About the Montessori Method of Education

"We must give the child relaxation from the continuous direction of adults. So we give them the right environment, relaxation, and freedom from orders. This is an indirect treatment; it is not the correction of the individual but the preparation for a new life."
Dr. Maria Montessori

Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952), the first woman in Italy to become a physician, developed a remarkable and innovative approach to early childhood education at the beginning of the twentieth century. Her method evolved over a period of almost five decades during which she observed and worked with children throughout the world, and was reinforced by her studies in medicine, psychology, and anthropology.

"Education is not something which the teacher does, but it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being."

One basic idea of the Montessori philosophy is that carried unseen within each child is the person that child can become. To develop his/her physical, intellectual, and spiritual powers to the fullest, the child must have freedom - a freedom achieved through order and self-discipline. The child's world is full of sights and sounds that at first appear chaotic. From this chaos the child gradually creates order and learns to distinguish among the impressions that assail his/her senses, slowly gaining mastery of self and his/her environment.

"The first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as it is possible, to render the growing child independent of the adult."

Dr. Montessori developed what she called the "prepared environment." Among its features is an ordered arrangement of learning materials in a non-competitive atmosphere that helps each child develop at his/her own rate. In a Montessori classroom, children work in an ambience of responsibility and freedom within designated limits. Their work involves a choice of materials that are of interest to them. This choice is directed by the prepared environment. The teacher (directress) acts as a link between the environment and the child by functioning as the reference person and exemplar, and by offering the child stimulation. But it is the child who learns, motivated through the work itself, to persist in his/her chosen task. The Montessori child is free to learn because he/she has acquired an "inner discipline" from exposure to both physical and mental order. This is the core of Dr. Montessori's educational philosophy.

The classroom contains materials that are of natural interest to the child, and which simultaneously assist in developing the necessary knowledge and facility required for learning in later years. Children stimulated by the Montessori environment experience the excitement of learning by discovery, as well as the pleasure and confidence that result from mastery of new skills. They exhibit concentration devoid of fatigue, choose purposeful activities, love order, are independent in work, and spontaneously helpful with one another. At the heart of the Montessori philosophy lies a basic respect for the child as an individual.