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I have a strong Montessori complex. I find myself being critical of
her system, and I have often wondered why. I used to think that my
dislike of Montessori was a projection: I disliked a lady who raved
about Montessori, and I fancied that I had transferred my dislike of
the lady to poor Montessori. But now I refuse to accept that
explanation; it is not good enough for me; there must be something
deeper. I shall try to discover that something deeper.
When I first read Montessori's books I said to myself: "She is devoid
of humour." This to me suggests a limitation in art, and I feel that
Montessori is always a scientist but never an artist. Her system is
highly intellectual, but sadly lacking in emotionalism. This is seen
in her attitude to phantasy. She would probably argue that phantasy is
bad for a child, but it is a fact that much of a child's life is lived
in phantasy. Phantasy is a means of gratifying an unfulfilled wish.
The kitchen-maid in her day-dream marries a prince, and, as Maurice
Nicoll says in his _Dream Psychology_, to destroy her phantasy without
putting something in its place is dangerous.
To a child, as to Cinderella, phantasy is a means of overcoming
reality. Father bullies Willie and the boy retires into a day-dream
world where he becomes an all-powerful person . . . hence the fairy
tales of giants (fathers) killed by little Jacks. In later life Willie
takes to drink or identifies himself with the hero of a cinema drama.
The extreme form of phantasy is insanity, where the patient completely
goes over to the unreal world and becomes the Queen of the World. And
it might be objected that phantasying is the first stage of insanity.
Yes, but it is the last stage of poetry. Coleridge's _Kubla Khan_, one
of the most glorious poems in the language, is pure phantasy. I rather
fear that one day a grown-up Montessori child will prove conclusively
that the feet of Maud did not, when they touched the meadows, leave the
daisies rosy.
No, the Montessori world is too scientific for me; it is too orderly,
too didactic. The name "didactic apparatus" frightens me.