Books by Maria Montessori
from Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company, Oxford, England

NAMTA is pleased to distribute Montessori books from Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company. The Montessori Series is a collection of high-quality paperback books that set out Maria Montessori's basic theory, philosophy, and practice.

The Absorbent Mind Based on lectures given by Dr. Montessori, The Absorbent Mind is an analysis of the physical and psychological aspects of a child's growth during the most significant period of life, birth to three years. During this period, the child learns motor coordination, language, and social skills, and establishes work habits and routines that set patterns for life. Dr. Montessori illustrates the mental powers of children that enable them to construct all aspects of human personality. 280 pages. The Absorbent Mind Price: $13.00 Qty:

The Discovery of the Child
Maria Montessori describes the nature of the child and her method. She believes that once the general principles of her method have been grasped, its material application is very simple. Gone are teachers who wear out their lungs maintaining discipline. Verbal instruction is replaced by "material for development," which affords children the opportunity of teaching themselves by their own efforts. The teacher thus becomes a director of the child's own spontaneous work. 349 pages.

The Child in the Family
In this book, aimed at teachers and parents alike, Maria Montessori discusses some of her basic principles of education and shows why it is important for adults to "follow attentively all the spiritual expressions of a child." She stresses the importance of adult respect and support for "all reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages" and emphasizes the value of understanding rather than interfering with such activity. 80 pages.

What You Should Know About Your Child
Based on lectures delivered by Maria Montessori, the Montessori method is a scientific education based on a sound knowledge of childhood. In this volume, Maria Montessori examines the physical and mental development of the child in the early years of life and discusses what she considers to be the basic truths underlying the child's nature, growth, and development. 111 pages.

To Educate the Human Potential
This book helps teachers envision the child's needs after the age of six. "We claim that the average boy or girl of twelve years who has been educated till then at one of our schools knows at least as much as the finished High School product of several years' seniority, and the achievement has been at no cost of pain or distortion to body or mind." 91 pages.

The Advanced Montessori Method, Vol, 1, Spontaneous Activity in Education
In this volume, Maria Montessori presents her educational philosophy and methods for children 7 to 11 years old. She asserts that nothing should be imposed upon the child. 287 pages.

The Advanced Montessori Method, Vol. 2, Materials for Educating Elementary School Children
This book introduces the materials and techniques Dr. Montessori devised for teaching older children. She applies her unique materials to the teaching of grammar, reading, arithmetic, geometry, art, music, and poetic metrics. 406 pages.

From Childhood to Adolescence
Montessori examines the educational concerns of the older child, the adolescent, and even the mature university student. She first analyzes the characteristics and needs of children from 7 to 12, asserting that when an appropriate environment is provided, the pre-adolescent readily undertakes fields of study normally reserved for older children. At the time of this book's first publication (1948), its ideas for adolescent education were radically new. She proposed an "experimental school for social life," where adolescents and their teachers would live in a self-contained rural community, self-governing and, to a considerable extent, self-supporting (the Erdkinder). 108 pages.

Education for a New World
This book expounds and defends the great powers of the child and helps teachers to a new outlook that will change their task from drudgery to joy, from repression to collaboration with nature. Here begins a new path, wherein it will not be the professor who teaches the child but the child who teaches the professor. 77 pages.

The Formation of Man
What is the Montessori Method? If we were to eliminate not only the word "method" but also its common conception, it would become much clearer. We must consider the human personality and not a method of education. for the word "method," we must substitute something like this: "Help given in order that the human personality may achieve its independence." 105 pages.

The Child, Society and the World: Unpublished Speeches and Writings of Maria Montessori
This collection of speeches and lectures by Maria Montessori provides the reader with a vivid and accurate understanding of the theories and working methods of one of the most important educationists of the 20th century. Montessori was well in advance of her time in recognizing the dangers of "over-institutionalization" and the labeling of children. 160 pages.

Education and Peace
During the 1930s, as war clouds gathered over Europe, Maria Montessori became profoundly concerned with the question of peace. The problem of war caused her to engage in a passionate search for new human truths. Taking as her starting point her conviction that the child must be our teacher, she moved on to consider the problems of human and social development and began a crusade in the name of education. This collection of speeches, which she delivered at international congresses and peace councils, vividly reveals why she was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. 117 pages.

Basic Ideas of Montessori's Educational Theory: Extracts from Maria Montessori's Writings and Teachings
Compiled by Paul Oswald and Gunter Schulz-Benesch
This book provides a lively analysis of Maria Montessori's educational theory and methodology and discusses her views on the important problems of education in the family and in the preschool and elementary environments. In addition, it discusses religious education and its relationship to the child's natural development. It also includes a valuable and succinct biography of Maria Montessori, extracts from a wide range of published writings, and a bibliography. 216 pages.

The California Lectures of Maria Montessori, 1915
Edited by Robert G. Buckenmeyer
In 1915, Maria Montessori went to California to deliver a series of lectures at an exposition to mark the opening of the Panama Canal. While there, she also wrote several articles for the local press. Although her "California lectures" survived for over eighty years, they remained unpublished and forgotten. Now, for the first time in book form, a number of these lectures and articles are made available. This remarkable volume will be of enormous value to all those interested in the history of education and the development of Montessori's educational theories and methods. 394 pages.

Education for Human Development: Understanding Montessori
by Mario M. Montessori, Jr.
In this fully revised volume, Mario M. Montessori Jr. (a psychologist and grandson of Maria Montessori) provides a fascinating insight into his grandmother's personality, her role as a feminist, her philosophy of education and child development, and her ideas concerning the value of work in school and the correct use of educational materials. He also explores her views of education in the formation of human personality and the relationship of the individual to the cosmos. 117 pages.

The Secret of Childhood
by Maria Montessori
NAMTA also carries this title, which is not available in a Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company edition. Click here for details.

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