the oldest ones in the class, go to the large table of the directress where groups of various small objects have been placed. Each one selects the quantity of objects corresponding to the number he has drawn. The number, meanwhile, has been left at the children's place, a slip of paper mysteriously folded. The child therefore must remember his number not only during the movements which he makes in coming and going, but while he collects his piece, counting them one by one. The directress may here make interesting individual observations upon the number memory. When the child has gathered up his objects, he arranges them upon his own table in columns of two. And if the number is uneven, he places the odd piece at the bottom and between the last two objects. The arrangement of the pieces is therefore as follows, and let me go ahead and give you this. Illustration The crosses represent the objects, while the circle stands for the folded slip containing the figure. Having arranged his objects, the child awaits the verification. The directress comes, opens the slip, reads the number, and counts the pieces. When we first played this game, it often happened that the children took more objects than they were called for upon the card. And this was not always because they did not remember the number, but arose from a mania for the having the greatest number of objects. A little of that instinctive greediness, which is common to primitive and uncultured man. The directress seeks to explain to the children that it is useless to have all those things upon the desk, and that the point of the game lies in taking the exact number of objects called for. Little by little they enter into this idea, but not so easily as one might suppose. It is a real effort of self denial which holds the child within the set limit and makes him take, for example, only two of the objects placed at his disposal, while he sees others taking more. I therefore consider this game more an exercise of exercise of willpower than of numeration. The child who has the zero should not move from his place when he sees all his companions rising and taking freely of the objects which are inaccessible to him. Many times zero falls to the lot of a child who knows how to count perfectly, and who would experience great pleasure in accumulating and arranging a fine group of objects in the proper order upon his table, and awaiting with security the teacher's verification. It is most interesting to study the expressions upon the faces of those who possess zero. The individual difference the individual differences which result are almost a revelation of the character of each one. Some remain impassive, assuming a bold front in order to hide the pain, the pain of the disappointment. Others show this disappointment by involuntary gestures. Still others cannot hide the smile which is called forth by the singular situation in which they find themselves, and which will make their friends curious. There are little ones who follow every movement of their companions with a look of desire, almost of envy, while others show instant acceptance of their situation. No less interesting are the expressions with which they confess to the holding of the zero. When asked during the verification, and you, you haven't taken anything. I have zero. It is zero. These are the usual words, but the expressive face, the tone of the voice show a widely varying sentiment. Rare indeed are those who seem to give with pleasure the explanation of an extraordinary fact. The greater number either look unhappy or merely resigned. We therefore give lessons upon the meaning of the game, saying it is hard to keep the zeros secret. Fold the paper tightly and don't let it slip away. It is almost difficult of all. Indeed, after a while the very difficulty of remaining quiet appeals to the children, and when they open the slip mark zero, it can be seen that they are content to keep the secret. Addition and subtraction from one to twenty, multiplication and division. The didactic material which we use for the teaching of the first arithmetical operations is the same already used for numeration. That is, the rods graduated as to length which arranged on the scale of the mag the on the meter contain the first idea of the decimal system. The rods, as I have said, have come to be called by the numbers which they represent. One, two, three, etc. They are arranged in order of length, which is also in order of numeration. The first exercise consists in trying to put the shorter pieces together in such a way as to form tens. The most simple way of doing this is to take successive successively the shortest rod from one up and place them at the end of the corresponding long rods from nine down. This may be accompanied by the commands take one and add it to nine, take two and add it to eight, take three and add it to seven, take four and add it to six. In this way we make four rods equal to ten. There remains the five, but turning this upon its head in the long sentence, it passes from one end of the ten to the other, and thus makes clear the fact that two times five makes ten. These exercises are repeated and little by little the child is taught the more technical language nine plus one equals ten. Eight plus two equals is ten. Seven plus three equals ten. And for the five which remains, two times five equals ten. At last if he can write, we teach the signs plus and equals and times. Then this is what he we see in the neat notebooks of our little ones. When all this is well and learned and have been put upon the paper with great pleasure by the children, we call their attention to the work which is done when the pieces grouped together to form tens are taken apart and put back in their original positions. From the ten last form we take away four and six remain. From the next we take away three and seven remain. From the next, two and eight remain. From the last we take away one and nine remains. Speaking of this properly, we say ten less four equals six, ten less three equals seven, ten less two equals eight, ten less one equals nine. In regard to the remaining five, it is the half of ten. And by counting the long rod in two, that is dividing ten by two, we would have five. The written record of all of this reads as such. Once the children have mastered this exercise, they multiply it spontaneously. Can we make three in two ways? We place the one after two and then write in order that we can remember what we have done. Two plus one equals three. Can we make two rods equal to a number four? And four minus three equals one. Rod number two in this relation to rod number four is treated as five in relation to ten. That is, we turn it over and show that it is contained in four exactly two times. Four divided by two equals two, two times two equals four. Another problem, let us see how many rods we can play this game. This same game. That is two times two equals four, three times two equals six, four times two equals eight, five times two equals ten, ten divided by two equals five, eight divided by two equals four, six divided by two equals three, and four divided by two equals two. At this point we find that the cubes with which we played the number memory game are of help. From this arrangement, we one sees at once which are the numbers which can be divided by two. All those which have not an odd cube at the bottom. These are the even numbers because they can be arranged in pairs two by two. And the division by two is. Is easy. All that is necessary being to separate the two lines of two that stand one under the other. Counting the cubes of each file, we have the quotient. To recompose the primitive number, we need only resemble the two files as two times three equals six. All this is not difficult for children of five years. The repetition soon becomes monotonous, but the exercises may not as easily change. Taking again the set of long rods, and instead of placing rod number one after nine, place it after ten. In the same way, place two after nine and three after eight. In this way we make rods of the greater length than ten. Lengths which we must learn to name eleven, twelve, thirteen, etc. as far as twenty. The little cubes too we may use to fix these higher numbers. Having learned the operation through ten, the only difficulty lies in the decimal numbers which we may or which require certain lessons. Lessons on decimals, arithmetical calculations beyond ten. The necessary didactic material consists of a number of square cards upon which the figure ten is printed in large type, and of other rectangular cards half the size of the square and containing the single numbers from one to nine. We place the numbers in a line. Then having no more numbers, we must begin over again and take the one again. This one is like the sections in the set of rods, which in rod number ten extends beyond nine. Counting along the stair as far as nine, there remains this one section, which, as there are no more numbers, we again designate as one. But this is a higher one than the first. And to distinguish it from the first, we put it near a zero, a sign which means nothing. Here then is ten, covering the zero with a separate rectangular number cards in the order of their succession we see formed eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen. These numbers are composed by adding two rod number ten, the first rod number number number one, then two, then three, etcetera, until we finally add rod number nine to rod number ten, thus obtaining a very long rod, which when its alternating red and blue sections are counted, gives us nineteen. The directress may then show to the child the cards giving the number sixteen, and he may place the rod six after rod ten. She then takes away the card bearing six and places over the zero the card bearing the figure eight, whereupon the child takes away rod six and replaces it with rod eight, thus making eighteen. Each of these acts may be recorded thus, ten plus six equals sixteen, ten plus eight equals eighteen, etc. We proceed in the same way to subtraction. When the number itself begins to have a clear meaning to the child, the combinations are made upon one long card, arranged the rectangular cards bearing the nine figures upon the two columns of numbers shown in figure A and B. Upon the card A, we superimpose upon the zero of the second ten the rectangular card bearing the one. And under this, the one bearing two, etc. Thus, while the one of ten remains the same, the numbers to the right proceed from zero to nine, thus. In card B, the applications are more complex. The cards are superimposed in numerical progression by tens. Almost all our children count to 100 divide. That concludes this chapter of the Montessori method. Thank you for listening and for taking part in this journey with me. This project is very much an exploration. If you have thoughts to add, questions to ask, or if you think I misunderstood or missed something important, I generally want to hear from you. Please message me, share your reflections, or continue the conversation with fellow listeners. On a quest two, learning, relearning, and engaging deeply with Dr. Montessori's work as we go. Join me next time as we continue chapter by chapter.