Scientific Pedagogy, Part III: formulating a new discipline

The embedded illustration is an attempt to clarify and – believe it or not (see previous post) – simplify (for my own understanding), the streams of thought that appear to have influenced Dr. Maria Montessori in her work of formulating what she referred to as a Scientific Pedagogy. Importantly, the fields of Ethnography and Ethology were just coming into their own during the time that Montessori was developing her methods.

In the mean time, my efforts are simply an attempt to clarify the origins and axioms of a research methodology that has lain fallow for more than half a century. While the early fruits of the method have been harvested and pressed into service by sundry practitioners of the educational arts, many educators depart considerably from the research objectives that guided the original methodology.

It’s my belief that a return to the intellectual roots of the science of cultivating healthy, socially integrated, and self-actualizing human beings may light the way for some of us who seek a rational path out of the current educational insanity. Scientific Pedagogy, after all, was simply a systematic approach dedicated to the design and development of diverse, inspiring, and life affirming learning environments for the children who will lead humanity into the future.