A Montessori Education

What is Montessori

The Montessori classroom is a child-sized world. Whatever is in the world outside can be incorporated meaningfully into the Montessori classroom. To a child, the world is unmanageable-it is too big, too complex, and too confusing. By careful selection of materials by the teachers, an environment is created that allows the child a place to explore life on a level he can understand. The material and exercises are designed to stimulate independent exploration. This prepared environment entices the child to proceed at his or her own pace from simple activities to more complex ones. Throughout this process, the child’s natural curiosity is satisfied and he or she begins to experience the joy of discovering the world around him or her. Materials and curriculum revolve around practical life, sensorial, language, math, geography, history, science, art, music, drama, and dance.

 

Montessori is an educational method created in the early 1900’s by Maria Montessori, an Italian physician, psychologist and educator. Dr. Montessori observed that children teach themselves. This simple truth inspired Montessori’s lifelong pursuit of educational reform, methodology, psychology, teaching, and teacher training–all based on her dedication to furthering the self-creating process of the child. Dr. Montessori’s pioneering work created a blueprint for nurturing all children – learning disabled to gifted – to become self-motivated, independent and lifelong learners. Dr. Montessori has become widely recognized as being ahead of her time. Remarkably, her visionary ideas continue to profoundly influence the entire educational landscape.

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Dr. Montessori teaches us that each child must be free to pursue what interests him most at his own pace but in a specially prepared environment. Children are introduced to the joy of learning at an early age providing a framework upon which academic and social growth may progress hand in hand. The Montessori child is truly free to learn because he has acquired the ‘inner discipline’ necessary for lifelong learning. The Montessori environment teaches the child respect; respect for oneself, others, and the planet. It is a positive, stimulating, and enriching atmosphere for children of all ages, all backgrounds, and all capabilities and/or gifts. Montessori children tend to become self-confident, independent thinkers who learn because they are interested in the world and enthusiastic about life.