ARTICLES ON MONTESSORI SYSTEM OF EDUCATION

[TAKEN FROM VARIOUS WEB SITES.]

The Montessori Approach to Discipline This article was first published in Tomorrow’s Child magazineUpon visiting a Montessori classroom for the first time, one might wonder what magic spell has been cast upon these young children making them so calm and self directed. Another person might look at that same class and be confused by the children’s independence, wondering where’s the discipline, these children just do as they please. Visitors commonly issue such comments as, “I’ve heard Montessori is too free and chaotic” or “I’ve heard Montessori is too structured.” It does not seem possible that these two extreme opposites can both be true. Montessori is, however, all in the eyes of the beholder. This method or philosophy of education varies in interpretation from school to school, teacher to teacher, and parent to parent. There are certainly some Montessori classrooms that are very rigid and adult controlled, and there are also classroom that are disorderly and anything goes. Montessori when done well, however, is a beautiful blend and perfect balance of freedom and structure. The best Montessori teachers or facilitators understand that maintaining the delicate balance is one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of their job. It is on that foundation of freedom and structure that the child builds discipline.Freedom is not a word that is traditionally associated with discipline. Parents are often concerned that the Montessori child’s freedom to choose activities presupposes that discipline is something alien to our classrooms. Does freedom mean license to act as he or she chooses or does freedom of choice carry with it certain responsibilities in the classroom community? Are we, as some would claim, a place where children can do what they like or, as a young Montessori student once told a visitor, a place where children like what the do?To have any meaningful discussion of these questions, it would seem that our first priority should be to define this thing called discipline. Montessori herself held that discipline is “not ...a fact but a way.” True discipline comes more from within than without and is the result of steadily developing inner growth. Just as the very young child must first learn to stand before she can walk, she must develop an inward order through work before she is able to choose and carry out her own acts. Surprisingly enough, Montessori found that it was through the very liberty inherent in her classrooms that the children were given the means to reveal their inner or self-discipline. Independence did not diminish respect for authority but rather deepened it. One of the things that aroused her greatest interest was that order and discipline seemed to be so closely united that they resulted in freedom.But, many people assume that discipline is something that is imposed from without by an authority figure who should be obeyed without question. Discipline in the Montessori environment is not something that is done to the child; nor is it a technique for controlling behavior. Our concern is with the development of the internal locus of control, which enables an individual to choose the right behavior because it is right for him or herself and right for the community.If discipline comes from within, then what is the job of the teacher? Inner discipline is something, which evolves. It is not something that is automatically present within the child and it can not be taught. The role of the teacher, then, is to be a model and a guide while supporting the child as he develops to the point where he is able to choose to accept and to follow the “rules” of the classroom community. This level of obedience is the point where true inner discipline has been reached. One knows this level of discipline has been reached when children are able to make appropriate behavioral choices even when we are not present.Discipline presupposes a certain degree of obedience. Before the age of three a child is truly unable to obey unless what is asked of her happens to correspond with one of her vital urges. At this stage, her personality hasn’t formed to the level where she is capable of making a choice to obey. It is this level which Montessori termed the first level of obedience. A toddler can obey, but not always. The second level of obedience is reached when the child is capable of understanding another person’s wishes and can express them in her own behavior. When this second level of obedience is reached, most parents and teachers would think they had reached their goal. Most adults ask only that children obey. The goals of Montessori reach beyond this, however, to the third level which Montessori called “joyful obedience”. At this stage the child has internalized obedience, or we might say, had developed self-discipline where he sees clearly the value of what is being offered to him by authority and rushes to obey. This is not blind obedience at all, but is a fully informed choice by a personality which has grown in freedom and developed to its fullest potential. This is what we want for our children. With this level of obedience or self-discipline comes a degree of self-respect in which a child cannot help but respect the rights and needs of others alongside her own. She is then able to learn and grow freely in the security of a community of respectful individuals.This of course, is a wonderful philosophy, but can Montessori truly deliver these results? Montessori can only benefit children when it moves beyond philosophy and takes a practical application. This involves the careful preparation of the teacher and the classroom environment.The teacher should be a specialist, trained in child development, as well as Montessori Philosophy and methodology for the age group with whom he or she will be working. Equally important, these adults will need to possess robust enthusiasm for learning, a deep respect for all life, kindness, and the patience of a saint.The classroom should be beautiful, orderly, and so inviting that the child cannot resist exploring. It should be steeped with a sense of wonder. Within this environment the child will be free to explore, but with this freedom comes responsibility. One of the secrets to success in the Montessori classroom is freedom within the limits of very clear ground rules. Every school’s ground rules will vary but the essence is generally the same. 1) Take care of all people and living things in our environment, and 2) Take care of all of the material things in our environment. If you think about it, every “do” or “don’t” one could wish to implore fits in these two rules, or could be narrowed even further to this one simple rule, “be respectful of everyone and everything.”The rules are kept simple, yet they are explored in great detail. It should never be assumed that the child understands what it means to be kind or respectful. A great amount of time and energy must be focused on teaching lessons that demonstrate socially acceptable behavior. Children don’t just automatically know how to be a friend, express anger, or how to solve problems. As a matter of fact, many adults are still learning how to cope with these issues. Yet, we often forget to teach children the everyday skills necessary for getting along with others. These special skills are taught with the Grace and Courtesy lessons. These lessons are presented through demonstration and then practiced through role-playing, and modeled by teachers and older students. They are the foundation of the classroom, as they set a tone of respect and kindness. The child learns such important skills as, how to shake hands and greet a friend, how to properly interrupt someone who is busy, and how to tell someone to please move out of my way. The children love these lessons. They are always eager to take a turn playing the roles, and they are thrilled to know a better way to handle personal situations.Another important consideration, is that children have the same range and depth of emotions as adults, but they don’t have the maturity or experience to put these feelings in perspective. The goal of Grace and Courtesy lessons and conflict resolution techniques is to validate these feelings and give children the tools to successfully tackle them. Children learn what to do when someone is unkind or unfair and how to discuss conflicts when they occur. Teachers and children act as mediators, coaching children in conflict through a process of expressing their feelings and finding a way to fix their mistakes. In one such incident, a five-year-old acted as the peacemaker for two children engaged in an escalating disagreement. She linked the hands of the angry children and rubbed their backs as she encouraged their negotiations. In time, with modeling and consistency, children become proficient at handling social difficulties. In fact, parents have reported incidents in which children have encouraged peaceful negotiations between mom and dad, as well as settling problems with siblings and neighborhood friends.In addition to lessons, which teach social graces, there is a lot of emphasis placed on developing practical life skills. What we commonly refer to as misbehavior is often the side effect when children feel insecure, and disempowered. Children who are happily engaged in self-satisfying activities with a clear purpose experience a great sense of accomplishment and power. When the child can do things for herself, she will feel confident and in control. These everyday living skills such as pouring, scrubbing tables, dish washing, and polishing, also help the child learn to focus his attention and complete a task. These lessons require the child to follow an orderly step by step process, which will further develop both self discipline and logical thinking, thus laying a foundation for the more abstract academic activities offered within the other areas of the classroom.The magical spell that enables the Montessori Child to become disciplined is his love for meaningful activity. When the environment provides consistency, nurturing adults and stimulating work, the child can go about his most important work, creating the adult he will become. Montessori offers him valuable tools for this great task: independence, order, coordination, cooperation and confidence.Montessori, however, is only one component in the child’s life. A child’s home environment and parents’ love are the most critical factors in his development. Unfortunately, our children are not born with an owner’s manual. Parents generally rely on the wisdom of grandparents and doctors educators, as well as their own instincts to determine the right parenting style for their family. Parents should be able to find within their Montessori school, a family friendly environment that is ready to offer support. When schools and families develop a partnership there is greater opportunity for consistency and continuity.How can parents bring this type of discipline home from the classroom? A democratic parenting style is recommended, rather than the authoritarian style with which most of us grew up. We learn to be obedient “or else.” Discipline was imposed from without rather than allowed to grow from within. Threats, bribes or withdrawal of privileges were expected to make us comply with our parents’ wishes. To be consistent with the “discipline” used in the classroom the parenting style at home should emphasize respect for the child’s feelings, choices within acceptable limits, encouragement, conflict resolution, and natural and logical consequences for behavior.There are many parenting courses, which encourage this style of parenting. Such courses as Redirecting Children’s Behavior, Active Parenting, or STEP, dove tail the Montessori approach to discipline. These courses are based on theories of psychologists, Rudolf Dreikurs and Alfred Adler. Adler was a contemporary and a colleague of Dr. Montessori and they shared many ideas about children’s behavior. Parenting courses and parent support networks are a wonderful way to create bridges between the classroom and family environments.Whether in the home or the classroom it is important to keep in mind the ultimate goal of discipline. Too often we discipline for the moment, hastily solving the present problem, but possibly creating future ones. Disciplining with the long-range goal means keeping in mind the independent adult you want your child to become.The goal of the Montessori classroom whether it is a prepared environment for infants and toddlers, preschoolers, elementary, or secondary students, is first and foremost the development of skills necessary for a productive and fulfilling life. The best of the academic curriculums are useless if the child does not develop inner discipline, integrity, and respect for others and oneself. In today’s world of moral degeneracy, these goals may seem out of reach, but they are more important than ever before. The young person who faces the world of tomorrow armed with self-confidence and self - discipline is far more likely to achieve success and happiness. They will be prepared to meet any challenges that the “real world” may present, and will hopefully bring to that world a bit of the peace and joy they experienced in the Montessori environment. How Do Montessori teachers Do That? Not only new parents but also experienced visiting educators wonder how our Montessori teachers work their magic. They do not see our Montessorians doing anything special. They just seem to be there. Sometimes it is even hard to find them in the room. There are the children all spread out doing different things in different parts of the room ? some at little tables, some on little mats on the floor, some standing together in quiet conversation, some simply lost in a reading book ? twenty children all busy at doing something within an orderly, calm, very attractive bright and open room ? all seemingly "on their own!" Oh! Thereís the teacher ? over there in the corner on her knees presenting a lesson to this little girl. Her back is to the rest of the class. And that young woman must be the assistant teacher. She is by the work table busy by herself cutting strips of paper. And yet the class goes on concentrated, attending to many different learning tasks. How do they do it? How can they control a whole class full of children without standing up in front controlling them? Whatís the trick? Hypnosis? What is the secret? The secret ingredient that creates the wonder of a true Montessori learning environment is respect. I am not referring to ordinary, run of the mill respect, but to real, existential respect. So existential it reveals the etymology of the word: RE- repeatedly, SPECT- observing. Thatís the skill of all skills a Montessorian must master. Observing each child over and over again with a scientific rigor: constantly taking notes, reflecting about the observations, acting upon what they reveal, making each presentation and each of the learning packages fit the individual childís interest and need and learning aptitude ? fit as well as his or her shoes do! It is from this proper fitting that the magic naturally evolves. Just as it happens within a well prepared garden, when the learning prescriptions fit each childís profile they naturally begin to act and grow "on their own." Ask a Montessori child "Who taught you how to read?" And she will answer with joy and pride: "I did! I learned it by myself!" The marvel that is a Montessori education is not one that we pull out of a hat or create through the clever use of smoke and mirrors. It is not even something we accomplish by the daily conditioning of behavior through the employment of carrots and sticks. No, Montessorians are not magicians. We are merely gardeners left over from the Garden of Eden. There is a philosophy, however, at the very core of what we are about in this profession of nurturing children to become all that they by the grace of genetics and Love are meant to become. What, you ask, has philosophy have to do with gardening ? with the raising up of our children? Well, philosophy tells us how to begin worthwhile endeavors. Philosophy has to do with the wisdom of personal life, that is, it has to do with how to live life best. Its advice is pithy. So here is the Montessori pith: "Independence precedes freedom." Think about that for a while. You cannot give a child freedom first and then expect him to become independent. It has to be the other way around. The child needs to become independent in order to make good use of freedom. Freedom is too wild a state without the habit of self-reliance. The personal condition of freedom needs the self-discipline that is fostered by independence. The governance of Montessori is precisely found in the philosophic ways the faculty use to develop a learning community of truly independent learners. It is only after a child has his or her own repertoire of meaningful choices which have been presented by the gardeners that freedom to grow with true vigor begins to prevail. A condition of true independence must be established first before a child can make good use of freedom. Within the "Land of the Free" of a Montessori learning environment, liberty not license is enjoyed. You do know, there is a big difference between liberty and license. Both have to do with being free. However, the freedom of liberty is bound by the golden bonds called the Bill of Rights, whereas, the freedom of license knows no bounds. It is the wild and woolly West. Beginnings are all important. Beginnings contain their endings. In Montessori we begin with creating the true independence of a vibrant, well prepared garden. Within this Land of Liberty under the caring rule of master gardeners, each child grows freely into the man or woman they are meant to be at their fullest personal potential. That ís the Marvel of Montessori. And ainít that something grand to witness! Peace and loving kindness to you all, my brothers and sisters in the world's Montessori fields of glory! Paul Clement Czaja, Ph.D. You And Your Child Your child is propelled by the very power of God and Nature to become all that he or she is meant to be as surely as is any seed planted in fertile ground. Driven by instinctive forces of body, will, emotion, and thought, your child literally reaches out to make contact with the world of personal experience and to begin a singular relationship with it. As parent you need to know fully your role in this vital adventure called the “becoming of experience” that your child is undertaking, for you by nature’s definition are the “life provider” and so you are meant to be the initial nurturer of what the child must experience in order to develop as the wonder that is a human person. Also, since your child, as a seedling of personality, is not yet able to communicate or to track well all that is happening, you must take the lead in understanding this process of your child’s “becoming of experience” by recording it, journalizing it, seeing, and then responding with parenting wisdom to each successive stage of this wondrous, dynamic happening within the universe of created being.BECOMING OF CONSCIOUSNESSYour child’s personal consciousness is an actualization of this “becoming experience” and so you must enable him or her to bring the world of experience into awareness by celebrating each event. Celebrating means “talking out loud” about a meaningful happening. Your child during this beginning of beginnings needs your help in experiencing consciously the convergence of self and the world – to begin to be “present” to his or her own consciousness of all the realities experienced outwardly by the five senses and inwardly by the keen powers of personal thought, emotion, and will. Your child needs you “to make present” the dazzling qualities of the real world around us all -- “the wonders of all that we survey” -- as the daily bread of his or her experiential nutriment. Moreover, fostering this living connection between experience and consciousness is the source of your child’s aesthetic and value judgments – the virtue of his or her personal character. By means of your expressed celebration of your child’s experiencing, you are actually giving “new eyes” to him or her with which to see presences in personal consciousness and in the world. Within this family celebration, you and your child respond together in wonder and thankfulness over each “really real” manifested in your life. Both you and your child need to discover just what the “child” is – and what a discovery that is! Philosophers teach us that to become an actualized human person we must first become conscious of this “totality of presences” we know experientially and then stamp it with the character of our own personal “newness” within this ever evolving world of creation. By becoming conscious through experience of his or her world, your child begins to own life itself personally and then become able to share this history of his or her emergence as a new person within this great universe of being with you and with everyone.BECOMING A COMMUNITY OF EXPERIENCEYour child requires you to create family, for it is within the love of the family that your child begins to experience, to know in an emerging way what it means to be one within a society. It is the “climate” -- the “sensitivity” -- the “atmosphere” -- the “culture” of your daily family life that will provide your child with the first personal knowing of a caring, creating, providing, and praying community. It will be in this intimacy of family life that your child will meet his or her first artists, philosophers, scientists, mystics, and saints. A Montessori Primer While driving away from my doctor’s office the other day I began to muse about the medical profession. My thinking soon led me to the surprising fact that Dr. Maria Montessori left her thriving and quite lucrative medical practice in Rome to become an impoverished, itinerant educator of young children. As you and I know, she actually became one of the foremost educational reformers of our century. She single handedly set out to reform the mass education of her day precisely because she saw that mass education was failing to help the youngsters of Rome reach their fullest potential as learners. She had observed as a clinical scientist that the large urban schools of her day were ignoring the needs of individual children. These large schools, following the example of the methods used by the large factories, went for mass production of education. This meant moving away from small village schools of inter-age children to the squeezing of same age children into the boxes of narrow age classrooms in one big building: this bunch in first grade, this bunch in second grade, and so on. It made great logistical sense, but educationally was nonsense. Children lost their identity as individual persons and were put through their academic paces en masse as if they were all clones – everyone on the same page doing the same lessons to the same beat of the ruler on the teacher’s desk, regardless of their individual needs, strengths, weaknesses – no one respecting their actual potentials – no one responding to the person each of them was in truth. Montessori saw that the large graded schools of Rome tended to be blind to the individual and so were doomed to cause harm. When people deal with people in ways that ignore personality, some form of tragedy ensues as surely as illness does from poor hygiene.And so, Montessori left medicine and labored for the rest of her life to create a new way of fostering the development of a child’s learning and personal formation. She experimented with and then formalized learning environments in which children could be grouped within developmental age spans as they are naturally found within a family or neighborhood. The learning of academic and social skills would go hand in hand through a progression of individual presentations so that each child would be respected and his or her growth would be truly progressive from personal mastery to mastery of each human competence. Real communities of learners were formed so that new children would be introduced into an established caring learning community where the elder students not only were present as models but actively shared leadership with the teacher. A Montessori learning environment is not only well prepared for individual learning but also functions as a true caring dynamic in which one is for all and all is for one. Teasing or neglect or disrespect of another member of the class are immediately seen and felt as communal offences – such offenses stand out like sore thumbs and are addressed immediately. They are not tolerated or ignored but attended to and healed. The health of a community depends directly on the health of every member.The true character of a Montessori learning environment is that the life of love is a constant. The primary goal within our school is that each and every child will not only learn academics but also will become truly convinced that love is in this world as surely as sunlight and rain. Rightly so, for a school is meant to be a garden.If I were asked to name the season that most represented Montessori philosophy I would immediately answer, “Autumn!” The time of the year when all the trees put on their beautiful colors and send off a rainbow of leaves flying at every breeze! It is in the season of Fall that, instead of seeing the forest for the trees – crowds of trees all blending into one big mass of green, we can see tree by tree by tree. Now, in Autumn, each tree stands out with its unique color of red or orange or yellow or copper or gold or brown and green – and shows itself singular, proud and happy to be an individual! Right here in the morning sunlight, all by itself even though surrounded by so many other individual trees, each so unique tree says, “Look at me! Here I am!” The major difficulty for most schools has to do with their problem of dealing with mass education. It is a logistical problem. Children, alas, there are too many of them, so let’s pack them into separate rooms according to grading by chronological ages. That way we can manage them more efficiently. With so many bunched together, the teachers are not able to discern any individuals but have to deal with them en masse. So it is: “Pay attention to me, First Graders. Everybody turn to page 63 and do all the exercises on that page.” – all marching to the same step – to the same marching tune—a condition of always being “lined up.”The Montessori reformation is found in the unique strategy of presenting academic learning to children as individuals – respecting each child’s level of natural development, learning aptitudes, pace of work, personal passions and individual genius. “Tim, what material are you going to begin working on this morning?” – every child in the room absorbing knowledge in a singular way – each one nurturing personal mastery.This is why a Montessori learning environment reminds me of an autumn forest all year long. All through the academic year, the children shine out with all their individual characteristics - just like the maple tress and willow trees and elm trees in October and November -- we can see them each bright and beautiful with their own colors, their own shapes, together yet so separate in the forest. Even with twenty or thirty or forty children to a room there is no mass education at all. Living and learning within a Montessori school is Autumn all year round.How I wish my brother Peter and I had had the opportunity of attending a Montessori school when we were young. No such luck! We were taught our lessons the old fashioned way of mass education with fifty of us packed into a room, made to sit like statues in rows of screwed down desks. There weren’t even text books in those days. We had to copy all our lessons from the blackboard into our note books first and then go home to memorize them as best we could for the quizzes of tomorrow. All day long it was copy this copy that and then recite it back all in one voice like parrots. Pretty dull life for so many hours of each glorious day. But all was not completely bleak for Pete and me. We had our Grandma at home, and everyday when we got back from school at 3:30 we would find her in the kitchen preparing the family’s supper. She always asked us to help in some real ways – like shelling peas into a big bowl or scraping the skins off carrots and potatoes into the kitchen sink so that they would be then cut and made ready for cooking. We enjoyed doing these jobs with her for it made us feel useful and to really have a key role in that wonderful operation called making dinner. Once in a while she would give each of us a freshly killed chicken to pluck. It was hard work – I remember how tired my fingers would get from pulling at the millions of feathers, but it also was great fun, I tell you! Years later I learned that such daily practical life opportunities was one of the six primary characteristics of a true Montessori learning environment. Dr. Montessori had observed the truth that children need to work if they are going to develop the great virtue of independence – the life skills of possessing autonomy. self-direction, attentiveness – personal traits that are the very foundation of making moral decisions in life.Ever hear the expression: things tend to get lost in translation? Being someone who has a passion for the deep meanings of words, I find misinterpretations happening all the time. For instance there are many little Montessori schools all over the country named “Children’s House” supposedly after the name of Dr. Montessori’s first learning environment of 1907 in the San Lorenzo District of Rome which she called “Casa Dei Bambini.” However, the Italian word casa does not translate to “house” but rather to “home” – a significant difference. Dr. Montessori created another home for children not a “house.” There were “school houses” a plenty in which children were packed in cold, impersonal recitation classes and there were monkey houses too in the zoos with their sad, so barren cages. But she knew as a doctor and as a mother that children need to be within a home full of life where they could continue to grow and to learn naturally within familiar, communal settings. And so, the very first Casa Dei Bambini was a bright, comfortable home setting containing a number of beautifully prepared rooms with small children sized tables and chairs and shelves full of colorful learning materials – even bouquets of flowers here and there. Children were free to walk around, to talk quietly with each other, to work at individual tables or on a mat on the floor. The teacher was not a teacher but a caring, friendly presenter of interesting, learning opportunities. Dr.Montessori was a medical doctor, a researcher in anthropology – a scientist of the human child – and yet she knew from her maternal wisdom that the proper setting for children to grow within was not a factory classroom or a clinical laboratory but rather must be a homey, friendly environment in which a child could be a child – free to converse, with time to think, to rest, to work at his or her own pace, to collaborate with friends – to be respected as a developing child – and to be loved as a “homebody” – as a “somebody.” Isn’t that why you and I have chosen to be here within just such a wonderful place of children that has the nomenclature and the principles of Montessori alive and well? Here you, the children, and I have found a home away from home in which we all can live the life of love – a happy, caring place where children not only learn to write and read and do numbers but also can be as sure of love in their world as they are of the rain and the sunlight.“You’re a primary color,” she said smiling from ear to ear and pointing to my bright blue shirt with joy. One of our little girls from Room 2 had run up to me out of the crowd of children. I was standing out in the back yard of the school at the beginning of the day talking with one of our dear grandmothers who had just dropped off her grandchild. It was eight twenty, and school had not begun, but this little Montessori child was living her learning all the time. For her, school is not ruled by a clock made of cog wheels. For her, learning was all the time. Learning for her was connected to her life. She had already learned how to learn purely with the pristine power of her burning intelligence and her absorbent mind. She is now and already always a learner and always a teacher – like the Law of Gravity, as a Montessori child, she is always “on.” By announcing to me that I was a “primary color” she was revealing her unique character of being “Montessori grown” – right out of a flourishing Montessori garden of learning. As a Montessori child, she not only knew the nomenclature of the primary colors, she reacted to experiencing them wherever and whenever she now experienced them. Just a four year old, she had become forevermore a keen observer of them and absolutely delighted in finding them all over the place – even on me, the old, gray bearded, rotund head of school who happened to be wearing a cobalt blue shirt just to sport a snazzy bow tie.Yes, indeed I was a “primary color.” Only a Montessori child would notice this salient, existential, happy fact about my attire of that day. Only a keen observer of the wonderful details that make life truly interesting and alive would notice my wonderful cobalt blue shirt and celebrate that fact with the world! Alert and attentive and passionate about discovery – and oh yes, being especially expressive – these are the hallmarks of children growing up within Montessori learning environments. What a wonder of personal life growing is each and every one of them. I may be a “primary color” but each and every one of them is a “primary learner” – a “primary person.” I like the attitude of Montessori people. Be it a child or an adult, Montessori people seem to have the “fit” for every given moment, and so are as happy as a puppies in a pile of fall leaves. It is the foremost feeling I noticed whenever I enter a thriving Montessori School: people are happy here – children, teachers, staff, parents -- even the fish in the big tank! –- happy and involved and caring and just plain joyfully alive to everyone and everything. A great attitude abounds. Being an old time philologist I know the word “attitude” is derived from the ancient Latin root APTUS meaning to fit well. This is why our word “apt” describes something’s disposition. A good attitude indicates a good fit – and vice versa. When someone asks me to explain Montessori education as simply as I can, I always answer: “It’s having the learning fit each child as well as his or her shoes.”When your shoes fit you right, you not only can walk well, you tend to want to skip and jump and even dance. But if your shoes are too tight or too loose, you are in big trouble – and not only your feet know it, but your whole mind, heart, and soul suffer along with your toes. You don’t even want to walk much – you are miserable – and your attitude stinks. The attitude within a place where Montessori principles rule the day is one of comfort and joy: be it about numbers or language or cultural or physical education, learning is a glorious game! By that I mean: even when the learning work is hard and full of concentration and much mental energy is expended, it feels good – it feels like play feels to a kid. All the great philosophers of education observed that same criterion for success in the act of learning: does the child display the non verbal signs of thriving or wilting? John Dewey said it very sharply: “If the learning for the child is not as interesting as play, then it is pernicious.”Montessori learning is so successful because it is knows how to make learning fit each child so very well. We truly respect each child and from such respect comes a good fit and from such a good fit comes a wonderful attitude – and as the whole world knows: success comes from having the right attitude. The most painful time of my life was when I was about ten years old and the kids on the block began to pick on me. They began to call me “Pauley Boy” and then to make matters worse because I was a little bit flabby at that time, they began to call me “Rolley Polley Pauley Boy!” My twin brother, Pete, who was a lot thinner and had blue eyes and wavy blond hair, did not join in with these kids when they started to rib me but he would just distance himself from me a bit. You know what I mean. Like if the bunch were choosing up sides for a stick ball game and he was already chosen for one team, he would not suggest that his team choose me, too. At that stage of my life, I was one of the last kids to get chosen to be on a particular team. That hurt a lot. I liked to play stick ball and was a pretty good hitter, but because of the “Rolley Polley” label stuck to my name, I guess they didn’t equate me with Mickey Mantle.My Dad got wind of this problem of my personal pain somehow and in a wonderful, indirect way solved it. He got me a dog. It was a black and white mutt puppy with long hair and a long wagging tail and with big brown eyes that always said to me: “I accept you.” I named him “Blackey” of course, and we became great pals. I took care of him, and we were always together in and outside of the house. I loved him and he loved me back unconditionally. When I got home from school he knew it before I opened the door and jumped all over me in welcome. Best of all, whenever I looked at him, he was always giving me looks of acceptance. Always. Such looks of acceptance would make my very soul soar up and I would feel great and superabundantly happy. Because of those looks I valued myself and felt I could accomplish anything.I am telling you this story because I was reminded of it last week when I was observing our children and their teachers here at school. Amidst all of the neat Montessori learning materials laid out on the many shelves around the rooms, and while all this quiet concentrated individual work was going on, there also always was this bright and shining interaction going on between the teachers and their students. You had to look close to notice it, but it was there all right. I recognized it immediately for what it was: genuine looks of acceptance! The most essential key to a successful relationship – the very essence of a Montessori Room of learning. Our teachers are constantly giving our children looks of acceptance, and boy does that makes things right!One final point: I think our world today needs heroes perhaps more than at any other time. It seems to me that the moral ground today is getting pretty mucky. Viewing the many movies being pitched at our youth, watching the salacious plots of TV dramas, and perhaps especially, listening to the lyrics of the songs being sung out by the latest Grammy winners, I find a brazen celebration of selfishness, greed, materialism, sexual promiscuity, shallow pleasures, vanity. Holey Smoley! It is getting pretty slippery out and about.History records that the great Roman Empire slipped and fell into complete ruin because of such self-centered corruption, but at least it knew itself as evil. Our fabulous modern youth culture not only does not even recognize the evil it embraces but actually flaunts it as some sort of new generation sophistication. I grew up in the Bronx reading the epic tales of comic book super heroes who fought the minions of the evil empire on every page. I know evil when I see its face, and I also know what it takes to win the day. It takes real life heroes. Our times call for a Wonder Woman and a Captain Marvel to jump right into our day and take on these dark forces straight on. POW! WHAMO! But from whence can we expect our real heroes today? Well, the reason I left graduate school and my pursuit of a doctorate in philosophy was my discovery of an educational method that could actually develop such super heroes of personal virtue. It was called Montessori. I recognized a bright hope within these unique learning environments of Montessori for they fostered the straightforward attentiveness and disinterested decision making that enable a child to discriminate real values and say “Yes! Or “No!” with personal surety. More than helping children excel in early reading, mathematical thinking and the knowledge of human culture, Montessori learning communities foster a virtuous attitude. And folks, in life it is that attitude that counts. You and I as parents do not want our children to grow up to be merely good writers, but rather to become authors whose writings bring about the good. We do not want them to become powerful and successful CEOs but virtuous ones. It is for this reason, that Montessorians worth their salt not only look into the children’s test scores that indicate mastery of the basic academic skills, but also look at their everyday behavior to verify the development of sound character. The Montessori learning environment is prepared in such a way as to foster personal attentiveness, disinterested decision making, mutual respect, caring for each other, the sharing of the common goods. I recall in my Montessori training, way back when at Whitby School, Betty Stephenson, the master trainer from the London course, getting me to see that the simple exercise of helping a three year old master the opening and closing of the room door by doing it with seven distinct steps was not merely an exercise of how to get in and out of a room but also an exercise for developing personal character. You see, she pointed out, for a child to turn the door knob without making a sound requires the exercise of attentiveness, the exercise of the child’s willpower. Only then will he be able to do it right. For the child to proceed from step to step carefully and attentively requires an exercise of personal willingness. The child is not only developing a common practical life skill, but just as importantly the child is developing the muscle of the personal soul.I saw in a flash that all the practical life exercises were catching hold of each child’s mind/heart/soul with great interest not only because they were practical and fun things to do -- but also because they were exercising the faculty of the soul’s will power to be truly present and fully aware of what one was doing when doing something. To do any practical life exercise right required the child to be full of care, to be attentive to what he was doing step by step.I knew from my observations in existentialism that moral decision making depended on being fully present to the challenge there before your face – to be attentive even caring about one’s actions upon another -- to do it rightly with personal awareness of the consequences.Well, more than in any other institution, when I observe what is actually going on within Montessori schools on any given day, I see heroes – heroic boys and heroic girls - heroic teachers – heroic parents all bright with hope and strong in virtue. And I say to myself: thank goodness – how very much this weary and selfish world needs them.POSTSCRIPTI am on the road every morning before dawn. It is still very dark on the road and somewhat lonely. But it is ok, because as I drive I notice something is happening all around me – each mile I go the dark is less dark. I can sense something brand new beginning – the new day is coming. I am driving right into the morning. There it begins – light is beginning to flow over the edge of the world right in front of me. Here comes the glory of the sunrise – red and orange and superabundantly wonderful with its light and promises. What a gift there for me: this new day of personal life. Before I get half way to school, it is daylight, and I can see everything, and I am ready for all the new things that are coming – challenges, surprises, the bright newness of the children of the Montessori school of which I am a communal part as they come in the front door with a happy “Good Morning!” Although this is my committed work, because of the revelation of each day’s sunrise, I actually feel as if each new day is a holiday – and I feel ready for it. The sunrise had revealed to me this fact of life: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well!” Montessori - A Historical Perspective WHY OUR MONTESSORI CLASSROOMS ARE COMPUTER-FREE WHY OUR MONTESSORI CLASSROOMS ARE COMPUTER-FREEby Maria KaminsteinComputers have opened up all sorts of educational opportunities in the last twenty years. Any student pursuing research, from first grade through graduate school, needs to have access to the internet, encyclopedias on CD rom, library data bases, and word processing. Most communications in universities and much of that in the professional world take place via e-mail. Knowing how to use a computer is an essential school skill. If that is the case, shouldn't pre-school-age children get a head start by learning computers as soon as they can stop smearing grape jelly on the keyboard? Not necessarily. Our Montessori school has thoughtfully made the decision to leave computers out of the classrooms for a number of sound developmental reasons.Children need multisensory experience. An essential aspect of early childhood development is the multiple sources of information which young children receive during their daily round of activities. Building various-sized blocks into a sequential tower, for example, involves much more than the visual sense. The child also experiences the heft of a block, the feel of the dimensions in the hand, the sound of disaster when the tower crashes down, the joy of victory when delicately placing the smallest block on top, watching it teeter, then hold. Each part of this experience is teaching a child something different about the material world. The child learns about weight, dimension, rudimentary geometry and gravity, among other pieces of information. A computer game trying to teach a similar sequencing concept involves only the visual sense, with perhaps some auditory feedback - a much less enriching experience for the child.Children need to move. It is important to remember that learning in early childhood is not simply a matter of accumulating information. The brain is actually being structured during children's first five years, and the types of experiences they have directly affect the brain's patterns of learning and attention. Jane Healy, in her comprehensive and thought-provoking book on brain development, Endangered Minds, discusses research that suggests that movement is very important to future school success:"'Thought is constructed, not only out of perceiving objects, but also out of physical activities with them.' When a child plays and exercises large muscles or pursues games and hobbies that build fine- motor skills (e.g. constructing models, carpentry, sewing, playing jacks), he or she is strengthening motor synapses that are next-door neighbors to the neurons that manage mental behaviors - including attention." (p.170)A Montessori classroom offers thousands of activities involving movement, from carefully counting of small beads in Bank Game, to lifting a heavy bucket of water, to walking a balance beam. Every skill is taught with a variety of large and small muscle activities, a far more valuable experience for the children than the small finger movements used in computer games.Children need activities that promote discovery and experimentation. Even the best computer games for young children involve an element of "guess and test." To do well at the games, children have to learn how the game programmer wants them to respond rather than to the logic of the material being explored or the child's unique responses to information. Computer games do not adapt well to a "what would happen if I did this?" approach. Though the Montessori materials have a base of structure and order, there is plenty of room for children to try out their own ideas. After learning all the basic combinations of the primary colors in the color mixing game, for example, a child may try various combinations and concentrations to see what happens. After building the brown stair and pink tower, a child may try building them upside down, or combine the two materials and build them end to end. A child colors black around the world map he or she has traced, and draws in stars, reflecting recent discussion of the solar system. It is important for children to learn in an environment which does not evaluate every effort as "right" or "wrong," the only two responses which come up on computer games. The kinds of problems which have to be solved by the child in later school life are best approached with the "what if?" attitude than the "what's the right answer?" mentality. Children need varied repetition. Children learn from repetition, but they learn best when the repetition takes various forms. Improving at one game for math skills may increase a child's ability at that game, but the learning may not transfer if the math information is required in an unfamiliar setting (i.e. out of the game). To best master material, children need to work on math facts, for example, via a variety of games and materials. I quote Healy again:If a child spends an inordinate amount of time on video games (or television, or even other types of computer use) instead of playing and experimenting with many different types of skills, the foundations for some kinds of abilities may be sacrificed. These losses may not show up until much later, when more complicated kinds of thinking and learning become necessary." (Endangered Minds p. 206) A Montessori classroom has at least six different games for teaching addition facts, for example, in addition to a variety of exercises for using the facts after they've been learned. Every area of the classroom is approached with the same kind of depth of experience, so that a child can really use what he or she knows once the material has been mastered.Children need the thrill of accomplishment that comes from hard work. Computer games are seductive because you can generate incredible effects from the push of a button. All sorts of action occurs with almost no effort on the part of the operator. And if you don't like the results, you can push another button and make the whole screen disappear. The trouble with this is that most really satisfying accomplishments involve some struggle. I am reminded of a boy in my class who was laboriously coloring the map of the United States which he had traced from puzzle pieces. He'd been working on it, off and on, for days, and he sighed, "I wish there was a button I could push, and then it would be finished." I empathized, and suggested that he take a break, but I encouraged him to finish, which he did. The experience did not discourage him, and he kept on working at maps, trying even harder ones than the U.S.A., coloring them beautifully, and with much greater ease as he went on. Eventually, he began to write in the names of states and countries, as well. By the end of his time at Montessori school, map creation was a source of great pride for him. More important than his skill with maps, however, was his experience of working hard and mastering something difficult. The confidence this brings will stay with him far beyond his time in our school. Such an experience is never gained at the push of a button.Computers have a great deal to offer, but should not be viewed as an educational magic wand, especially during the pre-school years when so many other experiences are much more important, even crucial, to children's growth. Computer games at home can be one of a variety of fun activities available to young children, but should not be one of the main ways they gain information, or even one of their primary play activities. The children are in the Montessori classroom for only a few hours each day, and we want to give them what they need most: hands-on materials which teach them real skills, with lots of sensory in-put, logical feed-back and room for personal creativity. With this behind them, we hope that they will approach their first computer-based research project in elementary school with joy and confidence.Additional Note: Jane Healy has recently published a new book which deals exclusively with the issues of computers and the learning process, Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds - For Better and Worse. I strongly suggest that parents and teachers read this book as part of an on-going investigation of the role of computers in our childrens' lives. Computers: Are there “New” Secrets of Childhood? Paul Epstein, Ph.D.Transylvania University, Lexington, KYAnn Epstein, Ph.D.Fayette County Public Schools, Lexington, KYComputers in Montessori early childhood classroom deserve careful study. Just as Dr. Maria Montessori scientifically observed children and developed her didactic materials, we must also completely examine a computer’s benefits and barriers to learning. We believe that computers are tools for thinking and communication. We further believe that computers will augment or enhance the kinds of thinking and communication children now experience with the didactic materials. Young children are using computers to predict, problem solve, explore relationships, and design two or three-dimensional graphs. Children can also develop spatial relationships by selecting directions. For example, should I go two blocks east or two blocks north to reach my destination? Young children use programs to create their own stories. They select settings (perhaps an island) and appropriate equipment (boats and snorkels, instead of rockets and space suits). Other software includes video and music. Animal behaviors and seasonal migrations are the subject of still another developmentally appropriate computer program. Computers appear to help young children with early signs of attention deficit disorder. These children often demonstrate difficulty maintaining concentration with activities on rugs and tables. They struggle to follow through, even though the materials are carefully designed and the teacher’s demonstrations are clear and precise. In contrast, children who are otherwise off task concentrate for longer periods with educational computer programs. Knowing they will be successful, they excitedly look forward to their computer experiences. Their behavior is not an issue when they learn with computers. However, these scenarios are not yet fully documented by research. We are reminded of Dr. Maria Montessori’s earliest days with young children. Living in an emerging industrial era she was called upon in 1907 to open a day care center for some sixty children left alone in a suburb of Rome while their parents worked in factories. The “secrets of childhood” Montessori discovered there astonished the world. Montessori held her audiences spellbound as she articulated a vision of childhood that differed from the prevailing belief that children were miniature adults. What new secrets of childhood will computers reveal?Nearly one hundred years ago, Montessori observed the children of San Lorenzo. She formulated hypotheses and experimented. Determined to develop sets of hands-on learning materials that would engage children in investigation and discovery, she designed one after another. Each was presented to children, and Montessori closely observed their responses. Eventually, she discovered how many items to put on a tray, in a basket or in a box. She noted what children did with the objects, how long they were occupied, and how often they returned for further explorations. She made refinements to the sizes, colors, shapes, and quantities of objects. Some of Montessori’s decisions involved chance – a certain color of paint or type of wood was available at the time. Montessori finally determined the materials were “right” when children displayed a meditative-like concentration as they repeatedly explored the learning material.In the same spirit, we must ask, what is the optimal size of a computer screen for young children? How should a keyboard and mouse be designed to best fit a young child’s emerging fine-motor and eye-hand coordination? More importantly, can children use more of their natural learning abilities with computers?Children require multiple experiences that allow them to move and engage all of their senses. Computers will not replace a child’s interest in the didactic materials. We should not think of computers in terms of “either/or”: either a child will prefer the computer or the child will prefer the didactic materials. It is simply premature to foreclose on computers in the classroom because we fear some children might prefer computers screens to carrying and stacking pink cubes or brown prisms. Carrying cubes or prisms is of course a very different learning experience. But using a mouse to drag cubes and prisms is also a learning experience. Children sequence sizes visually. In a computer environment, children organize a larger, perhaps more interesting, variety of objects.There is no compelling evidence to conclude learning, for example, addition facts with a computer program will replace the addition strip board. The research is lacking: Will young children abandon the didactic materials in favor of computer software? Many young children do not prefer computers. But there are also children who do not care for either the addition strip board or the addition charts. These materials offer one way of learning. We know children’s styles of learning vary. Some are tactile, and learn through the hand; others prefer a visual mode of learning. Computer programs offer alternative ways to learn. A computer, like any of the didactic materials, is a tool with which to think, investigate, explore, communicate, express ideas, and solve problems. We should, then, welcome computers in the spirit of Montessori. The computer offers a unique opportunity to engage in the legacy of scientific pedagogy. Just as we would with any new piece of material introduced into the classroom, we need to observe and study children’s responses to computers. A computer introduces both hardware and software issues of management and pedagogy into the classroom. These issues are similar to the concerns raised whenever any new piece of material is placed into the classroom. How will children access the computer? How long will their turns last? Children need presentations on how to turn the computer on and how to shut down. They need lessons on how to use the mouse and keyboard. And, they need lessons on how to access software programs. We should develop a set of software selection criteria. While selection criteria are readily available on the Internet at, for example, state departments of education and school district web sites, these may not apply to Montessori settings and needs. Curiously, software accepted by other approaches to early childhood education could be rejected by a set of criteria developed for Montessori early childhood programs. Some computer programs offer creative simulations and interesting explorations requiring reasoning, planning, and solving problems. Others are competitive, explosive, and violent; these themes have no place in our schools. We are not placing computers into classrooms of the 19th century industrial era in which Montessori lived and worked. The 21st century is a world Montessori could not anticipate. There were few digital computers in the 1940s and early 1950s. They occupied large rooms, required large numbers of vacuum tubes and electricity, and could complete only the simplest of calculations. The desktop computer we are using to write this article simultaneously runs word processing, database, spreadsheet, presentation, and multimedia programs. While working with these tools, we can listen to CD recordings or watch a DVD movie. We are also connected to the Internet accessing a vast library of information and communications. The larger question is, then, can children use computers to think and learn in new ways? Montessori’s didactic materials bring a specific body of knowledge and method of learning to young children. Recent brain research suggests new theories and possibilities for facilitating young children’s learning. It may be that observing and studying how young children learn with computers will reveal new secrets of childhood. Lost Skills Come Back: Montessori Method Aids Alzheimer's Patients By BEA MOOK Hazel Wood of the Adult Day Healthcare Center helps Deepa Shwaram, 5, and Eliza Bell, 5, pupils at the Montessori School, read sand block letters. Photo by Bea Mook. When Varnadore "Willie" Williamson first came to JABA's Adult Day Healthcare Center he was still independent. Later, however, his Alzheimer's had progressed to the point where he could no longer go to the bathroom by himself. He couldn't unbuckle his belt.Ellen Phipps, director of the healthcare center, went next door to the Montessori School and borrowed a buckle frame that three and four-year-olds use to learn to manage buckles.She gave it to Willie. "He became totally absorbed," she recalled. "Soon he had relearned a skill that had escaped him." That is just one way the Montessori method of teaching skills to preschoolers is finding a use in rehabilitation of Alzheimer's patients.In the early 1900s, Maria Montessori developed her method of teaching cognitive, social and functional skills to children. Using materials from everyday life, Montessori taught simple skills, making the tasks more complex as the child advanced.On this level, Montessori's method is used for the young who are just learning about their environment. On the other end of the spectrum are adults who are losing their knowledge of the environment. And as Phipps and others who work for the elderly have discovered, the Montessori method works here, too.As adults advance in their dementia, this loss is a source of frustration and anger. The use of the Montessori tools can resharpen abilities that have been dulled by the disease."I used to have a dream that I could use the method to help the clients with the Montessori method," Phipps said. Before working with adults, she had learned the Montessori method and had been an aide in a Montessori school, so she was well-versed in its concepts. "But could it work?"From Cleveland, Ohio, came the answer and it was a resounding yes. Psychologist Cameron Camp is a research scientist with the Myers Research Institute of the Menorah Park Center for the Aging in Beachwood, a suburb of Cleveland. For three years he has been testing the method on clients at its adult day care center and he has discovered some amazing things.* Patients with dementia can prolong the period in which they retain skills. * Not only do they prolong their retention, they can teach skills to children.* Agitation, aimless wandering and loss of attention, so prevalent in Alzheimer's patients, decrease not only during the Montessori lesson period, but for an extended period of time.No one professes that Montessori will prevent or stop the progression of Alzheimer's. But Camp and Phipps both believe it delays it - and does something even more important.It changes the way patients feel about themselves.Self-worth! Self-esteem! Dignity! These are the words Camp used over and over again and Phipps echoed."We look for activities that can enhance their independence," Camp explained. "If the activity doesn't do that we change the activity."For instance, one activity used at Menorah Park has the client using a scoop to pick up white, yellow and red golf balls and place them in a muffin tin cups painted white, yellow and red."If the client can't put the golf ball in its corresponding colored cup, then we change to balls and cups that are only one color," Camp explained. "If they can't use a scoop, they can use their hands." For those who have mastered scooping golf balls, they progress to scooping lima beans, then corn, then water - and pretty soon they can feed themselves soup.Another activity involves a series of photographs. "Is that person happy or unhappy?" the patient would be asked, and the picture would be put into the "happy" or "unhappy" pile.Music is especially useful, he said, and Phipps agreed that the musical events held at her day care center are very popular. Sing the first bar of music, she said, and the senior will respond with the second line.The ability to read lasts for a long time, even in severe dementia cases, Camp said, "but the letters have to be a clear font, very large and very thick. If they are done the right way, people who didn't recognize their own nametags can now read them."Word games are often used, such as word bingo or beginning a phrase and having the senior finish it."We had a woman who was reluctant to do anything," Camp said. "We showed cards and she said she couldn't read anymore. I held up the card 'Chicago.' She looked at it and said, 'I'm from a small town.'"Besides independence, the activities also enhance the patients' awareness. Some Alzheimer's patients doze all day long, remaining awake and aware only a few minutes at a time. "After two months, one of our clients was awake 30 to 45 minutes at a time - even when we were not doing Montessori activities," Camp said. "Another patient who had stopped talking, began again after two months of participation in Montessori activities."Perhaps the most remarkable feat is when people who were totally disengaged become involved in intergenerational activities. The children at the Montessori School which is located in the JABA building are frequent visitors to the Adult Day Healthcare Center, where they join in dancing and often perform for the seniors.At Menorah Park, the children from the employees' day care center, which is not Montessori-oriented, learn from the seniors. In one activity, a senior was paired with a child to whom the senior taught phonics using a block with a letter cut out of sandpaper. The senior rubs the letter with her finger until she knows what it is, Camp explained. Then she is shown objects that have the letter; for instance for W she might be given a wagon or water. Once she is comfortable with the letter, she teaches it to the child."We had rehearsed a woman to be videoed for a scientific presentation," Camp recounted. "The plan called for her to hand the child the block and have him trace the "T" all the while pronouncing it until he got it. Then she'd give him a toy. 'Toy,' she said. Then she took a teabag. 'Teabag,' she said, giving it to him. "Then she asked, 'What is the word on the teabag?' We wondered what she was doing; she was going off script. 'See,' she said. 'It says Lip-ton.'"The Montessori method is working so well that Camp hopes to teach volunteers and family members to use it at home. He has developed a manual that offers guidelines for using the principles and directions for specific activities that Phipps is using to train her aides. It is Phipps' hope to bring Camp to JABA for a training program.Phipps has been borrowing Montessori equipment from the school, but she would like to have her own."If there is a handyman out there who loves creating, we would love to talk to him about making the Montessori toys. It could be very meaningful to someone's life."Providing a purpose to a life is the point of the program. No one expects Maria Montessori's methods for teaching children to reverse the progress of a degenerating disease."The purpose is to make their lives meaningful. To give them dignity. To foster their self-esteem," she said. "What better way is there to do that than to make them feel useful and help them regain some independence." This article was republished with the author's permission in Tomorrow's Child magazine. Twenty Best Practices of an Authentic Montessori School The Montessori Learning Environment 1. A Child-Centered Environment: The focus of activity in the Montessori setting is on children learning, not on teachers teaching. Generally student will work individually or in small, self-selected groups. There will be very few whole group lessons.2. A Responsive Prepared Environment: The environment should be designed to meet the needs, interests, abilities, and development of the children in the class. The educators should design and adapt the environment with this community of children in mind, rapidly modifying the selection of educational materials available, the physical layout, and the tone of the class to best fit the ever changing needs of the children. 3. A Focus on Individual Progress and Development: Within a Montessori environment, children progress at their own pace, moving on to the next step in each area of learning as they are each ready to do so. While the child lives within a larger community of children, each student is viewed as a universe of one. Montessori Learning Activities 4. Hands On Learning: In a Montessori learning environment, students rarely learn from texts or workbooks. In all cases, direct personal hands-on contact with either real things under study or with concrete learning materials that bring abstract concepts to life allow children to learn with much deeper understanding.5. Spontaneous Activity: It is natural for children to talk, move, touch things, and explore the world around them. Any true Montessori environment encourages children to move about freely, within reasonable limits of appropriate behavior. Much of the time the children select work that has been presented to them individually and which captures their interest and attention, although the Montessori educator also strives to draw their attention and capture their interest in new challenges and areas of inquiry. And even within this atmosphere of spontaneous activity, students do eventually have to master the basic skills of their culture, even if initially they would prefer to avoid them.6. Active Learning: In Montessori learning environments, children not only select their own work from the choices presented to them, but also continue to work with tasks, returning to continue their work over many weeks or months, until finally the work is so easy for them that they can demonstrate it to younger children. This is one of many ways that Montessori educators use to confirm that students have reached mastery of each skill.7. Self-motivated Activity: One of Montessori’s key concepts is the idea that children are driven by their desire to become independent and competent beings in the world to learn new things and master new skills. For this reason, outside rewards to create external motivation are both unnecessary and potentially can lead to passive adults who are dependent on others for everything from their self-image to permission to follow their dreams. In the process of making independent choices and exploring concepts largely on their own, Montessori children construct their own sense of individual identity and personal judgment of right and wrong. 8. Freedom Within Limits: Montessori children enjoy considerable freedom of movement and choice, however their freedom always exists within carefully defined limits on the range of their behavior. They are free to do anything appropriate to the ground rules of the community, but redirected promptly and firmly if they cross over the line.9. Self-disciplined Learning: In Montessori programs, children do not work for grades or external rewards, nor do they simply complete assignments given them by their Montessori educators. Children learn because they are interested in things, and because all children share a desire to become competent and independent human beings.Montessori’s Communities of Learners 10. Mixed age groups: Montessori learning environments gather together children of two, three, or more age levels into a family group. Children remain together for several years, with the fully developed students moving on to the next age grouping when they demonstrate readiness to do so.11. A Family Setting: Montessori learning environments are communities of children and adults. As children grow older and more capable, they assume a great role in helping to care for the environment and meet the needs of younger children in the class. The focus is less on the educators and more on the entire community of children and adults, much like one finds in a real family.12. Cooperation and Collaboration, Rather Than Competition: Montessori children are encouraged to treat one another with kindness and respect. Insults and shunning behavior tends to be much more rare. Instead we normally find children who have a great fondness for one another, and who are free from needless interpersonal competition for attention and prestige. Because children learn at their own pace, Montessori educators refrain from comparing students against one another. To Awaken and Nurture the Human Spirit13. The Child As A Spiritual Being: Montessori saw children as far more than simply scholars. In her view, each child is a full and complete human being, the mother or father of the adult man or woman he or she will become. Even when very young, the child shares with the rest of humanity personal hopes, dreams, and fears, emotions, and longing. From Montessori’s perspective, this goes beyond mental health to the very core of one’s inner spiritual life. Montessori educators consciously design social communities and educational experiences that cultivate the child’s sense of independence, self-respect, love of peace, passion for self-chosen work done well.14. Universal Values: Montessori educators deliberately develop in children not only appropriate patterns of polite behavior, but seek to instill basic universal values within the core of the child’s personality. These values include self-respect, acceptance of the uniqueness and dignity of each person we meet, kindness, peacefulness, compassion, empathy, honor, individual responsibility, and courage to speak from our hearts. 15. Global Understanding: All Montessori schools are to a large degree international schools. They not only tend to attract a diverse student body representing many ethnic backgrounds, religions, and international backgrounds, but they actively celebrate their diversity. The curriculum is international in its heritage and focus, and consciously seeks to promote a global perspective.16. Service to Others: Montessori’s spiritual perspective leads Montessori schools to consciously organize programs of community service ranging from daily contributions to others within the class or school setting, to community outreach programs that allow children and adults to make a difference in the lives of others. The fundamental idea is one of stewardship. The Montessori Educator 17. Authoritative: The Montessori educator is firm at the edges and empathetic at the center. The Montessori educator is never punitive but is the kind of adult who responds empathetically to children’s feelings, while setting clear and consistent limits. 18. Observer: The Montessori educator is an observer of children’s learning and behavior. These careful observations are recorded and used to infer where each student is in terms of his or her development, and leads the Montessori educator to know when to intervene in the child’s learning with allowing more practice time, making a presentation of a new lesson, a fresh challenge, or a reinforcement of basic ground-rules.19. An Educational Resource: Montessori educators facilitate the learning process by serving as a resource or caring mentor to whom the children can turn as they pull together information, impressions, and experiences.20. Role Model: Like all great educators, the Montessorian deliberately models the behaviors and attitudes that he or she is working to instill in the children. Because of Montessori’s emphasis on character development, the Montessori educator normally is personally attractive, exceptionally calm, kind, warm, and is always polite to each child.Summation The Montessori educator recognizes that his or her role is not so much to teach as to inspire, mentor, and facilitate the learning process. The real work of learning belongs to the individual child. Because of this, the Montessori educator remains conscious of his or her role in helping each child to fulfill his or her potential as a human being and therefore knows that the primary educational responsibility is one of creating an environment for learning within which children will feel safe, cherished, and empowered. Montessori educators are trained to identify the best response to the changing interests and needs of each child as a unique individual learner. Because they truly accept that children learn in many different ways and at their own pace, Montessori educators understand that they must “follow the child” adjusting their strategies and timetable to fit the development of each individual child.Montessori educators organize appropriate social settings and academic programs for children at their own level of development. They do this to a large degree through the design of the learning environment, selection and organization of learning activities, and structure of the day.Montessori educators are filled with hope in the development of each child’s full human potential as a person of learning and virtue. The Montessori Teacher, or “Guide” It may take a moment to spot the teachers within the environment. The Montessori teacher’s role is quite different from the role played by teachers in many schools. They are generally not the center of attention, and they spend little time giving large group lessons. Their role centers around the preparation and organization of appropriate learning materials to meet the needs and interests of each child in the class. Montessori teachers will normally be found working with one or two children at a time, advising, presenting a new lesson, or quietly observing the class at work. The focus is on children learning, not teachers teaching. Children are considered as distinct individuals in terms of their interests, progress and growth, and preferred learning style. The Montessori teacher is a guide, mentor and friend. Students will typically be found scattered around the classroom, working alone or with one or two others. They tend to become so involved in their work that visitors tend to be amazed at the peaceful atmosphere. Montessori teachers keep their lessons as brief as possible. Their goal is to intrigue the children, so that they will come back on their own for further work with the materials. Lessons center around the simplest information necessary for the children to do the work on their own: the name of the materials, its place on the shelf, the ground rules for is use, and what can be done with it.The teachers present the materials and lessons with precision. They demonstrate an initial exploratory procedure; encouraging the children to continue to explore further on their own. These presentations enable children to investigate and work independently. Our goal is for the children to become self-disciplined, able to use the materials and manage the classroom without minimal adult intervention.Children progress at their own pace, moving on to the next step in each area of learning as they are ready. Initial lessons are brief introductions, after which the children repeat the exercise over many days, weeks, or months until they attain mastery. Interest leads them to explore variations and extensions inherent within the design of the materials at many levels over the years.Dr. Montessori believed that teachers should focus on each child as a person, not on the daily lesson plan. Montessori teachers are taught to nurture and inspire the human potential, leading children to ask questions, think for themselves, explore, investigate, and discover. Our ultimate objective is to help them to learn how to learn independently, retaining the curiosity, creativity, and intelligence with which they were born. Montessori teachers do not simply present lessons; they are facilitators, mentors, coaches, and guides. To underscore the very different role played by adults in her schools, Dr. Montessori used the title directress instead of teacher. In Italian, the word implies the role of the coordinator or administrator of an office or factory. Today, many Montessori schools prefer to call their teachers guides. Anne Burke Neubert, in A Way Of Learning (1973), listed the following elements in the special role of the Montessori teacher:1. Montessori teachers are the dynamic link between children and the Prepared Environment.2. They systematic observe their students and interpret their needs.3. They are constantly experimenting, modifying the environment to meet their perceptions of each child's needs and interests, and objectively noting the result.4. The prepare an environment meant to facilitate children’s independence and ability to freely select work that they find appealing, selecting activities that will appeal to their interests and keeping the environment in perfect condition, adding to it and removing materials as needed.5. They carefully evaluate the effectiveness of their work and the design of the environment every day. 6. They observe and evaluate each child’s individual progress.7. They respect and protect their students’ independence. They must know when to step in and set limits or lend a helping hand, and when it is in a child's best interests for them to step back and not interfere.8. They are supportive, offering warmth, security, stability, and non-judgmental acceptance to each child.9. They facilitate communication among the children and help the children to learn how to communicate their thoughts to adults. 10. They interpret the children's progress and their work in the classroom to parents, the school staff, and the community.11. They present clear, interesting and relevant lessons to the children. They attempt to engage the child’s interest and focus on the lessons and activities in the environment.12. They model desirable behavior for the children, following the ground-rules of the class, exhibiting a sense of calm, consistency, grace and courtesy, and demonstrating respect for every child.13. They are peace educators, consistently working to teach courteous behaviors and conflict 14. They are diagnosticians who can interpret patterns of growth, development, and behavior in order to better understand the children and make necessary referrals and suggestions to parents. Montessori Teacher Education With the steady growth in the number and enrollment of Montessori schools around the world, certified Montessori teachers are in great demand.Montessori is not simply a method of teaching children to read; it is a philosophy of life!Montessori teachers come from a wide range of backgrounds. Except for areas where even private school teachers are required to hold a State teaching credential, it is not necessary for prospective teachers to have first graduated with a degree in education. Many Montessori teachers studied another field first.Many Montessori teachers began first as parents with children enrolled in a Montessori school. Often the very factors that drew enthusiastic parents to a Montessori school in the first place offer the possibility of a professional life beyond their roles as parents. It is common for enthusiastic parents to approach their children’s school, or are themselves approached, about the possibility of taking a course in Montessori teacher education. Montessori teacher education programs are available from hundreds of colleges and independent institutes across America and Canada. For the internationally minded, courses are available in many other countries as well.Courses usually involve a year of study. In the U.S. many courses are organized into summer institutes, which can involve one, two or more summers of intensive study, followed by a supervised year-long practicum/student teaching experience. Some courses run during the school year. Each model has its loyal advocates, and selection of one over the other is a matter of personality and preference.Montessori teacher education programs are typically offered at the infant-toddler (birth to age 2), early childhood (ages 3-6), lower elementary (ages 6-9), upper elementary (ages 9-12), and secondary levels (ages 12-15 and ages 15-18))Most courses in the United States require a college degree; although, students who have yet to complete their undergraduate diploma may be able to take a Montessori teacher education course and receive a provisional Montessori teaching certificate. Tuition will vary from one program to another. Unfortunately the quality of Montessori teacher education programs can vary. One basic consideration is the credibility of the diploma received upon completion. Since 1990, the United States Department of Education has recognized the Montessori Accreditation Commission for Teacher Education (MACTE) which is generally recognized as the essential sign of a program’s credibility. There are several Montessori organizations that accredit Montessori teacher education programs. Most, but not all, of their accredited programs are also accredited by the MACTE commission. They include the American Montessori Society (AMS), the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), Montessori Educational Programs International (MEPI), the National Center for Montessori Education (NCME), and the Pan American Montessori Society (PAMS). A number of smaller Montessori associations and a number of independent programs also offer accredited Montessori teacher education programs.Distance Learning: Several organizations around the world offer distance learning programs or correspondence courses, which allow students to complete most, if not all, of their Montessori teacher education studies on an independent basis. Keep in mind, that teachers in the United States normally graduate from colleges or teacher education institutes that offer a traditional face-to-face academic program. If you are considering a distance-learning program, you should understand that a number of states do not accept these credentials. Individual schools may also be unwilling to consider graduates of a distance-learning program. It is always a good idea to check with several schools where you would like to teach to determine if the Montessori teacher education program that you are considering will meet their standards. Salaries for teachers in independent/private Montessori schools are generally acceptable, but are normally below those offered by local public schools. Many teachers feel that these lower salaries and benefits are more than offset by greater job satisfaction and freedom from the paperwork and bureaucracy found in many public-school systems. Salaries in are often calculated on a scale based on degrees, experience and duties. Montessori teachers are generally in short supply, and in many situations certified teachers will find several schools competing for their services. Elsewhere in this website, we have listed the contact information for many of the Montessori certification societies in the United States. If you are searching for a Montessori teacher education program, you might also wish to contact the Montessori schools in your area. Through them, you will obtain information as to what is available in your region and what form of certification they require — especially if you are hopeful of obtaining employment with them in the future. There are many good teacher education programs available in the United States and abroad. In the years to come, there will undoubtedly be even more, as the demand for Montessori teachers increases. Dr. Montessori’s Legacy Note: The following essay is excerpted from The Montessori Way by Tim Seldin and Paul Epstein, copyright 2003 by The Montessori Foundation. “It was January 6th (1907), when the first school was opened for small, normal children of between three and six years of age. I cannot say on my methods, for these did not yet exist. But in the school that was opened my method was shortly to come into being. On that day there was nothing to be seen but about fifty wretchedly poor children, rough and shy in manner, many of them crying, almost all the children of illiterate parents, who had been entrusted to my care. They were tearful, frightened children, so shy that it was impossible to get them to speak; their faces were expressionless, with bewildered eyes as though they had never seen anything in their lives.It would be interesting to know the original circumstances that enabled these children to undergo such an extraordinary transformation, or rather, that brought about the appearance of new children, whose souls revealed themselves with such radiance as to spread a light through the whole world.”Dr. Maria MontessoriWithin the next year, news of Dr. Montessori’s work stirred interest around the world. Literally hundreds of people began to travel to Rome to see for themselves the school in which young children — children of the deepest poverty and ignorance — taught themselves how to read, write, do mathematics, and run their own schoolhouse with little or no adult supervision.In her book about educational reform, The Schoolhome (Harvard University Press, 1992), Dr. Judith Rowland Martin writes that she was not very impressed when she first encountered Montessori education.“I understood that Montessori schools placed children in multi-age classrooms and used manipulative learning materials, which may have been unusual during Dr. Montessori’s lifetime but has long since been incorporated into most early childhood and many elementary classrooms thanks to the Open Classroom movement of the 1960s.”However, Dr. Rowland Martin’s understanding of the value of the Montessori approach was profoundly shaken when she came across a statement in one of the very first books written about Dr. Montessori’s work in the United States (A Montessori Mother, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1913). “The phrase, Casa dei Bambini, is being translated everywhere nowadays by English-speaking people as The Children’s House; however, its correct meaning, both linguistic and spiritual is The Children’s Home” (or Children’s Community, ed.). Canfield Fisher insisted upon this rendering, which she felt offered a much more accurate and complete insight into the character of the Montessori classroom.Dr. Rowland Martin reflected: “This misreading of the Italian word casa as house has effectively cut off two generations of American educators from a new and intriguing vision of what school can and should be. If you translate the word casa as house, your attention will be drawn to the child-sized furniture, the Montessori materials, the exercises in Practical Life, the principal of self-education. But if you translate the word casa as home, you will begin to perceive a moral and social dimension that transforms your understanding of Montessori’s idea of a school. Once I realized that Dr. Montessori thought of school on the model of a home, the elements of her system took on a different configuration. Where before I had seen small children manipulating concrete learning materials, I now recognized a domestic scene with its own special form of social life and education.”Rowland Martin realized that what Montessori had established was not simply a classroom in which children would be taught to read and write. The Casa dei Bambini represented a social and emotional environment, where children would be respected and empowered as individual human beings. It was an extended family, a community in which children truly belonged and really took care of one another. Montessori described this sense of belonging as “valorization of the personality,” a strong sense of self-respect and personal identity. Within this safe and empowering community, the young child learned at the deepest possible level to believe in herself. In an atmosphere of independence within community and personal empowerment, she never lost her sense of curiosity and innate ability to learn and discover. Confident in herself, she opened up to the world around her and found that mistakes were not something to be feared but rather the endless opportunity to learn from experience. This special relationship that is so common among Montessori children and their teachers and schools is unfortunately still very different from the experience most children have in school.The Discovery of the ChildMontessori was absorbed with what she later called “The Discovery of the Child.” She did not see the core of her work as a method or curriculum, per se, as is commonly thought, but as a dramatic discovery that children around the world share common, or universal, characteristics and tendencies, even though each child is a unique human being, who deserves the same respect we would give an adult.In response to the pleas of so many earnest admirers, Dr. Montessori arranged to give her first training course for teachers in 1909. Expecting only Italian educators, she was amazed to find that her first course, and all of the courses offered since, attracted teachers from all over the world who had heard of her discoveries and were moved to make great sacrifices to learn from her personally.Many people have the impression that Montessori is a centrally controlled business, from which schools can buy a franchise and learn to replicate the model consistently. Nothing could be further from the truth. The name Montessori was never copyrighted or controlled by Montessori, and much to her dismay, many people attempted to profit from the familiarity and cachet of the “Montessori” name.The Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), the organization established by Montessori herself to oversee the integrity of her work, openly expresses its concern over the uncontrolled dissemination and loose interpretation of Montessori’s ideas on their website:“Since the beginning, Montessori pedagogy has been appropriated, interpreted, misinterpreted, exploited, propagated, torn to shreds and the shreds magnified into systems, reconstituted, used, abused and disabused, gone into oblivion and undergone multiple renaissances.”As teachers from many countries carried her ideas back to their homelands, national organizations were established, many of which evolved independently of a continued close association with Montessori and her closest circle of colleagues. The United States is a perfect example.Montessori made two extended trips to America, the first in 1913 and the second in 1915. The reception that she received must have been gratifying. Montessori was greeted by attentive crowds wherever she spoke. Her first book about the work in Rome, The Montessori Method, was translated into English by her American sponsor, S. S. McClure, publisher of the enormously popular McClure’s Magazine. She was strongly encouraged to allow her work to be translated by the president and faculty of Harvard University, to whom she dedicated the first American edition. Rather than simply translate the original title of Montessori’s book, which would have roughly translated as “Scientific Education in the Children’s Houses (Communities) of Rome,” Mr. McClure chose to give the book a title that was much more succinct, but quite different in perspective: The Montessori Method. The term has stuck for the last ninety-plus years in the United States and abroad. During her visit, the first formal Montessori society, the Montessori Educational Association, was founded by Alexander Graham Bell, among many other nationally prominent supporters.When Montessori returned to America in 1915, she arranged to have an entire class work in a special “schoolhouse” made of glass at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. It attracted worldwide attention and publicity, as the children went about their tasks under the scrutiny of thousands of visitors from around the world.Dr. Montessori also conducted a teacher training course in California and addressed the annual conventions of both the National Education Association and the International Kindergarten Union. That year a bill was introduced into the United States Congress to appropriate funds to establish several teacher education colleges across America to prepare educators to introduce the Montessori approach to American public schools.The one condition was that Montessori make her home in the United States, an offer that she graciously declined, remarking that her findings could never belong to just one country but must be introduced around the world. Ultimately, her mother’s untimely death and the intensified disruption to normal travel caused by World War I, led Dr. Montessori to leave America for Europe. In addition, Professor William Heard Kilpatrick published a scathing critique of her ideas entitled, “The Montessori System Examined.” In it, he inaccurately accused her of being rigid and outdated in her psychological theories. Kilpatrick, a colleague of the highly popular American educational reformer, Dr. John Dewey of the University of Chicago, had a significant effect, leading many initially enthusiastic supporters back to the Progressive Education Movement led by Dewey.Progressive Education, in turn, declined as America moved away from a child-centered perspective to a basic skills focus, during the hard years of the Depression and Second World War. Montessori was outraged at what she felt were false assertions made about her ideas by Dewey, Kilpatrick, and others. Whatever the true cause, over the next fifteen years, Montessori’s influence in America slowly ebbed from its peak in 1920, when there were more than one thousand Montessori schools in America to the period from 1930 to the late 1950s, when only a handful of Montessori schools quietly worked without openly using her name.In 1960, Nancy McCormick Rambusch, an American mother who had spent two years in Europe studying Montessori education, was given the support of the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) to organize a branch of the Association in the United States. The group that she founded was the American Montessori Society (AMS), which originally operated under the auspices of the AMI central office in Holland.A teacher preparation program began at the Whitby School in Greenwich, Connecticut. Thanks to the untiring efforts of McCormick Rambusch, the American media became fascinated with the Montessori approach all over again. Determined to develop a specifically American interpretation of Montessori’s work, differences over practice and policy eventually led the two organizations (AMS and AMI) to separate. Montessori’s Later Years in Europe and India After Dr. Montessori left the United States, she eventually moved to Barcelona, Spain, where a liberal and enlightened provincial government was setting out the ideas that eventually blossomed into the Republic of Spain before the Spanish Civil War. She established an international training center and research institute in Barcelona in 1916.In 1919, Montessori began a series of teacher-training courses in London. During the next three decades, she and her colleagues refined the Elementary Montessori program and began to open classes for older children across Europe. That same year, she was invited to give a series of lectures on the issue of education for the young adult (secondary). These talks, later published as the Erdkinder Essays, reflected a strong theoretical basis for her thoughts about the reform of secondary education; however, she was not to develop them herself during her lifetime. Others did pursue this path, and the first secondary schools following the Montessori approach opened in the Netherlands in the 1930s. Today, after many years of fits and starts, Montessori Secondary programs have begun to be established around the world. In 1929, Dr. Montessori was invited by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to introduce her ideas throughout the Italian national school system. Having left Italy after her mother’s death to find a more liberal-thinking home abroad, Mussolini’s invitation was irresistible to the Italian-born, self-declared citizen of the world. Montessori arrived back in Rome with much fanfare in January of 1930 and re-established her teacher-training center. It is fascinating to consider what each of the two, liberal Maria Montessori and fascist Benito Mussolini, were thinking. He certainly sought to add Montessori’s worldwide acclaim to the glories of the modern Italy. We assume that she believed that she could quietly do her work without getting involved in politics. Ultimately, the two clashed publicly when Mussolini demanded that all students in Italy join the Young Fascists and wear a special student uniform. In 1934, she was forced into exile once again, returning to Barcelona, Spain.The years leading to World War II were tumultuous for Maria Montessori, who was then sixty-six years old. In 1936, as the Spanish Civil War broke out across Spain, she escaped the fighting on a British cruiser sent to rescue British nationals. She traveled to the Netherlands, where she opened a new Montessori teacher education center and lab school. As war approached, many urged her to leave Europe, and in 1938 she accepted an invitation to conduct a series of teacher training courses in India. When India entered World War II as part of the British Empire, Montessori and her son, Mario, were interned as “enemy aliens.” She was, however, allowed to continue her work and over the next few years trained more than ten thousand teachers in India and Sri Lanka.It was during this period that she wrote several of her most important works, including: The Absorbent Mind; Education and Peace; and To Educate the Human Potential. Having spent years educating teachers to grasp the “big picture” of the interdependency of all life on earth, she reflected on the global conflict and humankind’s ultimate place within the universe, distilling them into her Cosmic Curriculum: The Lessons in Science, History, and Human Culture that has offered generations of Montessori students a sense of wonder and inspiration. Returning to Europe after the end of the war, during her final years, Montessori became an even more passionate advocate of Peace Education. Maria Montessori died in 1952 at her home in the Netherlands. In her last years, she was honored with many awards and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1949, 1950, and 1951.Montessori was a brilliant student of child development, and the approach that has evolved out of her research has stood the test for nearly one hundred years in Montessori schools around the world. During her lifetime, Dr. Montessori was acknowledged as one of the world’s leading educators. Mainstream education, however, moved on, adapting only those elements of Montessori’s work that fit into existing theories and methods. Ironically, the Montessori approach is not designed to be implemented as a series of piecemeal reforms. It requires a complete restructuring of the school and the teacher’s role. Today there is a growing consensus among many psychologists and developmental educators that Montessori’s ideas were decades ahead of their time. Only recently, as our understanding of child development has grown, have we rediscovered how clear and sensible her insight was. As the movement gains support and begins to spread into the American public school sector, one can readily say that the “Montessori Way” is a remarkably modern approach. The Montessori Way Note: The following essay is excerpted from The Montessori Way by Tim Seldin and Paul Epstein, copyright 2003 by The Montessori Foundation. There are more than four thousand Montessori schools found throughout the United States. Montessori schools are also found in North and South American nations, throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Some schools only offer early childhood programs; others offer early childhood through elementary or secondary. Most are private or independent schools, founded either by an individual teacher or a parent board. There are a growing number of public school programs, and many home schools implement aspects of the Montessori approach. Each Montessori school is built upon the educational legacy of Dr. Maria Montessori and her influential work, which began nearly one hundred years ago. Since 1907, the year of her first school, children and adults have engaged in an approach to learning that addresses all aspects of growth: cognitive, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual. In Montessori schools throughout the world, children develop the habits and skills of lifelong learning. Guided by teachers trained to observe and identify children’s unique learning capabilities, children learn in educational partnership with their teachers. Because children’s interests are heard and honored, Montessori students develop confidence and become self-directed. A powerful learning formula emerges as a result of this self-directed, self-initiated orientation to learning. When interested, a child becomes self-motivated. Self-motivation leads to becoming self-disciplined. When self-disciplined, a child engages in a process of mastery learning and fully develops his or her potential. Dr. Maria Montessori called this a “normal” approach to education. We call this The Montessori Way. The Montessori Way refers to: the knowledge of how children naturally learn; a curriculum based on that knowledge designed for the developmental needs of infants, toddlers, three-to six- year-olds, elementary, middle, and secondary students; a method of instruction involving learning how to observe and how to develop learning environments in which teachers challenge each child to extend fully his or her unique style of learning; a profession; a school characterized by calm, orderly, focused, and respectful learning behaviors; and, a person named Maria Montessori.In 1907, Dr. Maria Montessori discerned a fundamental premise about children and humanity in general: All children are uniquely intelligent.This premise challenged long-held beliefs about intelligence and the inherent nature of mankind as violent and competitive. Whereas Montessori wrote about unique, individual potential, it is more fashionable today to discuss each person’s “multiple intelligences.” This is the belief that intelligence is not fixed at birth and that the human potential is without limit. The validity of this belief has been confirmed by the research of Piaget, Gardner, Goleman, and many others. Accordingly, then, the practice of highly selective educational institutions requires further examination: Does the design and conduct of schools, including the forms of testing they use, privilege some forms of intelligence while ignoring others?We know that each child is a full and complete individual in her own right. Even when very small, she deserves to be treated with the full and sincere respect that would be extended to her parents. Respect breeds respect and creates an atmosphere within which learning is tremendously facilitated. Montessori educators work with infants, toddlers, young children, and adolescents. In each age, we see an inherent tendency towards discovery, cooperation, kindness, and nonviolence. These observations challenge ideas about life and human motives in the social order, including subjecting millions of children to impoverished learning conditions.Each day, children exhibit the vast wonder of the human spirit, the endless faces of intelligence, creativity, and inventiveness in Montessori schools throughout the world. This suggests a far richer and more pleasant, productive, and peaceful world than most of us have ever known or imagined.The Montessori Way stands in sharp contrast to the current fervor to use children as measures of adults’ performances: Test scores, not complete potential; prescribed standards and objectives, not self-empowerment. Parents are required to accept a political definition of teacher effectiveness. Teaching “to” the test and rehearsed test taking may result in schools with test scores that reward adults with jobs and funding. But what is the cost to children? Why are too many children under this regime now denied music, art, physical education, recess — and, in some schools, science and history?What is a child’s daily experience of sitting in classrooms led by anxious or even frightened teachers waiting to be graded by these scores? Current brain research urges adults to establish learning environments that are stimulating and relaxed; intriguing and safe for exploration. Thinking, problem solving, and forming trusting relationships are all possible once a child is freed from stress.“When interested, a child becomes self-motivated. Self-motivation leads to becoming self-disciplined. When self-disciplined, a child engages in a process of mastery learning and develops his or her potential.” SHARING A COMMON PHILOSOPHY AND APPROACH ... Although Montessori schools may appear different, they all share a common philosophy and basic approach. The Montessori approach has four great qualities: this educational model is replicable; it can be adapted successfully to new situations; it can include educational innovations based on recent understandings of learning; and, it is sustainable, operating in many schools continuously for fifty years or longer. Why Montessori for the kindergarten year? by Tim Seldin with Dr. Elizabeth CoeThis artilce originally appeared in Tomorrow's Child magazine. © 2003 The Montessori Foundation Montessori 101 Joyful Scholars: Montessori for the Elementary years By Tim Seldin, President, The Montessori FoundationShould we stay, or is this the right time to move?As children near the end of their kindergarten year in Montessori, many parents struggle with the question of whether or not to keep their children in Montessori for the elementary program. On the one hand, the typical Montessori five-year-old's self-confidence and love of learning makes many families ask: "Why tamper with something that is clearly working?" On the other hand, since the children will be moving on to another class one way or the other, to many parents first grade seems to be the logical time to make the transition from Montessori to the "real world."For many families, a major consideration will be the ability to save thousands of dollars a year by taking advantage of the local public schools. Others wonder if a more highly structured and competitive independent school give a child a better preparation for college? Although each family will analyze the issues in their own way, each family's final decision will involve an investment in their children's future. All of us want the best for our children, and the often unspoken concern of many parents is: ‘Will Montessori prepare my child for the “real” world?’The answer, by the way, is “yes!” Montessori works! It has worked for 94 years in thousands of Montessori schools around the world. Montessori has enjoyed the support of some of the leading personalities of this century, including President Woodrow Wilson, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Mahatma Gandhi, Helen Keller, Sigmund Freud, Buckminster Fuller, Bertram Russell, Jean Piaget, Alfred Adler, Erik Erikson, Ann Frank (who was a Montessori student), and David Elkind, just to name a few.One elementary teacher responded to her parents’ fears this way, “Many parents express the concern that Montessori at the elementary level may not prepare them for the "real world." I'm not sure exactly what that means. Is it that their Primary Montessori experience was too secure, too child-centered, too accepting? Surely, those qualities cannot be seen as negatives. Is it that there is a sneaking suspicion that all this Montessori stuff is fine up to Kindergarten, but now it's time to face math tests and text books, standardized curricula and a "real school"? I suppose it is a question of examining one's own values regarding education. The observable fact is that the majority of children in elementary Montessori programs achieve high-level academic standards because they are highly motivated and have been exposed to an extremely broad and integrated curriculum. They may not have a weekly math test on which their grade is based, but they can prove to you that "the answer in division is what one unit gets." No, they won't have a multiple-choice quiz on Chapter 2 of their science or geography textbook. Rather, they can independently research topics using encyclopedia, atlases, reference books, maps, microscopes and magnifying glasses. "Real school" should engender a love of learning and an acceptance of personal responsibility for intellectual growth as well as social interaction. "Real school" attempts to shape long-term attitudes and concrete skills necessary not just to move up to the next grade, but to “move up to" a successful and happy life.”A lifetime of personal experience has taught me that Montessori works, but I understand how much courage it takes to risk following a different path from traditional education. What if our children were to not get into the college of their choice because they went to a Montessori school.If you are facing this decision, I would suggest that you take a good look at your school's elementary program. Although at first you may tend to focus on the teachers, try to pay close attention on the children themselves. Elementary Montessori students are often the most compelling argument for the value of an elementary Montessori education!What makes Montessori elementary different?With so much going on, when you observe an elementary Montessori class at work you may find it difficult to get a sense of the big picture. Over here some students are working on math, some are reading, while others are working on science. In the corner, a teacher is giving a lesson to a small group of children, while occasionally glancing up to keep an eye on the rest of the class. The elementary classroom may appear to be unstructured, but this seemingly random, yet obviously purposeful activity, is basic to the independent learning and self-directed activity of the Montessori approach. Each child is considered as an individual. We can see a vast range in the level of curriculum on which the children are engaged. Montessori teachers strive to challenge each according to his or her developmental needs and abilities.“Montessori elementary gives children the opportunity to continue to progress at their own pace in an environment that nurtures a love of learning. Children take responsibility for their own learning and have daily opportunities to make decisions and choices in a child centered classroom. They are exposed to many complex concepts at an early age through the use of wonderful concrete learning materials. It is not unusual to see seven-year-olds in a Montessori classroom constructing atomic and molecular models. Nine-year-olds analyze the squares of trinomials, while ten-year-olds solve algebraic equations and twelve-year-olds compute the square root of large numbers. What parent who has watched her children thrive both intellectually and socially in the Children’s House wouldn’t want this to continue in the elementary years?“Judi Charlap, Elementary Montessori GuideThe New Gate School, Sarasota, FloridaBasic Components of the Elementary Montessori Program>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Author’s Note: For this article I have drawn together some of Dr. Maria Montessori’s thoughts about the foundation of education at the elementary years from three of her books, To Educate The Human Potential, From Childhood To Adolescence, and Spontaneous Activity In Education. In a few places, I have taken some liberty with the original translation for the purpose of clarity. “The passage to the second level of education is the passage from the sensorial, material level to the abstract. The need for abstraction and intellectual activity makes itself felt around the seventh year. Before age seven, the child focuses himself on a sensorial exploration and classification of the relationships between concrete objects – not exploration on the intellectual plane. The three to seven year old generally is content to know WHAT something is, along with a simplistic explanation of its function. The older child is oriented toward intellectual discovery and investigation. In the second period, the child needs wider boundaries for his social experiences. He needs to establish social relationships in a larger society and the traditional schools, as they have been conceived for so long, can no longer be sufficient for him. He feels the closed environment as a constraint, which is why children of this age may no longer go to school ethusiastically. He prefers to catch frogs or play with his friends without adult supervision. An education that suppresses the true nature of the child is an education that leads to the development of unhappy and socially immature adults. It is at age seven that one can note the beginning of an orientation toward the judgement of acts as right or wrong, fair or unfair... This preoccupation belongs to a very special interior sensitivity, the conscience. The seven to twelve year old period, then, constitutes one of particular importance for moral education... The adult must be aware of the evolution that is occurring in the mind of the child at this time and adapt his methods to conform with it. These three characteristics—the child's felt need to escape the closed environment, the passage of the mind to the abstract, and the birth in him of a moral sense—serve as the basis for a scheme at the elementary level.”Dr Maria Montessori>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Please keep in mind that, while Dr. Montessori developed a very specific model, individual Montessori schools and classrooms differ. However, these components are typically found in excellent programs.Multi-Age Class GroupsElementary Montessori classes continue to bring children of different age levels together. Normally classes will span three age/grade levels, with the common divisions being ages 6 to 9 (grades 1-3 in the United States) and ages 9 to 12 (grades 4-6). Some schools may follow a somewhat different scheme of grouping their children. There are many reasons why Montessori classes group children of several grade levels together:• Since Montessori allows children to progress through the curriculum at their own pace, there is no academic reason to group children according to one grade level. • In a mixed age class, children can always find peers who are working at their current level.• To accommodate the needs of individual learners, Montessori classrooms have to include curriculum to cover the entire span of interests and abilities up through the oldest and most accelerated students in the class. This creates a highly enriched learning environment. • In multi-level classrooms, younger children are constantly stimulated by the interesting work that the older ones are engaged in• At the same time, in multi-level classrooms older students serve as tutors and role models for the younger ones, which helps them in their own mastery (we learn things best of all when we teach them to someone else) and leaves them with a tremendous sense of pride.• By working with children for three years, teachers get to know them extremely well.• And, finally, there is a strong sense of continuity in the elementary Montessori class because two-thirds of the children return each September for either their second or third year with the same teacher(s). Most of the children know one another and understand the culture of the class. This makes it much easier to orient new children into the group.Friendships and CommunityOne of the things that you will normally see when you enter an elementary classroom is joy, excitement and enthusiasm. These are not children who are given dittos over and over again. These are children who are engaged.Montessori schools are normally small close-knit communities of children, teachers, and parents. They are like an extended family. Everyone knows everyone else. Children become close and remain friends with their teachers and both younger and older classmates. They grow up and study together for many years. While there may not be as many other children in the school to form your children’s circle of friends as they would find in a larger school, their friendships will tend to be closer and will last a lifetime. The social life of the Montessori elementary is defined by the fact that students can move around. They don’t have to sit at a desk all day long. Students work together most of the time, either helping one another master skills or information, or working together on group projects. Parents are normally very involved at the elementary level as partners in supporting their children’s education. They often come in to teach special lessons, take small groups out into the community for field trips, and help with celebrations and special trips. Elementary Montessori Teachers Serve As Mentors, Friends and GuidesThe elementary Montessori educator is not so much a "teacher" in the traditional sense, as a "Guide." In more and more schools, this title is actually used to describe their role. The elementary Montessori curriculum is very broad, and requires the teacher to have a broad and thorough education of his or her own. With lessons that range from the history of mathematics to the physics of flight, mineralogy, chemistry, algebra, geometry, and literature, to name just a few, the average teacher of today would be lost. The best elementary Montessori teachers are truly renaissance men and women; individuals who are equally interested in mathematics, the sciences, the arts, architecture, literature, poetry, psychology, economics, technology, and philosophy. But beyond this, the elementary Montessori educator needs patience, understanding, respect, enthusiasm, and a profound ability to inspire a sense of wonder and imagination. Such teachers are very rare, but absolutely magical! Becoming an elementary Montessori teacher requires a full year of graduate study and thousands of hours of hard work to gather or create the curriculum materials that constitute a prepared elementary Montessori environment.AcademicsThe elementary Montessori classroom offers an environment in which children tend to blossom! This may sound like propaganda, but it's true!Dr. Montessori was convinced that children are born curious, creative, and intelligent. In designing the elementary program, she was attempting to cultivate this human potential, nurture the spontaneous curiosity with which all children are born, and inspire a sense of wonder in their spirits.The elementary years are the primary sensitive period for the acquisition of what has recently come to be known as cultural literacy. Older children want to know the reason why things are as they are found in the world. They are oriented toward intellectual investigation and discovery.Here lies one of the significant differences between Montessori education and the schools most children attend. In many classrooms, the primary focus (up to 80% of the school year) is spent on teaching the 'Basic Skills' of reading, spelling and mathematics. From the Montessori perspective, the 'Basics' are not basic curriculum at all; they represent enabling skills which make it possible for the child to gain access to the real substance of one’s education: science, history, the arts, great literature, world culture, politics, economics, and philosophy.Montessori teaches for both the “basics” and cultural literacy. Children are born curious and highly motivated to learn new things. Why is it that so many teachers bore their students with facts that must be memorized and forgotten once the test is passed, when children are so easily excited about the world. Why do so many schools continue to feed children intellectual pabulum when they are ready for real food for their intellects?The Three Elements of the Elementary Montessori CurriculumThe elementary Montessori curriculum is highly enriched and challenging and is organized into three elements:1. Mastery of Fundamental Skills and Basic Core KnowledgeMontessori evolved out of the European tradition of academic excellence, and offers a rigorous course of study even in the elementary years. Elementary Montessori students explore the realm of mathematics, science and technology, the world of myth, great literature, history, world geography, civics, economics, anthropology, and the basic organization of human societies. Their studies cover the basics found in traditional curriculum, such as the memorization of math facts, spelling lessons, and the study of vocabulary, grammar, sentence analysis, creative and expository writing, and library research skills.Sometimes, because Montessori places so much emphasis on cultivating children's sense of curiosity and wonder, parents may get the impression that students can simply do whatever they wish, avoiding subjects that they dislike. This is certainly not the case in any well-run class. 2. Dr. Montessori's "Great Lessons": The Great Lessons are five key areas of interconnected studies traditionally presented to all elementary Montessori students in the form of inspiring stories and related experiences and research projects. The Great Lessons include the story of how the world came to be, the development of life on the Earth, the story of humankind, the development of language and writing, and the development of mathematics. They are intended to give children a "cosmic" perspective of the Earth and humanity’s place within the cosmos. The lessons, studies, and projects surrounding each of the Great Lessons normally span many months and the questions that the children pose and their efforts to find the answers to their own questions may continue for many years.“The Great Lessons are so exciting. They engage the children and then send them off to do all kinds of research that they are allowed to do at their own rate and their own pace. When children are excited about something, real learning takes place, and that's where Montessori shines.” Valaida Wise, Headmistress, Henson Valley Montessori SchoolCamp Springs, Maryland>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Sidebar Quotes:“Education between the ages of six and twelve is not a direct continuation of that which has gone before, (although it is built upon that foundation). Psychologically there is a decided change in personality (within the child), and we recognize that nature has made this a period for the acquisition of culture, just as the former was for the absorption of environment. We are confronted with a considerable development of consciousness... and there is an unusual demand on the part of the child to know the reason (why things work or why things are the way they are). Knowledge can best be given where children are eager to learn, and this is the period when the seeds of learning can be sown, the child's mind being like a fertile field, ready to receive what will germinate into the culture of the adult community. The secret of good teaching is to regard the child's intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination. Our aim is not only to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his innermost core. We do not want complacent pupils, but eager ones. We seek to sow life in the child rather than theories, to help him in his growth, mental and emotional as well as physical and for that we must offer grand and lofty ideas to the human mind. If the idea of the universe is presented to the child in the right way, it will do more for him than just arouse his interest; for it will create in him admiration and wonder, a feeling loftier than any interest and more satisfying. But if neglected during this period, or frustrated in its vital needs, the mind of the child becomes artificially dulled, and henceforth will resist imparted knowledge. Interest will no longer be present if the seeds of learning are sown too late, but at six, children receive all items of culture enthusiastically. As the child grows older, these seeds will expand and grow. How many seeds should we sow? My answer is: "As many as possible!" Dr Maria Montessori>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>3. Individually Chosen Research: Elementary students are encouraged to explore topics that capture their imagination. Most former Montessori students look back on this aspect of the elementary program with particular fondness in later years. Elementary Montessori students rarely use textbooks. They are encouraged to explore topics that capture their imagination. Students do a great deal of independent reading and library research. Children gather information, assemble reports, assemble portfolios and handmade books of their own, and teach what they have learned to their friends. The approach is largely based on library research, with children gathering information, assembling reports, teaching what they have learned to their fellows, and assembling portfolios and handmade books of their own.Beginning by simply using an encyclopedia to find the answers to a list of questions prepared by their teachers, Montessori students are taught how to use reference materials, libraries, and even the Internet to gather information and uncover the facts. Their oral presentations and written research reports grow in sophistication and complexity over the years. The Montessori Materials and the Passage To AbstractionAt the elementary level, learning continues to be a hands-on experience, as students learn by trial, error, and discovery. The advanced elementary Montessori materials move on to more complex and abstract concepts in mathematics, geometry, and pre algebra. The goal is to lead the child away from a dependency on concrete models that visually represent abstract concepts towards the ability to solve problems with pen and paper alone. Part of this is made possible by the older child's ability to grasp abstract concepts, but it has been greatly enhanced over the years by countless hours of work with the concrete materials that made the abstract real and helped him visualize the abstraction.Similar hands-on materials help students understand grammar, sentence analysis, geographical facts, and concepts in science. Learning How to LearnAt the elementary level, Montessori students learn to think for themselves. They are encouraged to do their own research, analyze what they have found, and come to their own conclusions. Montessori teaches students to think, not simply to memorize, feed back, and forget. They literally learn how to learn, discovering that the process of learning can, and should, be as natural as breathing! Students become fully engaged in the learning process. Rather than present students with all the "right answers," Montessori teachers ask the "right questions," and challenge them to find new solutions or discover the answers on their own. This is yet another element of the Montessori program that prepares children to succeed in the real world of ideas, enterprise, and challenging perspectives. Why? Because although learning the right answers may get children through school, but learning how to learn will get them through life!An Invitation to A LessonAs many schools prove on a daily basis, it is possible to make the most fascinating subject matter boring. When teachers go on and on about something long after they have lost their student’s interest, and the best lesson that they have taught is that this topic is boring and to be avoided in the future if one can. A Montessori teacher will invite her students to a lesson, consciously trying attract and then capture their interest, knowing that when she tries to “sell” something, sometimes she will “fail to make the sale.” She attempts to make each lesson as interesting as possible. For example, she might say, “Today I’ve brought in a live lobster and I have room for 8 of you who are interested in learning about crustaceans like my friend the lobster and how they live. If you are interested, you may join me.” She invites her students to voluntarily come over for a lesson, knowing that there will be some days when no child will come“The elementary Montessori teacher is a storyteller. She can find something in the environment that she hopes to get across to her children and develops a whole story or experience to draw them in. The process is typically magical to watch.” Valadia Wise, Headmistress, Henson Valley Montessori School, Camp Spring, Maryland“Our teachers don’t just teach from books. They use first hand experience, so we learn things that we would not ordinarily learn and learn them in a way so that we understand and remember.” Willy Harris, Montessori Student, Prince George’s County Public Schools, MarylandCan Students Do Whatever They Want?“What I really loved in the elementary level was that the teachers really sought to give the kids their own choice on what they were going to do for the day and sometimes that endeavor would go on for weeks, and the teachers would support that.” Bill Brennan, Montessori Parent, The Barrie School, Silver Spring, Maryland Sometimes, because Montessori places so much emphasis on cultivating children's sense of curiosity and wonder, parents may get the impression that students can simply do whatever they wish, avoiding subjects that they dislike. This is certainly not the case in a well run elementary class. Montessori is based on respect for fellow human beings, the child, her parents, the teacher, her classmates, and the world. We want to teach children to extend the same respect back in return. Montessori teachers feel that if we can focus on what is good and decent within each child, that if we treat children with far more trust and respect than they may have earned, that if we instill in our students the value of self-discipline and hard work, and encourage them to be at peace with themselves, then we can literally help children to develop a positive attitude and approach to life.Montessori helps children learn how to learn, by which we mean that we teach them to focus their attention, come into a setting willing to listen, ready to learn, and able to observe, reflect, and play with ideas until they figure out how things fit together, how they work, and practice new skills until they are mastered. We operate from the understanding that intelligence, creativity and imagination can be found in every child. Even though there may be some things that give them difficulty, or which they may do better than others, children can learn to recognize their best learning style. They can learn to not only pursue those things that they find interesting or which come easily, but as they become more organized and self disciplined, they learn how to accomplish things that they would rather avoid. A lot of Montessori education is simply about learning how to learn, to observe life, to listen, to look for patterns and connections, to reflect on how things fit together and work.But Montessori education is also about learning how to live. We argue that if a child is emotionally handicapped by self doubt, if he is afraid of looking foolish, afraid of failure, then the grade or approval of parents and teachers becomes and end in itself, rather than what is really important, the joy of exploring ideas and figuring things out. We want children to love learning, not the petty external and artificial rewards that most schools use to motivate students. No one needs to motivate a child, they are born motivated to learn. Anyone who has been around normal two-year-olds knows that they are fascinated by the world. External motivation is irrelevant. The true challenge is to keep the spark of human intelligence and curiosity alive. A vital part of being human comes from the sense that the world is vast and fascinating, and that we should never be afraid to ask questions and wonder why things are they way they are, or how things might be if…. We do not want children to be afraid of asking questions, because that’s how we learn. Human beings have always learned as much from its mistakes as from success. But when parents and teachers look at the early creative writing of the young child and find creative phonetic spelling or sloppy handwriting, they often shut her off when they focus on what she did incorrectly, rather than what she did right. When parents are disappointed at a child’s early efforts, when they subtly communicate that their expectations have not been met, most children learn to quietly protect themselves by pretending that they do not care, or by not sharing things with their parents when they can avoid it. We need to help children to discover their own unique talents and capacity to create and discover.Above all else, Montessori is an education of the heart. We look at each child as a unique human being. We know that each has particular strengths and a distinct learning styles. We know that each child’s emotions and self esteem play a critical role in whether or not they are ready to learn. I find it difficult to imagine any other way of teaching. The Integrated Montessori CurriculumIn the Montessori program subject matter is not separated in small little packages: this is geography, this is social studies, this is science, this is math. Everything is interrelated. The subjects weave in and out of each other. Literature, art, music, dance, drama, history, social issues, political science, economics, architecture, science, and the study of technology all complement one another in the elementary curriculum. This integrated approach is one of the elementary Montessori program's great strengths. Studies come alive through a host of hands-on projects and activities. For example, a small group of students who are interested in Greek mythology might build a model of ancient Athens, make and decorate their own Grecian vases to illustrate a particular story, prepare dioramas of a scene from mythology, or write and produce their own play for the rest of the class.“When we study the history of Maryland, for example, we also look at the geography of the land to understand to understand what the original colonists had to work with when they came here, what the environment. We look also at the first Americans who lived here when they arrived. We look at the geology and ecosystems of Maryland from our mountains to the Chesapeake Bay. We go to the Chesapeake Bay itself. It's one of the largest ecosystems in the world. As the children look at the bay, they begin to realize that it’s all interconnected.” Marsha Patrick, Elementary Montessori Teacher, Henson Valley Montessori School, Camp Springs, MarylandLanguage arts and the humanitiesThe elementary Montessori language arts program places great stress on the development of strong skills in composition and creative writing. Students are asked to write continuously, emphasizing at first the development of an enjoyment of the writing process, rather than the strict use of correct grammar and spelling. However, formal grammar, spelling, and sentence analysis are systematically taught. Elementary children are normally very interested in words and sentences. They like to parse and analyze, for in this way they are clarifying their understanding of the structure of language that they absorbed unconsciously in the primary class. Montessori takes advantage of their natural interest, and gives children a great quantity and variety of material; for while they study the theory of grammar, spelling, and sentence analysis; they are also perfecting their knowledge of written language. During the elementary years, Montessori increasingly focuses on the development of research and writing skills. This overlaps into the other areas of the curriculum, from which students draw topics of interest. Gathering information from the encyclopedia and library reference books, they learn to prepare well-written reports. Creative writing continues to be equally important, and students are encouraged to write and share with others their stories, plays, poetry, and class newspapers.Finally and most importantly, the key to the elementary language arts curriculum is the quality of the things Montessori gives children to read. Instead of insipid basal readers, they are introduced from an early age to first rate children's books and fascinating works on science, history, geography and the arts. Many elementary classes follow the Junior Great Books program, with formal literary studies continuing every year through graduation. Literature is connected with all of the other areas of the curriculum, with students reading stories and plays about cultures and historical periods that they are studying. By introducing students to the very best literature available for young people, Montessori cultivates a deep love for the world of books.Unified MathematicsMontessori math is based on the European "Unified Math" model, which introduces elementary students to the study of the fundamentals of algebra, geometry, logic, and statistics, along with the principles of arithmetic.Montessori students learn to recognize complex geometric shapes and figures. They learn to define, calculate, and draw all sorts of geometric relationships: angles, polygons, circumference, area, volume, squares and square roots, cubes of polynomials, to name just a few. In Montessori, arithmetic, algebra, and geometry are interrelated.Elementary Montessori students gain hands-on experience by applying math in a wide range of projects, activities, and challenges, such as graphing the daily temperature and computing the average for each month, or adjusting the quantities called for in a recipe for a larger number of people. Because children love to work outdoors, we try to prepare tasks that use the school grounds whenever possible. For example, using simple geometry, they can determine the height of a tree, measure the dimensions of the buildings, or calculate how much we will feed our school animals in a year. They prepare scale drawings, calculate area and volume, construct three-dimensional geometric models, and build scale models of historical devices and structures.Montessori mathematics climbs in sophistication through the level of Trigonometry and Calculus. It includes a careful study of the practical application of mathematics in everyday life, such as measurement, handling finances, making economic comparisons, or in gathering data and statistical analyses.ComputersThe computer is a basic tool used in most elementary Montessori classes. Students use them to help with their memorization of their basic math facts. Computers provide all sorts of simulation and problem solving situations, calling on students to compete against the computer or make reasonable predictions in an engaging role playing scenarios. Students work with spreadsheets, graphs and logical analysis. Today they are also mastering desktop publishing, multimedia presentations, and digital photography and video editing. And every year, more and more elementary classes teach children how to use their computers to access the world’s largest library collections, the Internet. History and Culture come alive in the elementary classOne of Montessori's key objectives is to develop a global perspective, and the study of history and world cultures forms the cornerstone of the curriculum. Physical geography begins in the elementary program with the study of the formation of the Earth, the emergence of the oceans and atmosphere, and the evolution of life. Students learn about the world's rivers, lakes, deserts, mountain ranges, and natural resources. Elementary students study the customs, housing, diet, government, industry, arts, history and dress of countries around the world. They also study the emergence of the first civilizations and the universal needs of Man. In the upper elementary class, the focus is usually placed on early man, ancient civilizations, and American history. The elementary program teaches history through hands-on experiences. Students build shelters, cook over a wood fire, churn butter, hike, work with map and compass, canoe, and camp out. They build models of ancient tools and structures, prepare their own manuscripts, and recreate everyday artifacts from the past.International studies continue throughout the elementary years, integrating art, music, dance, drama, cooking, geography, literature, and science. The children learn to prepare and enjoy dishes from all over the world. They learn the traditional folksongs and dances in music, and explore traditional folk crafts in art. They read traditional folk tales, literature, and reference materials about the cultures under study and prepare reports about them. Units often culminate in marvelous international festivals. Practical economics is another important element in the elementary Montessori curriculum. Students learn how to compare prices against value, compute costs, maintain a checkbook, operate small school stores, and understand the stock market. Citizenship is yet another element that weaves throughout the elementary curriculum. Students study the workings of the local, state, and federal governments and begin to follow current events. During election years, they meet candidates, discuss the issues of the day, and sometimes even volunteer in the campaign of a local candidate of their choice.While Montessori schools are communities apart from the outside world in which children can first begin to develop their unique talents, they are also consciously connected to the local, national, and global communities. The goal is to lead each student to explore, understand, and grow into full and active membership in the adult world.Montessori's Hands on Approach to ScienceThe Montessori science curriculum is focused on the study of life, the laws and structure of the universe, and how humanity has struggled throughout history to put our understanding to practical use. It seeks to captivate children's imagination and fill them with a sense of wonder at the grandeur of the universe, the simple beauty of the physical laws, and the miracle of life. It also teaches them the process and philosophy of science; how to ask questions, observe systematically, collect specimens, gather and analyze data, and conduct experiments.Much of Montessori science takes place out of doors. Classes grow flowers and vegetables in small gardens. They often raise class pets and sometimes even small farm animals.Students are encouraged to learn to recognize and name local trees, flowers, birds, and animals. They learn to recognize familiar plants by their leaves, bark, and seeds. By looking at animal tracks, they can determine which animals live in the area.In the spring students study the local wild and domestic flowers, comparing different species and counting petals, and stamens. They bring caterpillars back to their classrooms to be kept in terrariums so that the children can see the chrysalis that they form and the moth or butterfly that emerges. They hatch frog eggs and watch them turn into tadpoles before releasing them in the pond. In the fall they look for fruits, nuts, and berries, noticing how they are distributed and what animals look to them as food. Older children begin to keep journals of their observations of classroom animals and write poems and stories that attempt to capture the sense of wonder and beauty all around us. Back in the classroom, they pursue their investigations using a wide variety of charts and displays, "research" materials, and reference books. Students collect specimens and bring them back to the classroom for identification, labeling, and display in a nature center. They collect leaves, which can be pressed or preserved as leaf skeletons. They learn the botanical names for the different leaf shapes. They prepare collections of dried plants, seeds, flowers, beehives, bird nests, eggs, snake skins, tree sections, samples of familiar tree woods, cocoons, mounted insects, and animal bones. In most classes you will find ant farms, perhaps a pet chameleon or gerbil, birds, turtles, and aquaria.More formal elements of biology are taught as well, particularly at the upper elementary levels. Dr. Montessori found that systematic knowledge allows one to discriminate details among species, literally to see on a whole new level; therefore, we introduce the student to the classification of the plant and animal kingdom. The study of the internal and external anatomy of plants and animals likewise gives children a new level of awareness and sensitivity in their observation and study of life. They compare different anatomical systems among species, such as the eyes, teeth, hooves, and claws of various animals. They come to ask questions: "Why did the horse evolve this sort of teeth or this form of foot?" Elementary students also learn a wide range of important basic concepts of physics and chemistry such as the structure of atoms and molecules, the difference between elements and compounds, the chemical composition of familiar compounds, the three states of matter, and chemical and physical change. Students also enjoy doing research about the elements, and a first exposure to Mendelev's table of the elements.Elementary children love to work with scientific apparatus and delight in seeing mixtures change color, testing liquids with litmus paper, experimenting with small electrical circuits, or building models of atomic compounds. Students learn to observe and record what takes place during their experiment. The goal is to teach both the scientific method and techniques for safely working with science equipment. Foreign LanguagesAs part of the international studies program, most Montessori schools offer a second language. The primary goal in a foreign language program is to develop conversational skills, vocabulary, the ability to understand basic written information in the second language, and an appreciation for the culture of the countries where the language is spoken. The Arts Are Integrated Into Every SubjectIn Montessori Schools, the arts are normally integrated into the rest of the curriculum. They are modes of exploring and expanding lessons that have been introduced in science, history, geography, language arts, and mathematics. For example, students might make a replica of a Grecian vase, study calligraphy and decorative writing, sculpt dinosaurs for science, create dioramas for history, construct geometric designs and solids for math, and express their feelings about a musical composition through painting.Art and music history and appreciation are woven throughout the history and geography curricula. Traditional folk arts are used to extend the curriculum as well. Students participate in singing, dancing, and creative movement with teachers and music specialists. Students' dramatic productions make other times and cultures come alive.Health, Wellness, and Physical EducationThe ideal elementary Montessori health and physical education program challenges students to develop a personal program of lifelong exercise, recreation, and health management. The Montessori approach to health and fitness helps children to understand and appreciate how our bodies work and the care and feeding of a healthy human body. Students typically study diet and nutrition, hygiene, first aid, response to illness and injury, stress management, and peacefulness and mindfulness in our daily lives. Daily exercise is an important element of a lifelong program for personal health, but instead of one program for all, students are typically helped to explore many different alternatives. Students commonly learn and practice daily stretching and exercises for balance and flexibility. Some programs introduce students to yoga, tai chi, or aerobic dance. They learn that cardiovascular exercise can come from vigorous walking, jogging, biking, rowing, aerobic dance, calisthenics, using stationary exercise equipment, through actively playing field sports like soccer, or from a wide range of other enjoyable activities such as swimming, golf, or tennis. With older students, the goal is to expose students to many different possibilities, encouraging them to develop basic everyday skills and helping them to develop a personal program of daily exercise. Many schools have limited space and facilities, but where funds and facilities are available for older students, the ideal Montessori environment offers a variety of facilities and programs, which can potentially include a room with stationary bikes and other exercise equipment designed for children, an indoor track, a basketball court, a room for aerobic dance, and perhaps even an indoor pool and tennis courts. Again, ideally, this fitness center would not be reserved for the children alone; school families would be able to use the facilities after hours, on weekends, and during school hours when it didn't interfere with student programs. An Education in Practical Life SkillsOne of the keys to understanding Montessori's success can be found in the way in which it carefully encourages the development of children's self-esteem and independence. Elementary children are ready to take on a much higher level of challenge and responsibility. The elementary classroom is a small community run almost entirely by the students. They keep the room in order, care for classroom animals, tend to the plants and perhaps a small garden, set up for lunch, organize special events, and generally move about the school much more independently.Where the preschool children enjoyed washing dishes and scrubbing tables for the sheer joy of the process, elementary children simply work to get the job done. However, the knowledge that they are responsible for their classroom, and to some degree the entire school, gives elementary Montessori children a tremendous sense of pride.The lessons in practical life skills found in an elementary Montessori class often seem to be a cross between the Boy Scout Handbook and a high school Home Economics class. Children learn how to cook and bake, use a washing machine, iron a shirt, arrange flowers, fix a bicycle, tie knots, use hand tools, plan a party, balance a checkbook, comparison shop, train a dog, dress appropriately for any occasion, write thank you letters, prepare for a long hike, pack a suitcase or backpack, swim, first aid, baby-sitting skills, self-defense, and everyday rules of etiquette. Many will serve as school safety patrols or will assist in the preschool classrooms.Field Trips: Going out into the communityElementary children are normally anxious for a much higher level of personal challenge. They may enjoy vigorous games and organized sports, daily exercise, long hikes, horseback riding, gymnastics, or dance. They often beg to write and produce their own plays, designing their own costumes and scenery with as little help from adults as possible. Field trips are often an integral part of elementary Montessori programs. Students take all sorts of trips over the years to planetariums, art galleries, the zoo, museums, and many other destinations. They visit the centers of local government, colleges, hospitals, veterinary clinics, wildlife refuges, libraries, laboratories, factories, and businesses. Elementary Montessori children typically suggest and organize their own field trips for the class or a small group of children who share a common interest. By initiating a proposal, developing the plan, making all arrangements, and carrying them through, they gain a great sense of individual power and dignity.>>>>>>>>side bar“It is self-evident that the possession of and contact with real things bring with them, above all, a real quantity of knowledge. Instruction becomes a living thing. Instead of being illustrated, it is brought to life. In a word, the outing is a new key for the intensification of instruction ordinarily given in the school. There is no description, no image in any book that is capable of replacing the sight of real trees, and all of the life to be found around them, in a real forest. Something emanates from those trees which speaks to the soul, something no book, no museum is capable of giving.”Dr. Maria Montessori>>>>>>>>>>>>Social skills, character, ethics, and community service“It is at this age also that the concept of justice is born, simultaneously with the understanding of the relationship between one's acts and the needs of others. The sense of justice, so often missing in man, is found during the development of the young child.”Dr. Maria MontessoriThe elementary classroom is not only a community of close friends, it is a source of countless life-lessons in social skills, everyday courtesy, and ethics. Montessori noted that elementary children not only enjoy each other's company, they naturally form little social groups of friends, each with its own internal hierarchy and rules of conduct. The elementary classroom takes advantage of this tendency by operating as a small social community in which children learn to work together, resolve conflicts peacefully, encourage and acknowledge each other, and work as committees to complete complex tasks. Dr. Montessori also noted that the elementary years are a time when children are developing their sense of justice and moral reasoning. Most classes go beyond simple lessons in grace and courtesy to begin a serious exploration of moral philosophy. It is common to find elementary Montessori students discussing questions like: "Why are some things considered a sin? What happens to us when we die? Why is it important for the fortunate to lend a hand to the poor? If kindness is so important, what can I do when I am feel angry?"During the elementary years, Montessori children begin to seriously address the question of aid to the elderly, handicapped, critically ill and economically disadvantaged. They explore international issues from the perspective of building bridges toward world peace. They study ecology, wildlife preservation, and conservation of natural resources.Elementary classes almost always become directly engaged in acts of charity: gathering food, toys, and clothing for the poor; raising funds for local shelters; assisting in food kitchens for the homeless. Through a balance of personal experience, investigation and research, and exploration of these themes in literature and film, students make their first efforts at trying to understand war, violence, poverty, and the crisis of the homeless. More importantly, they struggle with what they can do as individuals to make the world a better place.It is quite common to find elementary classes engaged in community service projects. Most classes recycle and prepare compost. They will commonly clear streambeds, plant wildflowers, and participate in erosion control programs. Most will raise funds for charities or to support a child through one of the overseas aid organizations.One thing that Montessori elementary students tend to do is write letters; hundreds of letters. They let lawmakers and decision-makers in industry know what they think about a wide range of social and environmental issues. They talk about the issues of the day with their friends and families.Through these and many other efforts, we begin to introduce Montessori children to moral questions in personal relationships to encourage the awakening of their social conscience. They engage in a gradual process of self-discovery and start to ask the larger questions: "What am I good at" "What do I stand for?" " What is the purpose of my life?"Through this process they begin to integrate their personalities and take their first steps toward making a conscious contribution to the world. Dr. Montessori called such children the 'Erdkinder': the children of the earth.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Sidebar Quote:Maria Montessori redefined the nature of the schools of tomorrow:“Education represents the most powerful and universal force through which we can redirect humanity from a tendency towards violence to a tendency towards peace.The word education must not be understood as teaching but of assisting the psychological development of the child.It should no longer be thought of as imparting knowledge, but must take a new path that seeks to release the human potential within us all.Education is not something that the teacher does. It is a natural process that develops spontaneously.The true role of education is to interest the child profoundly in an external activity to which he will give all of his potential. "The child is the forgotten citizen. If the nations of the world understood the potential within each child for good or evil, they would devote far more of their resources and wisdom to education.”Dr. Maria Montessori>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Homework Most Montessori schools do not assign homework at all below the elementary level. When it is assigned to older children it rarely involves page after page of busywork, but meaningful, interesting assignments that expand on the topics that the children are pursuing in class. Some assignments invite parents and children to work together.Homework doesn't need to be boring! Montessori challenges children to think, explore, and pursue tangible projects that give them a sense of satisfaction. Homework is intended to afford students the opportunity to practice and reinforce skills introduced in the classroom. Moreover, there is a certain degree of self-discipline that can be developed within the growing child through the process of completing assignments independently.Homework should never become a battleground between adult and child. One of our goals as parents and teachers should be to help the children learn how to get organized, budget time, and follow through until the work is completed. Ideally home challenges will give parents and children a pleasant opportunity to work together on projects that give both parent and child a sense of accomplishment. They are intended to enrich and extend the curriculum.Many elementary classes will send home a packet of "At Home Challenges" for each age group in the class. The children have an entire week, through the next weekend, to complete them. The following Mondays, teachers sit down with the children to review what worked, what they enjoyed, and what they found difficult or unappealing.Depending on the child's level, assignments normally involve some reading, research, writing, and something tangible to accomplish. They may be organized into three groups: 1) Things to be experienced, such as reading a book, visiting the museum, or going to see a play. 2) Things to learn, stated in terms of skills and knowledge, such as "See if you can learn how to solve these problems well enough that you can teach the skill to a younger student. 3) Products to be submitted, such as a play, essay, story, experiment, or model.When possible, teachers will normally build in opportunities for children to choose among several alternative assignments. Sometimes teachers will prepare individually negotiated weekly assignments with each student.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Side barHere are just a few examples of assignments that students and families have found to be both interesting and challenging:Perform an act of charity or extraordinary kindness.Plan and prepare dinner for your family with little or no help from your folks.Plan and prepare a dinner for your family typical of what the ancient Greeks might have eaten.Read together books that touch the soul and fire the imagination. Discuss the books that the children are reading in class on Fridays.Visit a church or synagogue of a different faith than yours. Meet the rabbi, priest, or minister and learn as much as you can about this other faith.Go to a boatyard and learn what you can about different kinds of boats, their purpose, cost, advantages and disadvantages.Buy some stock and follow its course over time. Pretend that you have a thousand dollars to invest, ten thousand, a million.How many square feet of carpet would it take to cover your entire house? Convert this number into square yards. Call two carpet dealers. What kinds of carpet do they offer and what would it cost to carpet your house.Build a square model of the floor plan of your house out of cardboard, one floor at a time. Be as careful and exact as you can. Develop a pen pal in a Montessori school across the USA or in another country.Prepare a list of all the things that you would like to do with your life: career, cities to visit, mountains to climb, things you want to learn, etc.Teach your dog a new trick.Build a model of the Parthenon, an aqueduct, or some other historical structure.Plant a garden, tree, some bulbs around your house.Write a play and perform it with some friends for your class.Make puppets with your folks, build a puppet theater and put on a performance.Learn about magic and master a new trick.Build a bridge out of popsickle sticks held together with carpenter's glue that will span a three-foot chasm and support several bricks.Interview your grandparents about their childhood. Write a biography or share what you learn.Using one of the better books on children's science projects, select an experiment or project, carry it out, and prepare a report that documents what you did.Build a model sailboat using different types of sail plans. Race them on a pond with your class.Select a city somewhere in the world where you have never traveled. Find out everything that you can.Learn something new and teach it to someone in your class.Meet a real artist and visit her studio. Learn first aid.Prepare a timeline of the Presidents of the United States, along with picture cards, name tags, and fact cards. Study until you can complete the timeline on your own.Make your own set of constructive triangle, golden beads, or some other familiar Montessori material.Using 1 cm as a unit, build out of clay, wood, or cardboard pieces to make up units, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions. up to one billion.Prepare a scale model of the solar system in which the distance from the sun to Pluto will be two miles. Prepare carefully measured models of the planets and sun and calculate the distance that each will need to be placed on the scale away from the sun.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Providing structure - setting high but individually tailored expectationsWhenever students voluntarily decide to learn something, they tend to engage in their work with a passion and attention that few students will ever invest in tasks that have been assigned. This doesn't mean that they can do whatever they want academically, possibly electing to learn to read and possibly not. Montessori students have to live within a cultural context, which for us involves the mastery of skills and knowledge that we consider basic. Montessori gives students the opportunity to choose a large degree of what they investigate and learn, as well as the ability to set their own schedule during class timeMontessori children normally work with a written study plan for the day or week. It lists the basic tasks that they need to complete, while allowing them to decide how long to spend on 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.TestsMontessori children usually don't think of our assessment techniques as tests, so much as challenges. Montessori teachers typically observe their children at work or ask them to teach a lesson to another child to confirm their knowledge and skill. Most will also give their students informal individual oral exams or have the children demonstrate what they have learned by either teaching a lesson to another child or by giving a formal presentation. The children also take and prepare their own written tests to administer to their friends.Students are normally working toward mastery, rather than being graded using a standard letter grade scheme.Standardized TestsVery few Montessori schools test children under the first or second grade, however most regularly give elementary students quizzes on the concepts and skills that they have been studying. Many schools ask older students to take annual standardized tests. While Montessori students tend to score very well, Montessori educators frequently argue that standardized testing is inaccurate, misleading, and stressful for children. There are many issues, including how well a given test captures a sense of someone's true skills and knowledge. Any given testing session can be profoundly affected by the student's emotional state, attitude, and health, and to a large degree, what they really demonstrate is how well a student knows how to take this kind of test. They point out that any good teacher who works with the same children for three years and carefully observes their work knows far more about their progress than any standardized test can reveal. Ultimately, the problem with standardized tests is that they have been misunderstood and misused. Many schools teach to the test or have been so caught up in the testing frenzy that students lose any joy in learning. Used fairly, standardized tests have some value as a simple feedback loop, giving both parents and school a general sense of how students are progressing. Although standardized tests may not offer a terribly accurate measure of a child's basic skills and knowledge, in our culture, test-taking skills are just another practical life lesson that children need to master. Reporting Student ProgressBecause Montessori believes in individually paced academic progress, and encourages children to explore their interests rather than simply complete work assigned by their teachers, we do not assign grades or rank students within each class according to their achievement. Student Self-evaluations: At the elementary level, students will often prepare a monthly self-evaluation of their school work. When completed, they will meet with the teachers, who will review it and add their comments and observations. Portfolios of Student Work: In many Montessori schools, two or three times a year, students go through their completed work and make selections for their portfolios. Elementary students prepare a self-evaluation of their work thus far: what they accomplished, what they enjoyed the most, what they found most difficult, and what they would like to learn in the three months ahead.Student/Parent/Teacher Conferences: Once the student's self-evaluations are complete, parents, students, and teachers will hold a Family Conference two or three times a year to review their children's portfolios and self-evaluations and go through the teachers' assessment of their children's progress.Narrative Progress Reports: Typically once or twice a year Montessori teachers will prepare a written narrative evaluation of the student's work, social development, and mastery of fundamental skills. Final Thoughts in Closing“To me the best things about Montessori is the way we were able to just go around to pick the things that we needed freely, and that will really help me when I go further to be either an engineer or architect.” Willy Harris, Montessori Student, Prince George’s County Public Schools, Maryland“Montessori helps children to be flexible, to be self disciplined, to be independent learners, to be self actualized adults And that what we all want, some to be able to say, whatever it is, I can figure it out, I can find the information, I can learn it, I can apply it. And that's what we're trying to develop in children in the elementary program.” Valaida Wise, HeadmistressHenson Valley Montessori SchoolCamp Springs, Maryland“The teachers also teach peace, and we do that through the celebration of different cultures, but also through conflict resolution in the classroom when an opportunity arises to share with the class how are we going to solve this problem?” Kenna Murdter, Elementary Montessori GuideThe Barrie School, Silver Spring, Maryland“The respect level between the kids at Barrie, which is the school where two of my children have attended, is really something different from what my daughter experienced in public high school. Where in a public high school you always have to be careful about your own little space, in Barrie there was always a sense of community.” Bill Brennan, ParentThe Barrie School, Silver Spring, Maryland“I fell that the Montessori class at the elementary level is truly setting a child up so they can deal with whatever comes after.” Gwen Harris, Elementary Montessori GuidePrince George’s County Public Schools, Maryland“I would tell a parent that if their child is a kind of child who questions, who says why, why does this happen, or is excited about learning different things, not sitting down with a book, but actually asking why is it so cloudy today? That's the kind of child who is going to excel in a Montessori classroom.” Kenna Murdter, Elementary Montessori GuideThe Barrie School, Silver Spring, MarylandAnd so, in closing, I invite you to take a close look at the kind of child that your child has become today at four or five, and ask yourself, what would you like her to be like when she's eighteen? By what set of values do you hope she will live? Do you pray that she will still love school and be excited about learning? If so, then you've laid the right foundation by sending her to Montessori thus far. Like my family and so many millions of others like us, you've taken the first step. And now the question is “what's next?”I invite you to follow those of us who have gone before down the Montessori path, and discovered it to be the best decision that we could have made for our children. What your son or daughter has experienced thus far is just the first step in the journey, and the best is yet to come. Sensitive Periods Montessori believed in a necessary relationship between children and their environment. Children must find a properly prepared environment if they are to fully develop their unique human potentials. In addition to determining children's eventual height, hair color, and other physical characteristics, there is another cognitive plan which determines the unique emotional and intellectual qualities of each child. These qualities develop through what Montessori referred to as "the sensitive periods."Each sensitive period is a specific kind of compulsion, motivating young children to seek objects and relationships in their environment with which to fulfill their special and unique inner potentials..Montessori believed that children will develop to their full human potential when everything in the environment is "just right." Everything Food, furniture, learning activities, social relations, clothing, routines, and rituals must all be "just right" in order for them to develop their fullest potential as human beings. Young children are neither consciously aware of nor capable of directly communicating their interests and developmental needs. In Montessori's Early Childhood programs, teachers are charged with providing learning environments in which everything is "just right." For almost one hundred years, Montessori educators have observed a set of motivations shared by young children around the world. What Dr. Maria Montessori discovered in the St. Lorenz Quarter in 1907 was that children are self-motivated to learn from their environment.Borrowing a term from biology, she called these stages the sensitive periods, after similar developmental stages in animals. The idea seemed revolutionary at the time, and took many years, following Piaget's extensions of Montessori's initial explanation, to become generally accepted in child psychology. Today, whether we use Montessori's terminology or not, the description of child development she first presented at the turn of the century rings true. Each sensitive period is:A period of special sensibility and psychological attitudes.An overpowering force, interest, or impetus directing children to particular qualities and elements in the environment.A period of time during which children center their attention on specific aspects of the environment, to the exclusion of all else.A passion and a commitment.Derived from the unconscious and leads children to conscious and creative activities.Intense and prolonged activity which does not lead to fatigue or boredom, but instead leads to persistent energy and interest.A transitory state once realized, the sensitive period disappears. Sensitive periods are never regained, once they have passed.Dr. Montessori identified eleven different sensitive periods occurring from birth through age six. Each refers to a predisposition compelling children to acquire specific characteristics as described below. When Montessori teachers speak about children being "inner directed," they are referring to an inner compulsion or sensitive period. A Montessori teacher would say, for example, "This child is in her sensitive period for order." These phrases point to each child's predisposition to follow her own daily classroom routine in which she chooses the same materials and in the same sequence. Ages of the onset and conclusion of each sensitive period are approximate and are indicated after the general description.Movement Random movements become coordinated and controlled: grasping, touching, turning, balancing, crawling, walking. (birth — one)Language Use of words to communicate: a progression from babble to words to phrases to sentences, with a continuously expanding vocabulary and comprehension. (birth — six)Small Objects A fixation on small objects and tiny details. (one — four)Order Characterized by a desire for consistency and repetition and a passionate love for established routines. Children can become deeply disturbed by disorder. The environment must be carefully ordered with a place for everything and with carefully established ground rules. (two — four)Music Spontaneous interest in and the development of pitch, rhythm, and melody. (two — six)Grace & Courtesy Imitation of polite and considerate behavior leading to an internalization of these qualities into the personality. (two — six)Refinement of the Senses Fascination with sensorial experiences (taste, sound, touch, weight, smell) resulting with children learning to observe and with making increasingly refined sensorial discriminations. (two — six)Writing Fascination with the attempt to reproduce letters and numbers with pencil or pen and paper. Montessori discovered that writing precedes reading. (three — four)Reading Spontaneous interest in the symbolic representations of the sounds of each letter and in the formation of words. (three — five)Spatial Relationships Forming cognitive impressions about relationships in space, including the layout of familiar places. Children become more able to find their way around their neighborhoods, and they are increasingly able to work complex puzzles. (four — six)Mathematics Formation of the concepts of quantity and operations from the uses of concrete material aids. (four — six)Note: This list does not include the sensitive periods found in the development of older children and adolescents. However, it does suggest to the early childhood educator some of the things that young children absorb, or will if they are given exposure and opportunity.Keep in mind that the child's learning during these early stages is not complete, nor has it reached the internalized abstraction stage that will develop as she grows older. It is, however, the foundation upon which much that follows will be built. Wherever this solid foundation is lacking, children will experience difficulty in learning and operating later on. The Three-Period Lesson Editor's Note: The Three-Period Lesson is a fundamental technique used by Montessori educators to introduce a new lesson to children and lead them along a path to understanding and mastery. Most of us first think of the Three-Period Lesson as it is used to teach vocabulary, as illustrated in this brief article by Lillian DeVault Kroenke (excerpted from her longer article, Building Your Child's Vocabulary At Home, elsewhere in our on-line library). However, we commonly use the same three steps in helping children master new lessons throughout the curriculum. Introducing Rocks & Minerals: Quartz, Pyrite & Obsidian Most Montessori pre-primary teachers introduce rocks and minerals as a sensorial and vocabulary building activity. Let's use three contrasting minerals for our example: quartz, pyrite and obsidian. For the purpose of this example, let us assume that your child is already familiar with quartz. The First Period: This is... One by one, pick up and handle the stones. Keep the conversation precise and to the point. Identify each stone individually. Repeat the name several times, clearly and slowly. There is no need to rush."This is pyrite. Pyrite."Handle the stone. Let your child handle the item if possible. It reinforces the idea kinesthetically. Repeat the name while he is holding the item. Return it to its place.Pick up a second stone, preferably the one he knows best"This is quartz. Quartz.""Can you say quartz?"Handle the stone. Let the child hold the stone and proceed as above. Take the last stone."This is obsidian.""Would you like to hold the obsidian?" The Second Period Lesson:Show me...This will often be a separate and later exercise. If it is, be sure to repeat The First Period briefly. Note which item your child seems to know best.This is a time to extend the handling and movement - the action, to reinforce the names. This is not the time to ask (test) the child to verbalize the names."Pick up the obsidian.""Feel the obsidian.""Put the obsidian on the tray.""Pick up the quartz.""Feel the quartz.""Put the quartz on the tray.""Pick up the pyrite.""Feel the pyrite.""Put the pyrite here."The Third Period: What is this? This will often be a separate and later exercise. If it is, be sure to repeat The First Period briefly. Note which one you child knows best.When you feel your child knows the names, point to the object your child knows with certainty and ask:"What is this?"Then point to the next object and ask:"What is this?"Point to the last object and ask:"What is this?"Specific TechniquesThe Trick of the Middle We learn in Psychology 101 that, in a long list of items, we have the hardest time remembering the items in the middle of the list. The items at the beginning and at the end hold our attention and are easier to recall.Place the new object at the beginning or at the end. Place the object that you are sure your child knows in the middle to increase his comfort level. The last object can be new or somewhat familiar to the child.If you continue, begin this time with the last object mentioned, reinforcing it immediately. Keep the known object in the middle. When you get back to what was originally the first object, you will reinforce it again.The Second PeriodMost adults want to get to the third period as soon as possible. We want to test, get it over with, and move on to something else. After all, it's easy for us. We already know it.I want to emphasize that the second period is the critical, most important period and should be the longest. The second-period lesson serves several purposes: reviewing the vocabulary, reinforcing the vocabulary, and getting a glimpse of the process underway within the child. What connections are made? What slipped through the cracks? What needs more emphasis?Second-Period VariationsExtend the second period as long as you can hold your child's interest. Have the child move the object around. The movement, which increases kinesthetic memory, will make the lesson more attractive. For example:"Move the --- here," pointing with your finger."Take the ---to the table.""Bring the ---back.""Point to the---.""Give me the ---."At times when we are learning something new, we cling to the examples given in the instructions or by the instructor as the magic way to do it. As long as you understand the principle, keep it simple and focused, you can ask you child to do whatever is appropriate for the setting, object, or idea you are teaching.Using the Trick of the Middle, ask you child to show you first the one you are sure he knows. That limits the number of items for his focus and increases the odds to select the correct one the second time. Ask for the one he is most likely to know of the two remaining.If you started with only two objects, there is no middle object. The second object is obvious.The Third PeriodThis is the first time you are asking the child to say the name of the object or idea. Move to the testing period only when you are sure your child will succeed. Remember, mastery usually takes some time.One of the most insightful mandates to the Montessori teacher is teach by teaching, not correcting. If you move to the third period too quickly, you will be in a correction mode. If this happens, bring the lesson to a close. Casually move on to something else with no recrimination. At a later time, begin again with the second period.Our ultimate goal is to help the child master the information and himself. This knowledge becomes a starting point for the child's next learning adventure. We want each child to say, "I can do it." Every time your child masters a skill or assimilates an idea, he is becoming a stronger, more competent and independent person open to learning more. Enjoy your time with your child. Isn't that what you really want? Lillian DeVault Kroenke, now retired, has been a Montessori pre-primary Directress and school administrator, teacher trainer, owner of designed for children, curriculum researcher for the Montessori Development Foundation and director of the AMS School Consultation Service. Today she is publishing The Montessori Readers Series and is the editor of a new journal, Infants and Toddlers. She can be contacted at 505-291-8022.