INTRODUCTIONBY EDMOND HOLMESAuthor- of " WUal ta and IVhat Might Be"Thk Montessori system of education, the fame of which has recently travelled from Rome to this and other countries, has found in Mrs. Fisher an ardent champion and an able and thoughtful exponent. Had I never visited a Montessori school, had I never heard of Dr. Montessori, I should have known before I had read many pages of this book that there was a living idea at the heart of the Montessori system; for the book, which has drawn its inspiration from that system, is, in the fullest sense of the word, alive. My own introduction to it is perhaps worth recording. When a proof copy of it was given to me to read, I promised to return it within a week. Rut as it happened I was able to return it the next morning, having meanwhile read every sentence in it, for it had held me so strongly that I found it hard to lay it down. And whatTable of Contents rAGE; author's prefacev; introduction h y mr edmond holmes XvU; CHAPTER; i some introductory rkmarks about; parents i; ii a day in a casa dei isam bin i 8; iii more about what happens in a casa; dei bambini30; iv something about the apparatus and; about the theory underlying it 49; v description of the rest of the apparatus and the method for writing and reading 68; vi some general remarks about the montessori apparatus in the home92; vii the possibility of adaptations of, or additions to, the montessori apparatusI06; CHA'TEK PACE; viii some remarks on the philosophy; of the system Il8; ix application of this philosophy to; home life128; x some considerations on the nature; of " discipline" 142; xl more about discipline, with special; regard to obedience 154; xii difficulties in the way of a universal adoption of the mon-tessori ideas166; xiii is there any real difference be-; tween the montessori system and the kindergarten? 172; xiv moral training196; xv dr montessori's l