A. Discus the questions.

1. What do you think the purpose of education is?

2. How do you think a perfect school should be?
B. Read the text and answer the questions.
1. Who is Maria Montessori?
2. What is Montessori Method?
3. How does this method help children to become independent?
4. What is the role of a teacher in Montessori Method?
MARIA MONTESORI
Maria Montessori, who was the famous Italian educationalist, was born in Italy in 1870. She
became the first female doctor in her country after graduating from medical school in 1896.
Later, while she was working with deprived children, she set up a 'Children's House' in Rome.
There, she developed the Montessori Method, which is an educational system which
encourages an informal style of teaching.
The Montessori philosophy is simple. It emphasizes the fact that being unique individuals,
children must be free to learn without being criticized or restricted. It is an educational
approach which encourages children to learn by doing and experimenting.
Children are taught to dress themselves, to cook and to put their toys and clothes away,
which leads them to become independent. Taking part in controlling the pace, topic and lessons, children enjoy
learning and this gives them confidence and makes them happy.
The teacher in this method is a guide, not a leader of the classroom, who helps to open students' eyes to the
wonders around them. When asked to explain her approach, Maria Montessori always said “The goal is to prepare
children for a lifetime of creative thinking and learning”. In order to achieve this goal, she travelled all over the
world, training teachers to use her method, but it was only in her final years that she established the teacher-
training centers that would take her work forward. There are now many schools in Europe and North America that
are using the Montessori curriculum and methods.
A typical room which is used in a Montessori school has many things, such as books, objects and games. The
furniture is light so they can arrange it as they wish, and the cabinets are low so the children can reach them. Being
offered a range of activities, children can develop a social life which is based on cooperation rather than competition.
GRAMMAR –The sentences in bold in the text are relative clauses look at the examples and use your prior
knowledge and answer the questions about the relative clause.
1. Which relative pronouns or adverbs do we use to talk about the things below?
people things or ideas places time people + possession/ideas
2. Does the relative clause come before or after the noun they refer to?
A. Match the sentence halves and join them using who, that, which, whose, where or when.
1. A professor in a British university is someone a. universities or colleges are officially closed.
2. A university is an institution b. has the highest rank of the teachers in a department.
3. A thesis is a long piece of writing c. you do as part of a university degree.
4. A seminar is a class at university/college d. students study for degrees and academic research is
5. An academic is someone done.
6. A vacation is a period of the year e. teaches and does research in a college or university.
f. the teacher and students discuss a particular topic.

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Note that we can leave out the relative pronoun (e.g. that) if the verb in the relative clause has a subject (in this case
children).
 A typical room in a Montessori school has many things that children can use.
 A typical room in a Montessori school has many things children can use.

B. Look at the relative clauses in the following sentences and cross out the relative pronoun where possible.
1. Students who enter university may face a number of problems.
2. Is your degree worth the paper that it is written on?
3. There are university tutors who you can phone if you have a problem.
4. The university which I go to is very good.
5. People who have degrees have a better chance at interviews.

C. Look at these examples from the article of a non-defining relative clause and a defining relative clause.
 She developed the Montessori Method, which is an educational system which encourages an informal style
of teaching.
 It is an educational approach which encourages children to learn by doing and experimenting.
Which relative clause:
a. can be removed without changing the meaning or making it unclear?
b. cannot be removed without causing an unclear meaning?

Note that non-defining relative clauses have commas before them, and after them if necessary.
Non-defining relative clauses can come in the middle or at the end of the sentence:
Barbara, who spent three years at university in Cambridge, is going back to live there.
Barbara is going back to Cambridge, where she spent three years at university.

D. Read the sentences and put comas where necessary.

1. Oxford University which was number four in world university rankings last year has fallen to number eight.
2. John F. Kennedy went to Harvard University which is the oldest institution of higher education in the United
States.
3. Jean-Jacques Rousseau who was born in 1712 set out his views on education in his book Emile.
4. The Kumon method for teaching math was developed by Toru Kumon who graduated from Osaka University.
5. Oxford’s Bodleian library which is one of the oldest libraries in Europe was originally founded in 1320.
6. Heidelberg University which was founded in 1386 has its own student prison.
E. Join the following sentence with a non-defining relative clause. Use whose, which, who, and where. Use
commas appropriately.
1. American universities are now facing a lot of competition. They have attracted the world’s best students for over
50 years.
2. Last month I went back to the Sorbonne. I had studied history there.
3. There are over 39,000 students at the University of Manchester. It’s the biggest university in the UK.
4. Aristotle wrote books on many subjects. He studied under Plato.
5. Hilary studied politics at Harvard. She has just been offered a professorship there.

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D. Write sentences that are true for you using these prompts. Include extra information using non-defining
relative clauses.
My hometown – Manchester, which has the largest university population in the UK, is in the north west of the
country.
My hometown My university
My school My mother