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What is Montessori?  

The name Montessori usually refers to the educational method developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian physician. Dr. Montessori observed that all children were driven by inherent tendencies which expressed themselves particularly intensely at certain ages; for example, exploration, communication, movement and a desire for self-perfection. She developed a plan of education that would respect and follow the child’s inner guide to development and work in harmony with the child’s own natural tendencies towards independence and learning.  

Montessori is an education, not a nursery school. The best time to start your child’s education is during the early years, 2 to 6 years, when most of his/her intelligence and social characteristics are formed. Eighty percent (80%) of the child’s mental development occurs before eight years of age, and seventy-five percent (75%) of their knowledge is acquired before the age of three. Dr. Montessori said that the child at the age of birth to three has an Absorbent Mind. This referred to the ability and ease with which young children learn, unconsciously, from the environment. Concepts that are presented in concrete form (actually touching and manipulating the materials) make learning tangible for children and serve as touchstones in their memory for many years.  

Montessori is a philosophy and method of education, which emphasizes the potential of the young child and develops that potential by utilizing specially trained teachers and special teaching materials. Montessori recognizes in the child a natural curiosity and desire to learn; the Montessori materials awaken this desire and channel his/her curiosity into a learning experience, which the child enjoys. Montessori materials help the child to understand what he/she learns by associating an abstract concept with a concrete experience. In this manner, the Montessori child is actually learning and not just memorizing.  

Children learn by absorbing experiences through the senses. A young child has an immense ability to absorb a multitude of experiences and is constantly trying to create order out of these sensorial experiences. In the Montessori classroom, which is a special “Prepared Environment”, the child finds a sense of order in every educational material with which he/she works and acquires the joy of learning. The child’s intellect is then trained to make order out of a multitude of experiences, which is the learning process.  

Children mature at different times and their periods of readiness for academic subjects vary a great deal. The use of individual materials permits a varied pace that accommodates many levels of ability within the classroom. Advanced children in the same room can move from one place of equipment to another very quickly, thus avoiding the boredom of waiting for other members of the class to catch up.  

Dr. Montessori emphasized that children “learn through the hands, and the hand forms the mind”. In order to learn there must be concentration and the best way a child can concentrate is by fixing his /her attention on some real task he/she is performing with his/her hands. Because the Montessori materials relate abstract thoughts to sensorial experiences, when a child works with Montessori materials, he/she is able to satisfy the innate desire to handle concrete materials. Since the Montessori materials are self-correcting, they enable the child to work with the materials without the teachers constant intrusion on his/her desire to find the answers. The child then has the tremendous joy of accomplishment knowing that he/she has completed the exercise successfully.  

The role of a Montessori teacher is very different from that of a traditional teacher. The teacher’s role is to observe individual interests and needs of each child and make the right provisions accordingly. The teacher is trained to recognize periods of readiness when the child is prepared to be introduced to more advanced materials. Whenever a child makes a mistake, the teacher refrains from intervening and allows the child to discover his/her error through further manipulation of the self-correcting materials.  

Most schools warmly welcome children from Montessori schools. The Montessori child has acquired excellent work and study habits, which result in a lifelong pursuit of knowledge. Because the Montessori child has unique qualities of self-reliance and self-discipline, he/she easily adjusts to other school environments, but does not slow down his interests in the learning process and frequently becomes a social and academic leader.