montessori philosophy
Maria Montessori believed that finding one’s place in the world, finding work that is meaningful and fulfilling, and developing the inner peace and depth of soul that allows us to love are the most important goals in life. A physician specializing in both pediatrics and psychiatry, Dr. Montessori realized that learning itself is a natural process. This idea and her belief that every child has vast potential sparked the basis for her educational philosophy and life’s work. Today, Montessori schools the world over have as their foundation her deep respect for children as unique individuals and her profound concern for their social and emotional development.
In a Montessori classroom, every exercise, every method and every piece of equipment takes advantage of a child’s inherent desire to learn. Children are free to work in groups or on their own. They may sit at a table or move about the room. Here, the curriculum and teachers’ role are all carefully designed to honor self-paced growth while encouraging social cooperation.
what is the montessori method?
The Montessori method is both a philosophy of child development and a rationale for guiding such growth. It is based on the child’s developmental needs for freedom within limits, as well as, a carefully prepared environment, which guarantees exposure to materials and experiences. Through this, the child develops intelligence as well as physical and psychological abilities. It is designed to take full advantage of the child’s desire to learn and their unique ability to develop their own capabilities. The child needs adults to expose him to the possibilities of his life, but the child must determine his response to those possibilities.
THE MAIN PREMISE OF A MONTESSORI EDUCATION
Children are to be respected as different from adults and as individuals who differ from each other who learn at their own rate.
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The child possesses an unusual sensitivity and intellectual ability to absorb and learn from his environment that is unlike those of the adult both in quality and capacity.
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The most important years of a child’s growth are the first six years of life when unconscious learning is gradually brought to the conscious level.
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Children need the opportunity to build positive attitudes toward themselves—and toward learning—during these early years.
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Montessori children develop concentration, perseverance, a sense of order, initiative and a pride in learning. As a result, they become confident, competent learners for life.
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Children flourish in a joyful atmosphere, which balances intellectual stimulation, creativity and love.
"The child has a deep love and need for purposeful work. He works, however, not as an adult for completion of a job, but for the sake of the activity itself. It is this activity, which enables him to accomplish his most important goal: the development of himself, his mental, physical, and psychological powers."
Dr. Maria Montessori
THE “PREPARED ENVIRONMENT”
The “prepared environment” is Maria Montessori’s concept that the environment can be designed to facilitate maximum independent learning and exploration by the child.
In the prepared environment, there is a variety of activity as well as a great deal of movement. In a preschool classroom, for example, a three-year-old may be washing clothes by hand while a four-year-old nearby is composing words and phrases with letters know as the movable alphabet, and a five-year-old is performing multiplication using a specially designed set of beads. Sometimes an entire class may be involved in a group activity, such as storytelling, singing, or movement.
In the calm, ordered space of the Montessori prepared environment, children work on activities of their own choice at their pace. They experience a blend of freedom and self-discipline in a place especially designed to meet their developmental needs.
Content courtesy of the North American Montessori Teachers' Association.
'NAMTA. All rights reserved.'
For more information, please visit http://www.montessori-namta.org/introduction-to-montessori-education.html
THE MONTESSORI MATERIALS
In the Montessori classroom, learning materials are arranged invitingly on low, open shelves. Children may choose whatever materials they would like to use and may work for as long as the material holds their interest. When they are finished with each material, they return it to the shelf from which it came.
The materials themselves invite activity. There are bright arrays of solid geometric forms, knobbed puzzle maps, colored beads, and various specialized rods and blocks.
Each material in a Montessori classroom isolates one quality. In this way, the concept that the child is to discover is isolated. For example, the material known as the pink tower is made up of ten pink cubes of varying sizes. The preschool aged child constructs a tower with the largest cube on the bottom and the smallest on the top. This material isolates the concept of size. The cubes are all the same color and texture; the only difference is their size. Other materials isolate different concepts: color tablets for color, geometry materials for form and so on.
Moreover, the materials are self-correcting. When a piece does not fit or is left over, the child easily perceives the error. There is no need for adult “correction.” The child is able to solve problems independently, building self-confidence, analytical thinking, and the satisfaction that comes from accomplishment.
As the child’s exploration continues, the materials interrelate and build upon each other. For example, various relationships can be explored between the pink tower and the broad stair, which are based on matching precise dimensions. Later, in the elementary years, new aspects of some of the materials unfold. When studying volume, for instance, the child may return to the pink tower and discover that its cubes progress incrementally from one cubic centimeter to one cubic decimeter.
maria montessori
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
Maria Montessori was, in many ways, ahead of her time. Born in the town of Chiaravalle, in the province of Ancona, Italy, in 1870, she became the first female physician in Italy upon her graduation from medical school in 1896.
In her medical practice, her clinical observations led her to analyze how children learn, and she concluded that they build themselves from what they find in their environment. Shifting her focus from the body to the mind, she returned to the university in 1901, this time to study psychology and philosophy. In 1904, she was made a professor of anthropology at the University of Rome.
Her desire to help children was so strong, however, that in 1906 she gave up both her university chair and her medical practice to work with a group of sixty young children of working parents in the San Lorenzo district of Rome. It was there that she founded the Casa Dei Bambini, or “Children’s House.” What ultimately became the Montessori method of education developed there, based upon Montessori’s scientific observations of these children’s almost effortless ability to absorb knowledge from their surroundings, as well as their tireless interest in manipulating materials. Every piece of equipment, every exercise, every method Montessori developed was based on what she observed children to do “naturally,” by themselves.
CHILDREN TEACH THEMSELVES
This simple but profound truth inspired Montessori’s lifelong pursuit of educational reform, methodology, psychology, teaching, and teacher training-all based on her dedication to furthering the self-creating process of the child.
Content courtesy of the North American Montessori Teachers' Association.
'NAMTA. All rights reserved.'