Trying to teach children to write before they have fine motor control seems counterproductive. How does Montessori handle it? Learning to Write is Something All Children Have to Do Even Thought the Pencil is Being Replaced by a Keyboard.

The Montessori Method

Aristotle on the education of the young

Peter Simpson's summary of Politics 7.17 (4.17, his numbering):

Infancy to Age Seven. Proper nourishment for infant bodies, as experience shows, is rich in milk but not in wine. Any movements they can perform and habituation to cold are also useful. To age five they should do no hard toil nor any learning; their play should be of a liberal sort and, along with the stories they hear, should imitate their serious activities later; they should be allowed to shout and cry; they should spend little time with slaves and should hear and see nothing illiberla or shameful. The legislator should, for this purpose, banish shameful stories and sights, punishing those who disobey, and allowing such things only for adults and in association with the worship of certain gods. From ages five to seven, children should watch others learning what they themselves will have to learn.

What would Aristotle think of primary education in Europe and here in the U.S., and of kindergarten and grades 1 to 2 in particular? What about the Montessori Method? How much rote learning and acquisition of literacy is necessary before the age of 7?

I thought this was interesting:
"Those who, in their laws, prevent children from stretching their lungs and crying are not correct in their prohibition. These things are beneficial to growth, since they are, in a way, gymnastic exercises for the body. The holding in of breath gives strength to those engaged in toil, and that happens to children when they stretch their lungs."

Does he get the physiology correct?

A friend from BC was fond of citing the following:
"Women are fittingly united in marriage about the age of eighteen and men about thirty-seven or a little before." (7.16)

Links:
The Montessori Method.
Montessori Philosophy & Practice