MONTESSORI APPROACH

Key Elements of the Montessori Approach: "Help me to help myself."

• The aim of a Montessori education is to foster competent, responsible, adaptive citizens who are lifelong learners and problem solvers.
• Learning occurs in an inquiring, cooperative, nurturing atmosphere. Students increase their own knowledge through self- and teacher-initiated experiences.
• Learning takes place through the senses. Students learn by manipulating materials and interacting with others. These meaningful experiences are precursors to the abstract understanding of ideas.
• The individual is considered as a whole. The physical, emotional, social, aesthetic, spiritual, and cognitive needs and interests are inseparable and equally important.
• Respect and caring attitudes for oneself, others, the environment, and all life are necessary.
  

History of the Montessori Approach

Nearly 100 years ago, an Italian physician inspired the birth of a worldwide educational movement. Dr. Maria Montessori, Italy's first woman physician, became interested in education while caring for mentally challenged children in a psychiatric clinic in Rome. There she combined sensory-rich environments and hands-on experiential techniques in the hopes of reaching children previously labeled "deficient and insane."

The experiment was a resounding success. Within two years, the children were able to pass Italy's standardized public school tests. More importantly, Montessori's innovative practices had elicited positive learning behaviors from children previously left behind by society.

In 1907, Montessori continued shaping her learning model by opening "A Children's House" for pre-school children. With her scientific background to guide her, she observed how young people learned best when engaged in purposeful activity rather than simply being fed information. She drew upon her clinical understanding of children's cognitive growth and development in constructing an educational framework that would respect individuality and fulfill the needs of the "whole child."

Dr. Montessori's pioneering work created a blueprint for nurturing all children-learning disabled to gifted-to become self-motivated, independent and life-long learners. Her philosophy, materials and practices have spread around the globe and have been implemented in a variety of cultural settings.

Today, Dr. Montessori's visionary ideas flourish as the cornerstone of a thriving educational practice. There are almost 4,000 Montessori schools in the United States. Dr. Montessori's model serves the needs of children at all levels of mental and physical ability as they live and learn in a natural, mixed-age group, very much like the society in which they will live as adults. As more schools incorporate her model, it is increasingly evident that Maria Montessori was far ahead of her time. Her visionary ideas have profoundly influenced the entire educational landscape and her educational methods have been validated by the most recent brain research about learning and child development.

Portions taken from www.amshq.org (American Montessori Society)