Transcriber's Notes: The cover for this electronic edition has been created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

THE MONTESSORI ELEMENTARY MATERIAL

The first Montessori Elementary Class in America, opened in Rivington Street, New York, May, 1916.

THE ADVANCED MONTESSORI METHOD

THE MONTESSORI
ELEMENTARY MATERIAL

BY
MARIA MONTESSORI
AUTHOR OF "THE MONTESSORI METHOD," "PEDAGOGICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY," ETC.
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY
ARTHUR LIVINGSTON
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ITALIAN AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
WITH FORTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
AND WITH NUMEROUS DIAGRAMS

NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1917, by
Frederick A. Stokes Company
All rights reserved, including that of translation into
foreign languages.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The patent rights in the Montessori apparatus and material are controlled, in the United States and Canada, by The House of Childhood, Inc., 16 Horatio Street, New York. The publishers are indebted to them for the photographs showing the Grammar Boxes.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

So far as Dr. Montessori's experiments contain the affirmation of a new doctrine and the illustration of a new method in regard to the teaching of Grammar, Reading and Metrics, the following pages are, we hope, a faithful rendition of her work. But it is only in these respects that the chapters devoted to these subjects are to be considered a translation. It will be observed that Dr. Montessori's text is not only a theoretical treatise but also an actual text-book for the teaching of Italian grammar, Italian reading and Italian metrics to young pupils. Her exercises constitute a rigidly "tested" material: her Italian word lists are lists which, in actual practise, have accomplished their purpose; her grammatical categories with their relative illustration are those actually mastered by her Italian students; her reading selections and her metrical analyses are those which, from an offering doubtless far more extensive, actually survived the experiment of use in class.

It is obvious that no such value can be claimed for any "translation" of the original material. The categories of Italian grammar are not exactly the categories of English grammar. The morphology and, to a certain extent, the syntax of the various parts of speech differ in the two languages. The immediate result is that the Montessori material offers much that is inapplicable and fails to touch on much that is essential to the teaching of English grammar. The nature and extent of the difficulties thus arising are more fully set forth in connection with specific cases in our text. Suffice it here to indicate that the English material offered below is but approximately "experimental," approximately scientific. The constitution of a definitive Montessori material for English grammar and the definitive manner and order of its presentment must await the results of experiments in actual use. For the clearer orientation of such eventual experiments we offer, even for those parts of Italian grammar which bear no relation to English, a virtually complete translation of the original text; venturing meanwhile the suggestion that such studies as Dr. Montessori's treatise on the teaching of Italian noun and adjective inflections—entirely foreign to English—may prove valuable to all teachers of modern languages. While it might seem desirable to isolate such superfluous material from the "English grammar" given below, we decided to retain the relative paragraphs in their actual position in the Italian work, in order to preserve the literal integrity of the original method. Among our additions to the text we may cite the exercises on the possessive pronouns—identified by Dr. Montessori with the possessive adjectives—the interrogatives and the comparison of adjectives and adverbs.

Even where, as regards morphology, a reasonably close adaptation of the Italian material to English uses has been possible, it by no means follows that the pedagogical problems involved remain the same. The teaching of the relative pronoun, for instance, is far more complicated in English than in Italian; in the sense that the steps to be taken by the child are for English more numerous and of a higher order. Likewise for the verb, if Italian is more difficult as regards variety of forms, it is much more simple as regards negation, interrogation and progressive action. We have made no attempt to be consistent in adapting the translation to such difficulties. In general we have treated the parts of speech in the order in which they appear in the Italian text, though actual experiment may prove that some other order is desirable for the teaching of English grammar. The English material given below is thus in part a translation of the original exercises in Italian, in part new. In cases where it proved impossible to utilize any of the Italian material, an attempt has been made to find sentences illustrating the same pedagogical principle and involving the same number and character of mental processes as are required by the original text.

The special emphasis laid by Dr. Montessori upon selections from Manzoni is due simply to the peculiar conditions surrounding the teaching of language in Italy, where general concepts of the national language are affected by the existence of powerful dialects and the unstable nature of the grammar, vocabulary and syntax of the national literature. We have made no effort to find a writer worthy of being set up as a like authority, since no such problem exists for the American and English public. Our citations are drawn to a large extent from the "Book of Knowledge" and from a number of classics. Occasionally for special reasons we have translated the Italian original. The chapter on Italian metrics has been translated entire as an illustration of method; whereas the portion relating to English is, as explained below, entirely of speculative character.

To Miss Helen Parkhurst and Miss Emily H. Greenman thanks are due for the translation of the chapters on Arithmetic, Geometry, and Drawing.

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

PART I
GRAMMAR

MONTESSORI ELEMENTARY MATERIAL

I

THE TRANSITION FROM THE MECHANICAL TO THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE

In the "Children's Houses" we had reached a stage of development where the children could write words and even sentences. They read little slips on which were written different actions which they were to execute, thus demonstrating that they had understood them. The material for the development of writing and reading consisted of two alphabets: a larger one with vowels and consonants in different colors, and a smaller one with all the letters in one color.

(In English, to diminish the phonetic difficulties of the language, combinations of vowels and consonants, known as phonograms, are used. The phonograms with few exceptions have constant sounds and little attention is paid to the teaching of the separate values of the different letters: not until the child has built up his rules inductively does he realize the meaning of separate vowel symbols.)

However, the actual amount of progress made was not very precisely ascertained. We could be sure only that the children had acquired the mechanical technique of writing and reading and were on the way to a greater intellectual development along these lines. Their progress, however extensive it may have been, could be called little more than a foundation for their next step in advance, the elementary school. What beyond all question was accomplished with the little child in the first steps of our method was to establish the psycho-motor mechanism of the written word by a slow process of maturation such as takes place in the natural growth of articulate speech; in other words, by methodically exercising psycho-motor paths.

Later on the child's mind is able to make use of the successive operations performed with the written language which has been thus built up by the child as a matter of mechanical execution (writing) and to a certain extent of intelligent interpretation (reading). Normally this is an established fact at the age of five. When the child begins to think and to make use of the written language to express his rudimentary thinking, he is ready for elementary work; and this fitness is a question not of age or other incidental circumstance but of mental maturity.

We have said, of course, that the children stayed in the "Children's House" up to the age of seven; nevertheless they learned to write, to count, to read, and even to do a certain amount of simple composition. It is clear, accordingly, that they had gone some distance in the elementary grade as regards both age and educational development. However, what they had actually accomplished beyond the mechanical technique of writing was more or less difficult to estimate. We can now say that our later experiments have not only clarified this situation, but enabled us to take the children much farther along than before.

This only proves, however, that on beginning elementary grade work we did not depart from the "Children's House" idea; on the contrary we returned to it to give distinct realization to the nebulous hopes with which our first course concluded. Hence the "Children's House" and the lower grades are not two distinct things as is the case with the Fröbel Kindergarten and the ordinary primary school—in fact, they are one and the same thing, the continuation of an identical process.

Let us return then to the "Children's House" and consider the child of five and one-half years. To-day in those "Children's Houses" which have kept up with the improvements in our method the child is actually started on his elementary education. From the second alphabet of the "Children's House" we go on to a third alphabet. Here the movable letters are a great deal smaller and are executed in model hand-writing. There are twenty specimens of each letter, whereas formerly there were but four; furthermore, there are three complete alphabets, one white, one black, and one red. There are, therefore, sixty copies of each letter of the alphabet. We include also all the punctuation marks: period, comma, accents (for Italian), apostrophe, interrogation and exclamation points. The letters are made of plain glazed paper.

The uses of this alphabet are many; so before we stop to examine them let us look somewhat ahead. Everybody has recognized the naturalness of the exercise, used in the "Children's House," where the children placed a card bearing the name of an object on the object referred to. This was the first lesson in reading. We could see that the child knew how to read as soon as he was able to identify the object indicated on the card. In schools all over the world a similar procedure would, I imagine, be considered logical. I suppose that in all the schools where the objective method is used much the same thing is done; and this is found to be not a hindrance but a help to the child in learning the names of objects. As regards the teaching of the noun, accordingly, we have been using methods already in use—the objective method, with practical exercises. But why should we restrict such methods to the noun? Is the noun not just as truly a part of speech as the adjective, or the verb? If there is a method by which the knowledge of a noun is made easy, may there not be similar ways of facilitating the learning of all the other parts of speech (article, adjective, verb, pronoun, adverb, interjection, conjunction, and preposition)?

When a slip with the interpreted word is placed on the object corresponding to it, the children are actually distinguishing the noun from all the other parts of speech. They are learning intuitively to define it. The first step has thus been taken into the realm of grammar. But if this "reading" has brought the child directly into word classification, the transition has not been for him so abrupt as might at first appear. The child has built all his words with the movable alphabet, and he has, in addition, written them. He has thus traversed a two-fold preparatory exercise involving, first, the analysis of the sounds and, second, the analysis of the words in their meaning. In fact, we have seen that, as the child reads, it is his discovery of the tonic accent that brings him to recognize the word. The child has begun to analyze not only the sounds and accent but also the form of the word.[1]

How absurd it would seem to suggest a study of phonology and morphology in a nursery with four-year-old children as investigators! Yet our children have accomplished this very thing! The analysis was the means of attaining the word. It was what made the child able to write without effort. Why should such a procedure be useful for single words and not so for connected discourse? Proceeding to the classification of words by distinguishing the noun from all other words, we have really advanced into the analysis of connected speech, just as truly as, by having the sand-papered letters "touched" and the word pronounced, we took the first step into the analysis of words. We have only to carry the process farther and perhaps we shall succeed in getting the analysis of whole sentences, just as we succeeded in getting at the composition of words—discovering meanwhile a method which will prove efficacious in leading the child to write his thoughts more perfectly than would seem possible at such a tender age.

For some time, then, we have been actually in the field of grammar. It is a question simply of continuing along the same path. The undertaking may indeed seem hazardous. Never mind! That "awful grammar," that horrible bugaboo, no less terrible than the frightful method, once in use, of learning to read and write, may perhaps become a delightful exercise, a loving guide to lead the child along pleasant pathways to the discovery of things he has actually performed. Yes, the child will suddenly find himself, one day, in possession of a little composition, a little "work of art," that has issued from his own pen! And he will be as happy over it as he was when for the first time words were formed by his tiny hands!

How different grammar will seem to the young pupil, if, instead of being the cruel assassin that tears the sentence to pieces so that nothing can be understood, it becomes the amiable and indispensable help to "the construction of connected discourse"! It used to be so easy to say: "The sentence is written! Please leave it alone!" Why put asunder what God has joined? Why take away from a sentence its meaning, the very thing which gave it life? Why make of it a mere mass of senseless words? Why spoil something already perfect just for the annoyance of plunging into an analysis which has no apparent purpose? Indeed, to impose upon people who can already read the task of reducing every word to its primal sounds, would be to demand of them an effort of will so gigantic that only a professional philologist could apply himself to it with the necessary diligence, and then only because he has his own particular interests and aims involved in such work. Yet the four-year-old child, when he passes from those meaningless sounds to the composition of a whole, which corresponds to an idea and represents a useful and wonderful conquest, is just as attentive as the philologist and perhaps even more enthusiastic. He will find the same joy in grammar, if, starting from analyses, it gains progressively in significance, acquiring, step by step, a greater interest, working finally up to a climax, up to the moment, that is, when the finished sentence is before him, its meaning clear and felt in its subtlest essences. The child has created something beautiful, full grown and perfect at its birth, not now to be tampered with by anybody!

The analysis of sounds which, in our method, leads to spontaneous writing, is not, to be sure, adapted to all ages. It is when the child is four or four and a half, that he shows the characteristically childlike passion for such work, which keeps him at it longer than at any other age, and leads him to develop perfection in the mechanical aspect of writing. Similarly the analytical study of parts of speech, the passionate lingering over words, is not for children of all ages. It is the children between five and seven who are the word-lovers. It is they who show a predisposition toward such study. Their undeveloped minds can not yet grasp a complete idea with distinctness. They do, however, understand words. And they may be entirely carried away by their ecstatic, their tireless interest in the parts of speech.

It is true that our whole method was born of heresy. The first departure from orthodoxy was in holding that the child can best learn to write between the ages of four and five. We are now constrained to advance another heretical proposition: children should begin the study of grammar between the ages of five and a half and seven and a half, or eight!

The idea that analysis must be preceded by construction was a matter of mere prejudice. Only things produced by nature must be analyzed before they can be understood. The violet, for instance, is found perfect in nature. We have to tear off the petals, cut the flower into sections to see how it grew. But in making an artificial violet we do just the opposite. We prepare the stems piece by piece; then we work out the petals, cutting, coloring, and ironing them one by one. The preparation of the stamens, even of the glue with which we put the whole together, is a distinct process. A few simple-minded people, with a gift for light manual labor, take unbounded delight in these single operations, these wonderfully varied steps which all converge to the creation of a pretty flower; the beauty of which depends on the amount of patience and skill applied to the work on the individual parts.

Analysis, furthermore, is involved quite as much in building as in taking to pieces. The building of a house is an analytical process. The stones are treated one by one from cellar to roof. The person who puts the house together knows it in its minutest details and has a far more accurate idea of its construction than the man who tears it down. This is true, first, because the process of construction lasts much longer than that of demolition: more time is spent on the study of the different parts. But besides this, the builder has a point of view different from that of the man who is destroying. The sensation of seeing a harmonious whole fall into meaningless bits has nothing in common with the alternating impulses of hope, surprise or satisfaction which come to a workman as he sees his edifice slowly assuming its destined form.

For these and still other reasons, the child, when interested in words at a certain age, can utilize grammar to good purpose, dwelling analytically upon the various parts of speech according as the processes of his inner spiritual growth determine. In this way he comes to own his language perfectly, and to acquire some appreciation of its qualities and power.

Our grammar is not a book. The nouns (names), which the child was to place on the objects they referred to as soon as he understood their meaning, were written on cards. Similarly the words, belonging to all the other parts of speech, are written on cards. These cards are all of the same dimensions: oblongs (5 × 3-1/2 cmm.) of different colors: black for the noun; tan for the article; brown for the adjective; red for the verb; pink for the adverb; violet for the preposition; yellow for the conjunction; blue for the interjection.

These cards go in special boxes, eight in number. The first box has two compartments simply; the second, however, three; the third, four; and so on down to the eighth, which is divided into nine. One wall in each section is somewhat higher than the others. This is to provide space for a card with a title describing the contents of the section. It bears, that is, the name of the relative part of speech. The title-card, furthermore, is of the same color as that used for the part of speech to which it refers. The teacher is expected to arrange these boxes so as to provide for the study of two or more parts of speech. However, our experiments have enabled us to make the exercises very specific in character; so that the teacher has at her disposal not only a thoroughly prepared material but also something to facilitate her work and to check up the accuracy of it.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The process of learning to read has been more fully set forth in The Montessori Method; the child at first pronounces the sounds represented by the individual letters (phonograms), without understanding what they mean. As he repeats the word several times he comes to read more rapidly. Eventually he discovers the tonic accent of the word, which is then immediately identified.

II

WORD STUDY

When a little child begins to read he shows a keen desire to learn words, words, words! Indeed in the "Children's House" we had that impressive phenomenon of the children's tireless reading of the little slips of paper upon which were written the names of objects.

The child must acquire his word-store for himself. The peculiar characteristic of the child's vocabulary is its meagerness. But he is nearing the age when he will need to express his thoughts and he must now acquire the material necessary for that time. Many people must have noticed the intense attention given by children to the conversation of grown-ups when they cannot possibly be understanding a word of what they hear. They are trying to get hold of words, and they often demonstrate this fact by repeating joyously some word which they have been able to grasp. We should second this tendency in the child by giving him an abundant material and by organizing for him such exercises as his reactions clearly show us are suitable for him.

The material used in our system not only is very abundant, but it has been dictated to us by rigid experimentation on every detail. However, the same successive choices of material do not appear among the children as a whole. Indeed their individual differences begin to assert themselves progressively at this point in their education. The exercises are easy for some children and very hard for others, nor is the order of selection the same among all the children. The teacher should know this material thoroughly. She should be able to recognize the favorable moment for presenting the material to the child. As a matter of fact, a little experience with the material is sufficient to show the teacher that the educational facts develop spontaneously and in such a way as to simplify the teacher's task in a most surprising manner.

Suffixes and Prefixes

Here we use charts with printed lists of words which may be hung on the wall. The children can look at them and also take them in their hands.

List I

SUFFIXES: AUGMENTATIVES, DIMINUTIVES, PEGGIORATIVES, ETC.

buono (good): buonuccio, buonino, buonissimo

casa (house): casona, casetta, casettina, casuccia, casaccia, casettaccia

formica (ant): formicona, formicuccia, formicola, formichetta

ragazzo (boy): ragazzone, ragazzino, ragazaccio, ragazzetto

lettera (letter): letterina, letterona, letteruccia, letteraccia

campana (bell): campanone, campanello, campanellino, campanino, campanaccio

giovane (youth): giovanetto, giovincello, giovinastro

fiore (flower): fioretto, fiorellino, fioraccio, fiorone

tavolo (board): tavolino, tavoletta, tavolone, tavolaccio

seggiola (chair): seggiolone, seggiolina, seggiolaccia

pietra (stone): pietruzza, pietrina, pietrone, pietraccio

sasso (rock): sassetto, sassolino, sassettino, sassone, sassaccio

cesto (basket): cestino, cestone, cestello, cestellino

piatto (plate): piattino, piattello, piattone

pianta (plant or tree): piantina, pianticella, pianticina, pianterella, piantona, piantaccia

fuoco (fire): fuochetto, fuochino, fuocherello, fuocone, fuochettino

festa (festival): festicciola, festona, festaccia

piede (foot): piedino, piedone, pieduccio, piedaccio

mano (hand): manina, manona, manaccia, manuccia

seme (seed): semino, semetto, semone, semaccio, semettino

semplice (simple person): semplicino, semplicetto, sempliciotto, semplicione

ghiotto ("sweet-tooth"): ghiottone, ghiottoncello, ghiottaccio, ghiottissimo

vecchio (old man): vecchietto, vecchione, vecchiaccio, vecchissimo

cieco (blind): ciechino, ciechetto, ciecolino, ciecone, ciecaccio

Note:—The rôle of augmentative and diminutive suffixes in English is vastly less important than in Italian. Here are a few specimens:

lamb—lambkin
duck—duckling
bird—birdling
nest—nestling
goose—gosling
mouse—mousie
girl—girlie
book-booklet
brook—brooklet
stream—streamlet
poet—poetaster

The child's exercise is as follows: he composes the first word in any line with the alphabet of a single color (e.g., black). Next underneath and using the alphabet of the same color, he repeats the letters in the second word which he sees also in the first. But just as soon as a letter changes he uses the alphabet of another color (e.g., red). In this way the root is always shown by one color, the suffixes by another; for example:—

buono
buonuccio
buonino
buonissimo

For English:

stream
streamlet
lamb
lambkin

Then the child chooses another word and repeats the same exercise. Often he finds for himself words not included in the list which is given him.

In the following chart the suffixes are constant while the root varies. Here the suffix changes the meaning of the word. From the original meaning is derived the word for a trade, a place of business, an action, a collective or an abstract idea. Naturally, the child does not realize all this at first but limits himself merely to building the words mechanically with the two alphabets. Later on, however, as grammar is developed, he may return to the reading of these charts, which are always at his disposal, and begin to realize the value of the differences.

List II

English Examples

The child's exercise with the two alphabets will be as follows:

For English:

List III

PREFIXES

nodo (knot): annodare, snodare, risnodare

scrivere (write): riscrivere, trascrivere, sottoscrivere, descrivere

coprire (cover): scoprire, riscoprire

gancio (hook): agganciare, sganciare, riagganciare

legare (bind): collegare, rilegare, allegare, slegare

bottone (button): abbottonare, sbottonare, riabbottonare

macchiare (spot): smacchiare, rismacchiare

chiudere (close): socchiudere, schiudere, richiudere, rinchiudere

guardare (look at): riguardare, traguardare, sogguardare

vedere (see): travedere, rivedere, intravedere

perdere (lose): disperdere, sperdere, riperdere

mettere (put, place): smettere, emettere, rimettere, permettere, commettere, promettere, sottomettere

vincere (overcome): rivincere, avvincere, convincere, stravincere

For English:

cover: uncover, discover, recover

pose: impose, compose, dispose, repose, transpose

do: undo, overdo

place: displace, replace, misplace

submit: remit, commit, omit, permit

close: disclose, foreclose, reclose

arrange: rearrange, disarrange

The child's exercise with the two alphabets will be as follows:

For English:

List IV

COMPOUND WORDS

cartapecora (parchment)
cartapesta (papier maché)
falsariga (guide)
madreperla (mother-of-pearl)
melagrana (pomegranate)
melarancia (orange)
biancospino (hawthorn)
ficcanaso (busybody)
lavamano (wash-stand)
mezzogiorno (noon)
passatempo (pastime)
ragnatela (cobweb)
madrevite (vine)
guardaportone (doorkeeper)
capoluogo (capital)
capomaestro ("boss")
capofila (pivot-soldier)
capopopolo (demagogue)
caposquadra (commodore)
capogiro (dizziness)
capolavoro (masterpiece)
giravolta (whirl)
mezzaluna (half-moon)
mezzanotte (midnight)
palcoscenico (stage)
acchiappacani (dog-catcher)
cantastorie (story-teller)
guardaboschi (forester)
lustrascarpe (boot-black)
portalettere (letter-carrier)
portamonete (pocketbook)
portasigari (cigar-case)
portalapis (pencil-case)
portabandiera (standard bearer)
guardaroba (wardrobe)
asciugamano (towel)
cassapanca (wooden bench)
arcobaleno (rainbow)
terrapieno (rampart, terrace)
bassorilievo (bas-relief)
granduca (grand-duke)
pianoforte (piano)
spazzacamino (chimney-sweep)
pettorosso (redbreast)

For English:

sheepskin
cardboard
shoestring
midnight
midday
noontime
redbreast
appletree
afternoon
moonlight
starlight
doorknob
bedtime
daytime
springtime
flagstaff
rainbow
workman
housekeeper
pastime
chimneysweep
sheepfold
barnyard
sidewalk
snowshoe
shoeblack
firefly
steamboat
milkman
bathroom
streetcar
lifelike
pocketbook
inkwell
tablecloth
courtyard
honeycomb
beehive
flowerpot
buttonhole
hallway
midway
storekeeper
horseman
masterpiece
bookcase

The children read one word at a time and try to reproduce it from memory, distinguishing through the two alphabets the two words of which each one is composed:

carta pecora
bianco spino
piano forte
spazza camino
lava mano

For English:

moon light
work man

In the following chart the words are grouped in families. This chart may be used by children who are already well advanced in the identification of the parts of speech. All the words are derived from some other more simple word which is a root and of which the other words, either by suffix or prefix, are made up. All these roots are primitive words which some day the child may look for in a group of derivatives; and when he finds them he will realize that the primitive word is a noun, adjective, or a verb, as the case may be, that it is the word which contains the simplest idea, and so the derivatives may be nouns, adjectives, verbs or adverbs.

On these charts appear various word-families. The teacher is thus spared the trouble of looking them up. Furthermore the child will some day be able to use them by himself. The exercises based on these are still performed with two different alphabets of different color so that the child can tell at a glance which is the root word.

WORD-FAMILIES

terra (earth): terrazzo, terremoto, terrapieno, atterrare, terreno, terriccio, terricciola, territorio, conterraneo, terreo, terroso, dissotterrare

ferro (iron): ferraio, ferriera, ferrata, ferrigno, ferrugginoso, ferrare, sferrare, inferriata

soldo (penny): assoldare, soldato, soldatesca, soldatescamente

grande (great): ingrandire, grandiosità, grandioso, grandiosamente, grandeggiare

scrivere (write): scrittura, scritto, scritturare, scrittore, inscrizione, trascrivere, sottoscrivere, riscrivere

beneficio (benefit): beneficare, benefattore, beneficato, beneficenza, beneficamente

benedizione (benediction): benedire, benedicente, benedetto, ribenedire

felicità (happiness): felice, felicemente, felicitare, felicitazione

fiamma (flame): fiammante, fiammeggiante, fiammeggiare, fiammelle, fiammiferi, infiammare

bagno (bath): bagnante, bagnino, bagnarola, bagnatura, bagnare, ribagnare

freddo (cold): freddolose, infreddatura, freddamente, raffreddore, raffreddare, sfreddare

polvere (dust): spolverare, impolverare, polverino, polverizzare, polverone, polveroso, polveriera, polverizzatore

pesce (fish): pescare, pescatore, ripescare, pescabile, ripescabile

opera (work): operaio, operare, operazione, operoso, operosamente, cooperare, cooperazione, inoperare

canto (song): cantore, cantante, cantare, cantarellare, cantiochiare ricantare

gioco (game): giocare, giocattolo, giocarellare, giocatore, giocoso, giocosamente

dolore (pain): doloroso, dolorosamente, dolente, addolorare, dolersi, condolersi, condoglianza, addolorato

pietra (stone): pietrificare, pietrificazione, pietroso, impietrire, pietraio

sole (sun): assolato, soleggiante, soleggiare

festa (festival): festeggiare, festino, festeggiatore, festeggiato, festaiolo, festante, festevole, festevolmente, festosamente

allegro (happy): allegria, allegramente, rallegrare, rallegramento

seme (seed): semina, semenze, seminare, semenzaio, seminatore, riseminare, seminazione, disseminare, seminatrice

For English:

wood: wooden, woodworker, woody, woodsman, woodland

earth: earthen, earthy, earthly, earthborn, earthward, earthquake, earthling

fish: fishing, fisherman, fishery, fishy, fishmonger, fishnet

well: welcome, wellmeaning, wellknit

war: warrior, warlike, warship, warhorse, war-whoop, warsong, war-cry

play: player, playful, playhouse, playmate

politic: politics, politician, political, polity, politically

hard: hardly, harden, hardness, hardship, hardy, hardihood, hardware

turn: return, turner, turnstile

close: disclose, closet, unclose, closure, foreclose

The child sees that the mother word is always the shortest. The root remains in one color.

III

ARTICLE AND NOUN

[Note:—The English language presents a far simpler situation than the Italian as regards the agreement of article and adjectives. Gender itself being, in the case of English nouns, more a matter of logical theory than of word-ending, adjectival agreement in the formal sense in practically unknown to English grammar. Likewise the formation of the plural is much simpler in English than in Italian, where the singular and plural word-endings are closely associated with gender. It is a question, in fact, whether the whole subject of the gender of English nouns should not be taken up somewhat later in connection with the pronouns, where English shows three singular forms masculine, feminine, neuter (him, her, it) as against the Italian two, masculine and feminine (lo, la, plural li, le, etc.). Signora Montessori's discussion of the situation in Italian still remains instructive to the teacher of English as an illustration of method. We retain her text, accordingly, in its entirety.—Tr.]

As we have already said, the words chosen for grammatical study are all printed on small rectangular pieces of cardboard. The little cards are held together in packages by an elastic band and are kept in their respective boxes. The first box which we present has two compartments. In the holders at the back of each compartment are placed the cards which show the part of speech to be studied, in this case article and noun. The article cards are placed in the article compartment and the nouns in the noun compartment. When the children have finished their exercise they replace the cards—the nouns in the place for the nouns and the articles in the place for the articles. If the words article and noun are not a sufficient guide for the child, the color at least will make the task easy. In fact the child will place the black cards for the noun in the compartment indicated by the black guide-card (marked noun); the tan cards for the article with the tan guide-card (marked article). This exercise recalls the child's experience with the alphabet boxes, where one copy of each letter is pasted to the bottom of the box as a guide for the child in replacing the other letters. The child begins to speak of the article-section, the noun-section, and the article-cards and noun-cards. In so doing he begins to distinguish between the parts of speech. The material must be prepared very accurately and in a definitely determined quantity. For the first exercise, the children are given boxes with the articles and nouns shuffled together in their respective compartments. But there must be just enough articles of each gender to go with the respective nouns. The child's task is to put the right article in front of the right noun—a long and patient research, which, however, is singularly fascinating to him.

We have prepared the following words. We should recall, however, that the cards are not found in the boxes in this order, but are mixed together—the articles shuffled in their box-section and the nouns in theirs.

il fazzoletto (the handkerchief)
il libro (the book)
il vestito (the dress)
il tavolino (the little table)
lo specchio (the mirror)
lo zucchero (the sugar)
lo zio (the uncle)
lo stivale (the boot)
i colori (the colors)
i fiori (the flowers)
i disegni (the drawings)
i compagni (the companions)
gli zoccoli (the wooden shoes)
gli uomini (the men)
gli articoli (the articles)
le sedie (the chairs)
la stoffa (the cloth)
la perla (the pearl)
la piramide (the pyramid)
la finestra (the window)
le scarpe (the shoes)
le addizioni (the sums)
le piante (the plants, the trees)
l'occhio (the eye)
l'amico (the friend)
l'acqua (the water)
l'albero (the tree)
gl'invitati (the guests)
gl'incastri (the insets)
gl'italiani (the Italians)
gl'insetti (the insects)

(We suggest as a corresponding English exercise the introduction of the indefinite article. This substitution involves four processes against the eight of the Italian exercise. The use of an before a vowel is quite analogous to the problem of the Italian l' and gl'. However the theoretical distinction between the definite and indefinite article, as regards meaning, is reserved by Signora Montessori to a much later period, though the practical distinction appear in the earliest Lessons and Commands.—Tr.)

the handkerchief
the book
the dress
the table
the mirror
the sugar
the colors
the flowers
the drawings
the children
the shoes
the men
a man
a pearl
a prism
a card
a window
a chair
a tree
an orange
an apple
an uncle
an eye
an insect
an American
an aunt

One of the first steps in grammar. The children are deeply interested in placing the correct articles and nouns together. (A Montessori School in Italy.)

The child tries to combine article and noun and puts them side by side on his little table. In this exercise he is guided by sound just as he was in building words with the movable alphabet. There the child's first step was to find relationships between real objects and the linguistic sounds corresponding to them. Now he sees suddenly revealed to him hitherto unsuspected relationships between these sounds, these words. To have an empirical way of demonstrating and testing these relationships, to practise very thoroughly on two kinds of words, suddenly brought forth into systematic distinctness from the chaos of words in his mind, offers the child not only a necessary exercise but the sensation of relief which comes from satisfying an inner spiritual need. With the most intense attention he persists to the very end of the exercise and takes great pride in his success. The teacher as she passes may glance about to see if all the cards are properly placed, but the child, doubtless, will call her to admire or verify the work that he has done, before he begins to gather together, first, all the articles, then, all the nouns, to return them to their boxes.

Grammar Boxes. The one on the left is for articles and nouns only; the one on the right, for articles, nouns, and adjectives.

This is the first step; but he proceeds with increasing enthusiasm to set the words in his mind "in order," thereby enriching his vocabulary by placing new acquisitions in an already determined place. Thus he continues to construct, with respect to exterior objects, an inner spiritual system, which had already been begun by his sensory exercises.

Singular and Plural

The exercises on the number and gender of nouns are done without the help of the boxes. The child already knows that those words are articles and nouns, so we give him now small groups of forty cards (nouns and articles) held together by an elastic band. In each one, the group (tied separately) of the ten singular nouns serves as the guide for the exercise. These nouns are arranged in a column on the table, one beneath the other, and the other cards, which are shuffled, must be placed around this first group in the right order. There are two more cards of different colors on which the words singular and plural respectively are written; and these are placed at the top of the respective columns. We have prepared four series of ten nouns in alphabetical order. In this way four children may do the exercise at the same time and by exchanging material they come in contact with a very considerable number of words.

This is the way the cards should finally be arranged in the four different exercises:

Like material has been prepared for the masculine and feminine forms: The masculine group is kept by itself, while the feminines are shuffled.

Finally there are three series of nouns in four forms: Singular and Plural, Masculine and Feminine. Each group has eighty cards counting both nouns and articles, and the ten singular masculines in the guiding group are kept together, apart from the others. The title cards (twelve in number) are singular and plural and for each of them is a card marked masculine and a card marked feminine. The following is the order of the material when properly arranged by the child:

Occasionally class exercises are used in our schools for the four forms of the Italian noun, masculine and feminine, singular and plural. They take the form almost of a game, which the children find amusing. A child for instance distributes around the class all the plural nouns. Then he reads aloud a noun in the singular. The child who holds the corresponding plural answers immediately. The same thing is next done for masculine and feminine, and, finally, for all four forms at once.

When these exercises have become familiar to the child, others somewhat more difficult may be presented. These new ones comprise: nouns which change form completely as they change gender and of which, so far, only the most familiar examples (babbo, "father," mamma, "mother," etc.) have been given (Series A); nouns in which the form is the same in the singular of both genders (Series B); those in which both genders have a common form in the singular and a common form in the plural (Series C); nouns which have only one form for both singular and plural (Series D); nouns where the same form appears in both genders but with a different meaning (Series E); finally, nouns which change gender as they pass from the singular to the plural (Series F).

SERIES A

SERIES B

SERIES C

SERIES D

SERIES E

SERIES F

The Singular and Plural in English

Translator's Note:—While the formation of the English plural does not present the complications of gender that appear in Italian, the phonetic adaptations required by the plural ending -s along with certain orthographical caprices and historical survivals of the language, result in a situation somewhat more complex than treated by Signora Montessori. In fact, her analysis of the Italian plural requires eight word-lists, while English requires at least fourteen, not including the question of foreign nouns. The special stress on the article is hardly necessary in English. An analogous treatment for English would be somewhat as follows:

All these groups of words in their order are reproduced in special booklets which the children may take home and read. In actual practise such books have proved both convenient and necessary. The children generally spend much time on them and delight in reading the words over and over in the order in which they themselves have discovered them in the card exercise. This recalls and fixes their own ideas, inducing a sort of inner maturation which is often followed by the spontaneous discovery of grammatical laws on the relations of nouns, or by a lively interest which throws the children into exclamations or laughter as they observe what great differences of meaning are sometimes caused by a very slight change in the word. At the same time these simple exercises, so fruitful in results, may be used for work at home and well meet the demands for something to do with which children are continually assailing their parents. For homework we have prepared alphabets where the letters are printed in type-writing order. With them the child can compose words, or later, sentences, at the same time becoming familiar with the alphabet arrangement of standard typewriters.

IV

LESSONS—COMMANDS

The first lessons in grammar which I gave to children go back fully sixteen years. I first attempted the education of defectives in the "Scuola Magistrale Ortofrenica" in Rome in the year 1899 following a course of lectures I had given to teachers in the normal school of our capital. In this experiment I went far enough with primary work to prepare some of the defective children for successful examinations in the public schools. A very brief and incomplete summary of my pedagogical studies delivered in the teacher's courses is given in the appendix to this volume.

The teaching of grammar was not at that time so complete as it has since been made in my work with normal children; even so it was a marked success. Grammar was actually lived by the children, who became deeply interested in it. Even those wretched children who came, like rubbish thrown out of the public schools, directly off the street or from the insane asylums, passed delightful half hours of joyous laughter over their exercises in grammar. Here are some excerpts from the old pamphlet of 1900 giving an idea of the didactic material which was then used and some notion of a lesson on nouns. "As each word is read or written for every object-lesson, for every action, printed cards are being assembled which will later be used to make clauses and sentences with words that may be moved about just as the individual letters were moved about in making the words themselves. The simple clauses or sentences should refer to actions performed by the children. The first step should be to bring two or more words together: e.g., red-wool, sweet-candy, four-footed dog, etc. Then we may go on to the sentence itself: The wool is red; the soup is hot; the dog has four feet; Mary eats the candy, etc. The children first compose the sentences with their cards; then they copy them in their writing books. To facilitate the choice of the cards, they may be arranged in special boxes: for instance, one box may be labeled noun; or the boxes may be distinguished thus: food, clothing, animals, people, etc. There should be a box for adjectives with compartments for colors, shapes, qualities, etc. There should be another for particles, with compartments for articles, conjunctions, prepositions, etc. A box should be reserved for actions, with the label verbs above it, containing compartments for the infinitive, present, past and future. The children gradually learn by practise to take their cards from the boxes and put them back in their proper places. They soon learn to know their "word boxes" and they readily find the cards they want among the colors, shapes, qualities, etc., or among animals, foods, etc. Ultimately the teacher will find occasion to explain the meaning of the big words written at the top of the drawers, noun, adjective, verb, etc., and this will be the first step into the subject of grammar.

NOUNS

We may call persons and objects by their name, their noun. People answer if we call them, so do animals. Inanimate objects, however, never answer, because they cannot; but if they could they would. For example, if I say Mary, Mary answers; if I say peas, the peas do not answer, because they cannot. You children do understand when I call an object and you bring it to me. I say, for example, book, beans, peas. If I don't tell you the name of the object, you don't understand what I am talking about; because every object has a different name. This name is the word that stands for the object. This name is a noun.

Whenever I mention a noun to you, you understand immediately the object which the noun represents: tree, chair, pen, book, lamb, etc. If I do not give this noun, you don't know what I am talking about; for, if I say simply bring me ... at once, I want it, you do not know what I want, unless I tell you the name of the object. Unless I give you the noun, you do not understand. Thus every object is represented by a word which is its name; and this name is a noun. To understand whether a word is a noun or not, you simply ask: Is it a thing? Would it answer if I spoke to it? or Could I carry it to the teacher? For instance, bread: yes, bread is an object; table: yes, it is an object; conductor: yes, the conductor would answer, if I were to speak to him.

Let us look through our cards now. I take several cards from different boxes and shuffle them. Here is the word sweet. Bring me sweet! Is there anything to answer when I call sweet? But you are bringing me a piece of candy! I didn't say candy: I said sweet. And now you have given me sugar! I said sweet! Sweet, you see, is not an object You cannot guess what I have in mind when I say sweet. If I say candy, sugar, then you understand what I want, what object I am thinking about, because the words candy, sugar, stand for objects. Those words are nouns."[2]

This summary, however, fails to give a real idea of the success of these lessons. When I said with a tone of decision, as if I could not think of the necessary word, "Bring me—bring me—bring me—," the children would gather round me, looking fixedly at my lips, like so many little dogs, waiting for me to throw something for them to fetch. They were in fact ready to run and get what I wanted. But the word refused to come. "Bring me—, bring me—." Finally in great impatience I cried, "But bring it to me quick—I want it." Then their faces lit up and they would laughingly cry, "But bring you what? What is it you want? What shall we bring you?"

This was the real lesson on the noun, and when, after great difficulty, the word "sweet" came out, the children would run and bring me every possible object that was sweet. I would refuse each one in turn. "No, I didn't ask for candy! No, I didn't ask for sugar!" The children would look at the object they had in their hands, half laughing, half puzzled and beginning to realize that sweet was not a name, that it was not a noun. These first lessons, which seemed something like commands that needed the help of the children to express themselves, brought the children to understand some part of speech, while evoking, at the same time, vivid and interesting scenes. They furnished the original impulse to the development we have reached to-day in our lessons on grammar. For such lessons we have adopted the term "commands." But with normal children these "commands" were gradually multiplied and evolved. They are no longer entrusted to the teacher's ingenuity; nor are they dependent solely upon her dramatic sense—something essential if she is to stimulate the weak nervous reactions of little defectives and so gain and hold their attention. The "commands" to-day are written and may be read. They are combined with the card-exercises where the cards are read in silence and interpreted through actions—a method which grew spontaneously and with such great success from the work in the "Children's House." That is why, to-day, we speak in the elementary courses of "reading commands" or even of "writing commands."

The study of grammar has finally been arranged in a methodical series of exercises and the material has been prepared after careful and rigid experiment. Those who read this method will get a clear idea of the teacher's task. She has a material ready for use. She need not bother to compose a single sentence nor to consult a single program. The objects at her disposal contain all that is necessary. She need know simply what they are and how they are to be used. The lessons which she must give are so simple, and require so few words, that they become lessons rather of gesture and action than of words. It must be borne in mind, further, that the work is not as uninteresting as would appear from this arid summary. The actual school is a real intellectual laboratory, where the children work all the time and by themselves. After the material has been presented to them, they recognize it and like to hunt for it. They know how to find for themselves the precious objects which they want to use. They often exchange materials and even lessons with other children. The few lessons the teacher gives connect, as it were, a system of live wires, which set in motion activities quite disproportionate to the energy expended in the simple act she performs. She pushes, so to speak, a button and here a bell rings, there a light goes on, there a machine begins to buzz. Very often the teacher sees a whole week go by without any need of intervention on her part.

And yet what delicacy and tact are necessary properly to "offer" this material, to give in an interesting way a lesson calculated to exert a direct action upon the child's spiritual activity! How skilful we must be to leave all the child's spontaneous impulses free to develop themselves, to keep careful watch over so many different individual impulses! This we must do if we are to "keep the lamp burning"! When, for example, on passing a table where the child has analyzed a sentence with the colored cards, the teacher shifts about, as if in play, one of the little slips, not only must she be possessed of the psychological insight necessary for intervening in this child's work at the proper time, but she must also have in mind the grammatical rule of which she wishes to give the child his first intuition. It follows that every single act of the teacher, however insignificant apparently, is, like the acts of the priest in the service, of the greatest importance, and should come from a consciousness thoroughly awake, and full of potentiality. Instead of giving out what she has in herself, the teacher must bring out the full possibilities of the children.

The teacher's extrinsic preparation is a matter of thorough acquaintance with the material. It should be so much a part of her that she knows at once what is needed for each individual case as soon as it arises. Actual practise soon develops this skill.

The exercises are performed with these little packages of specially prepared cards. The most important problem (for Italian grammar) is in the agreements; the agreement of article and noun, as we have already shown, the agreement of noun and adjective, and later on of pronoun and verb, and pronoun and noun. There are two kinds of exercises, which we have termed respectively "analyses" and "commands."

The commands involve both work done by the teacher and exercises performed by the children. The purpose here is to clarify the meanings of words and often to suggest a practical interpretation of them. This explanation is followed by an exercise of the children themselves, who in turn practically interpret the meaning of one or more sentences written on a card which they read just as they did in the first exercises of reading in the "Children's House." On this card are the words which the teacher has just explained. In our experiments we gave these lessons immediately after "silence" just as we did for reading in the "Children's House." All the children, however, do not necessarily take part in these executions—oftenest it is only a group of children, sometimes one child alone, again, at other times, almost all of them. If possible the commands are given in another room, while the other children continue their work in the large hall. If this is not possible it takes place in the same room. These commands might be called "an introduction to dramatic art," for right there little dramatic scenes full of vivacity and interest are "acted out." The children are singularly delighted in working for the one exact "interpretation" which a given word requires.

The analyses, on the other hand, are of quite different character. "Analysis" is done at the table. It is work which requires quiet and concentration. While the command gives the intuition, the analysis provides for the maturation of the idea. The grammar boxes are used in these exercises. In a larger compartment which each box contains, are placed several slips bearing a printed sentence; for example, Throw down your handkerchief. The child draws a slip and places it to one side on the table. Then he takes from the different boxes the colored slips corresponding to the different words in the sentence and places them side by side one after the other. In this way he composes the entire sentence: Throw down your handkerchief. The child is actually doing here a very simple thing: he is merely translating into colored cards the sentence which is printed on his slip. He composes this sentence in the same way in which he has already composed words with the moveable alphabet. But here the exercise is even more simple because the child need not remember the sentence, for it is there right before his eyes. His attention must be concentrated on other facts, so that all intellectual effort in the composition of the sentence itself is eliminated. The child has to note the colors and the position of the cards in the different boxes, since he must take the cards now from the noun box, now from the adverb box, now from that of the preposition, etc.; and the colors together with the position (each section has a title, as we have already seen) strengthen his consciousness of a classification of words according to grammar.

But what really makes this exercise in analysis so interesting is the teacher's repeated permutation of the different cards. As she goes by a table she changes, as though in fun, the position of a card, and in this way provokes the intuition of grammatical rules and definitions. Indeed, when she takes out the card, which refers to some new part of the exercise, the remaining sentence with its changed meaning emphasizes the function of the part of speech which has been moved. The effect shows a distant analogy to the light that pathology and vivisection throw on physiology. An organ which fails in its function illustrates exactly that function, for never does one realize the precise use of an organ more clearly than when it has lost its power of functioning. Furthermore the removal of the words demonstrates that the meaning of the sentence is not given by the word alone but by the order of the word in the sentence, and this makes a great impression on the child. He sees the same cards first in a chaotic mass and then in an orderly arrangement. What was first a collection of meaningless words has suddenly become the expression of a thought.

From now on the child begins to experience a keen interest in the order of words. The meaning, the only thing the child is after, is no longer hidden in confusion. He begins to enjoy subtle permutations, changes which, without destroying the expression of a thought, obscure its clarity, complicate it, or make it "sound wrong." It is here that the teacher must have at her fingertips the rules governing the position of the various parts of speech. This will give her the necessary "lightness of touch," perhaps even the opportunity of making some brilliant little explanation, some casual observation, which may suddenly develop in the child a profound "grammatical insight." When the child has understood this he will become a deep "strategist" in mobilizing, disposing and moving about these cards which express thought; and if he really succeeds in mastering this secret, he will not be easily satiated with so fascinating an exercise. No one but a child would ever have the patience to study grammar so profoundly and at such length. This subtle work is, after all, not so easy for the teacher. That is why the material must be such as to suggest each step in detail. The teacher should be relieved as much as possible of the labor of preparation and research: for her delicate work of intervention is a task hard enough in itself. In preparing this material we have worked for her: we have acted as the workmen who produce the various objects necessary to life; she has but to "live" and "make live." This will show still more clearly how far from truth is the modern conception of pedagogy which attempts to realize its desire for freedom in the school by saying to the teacher, "Try to respond to the needs of the pupils without being conscious of your authority over them." When we ask a teacher to respond to the needs of the inner life of man, we are asking a great deal of her. She will never be able to accomplish it, unless we have first done something for her by giving her all that is necessary to that end. Here is our material:—

Commands on Nouns

"CALLING"

Call loudly:
Mary! Lucy! Ethel!
Later call again:
Blonde! Beautiful! Good!
Call:
Peter! bring a chair.
George! bring a cube.
Louis! get a frame.
Charles! Charles! quick! bring me the ... bring it to me, quick, quick.
Call slowly this way:
Come! Come! give me a kiss—please, come!
Then say:
Mary! come! give me a kiss!

These commands lend themselves to a little dramatic scene. It is really a sort of play, which the children recite.

The tendency to recitation and to imitation is very strong and often well developed at the age of five years. Little children experience a singular fascination in pronouncing the words with sentiment and in accompanying them with gestures. One can hardly imagine the simplicity of the little dramatic acts which interest the five year old child. Nothing but actual experiment could possibly have revealed it to us. One day, in fact, our little children were invited to be present at a dramatic entertainment given by the older children of the Public Schools. They followed it with really surprising interest. However, they remembered only three words of the play they had heard; but with these three words they made up a little dramatic action of their own, which they repeated over and over again the following day.

The commands of these "call" cards are, accordingly, real plays for our little ones. The child calls, pronouncing the name with a sort of sustained drawl; the child who is called comes forward; then the same thing is done with the other names, and each child obeys as he is called. Then the incomplete calls begin: blonde! blonde! beautiful! And no one moves! This makes a great impression on the children. Imperative commands, like requests, lend themselves to active dramatic action. Peter has been called and has brought his chair; George has brought the cube; Louis has taken out a frame; but Charles sits there intent, expectant, while the child calls out,—But bring it to me, bring it to me quickly! And how expressive we found the vain request,—Come, come! please give me a kiss,—come, come! At last the cry,—Mary! come! brings the resulting action and Mary runs to give the kiss which has been so long invoked!

These little "plays" require a real study of the parts, and the children rehearse their different rôles over and over again.

FOOTNOTE:

[2] See pp. [446-448].

V

ADJECTIVES

Analyses

The material for word analysis consists of small cards for articles (tan), nouns (black) and adjectives (brown). There is one box with three compartments, each section marked with a card bearing the respective title: article, noun, adjective. At the front of the box is a space for other cards containing printed sentences to be analyzed.

Descriptive Adjectives

The child is to read the sentences, find the objects described in them, and finally build the sentences with his cards as follows: suppose the card reads:

The child finds the three colored tablets used in the familiar exercise of the "Children's House" for the education of the sense of color. He places these tablets on his table. Then he builds the phrases out of his word cards:

Beside the completed expression he places the green color-tablet. Passing to the next phrase, he does not disturb the words the and color. He removes only the word green and substitutes for it the adjective blue, at the same time removing the green tablet and substituting for it the blue. Similarly, for the third phrase, he changes the adjective, putting the red tablet at the end. Thus the three different objects were distinguished only by the adjective:

All the phrases and sentences refer to objects used in the previous educational material. Occasionally the teacher will have to prepare something herself (e.g., hot, cold, warm, or iced water; clear water; colored water). For this exercise on water, the box contains six slips with the six printed phrases. In the box-sections, the child finds the corresponding word-cards which are exactly in the number needed for the exercise (not corresponding, that is, to the number of words in the phrases, since the articles and nouns are not repeated). There are five groups of such exercises, dealing with various kinds of sensation.

The teacher who is observing notices whether the child has taken the right objects; if so, she proceeds to the permutations.

Permutations

At this point, the teacher should recall (in dealing with Italian) the grammatical rules for the position of adjectives, some of which (the fundamental ones) will certainly be very useful to her in executing these first permutations:—

I. In general, the adjective follows the noun. If placed before the noun, it is less conspicuous; if placed after, it assumes more importance and has a different force.

II. When the adjective is used to signify the exclusive superlative of a quality, it is not only placed after the noun, but is preceded by the article. (Umberto il buono, "Humbert the Good.")

Example:—The child has composed the following phrase with his cards: il triangolo rettangolo "the right-angled triangle." The teacher can interchange the words thus: il rettangolo triangolo, "the triangle right-angled." Similarly also, for other phrases:—

Both the meaning and the child's habits show him the normal position of the adjective. In some phrases, such as,