Discover how education can unfold from within, through the learner’s own relating powers, as this work explains auto-education and the Montessori method.
The Psychology of Auto-Education explores how life itself shapes learning. It presents the idea that knowledge grows from the tension between the form of knowledge (the tendency to relate) and the matter we sense. The book links Bergson’s ideas to practical methods in early education, emphasizing development of consciousness, sense training, and the power of environments to guide growth. It also examines Maria Montessori’s approach, showing how didactic materials invite children to learn by relating space, size, and patterns before naming them.
Along with theory, the text outlines a vision for teaching that centers on freedom, observation, and a careful, minimal intervention by the teacher. It describes how to reorganize curricula to foster relating and motor development first, then expanding toward conceptual understanding in geography, history, science, and language. The book discusses how intelligence matures through perception, comparison, and the gradual use of language to express ideas that go beyond what is seen.
- How learning grows from the mind’s impulse to relate space, time, likeness, and cause and effect
- How Montessori’s didactic materials engage children by inviting auto-education
- How sense training leads to conceptual thinking and precise language
- A proposed plan for reorganizing education around freedom, environment, and gradual responsibility
Ideal for readers seeking practical pedagogy rooted in developmental psychology and the Montessori method, and for educators exploring a Bergson-inspired approach to auto-education.