Why Montessori

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A Montessori school can be a great choice for supporting the development of your child’s special ability, creativity, and talent, but a Montessori education can also work to suppress your child’s abilities and enthusiasms. It depends on child age, temperament, interests, abilities, and more as well as on the specific school.

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What Is a Montessori School?

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Maria Montessori was a pioneer in designing educational techniques that helped children with a variety of learning challenges. In the early 20th century in Italy, she developed the first school in what would become a global phenomenon, with thousands of schools today that use the Montessori name. Some of these adhere rigidly to Dr Montessori’s original practices, and others follow the spirit of her philosophy much more loosely.  

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Foundations of the Montessori Approach 

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1. Child-centered

The heart of the Montessori approach is a focus on children’s strengths rather than their limitations. It affirms the possibilities each child has to learn and grow, and recognizes that children develop in unique ways, according to their own unique abilities, backgrounds, interests, and schedules. When this child-centered focus is applied flexibly, each child’s studies are based on their interests and abilities, such that the child has a continuous experience of productive challenge in their learning.

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2. Practical and concrete

Maria Montessori recognized how much children gained from practical achievements and concrete life skills. While this was particularly valuable for the cognitively impaired children she was working with, most children feel good about mastering practical skills like sweeping the floor, pouring liquids, etc. This approach helps all children develop competence and confidence. At its most rigid, and as occurs in some traditional Montessori schools, the focus on practical life skills leads to a prohibition against play-based learning and imagination, and can also mean little or no time allocated to physical and outdoor play.

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3. Decentralized

Teachers rarely teach to the entire class, and children do a lot of self-directed work. The student-teacher ratio tends to be high, so children are usually working on their own or with other children. While some children thrive with this approach, others do better with more teacher direction.

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4. Independent

One of the aims of the Montessori approach is an independent child, one who learns by following their own curiosities. This can be ideal, and is in fact the objective of most educators today. The Montessori pathway to getting there, however, can be heavily prescribed, such that a child is not allowed to proceed to the next level up without authorization from the teacher.

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