H A P T E R XXIll

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

RELIGIOUS education,1 considered in accordance in the same
general terms as the method as a whole, includes the preparation
of an environment in which several divisions are distinguishable—
those which might be referred to practical life, and those which,
corresponding to what in the school refers to the development of
the mind, deal with the development of religious sentiment, the
education of the spirit, and the religious knowledge which consti-
tutes the culture necessary to understand religion. It is, therefore,
clear that it is impossible to go into the whole matter here and
now. Such statements as are made will be directed towards
opening up the necessary connections between the two branches
of education, i.e. in a practical sense, the behaviour in the
environment of daily life and the behaviour in the environment
particular to religion (the Church).

It was at Barcelona, in the Model Montessori School, a civic
school of the Province, but one in which the Catholic religion
was established as a fundamental subject, that there were laid
down the first bases of religious education planned according to
my method.2

1 Applied to Catholic education.

* cf. Maria Montessori: The Child in the Church (Sands & Co., London).