Montessori, A Modern Approach. Paula Polk Lillard

Montessori, A Modern Approach
Paula Polk Lillard
ISBN: 080520394X
(1971)
Read March 25, 2014

I finally actually read it!  Bought a lovely 70's style orange and yellow paperback copy from the library book sale, and read it cover to cover in an afternoon.  I'd seen it before, and have had it recommended several times, but never gotten around to it.

I have to say, despite being nearly 45 years old, it holds up pretty well.  That either says a lot for how little we've changed as a culture in 45 years, or speaks to her ability to avoid "modernisms" that become outdated quickly.

Basically this is a polemic, supporting Maria Montessori and her methods of instructing young people.  I find it interesting that in America, the "land of the individual," Montessori has had such a tough time catching on, despite being pretty much designed around respecting and supporting individual interests and development.  I think that is because while adults in America are supposed to be rugged and self-supporting and independent, kids are supposed to be passive and obedient and tractable - I'm never quite sure how or when people are supposed to mature from the one category to the other.

If you're not familiar with Montessori, you will be after reading this book.  What I find interesting personally is that a lot of Montessori's ideas have been corroborated by modern scientific testing and developmental studies of children.  We now KNOW that kids develop in certain stages, that it's good for kids to try and amster new abilities, and that it's normal for them to focus on one ability to the exclusion of others (the early walker who won't talk, or the chatterbox who is still crawling at 16 months).  In fact, other than her didactic  "Sensitive Periods" which are debunked by a better understanding that ideas and experiences are picked up and processed sequentially through infancy and childhood, most of what Montessori learned through observation more than one hundred years ago is holding up pretty darn well to modern scientific discoveries.

Now, what I'd like to see, and haven't been able to find, is an actual "modern" update to this classic, talking about developments in science that back up their ideas.  No luck so far tho.

 

Thematic Battle: Understood Betsy vs Eight Cousins

Understood Betsy, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, illus Kimberly Bulken Root.
ISBN: 0805060731
Read October 9, 2013

Eight Cousins, Louisa May Alcott, illus Ruth Ives.

ISBN: Nelson-Doubleday Hardcover 1958 (MCMLVIII).

Re-read October 9, 2013

I never thought I'd say this, but I actually like Fisher's book better than Alcott's. Weird.

To be clear, Eight Cousins is a long-time favorite, and I've read it at least 5 times, maybe as many as 10 times over.  (I don't like Rose in Bloom, the sequel, as well as I do Eight Cousins, but that's another post.)

In contrast, this is the first time I have read Understood Betsy.  

I really like it.  I don't know if it's the deft touch with the moralizing, or the very carefully developed tongue-firmly-in-cheek descriptions of the "delicate" little child creating more trauma to satisfy the delicate aunt's fearmongering, or the only somewhat obviously shoehorned-in Montessori principles, but it really is a very clever, very well-written, very straightforward read.  

Sadly, the more I read Alcott, the more it starts to feel Elsie Dinsmore-ish, or (horrors) Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories-ish.  She's just so moralistic, and the preaching tone is starting to grate on me as I get older (and to be perfectly honest, less interested in having God show up in everything just as a matter of course or culture).

So in a total shock to myself as much as anyone else, I found Understood Betsy to be more readable and more modern, where Eight Cousins is more melodramatic and ostentatious.  On the other hand, they both are better than a lot of what's out there.  I would be interested to read them both in sequence (it works well because Betsy is around 8 to 10, and then Rose is a pre-teen) and see how it goes.  I do have to admit that the action is more present and prevalent in Eight Cousins, where Understood Betsy is fairly straightforward and only has a few discrete adventures.

I think for an upcoming post I'll compare and contrast Rose in Bloom (which I read immediately following Eight Cousins, and it grated me something fierce) and Jo's Boys.  Both are roughly the same book, but for some reason, Jo's Boys always struck me as being much more progressive and modern (read less sexist and less preachy) than Rose in Bloom.  I find that interesting.