Passage2

Questions 6 to 10 are based on thefollowing passage.

Maria Montessoribased her educational plan upon the observation of children in diversecultures. Therefore, her discoveries are not accurately described as Montessoriprinciples. They are universal principles of human behavior, which belong toall peoples, societies, and cultures. These universal principles are a soundfoundation for educational systems everywhere.

As a medicalstudent at the University of Rome, Montessori studied the origin and formationof living beings. When she returned to the University of Rome, after asuccessful medical career, to study education, philosophy and other subjects,Montessori remained attracted by development in all forms of life. Whileworking with children and young adults, she recognized specific stages in humanformation. Eventually, she identified four such planes of development. Thereare two planes of childhood, resulting at age twelve in a mature child,and twoplanes of adulthood, resulting at age twenty-four in adult maturity.

To highlight thedramatic nature of the child's change from one stage of development to thenext, Montessori compared developmental planes to the transformation of abutterfly. The various stages of larva (幼虫)，chiysalis (蛹)，andadult butterfly are so different as to be unrecognizable one from the other.So, too, the differences of each plane of human formation are so extraordinarythat the young person appears in each as a re-created being. Each of these fourplanes of development builds upon the last so that faulty development in anyone affects the successful completion of all the others.

Montessoriobserved that regular education fails to notice these planes of development.Infact, the first stage of development, from birth to age six, is ignored becauseschooling does not begin until it is over. She referred to the school childrenof her day as so many “dried butterflies” pinned to a display board. She drew achart depicting the linear ascent (直线上升) of educationbased as it is upon feeding information to children as if they were blanks tobe imprinted upon.

In contrast,Montessori drew a chart reflecting the actual development of children. It showsthat in each plane there is an emergence or rebirth of development that reachesa peak and then declines. It emphasizes the regularity of human development inthis regard. Montessori believed that schooling should correspond to thechild’s developmental periods. “Instead of dividing schools into nursery,primary, secondary, and university, we should divide education in planes andeach of these should correspond to the phase the developing individual goesthrough.”

 
Why did Montessori go back to the University of Rome?