SOURCE: An introduction to The Montessori Method, by Maria Montessori, Schocken Books, 1964, pp. xi-xxxix.

In the following introduction to a later English translation of Montessori's The Montessori Method, Hunt remarks on the relevance of Montessori's theories in schools of the second half of the twentieth century and reviews her elemental beliefs.

The enlightened self-interest that provided the first Casa dei Bambini in the slum tenements of Rome will find a responsive note today. Modern administrators and educators are faced with vandalism and aimless violence among economically and culturally deprived children who reject and are rejected by the traditional school system. In offering Dr. Montessori space for the new enterprise, the director of the Roman Association for Good Building and the owners of the buildings in the San Lorenzo district were motivated in large part by the hope that keeping the unruly young children, usually left alone during the...