Skip links

What is Montessori

Montessori Education is a system that promotes independent exploration as a mechanism for learning. Children of different ages share the same environment, and are encouraged to collaborate and help each other. Scientifically designed educational materials keep children interested in their own work. They perform these purposeful activities with some direction from the guide, but are generally left alone. One of the best aspects of Montessori Methodology is that the Children learn at their own pace, and focus on things that interest them. Children are given individual attention and are guided to more challenging work.

One of the most profound differences between Montessori education and Conventional education is that, in Montessori, children are given the experience of discovering the answer for themselves. This leads to a much deeper learning experience, and creates a lifelong love of learning as a self-directed process of problem-solving and discovery. The method discourages traditional competitive measurements of achievement, such as grades and tests, and instead focuses on the individual progress and development of each child.

The unique aspects of Montessori Method:

  • Respect for the individual
  • child-centered approach
  • mixed age classrooms
  • the prepared environment
  • student choice of activity from the teacher-prepared range of options
  • specialized manipulative materials which promote learning through discovery
  • uninterrupted blocks of work time
  • individual, small group, and large group lessons
  • freedom to move within the classroom
  • specially trained and highly skilled Montessori teachers

“Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open up himself to life.”

–Dr. Maria Montessori

Child Development

What we teach at each developmental level is based on the scientific research of Dr. Maria Montessori add: and informed since by 100 years plus of extensive neuro-science and educational research. Human development follows predetermined paths, therefore Montessori curriculum is based on the phases of children’s growth.  Matching lessons to the precise developmental level at which the child is primed to receive them results in smoother skill acquisition and joyous learning.

Dr. Montessori called these developmental levels the “Planes of Development.” They can be described as follows:

First Plane (birth-age 6): development of self, sensitive periods when skills are easiest learned

Second Plane (ages 6-12): intellectual period, sense of morality and justice, development of reasoning skills

Third Plane (ages 12-18): adolescence, similar to first plane, formation of self

Fourth Plane (ages 18-24): experiences that expand human potential, role in society

Peace Education

“Avoiding war is the work of politics, establishing peace is the work of education.”

– Dr. Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori was a pioneer in developing, with her son Mario, a curriculum for peace education. She looked upon schools as a place where we had the opportunity to change the fear that people can have of each other to an understanding of how much we are alike. Work with the youngest children begins with respecting themselves and those around them. At the Elementary level, the Great Lessons and “fundamental needs of people” work illustrate profoundly what is common among us. Adolescents at the Middle School level engage in academic research and discourse as well as working directly in the surrounding communities to deepen their understanding of the human condition and their power to influence it.

Another aspect of Peace Education is the study of peacemakers and the general study of what “peace” really means. This can take many forms such as biographical research on world figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Anne Frank or Ralph Waldo Emerson, reflection and creation of personal peace statements, and consideration of literature such as Leo Tolstoy’s Three Questions. Whatever the form of the activity, Montessori education recognizes that children love to consider large, engaging and important life questions.

For her work, Maria Montessori was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

“The Science of Peace, were it to become a special discipline, would be the most noble of all, for the very like of humanity depends on it. So, also perhaps, does the question of whether our entire civilization evolves or disappears.”

— Dr. Maria Montessori

This website uses cookies to improve your web experience.