Follow The Child Montessori School

The basic idea in the Montessori philosophy of education is that every child carries unseen within him the man he will become. In order to develop his physical intellectual and spiritual powers to the fullest he must have freedom a freedom to be achieved through order and self-discipline. The world of the child says Montessori educators is full of sights and sounds which at first appear chaotic. From this chaos the child must gradually create order and learn to distinguish among the impressions that assail his senses slowly but surely gaining mastery of himself and his environment.

Dr. Maria Montessori developed what she called the prepared environment which already possesses a certain order and disposes the child at his own speed according to his own capacities and in a non-competitive atmosphere. Never let a child risk failure until he has a reasonable chance of success. This is what Dr. Montessori said understanding the necessity for the acquisition of a basic skill before its use in a competitive learning situation. The years between three and six are the years that a child most easily learns the rules of human behavior. These years can be constructively devoted to civilizing the child freeing him through the acquisition of good manners and habits to take his place in his culture.

The child who has had the benefit of a Montessori environment is freer at a later age to devote himself more exclusively to the development of his intellectual faculties. The method by which children are taught in the Montessori school might well be called structured learning. Since the child has learned to work by himself in the prepared environment enjoying the presence of other children but not working necessarily directly with them the Montessori teacher is able to observe a child individually. The structure of Montessori learning involves the use of many materials with which the child may work individually. At every step of his learning the teaching material is designed to test his understanding and to correct his errors.

Dr. Montessori has recognized that the only valid impulse to learning is the self-motivation of the child. Children move themselves toward learning. The teacher prepares the environment directs the activity functions as the authority offers the child stimulations but it is the child who learns who is motivated through work itself (not solely by the teachers personality) to persist in a given task. If the Montessori child is free to learn it is because he has acquired from his exposure to both physical and mental order and inner discipline. This is the core of Dr. Montessoris philosophy. Social adjustment though it is a necessary condition for learning in a school room it is not the purpose of education. Patterns of concentration stick-to-it-iveness and thoroughness established in early childhood produces a confident competent learner in later years. Schools have existed historically to teach children to observe to think to judge. Montessori introduces children to the joy of learning at an early age and provides a framework in which intellectual and social disciplines go hand in hand.