Montessori

Born in 1870, Maria Montessori became the first woman doctor in her Country’s history.  Her early work was with mentally challenged and very poor children:  by close observation and experimentation, Dr. Montessori developed a system of education that helped handicapped and deprived children learn as well as “average” children.

Her method became world known and many countries adopted them. Today, there is a renewed interest in her system in the United States. Her insights into children and her ideas for helping them develop into healthy, well-rounded adults seem fresh and meaningful today. The Montessori way offers a sensible structured system that allows a child to develop at his or her own pace, using his or her abilities with the guidance of a Montessori educated teacher and the use of specially designed materials.

Every child moves through successive phases of physical and mental development, identified by Dr. Maria Montessori as “sensitive periods”. The child cannot be pushed from one level to the next by means of an arbitrary timetable. Learning that is tedious, labored, even impossible, at a later stage, is pursued naturally and joyously during “sensitive periods”. The child’s interest is spontaneous. The learning is deep and lasting. Dr. Montessori realized that learning is a total life experience for all children. She appreciated their curiosity and their interest in exploring the unknown. She wished to penetrate “the secret of childhood”, knowing full well that children of every land and culture develop fundamentally the same way. The child perfects himself or herself by repeated successful interaction with the prepared environment, other children and the teacher. Free to fulfill his or her deepest learning and work needs, the child acquires and strengthens new functions and grows ever more self-directed and self-disciplined. There is an inner peace, a sense of order and harmony in the child who is allowed to construct his or her own individuality by mean of independent work in mutual aid, not competition, with other children.