The Discovery Of The Child

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THE DISCOVERY OF THE CHILD

where it is most widely read it is called The Montessori Method. It
has been translated not only into English, but into German,
French, Spanish (Castilian), Dutch, Swedish, Roumanian, Polish,
Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabian, Japanese, Gujarati, etc.
In every country this has been accompanied by the founding of
schools, and has excited more or less lively comments; enthusiasm
has led to the creation of societies and periodicals and of centres
for the training of teachers; in various places it has roused the
interest of Governments, some of which, after discussions in
Parliament, have officially adopted the method for public schools.
In distant countries, even in those which we would least suspect of
being interested in Italian matters, there sometimes exist most
important and effective centres, as in the various states of Australia
and New Zealand, or in the countries of Central America, like
Colombia and Panama; or in the islands extending from the
Philippines to Java. There is not one great continent in which
schools have not been distributed—in Asia: from Syria to
the Indies, China and Japan; in Africa: from Egypt and
Morocco in the north to Cape Town in the extreme south;
in the two Americas: the United States and Canada, and Latin
America. Even in the small islands scattered throughout the
great oceans, like Honolulu, half-way between California and
China, there exist schools which reproduce the spirit and the
essential appearance of the Italian school. A vast literature has
accumulated in the course of about twenty years; it is enough to
mention the numerous books which exist in the English, Spanish
and Russian languages. Some are written by university professors;
others by novelists who have found in the new life of the children
a theme more interesting than creations of the imagination; others
by Catholic priests, by teachers and by mothers, and among these
last I may mention, as a mark of gratitude, Tatiana Sukotine
Tolstoi, the beloved daughter of Leo Tolstoi, who was pleased to
see in the Children's Houses the realization of a dream which her
great father Bad cherished so fervently. The famous Indian
poet, Rabindranath Tagore, has been kind enough to add his