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What is Montessori?
Dr. Maria Montessori was the first female physician in Italy around the turn of the 20th Century. Unable to open a practice like her male counterparts, she focused her efforts on child development by working with and observing children, hypothesizing solutions for their issues, and observing the results. Through this work and years of observation, she developed both a philosophy and a curriculum which revolutionized the traditional approach to teaching and learning by putting the focus on the child, not the teacher. The heart of her philosophy is that children are natural learners. They are driven to learn from deep within and the job of the teacher is simply to create a stimulating and safe environment for their exploration to occur. The Montessori teacher does this by putting purposeful, self-contained projects on shelves. These "works" can be completed independently by the child, so they are not overly dependent on the adult to learn; they are teaching themselves. Because each work is engaging, children are building their concentration skills, their working memory, their internal organization, and their graphomotor skills, without even realizing it. Everything available in the classroom is valuable, so the child has a certain autonomy to choose what they want to do. This encourages intiative and self-motivation--something we all want to see in adults, but can have a hard time channeling in children. This also allows children to learn at their own rate and leverage their natural interests--something schools cannot do when all children are required to be on the same page of the text book at the same time.
Dr. Montessori also believed strongly in a multi-aged classroom, so Montessori schools mix three years together: 3-6 year old, 6-9 year olds, and 9-12 year olds. The multi-age environment sets a foundation for the individual learning, because it diffuses the false importance of age in learning. It also fosters self-confidence because children see what lies ahead in their learning sequence, and they can look back at what they've accomplished. The older childer are leaders of the younger children, teaching them work they themselves have mastered, helping them with their newly acquired skills (eg. tying a younger student's shoes), and providing a good example for them. The younger children benefit from the older children by seeing groundrules in action, rather than hearing do's and don't's from the teachers, discovering the meaning behind the work by seeing it put in action, and being exposed to the more sophisticated vocabulary and thinking ability of older thinkers. Nothing makes school more meaningful than using what you're learning and nothing builds confidence better than using your skills to serve others. Lastly, in a multi-age setting, students have the same teacher for multiple years. This means that no time is wasted getting to know each other and transitioning; instead teachers get to know the students' strengths and weaknesses and can challenge them and nurture them much more effectively over three years than through one year.
The curriculum is literally step-by-step instruction in five subject areas: practical life, sensorial, math, language, and cultural (a multi-disciplinary investigation of the physical world, including all types of science, geography, and anthropology). The curriculum is a brilliant manifestation of very abstract concepts, presented to children in concrete terms, appropriate to their cognitive abilities. They are sequential not because there are hoops to jump through, but because we learn in a logical fashion. For example, if a child cannot grade the red rods from smallest to largest, the teacher knows he has not yet developed the concept of greater than/less than and is therefore not yet ready to understand numerical concepts. By meeting each child where he is, challenging him, and engaging him, the curriculum stimulates more intellectual growth out of children than adults ever though possible.
The highly functioning Montessori classroom is like a tight and efficient ecosystem. The harmony of it all is dependent on each factor working as it should. If one element is off, then it all unravels. The teachers must be constantly observing the children, noting what they are mastering and where they are struggling. The work on the shelves must remain stimulating and interesting so that the children continue to make use of it and remain engaged. When the students are excited to learn, there are very few behavioral issues, everyone works hard and an extremely positive cycle emerges, which is fertile ground for curious, independent, respectful young learners to emerge. When people see a great Montessori classroom at our school, they are blown away by what the students are accomplishing. Thanks to Dr. Montessori's life work, generations of children are growing up without knowing the rote boredom of school as a necessary evil.
Montessori at a glance...
- Montessori is a method of education created by Dr. Maria Montessori in Rome around the turn of the 20th Century.
- It is based on empirical research of children's natural cognitive and social development, so that a formal education can work with their nature instead of against it.
- A Montessori environment provides students with appropriate and challenging academic choices. This enables students to learn at their own rates, follow their particular interests, and develop tremendous responsibility, curiosity, and confidence.
- The pre-primary (1.5 - 6 years old) years focus on practical independence and fine motor skills in addition to foundational material in mathematics, language arts, and scientific discovery. The primary years (6-9 years old) focus on the progression from concrete to abstract thinking in mathematics, and language arts, as well as interdisciplinary introductions to biology, chemistry, earth sciences, geography, and sociology.
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