The Montessori System Examined

had to the apparatus. In place of the old - time teacher, says Madam Montessori, "we have substituted the didactic material, which contains within itself the control of error, and which makes auto-education possible to each child."1 Does the reader ask how this is done? Let the cylinder box answer. This is a wooden block, in which are holes of varying depths. To each hole belongs a cylinder which exactly fills it. All the cylinders are removed, and the child proceeds to replace them. "If he mistakes, placing one of the objects in an opening that is too small for it, he takes it away, and proceeds to make trial, seeking the proper opening. 1 The Montessori Method, p. 371. If he makes a contrary error, letting the cylinder fall into an opening that is a little too large for it, and then collects all the successive cylinders in openings just a little too large, he will find himself at the last with the big cylinder in his hand, while only the smallest opening is empty. The didactic material controls every error. The child proceeds to"correct himself." The autOriaScatiofi i