WWMD

WWMD?  ❧

//What would//  //Montessori do?//  ❧

 //Small print - A question not to be answered, but pondered…//

IX IMAGINATION The creative imagination of science is based upon truth. If a century ago some one had told the men who were traveling in stage coaches and using oil lamps, that some day New York would blaze with light at midnight, that men would ask for succor in mid ocean and that their message would be understood on land, that their flight in the air would surpass that of the eagle, our good forefathers would have smiled incredulously. Their imaginations would never have been able to conceive these things. To them, modern men would have seemed almost like men of another species. This is because the imagination of modern men is based upon <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the positive researches of science, whereas the men of past ages allowed their <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">minds to wander in the world of unreality. This single fact has changed the face of <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the world.

<span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">__The Advanced Montessori Method__ <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Dr. Maria Montessori <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">1917

<span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">//Adaptability// - that is the most essential quality; <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">for the progress of the world is continually <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">opening new careers, and at the same time <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">closing or revolutionizing the traditional types of <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">employment.

<span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">__The Erdkinder [Earth-child]__ <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">__A Scheme for the Reform of Secondary Education__ <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Dr. Maria Montessori <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Bulletin of the English Montessori Society <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Spring 1956

<span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Dr. Montessori recommended that an area of the Elementary school classroom <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">have “technology of the times”, so that children would learn to use it. This suggests <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">that if she were to set up an Elementary classroom today, she would put a sample <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">computer or two in Elementary. At issue here, as I see it, is not what //she// would do, <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">but to what extent and under what circumstances computers can help children <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">toward leading meaningful lives as useful, contributing members to society. These <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">should be the criteria in making educational decisions.

<span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Some adults think children must master computers as early as possible to succeed <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">in today’s world. But studies have not shown that, all things being equal, having <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">computers in the classroom assists children. Sometimes computers are used well, <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">but other times they seem to even distract from the educational mission, so the task <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">becomes how to master the technicalities of PowerPoint rather than how to find, <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">analyze, judge, integrate, and communicate information, which children learn <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">quite well from books with much less expense to the school (Oppenheimer, 2003). <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Computers not only incur expense at initial purchase, but are tremendously <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">expensive to keep up to date. There is no evidence that the educational benefit <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">they confer is commensurate with their expense.

<span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I once heard someone observe that what young children need to learn about is <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the world of nature and the world of people. Computers are not the best medium <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">for either, although properly programmed, they could help with both (and yet why <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">bother, if one can present people and nature directly?). James O. Freedman, <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">president emeritus of Dartmouth University, told graduates of the University of <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Rochester in May 2002:

<span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> Telephones, televisions, VCRs, fax machines, computers, the Internet, email, <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">cell-phones, beepers, and all these forms of instant communication often create a <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">bewildering barrage of noise and frenetic movement. It is almost as if we have <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">surrounded ourselves with such technology in order to avoid suspended moments <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of silence and contemplation.

<span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> If we are to succeed in preserving our individuality against such technological <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">tyranny, we need to slow the tempo of our lives and extend the span of our <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">attention. We need to emphasize a form of humane education that helps students <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">to establish a rich interior life and an enduring openness of mind. A sturdy, private <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">self where self-examination can occur. (New York Times, 6/2/02)

<span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Montessori environments offer children that quiet...

<span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">__Montessori – The Science Behind the Genius__ <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Angeline Stoll Lillard <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Oxford University Press US, 2008 <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Page 335

<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">//"What purpose would education serve in// <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">//our days unless it helped humans to a// <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">//knowledge of the environment to which// <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">//they have to adapt themselves?"// <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Maria Montessori

<span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 26px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The liberty of the child ought to have as its limit the <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 26px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">collective interest of the community in which he <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 26px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">moves; its form expressed in what we call manners <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 26px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and good behavior. It is our duty to prevent the <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 26px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">child from doing anything which may offend or <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 26px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">hurt others, and to check the behavior which is <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 26px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">unbecoming or impolite.

<span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">__The Discovery of the Child__ <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Maria Montessori <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">First Published - 1948

<span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 48px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> What would <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 48px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> Montessori do? <span style="font-family: Zapf Dingbats; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 48px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> ❧ <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 48px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> //More importantly,// <span style="font-family: Century Gothic; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 48px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> //why does// //this question matter?//

<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">//"What purpose would education serve in our days unless it helped humans to a knowledge of the environment to which// <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">//they have to adapt themselves?"// - Maria Montessori

<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The American Montessori Society encourages and supports exploring the use of technology in Montessori educational <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">environments, especially at the elementary and higher levels. Using technology is appropriate and desirable for teachers <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and school administrators, and also for a variety of student uses. Intelligently integrated into the Montessori environment, <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">technology can be a valuable communications tool and may promote traditional Montessori tenets.

<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Information technology is an important part of the world in which our children live and which they will inherit. It has <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">become an essential communications medium of modern times. A guide for using technology should allow children to <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">follow their own interests, to learn as appropriate to their individual styles, and to achieve independence as lifelong <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">learners. Although children in the two and a half to six year age group need to have extensive manual and other direct <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">sensorial activities, there are uses that can be implemented by the director, for material preparation, planning and record <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">keeping. At higher levels, technology may enhance student research through the ability to access and exchange <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">information in global learning communities. Both parents and teachers must be conscientious in teaching and modeling <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">appropriate and responsible use of technology.

<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The basis of adding any new or different piece of material to the Montessori environment must be to nurture the <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">development of the child. Technology is no different. Just as extensive training is required for the correct use of the <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">traditional Montessori materials, there is certainly a need for careful guidance in the appropriate use of classroom <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">technology. As with the Montessori materials, there is a learning curve for the suitable use of technology. In the <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">application of technology in the Montessori classroom the key principle should be that it must be carefully thought out and <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">integrated so that it complements, but does not replace any part of the Montessori approach or curriculum.

<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As we move into the 21st Century, our children will be expected to have digital age literacy, inventive thinking skills, <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">effective communication skills, and high productivity skills. Efficient use of technology as well as basic Montessori practice <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">can aid in achieving these objectives.

<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It is important to remember that technology and its applications, such as computers and software, evolve and change <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">rapidly from year to year. The needs of the youngest children however do not change with the changes in society. As they <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">grow and become socialized, responsible use of technology will be a part of their classrooms and their lives. Because of <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the rapidly changing nature of technology, its application in Montessori environments will need to be under relatively <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">continuous review. Such an ongoing review must consider technology's place in the Montessori environment and the <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">developmental appropriateness of available software.

<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Maria Montessori used extensive scientific observation to uncover the "secret of childhood." From those understandings, <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">she created beautiful hands-on materials that enhance learning through the senses. Technology offers us another tool <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and another method of discovery. Using Montessori's methods of observing will help us determine the place of technology <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">in the Montessori world. <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The American Montessori Society (AMS) is a non-profit education society founded in 1960, whose purpose is to help <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">children develop their potential through the educational principles of Dr. Maria Montessori. This includes the following: <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">developing Montessori programs, accrediting schools, granting credentials, encouraging research, organizing conferences and symposia, and promoting all other areas which relate to the dissemination of Montessori philosophy.