Maria Montessori, born in 1870, was the first woman in Italy to receive a medical degree. She worked in the fields of
psychiatry, education and anthropology. She believed that each child is born with a unique potential to be revealed, rather than as a "blank slate" waiting to be written upon.
Montessori education as a philosophy began in 1907 with Dr. Maria Montessori’s founding of the Casa de Bambini in Rome. It is now offered in both private and public schools. Of the 1,377 accredited US Montessori schools, approximately 250 of them are established in a public school setting. This represents 18% of the Montessori school composition.
Dr. Montessori's main contributions to the work of those of us raising and educating children are in these areas:
"The greatest sign of success for a teacher... is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist."”
“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.”
“If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future.”
~ Maria Montessori
After years of expression mainly in pre-schools, the Montessori philosophy is finally being used as originally intended, as a method of seeing children as they really are and of creating environments which foster the fulfillment of their highest potential - spiritual, emotional, physical, and intellectual - as members of a family, the world community and the Cosmos.
Dr. Montessori gave the world a scientific method, practical and tested, for bringing forth the very best in young human beings. She taught adults how to respect individual differences, and to emphasize social interaction and the education of the whole personality rather than the teaching of a specific body of knowledge.
Montessori practice is always up-to-date and dynamic because observation and the meeting of needs is continual and specific for each child. When physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional needs are met children glow with excitement and a drive to play and work with enthusiasm, to learn, and to create. They exhibit a desire to teach, help, and care for others and for their environment.
The high level of academic achievement so common in Montessori schools is a natural outcome of experience in such a supportive environment. The Montessori method of education is a model which serves the needs of children of all levels of mental and physical ability as they live and learn in a natural, mixed-age group which is very much like the society they will live in as adults.
FAQ's
- What is the difference between Montessori and traditional education?
- Why do Montessori classes group different age levels together?
- Is Montessori good for children with learning disabilities? What about gifted children?
- Are Montessori children successful later in life?
- Is Montessori unstructured?
Q. What is the difference between Montessori and traditional education?
A. Montessori emphasizes learning through all five senses, not just through listening, watching or reading. Children in Montessori classes learn at their own, individual pace and according to their own choice of hundreds of activities. Learning is an exciting process of discovery, that leads to concentration, motivation, self-discipline and a love of learning. Montessori classes place children in three-year age groups (3-6,6-9,9-12), forming communities in which the older children spontaneously share their knowledge with the younger ones. Montessori represents an entirely different approach to education.
Q. Why do Montessori classes group different age levels together?
A. Sometimes parents worry that by having younger children in the same class as older ones; one group or the other will be shortchanged. They fear that the younger children will absorb the teachers’ time and attention or that the importance of covering the kindergarten curriculum for the five-year-olds will prevent them from giving the three- and four year-olds the emotional support and stimulation that they need. Both concerns are common but unfounded.
At each level, Montessori programs are designed to address the developmental characteristics normal to children in that stage.
- Montessori classes are organized to encompass a two- or three- year age span, which allows younger students the stimulation of older children, who in turn benefit from serving as role models. Each child learns at her own pace and will be ready for any given lesson in her own time, not on the teacher’s schedule of lessons. In a mixed-age class, children can always find peers who are working at their current level.
- Children normally stay in the same class for three years. With two-thirds of the class generally returning each year, the classroom culture tends to remain quite stable.
- Working in one class for two or three years allows students to develop a strong sense of community with their classmates and teachers. The age range also allows especially gifted children the stimulation of intellectual peers, without requiring that they skip a grade or feel emotionally out of place.
Q. Is Montessori good for children with learning disabilities? What about gifted children?
A. Montessori is designed to help all children reach their fullest potential at their own unique pace. A classroom whose children have varying abilities is a community in which everyone learns from one another and everyone contributes. Moreover, multi-age grouping allows each child to find his or her own pace without feeling “ahead” or “behind” in relation to peers.
Q. Are Montessori children successful later in life?
A. Research studies show that Montessori children are well prepared for later life academically, socially and emotionally. In addition to scoring well on standardized tests, Montessori children are ranked above average on such criteria as: following directions, turning in work on time, listening attentively, using basic skills, showing responsibility, asking provocative questions, showing enthusiasm for learning and adapting to new situations.
Q. Is Montessori unstructured?
A. At first, Montessori may look un-structured, but it is actually quite structured at every level. Just because the Montessori program is highly individualized does not mean that students can do whatever they want. Like all children, Montessori students live within a cultural context that involves the mastery of skills and knowledge that are considered essential.
Montessori teaches all of the “basics,” along with giving students the opportunity to investigate and learn subjects that are of particular interest. It also allows them the ability to set their own schedule to a large degree during class time. At the early childhood level, external structure is limited to clear-cut ground rules and correct procedures that provide guidelines and structure for three- and four year-olds. By age five, most schools introduce some sort of formal system to help students keep track of what they have accomplished and what they still need to complete.
Elementary Montessori children normally work with a written study plan for the day or week. It lists the tasks that they need to complete, while allowing them to decide how long to spend in each and what order they would like to follow. Beyond these basic, individually tailored assignments, children explore topics that capture their interest and imagination and share them with their classmates
VIMSIA Educational Presentation
Montessori Presentation
Montessori Presentation
Montessori websites
Founded by Maria Montessori, AMI is VIMSIA's accrediting association
Suggested Reading
- Montessori, the Science Behind the Genious , written by Dr. Angeline Lillard, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, who has been studying Montessori's methods for more than two decades.
"Dr. Maria Montessori the first woman physician in Italy, opened a school in January, 1907, in a slum in Rome, to test some new theories she had about children’s learning and development. A century later, psychology research is showing that her educational theories were ahead of their time."
- “Outcomes for Students in a Montessori Program” A Longitudinal Study of the Experience in the Milwaukee Public Schools
“Montessori programs have grown considerably over the past decades. There have been two major facts to this growth: expansion form private to public settings and extension from preschool into elementary, junior high school, and beyond. Growth has brought concerns about outcomes, especially academic ones. In particular, there have been questions about the performance of Montessori students when they move on to more conventional academic settings. This research addresses these questions.”
See complete study in PDF format.
“This study supports the hypothesis that Montessori education has a positive long-term impact. Additionally, it provides an affirmative answer to questions about whether Montessori students will be successful in traditional schools.”
Famous Montessorians
Maria Montessori Quotes
For more great quotes, just Google "Maria Montessori Quotes"
“The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences.”
“The things he sees are not just remembered; they form a part of his soul.”
“Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.”
“It is the child who makes the man, and no man exists who was not made by the child he once was.”
“When dealing with children there is greater need for observing than of probing”
“It is true that we cannot make a genius. We can only give to teach child the chance to fulfil his potential possibilities.”
“Little children, from the moment they are weaned, are making their way toward independence.”
“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.”
“The child is both a hope and a promise for mankind.”
“Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment.”
“The first essential for the child’s development is concentration. The child who concentrates is immensely happy.”
“Respect all the reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages and try to understand them.”
“Plainly, the environment must be a living one, directed by a higher intelligence, arranged by an adult who is prepared for his mission.”
