What is Montessori?

Maria Montessori was the first woman to graduate with a doctorate from the University of Rome in 1896. Montessori developed a new educational pedagogy by trying to provide an enriching environment for children with learning disabilities. Soon after Montessori found that her students were learning more than the public school students. Thus, the process was opened to all children.

Many important scientists studied with Maria Montessori: like Seguin and under her: Eric Erickson, Hellen Keller, and Jean Piaget.

“The mental effort should be accompanied by a physical one because the latter is needed to stimulate the action of the brain. Hence it is unnatural to use one without the other” (Wentworth, 1999,p.33).

What is Montessori Pedagogy/philosophy?

Montessori is designed to help children in the process of self construction. With the belief that all children are born with their own set of drives and strengths, Montessori creates an environment where the child decides what she needs to practice on a daily basis in order to become the complete adult she is meant to be. With minimal intervention and keen observation from the Directress(teacher), the child finds his inherent love of learning through adult activities such as pouring, tracing, matching, food preparation, dusting, washing, etc.

These activities lay the foundation for independence in their immediate surroundings. Simultaneously, the child is planting the seeds to becoming a responsible human being.

Piaget: “To know an object is to act upon it.”

The Tools Toward Independence are:

Practical Life: These include individual jobs that instill care for the Self, Others and the Environment. Walking on the Line is the preferred method to increase agility, follow rhythms, and strengthen the body through large motor movements. Grace and Courtesy is the curriculum to establish order and social construct among human beings.

Sensorial Area: These materials help the child explore the physical properties of the environment ; they classify weight, girth, length, color, depth, taste, smell, auditory, visual, and touch. Some children teach themselves to play the bells and write their own music.

Language area: Activities that challenge and spur creative usage and increased communication. This method provides a kinesthetic experience with the alphabet which lead to an explosion into reading and writing instead of forced.

Mathematical Area: Through the manipulation of concrete materials, children understand basic mathematical principles from addition through multiplication. This is helpful in developing problem-solving capabilities.

Geography, Biology, Botany, Zoology, Art , and Music: Children learn about people and cultures in other countries with an attitude of respect and admiration.