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the need to apply her methods and to develop didactic materials[2] which could effectively be used in the so called Children Houses[3]. It is also important to mention that the Montessori system represents the successive work of other three physicians namely Itard, Seguin and Kant.

The system had been widely accepted and it is applied in many countries including the developed and developing countries. However, it needs special skills, knowledge and materials so it can be argued that it is expensive to run. It is applied in some private schools but it is a challenge in public schools. Also it application can conflict with the home environment of the child when there are two different systems at home and school. It can function well if parents are also aware of it.

Mead (1928), in her work on 'Coming of Age in Samoa', also analyses gaps and weaknesses in the education system in America by comparing it with Samoa experience. Mead focuses more on the child's home environment but also she analyzes the child's school environment. When analysing education of the Samoan child, she explains how children from infant stage are raised and different roles of family members in raising children. She also shows how children are handled and educated before and after puberty until they get married. Here, she has analysed an African society of Samoa which has not yet received external contacts from other countries especially the developed countries. The society she also describes as a primitive society. She analyses this society by showing how a child learns from his or her surrounding environment. However, she does not argue that it is perfect way of raising and educating children but she points out that there are crucial things which a developed society such as America can learn from it. Like Montessori, she acknowledges the importance of a child's home and natural environment for learning.

In Samoa, from birth until the age of four of five a child's education is simple, focussing on physical development such as learning how to sit and crawl. Young girl and boys of six or seven years are the ones responsible for caring, socializing and disciplining the small children. However, there is unequal treatment for boys and girls because girls are more burned with child caring responsibility and they have little opportunity to learn some other forms of work and play compared to the boys. However, it is noted that with the introduction of formal schooling by the government, the children are now being removed from home and they stay in school for many hours. This will in turn bring disorganization and change of the traditional system.

Mead sees several problems in the American education system in comparing it with Samoa. In Samoa, children are not forced to learn or punished harshly for slowness of development as in America. She argues that punishments such as whippings in schools can make a child able to make mathematical calculations but she/he won't be able to interpret or make sense of it. Like Montessori she criticizes punishments in schools but she doesn't identify rewards as a problem.

She also argues that, the American education system tends to confuse pupils because it fails to make important connection between the school and the home environment. There are cases where by things allowed at home are not allowed at school. American children spend many hours in school learning tasks