montessori 101 nonprintable(2)

8/13/2019 Montessori 101 Nonprintable(2)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/montessori-101-nonprintable2 1/22

The Man y Faces of Mon tessor i in Nort h Am erica

here are perhaps 4,000 M ontessori schools in theUnited Statesand Canada and thousands morearound the world. M ontessori schools are found

throughout Western Europe, Central and South America,Australia, New Zealand, and much of Asia.

T he movement is widespread in countries such astheNetherlands, the Uni ted Kingdom, I reland, I ndia, Sri Lanka,

Korea, and Japan, and i t is beginning to mushroom inEastern Europe, the republics of the former Soviet Union,and China.

T here is tremendous diversity within the comm unity of M ontessori schools. D espite the impression that allM ontessori schoolsare the same, perhaps a franchise lik eM cD onald’s, no two M ontessori schools are the same.

Across the U nited States and Canada, we can findM ontessori schools in almost every communi ty. T hey arefound i n church basements, converted barns, shopping cen-ters, former public schools, and on expansive campuseswith enrollments of hundreds of children and the air of stature and stability.

We can find them in suburban and inner city public-

school systems. M ontessori schools are often found incharming homes — the outcome of the individual vision of the owner/director. M any are found in affluent communi-ties, but just as many serve work ing-class neighborhoodsand the poor. We can find M ontessori in H ead Start pro-grams, child-care centers in our inner citi es, migrant work -ers’ camps, and on Indian reservations.

Some M ontessori schools pride themselves on remainingfaithful to what they see as Dr. M aria M ontessori’s original vi-sion, while others appreciate flexibility and pragmatic adap-tation. Each school reflects itsown unique blend of facilities,programs, personality, and interpretation of D r. M ontes-sori’s vision.

Photos in this ar ticle wer e taken a t Mon tessori School of And erson in Ander son , SC

very year thousands of young children begintheir education in M ontessori schools aroundthe world. Their parents ask, “Just what is this

thing called M ontessori?” Their questions are wellfounded, because M ontessori schools are normally very

di fferent from the schools most of us attended whenwe were young.T hose of us who have spent yearsaround

M ontessori children know that M ontessori works!Parents new to M ontessori have to sort through a hostof conflicting impressions. When fri ends ask them totell them about their children’s new M ontessori school,most parents honestly don’ t k now where to begin.

“It all looked so nice when we visited the school last spring. But to tell the truth, most of what the school told us about how Montessori works sailed right past us! After all, it really is a bit much to take in all at once, all this talk about the planes of development, sensiti ve periods,and prepared environments. And just what is it that we’re supposed to call Samantha’s teachers? Are they ‘di rectresses,’ ‘mentors,’ ‘facilitators,’

or are they ‘guides’? Gosh, I wonder if they ever just teach?” I t all seems so terribly complicated, especially when

people seem to have such different impressions of M ontessori. Some rave about it, while others think thatyou must be crazy to put your child in a M ontessorischool. Some people are firmly convinced thatM ontessori is too rigid and that it robs children of theircreativity; othersobject that it is completely unstruc-tured and without any academic standards.

“Isn’t Montessori the sort of school where they allow the children to do whatever they want? Perhaps it will work for your Sally, but I’m afraid that if my Danny were left to his own devices, he’d never choose to do a lick of work! He needs order, structure, a small-class size, and disci-

pline!” For more than thirty years, I ’ve tried to help parents

sort all this out so they could reassure themselves thatM ontessori isn’t going to leave their children academi-cally handicapped and unable to make i t in the realworld. I t’s sti ll not easy to put M ontessori into contextwhen the rest of the world seems so completely com-mi tted to a very different approach to raising children.

M ontessori 101 was written to help parents begin todiscover and reconfirm what M ontessori children know— M ontessori works!

— Tim Seldin, PresidentThe M ontessori Foundation

Mon t essor i 10 1 :Som e Basic

In fo r m at ion t h a t Ever yMon tessor i Pa r e n t

Sh ou ld Kn ow

by Tim Seldin, President The Montessori Fo undation

E

T



M ost M ontessori schools begin withthree year olds and extend through theelementary grades. Every year moreschoolsopen mi ddle-school programsat one end; infant-toddler programs atthe other.

M ontessori schools offer a widerange of programs. M any are focused onmeeting the needs of the work ing fami-ly. O thers describe themselves as col-lege-preparatory programs. PublicM ontessori programs pride themselveson serving all children, while many inde-pendent schools work hard to find theperfect match of student, school, andfamily values. The MontessoriFoundation and InternationalM ontessori Council celebrate the diver-sity to be found among M ontessorischools. Just as each chi ld i s unique, soare the schools that we create uni quecommunitiesof parents and teachers.

What mak es Mont essorisch ools different ?

M ontessori schools are not completelydifferent from other schools. O ver thelast century, D r. M aria M ontessori’ sideas have had a profound and growinginfluence on education around theworld. H owever, while individual ele-ments of her program are finding theirway into more classrooms every year,there is a cumulative impact that we seewhen schools fully implement the entireM ontessori model which creates some-

thing quite distinct.H ere are a few key points to consider

as you look at M ontessori schools moreclo se ly:

M ontessori schools begin with adeep respect for children as unique indi-viduals. T hey work from a deep concernfor their social and emotional develop-m e n t.

M ontessori schools are warm andsupportive communities of students,teachers, and parents. C hildren don’tget lost in the crowd!

M ontessori consciously teaches chil-dren to be kind and peaceful.

M ontessori classrooms are bright andexciting environments for learning.

M ontessori classesbring chi ldren to-gether in multi-age groups, rather thanclasses compri sed of j ust one grade lev-el. Normally they span three age levels.Chi ldren stay with their teachers forthree years. T his allows teachers to de-velop close and long-term relationshipswith their pupils, allows them to k noweach child’ s learning style very well, andencourages a strong sense of communi-

ty among the children. Every year morenon-Montessori schools adopt this high-ly effective strategy.

M ontessori classrooms are not run bythe teachers alone. Students are taughtto manage their own communi ty anddevelop uncanny leadership skills andin d e p e n d e n ce .

M ontessori assumes that children areborn intelligent, they simply learn in dif-ferent ways and progress at their ownpace. T he M ontessori approach to edu-cation is consciously designed to recog-nize and address different learning

styles, helping students learn to studymost effectively. Studentsprogress asthey master new skills, moving ahead asquickly as they are ready.

M ontessori students rarely rely ontexts and workbook s. Why?Becausemany of the ski lls and concepts that chil-dren learn are abstract, and texts simplydon’t bring them to life. Also, in the caseof reading, many reading series fail tocollect first rate and compelling storiesand essays; instead, M ontessori reliesupon hands-on concrete learning mate-rials and the li brary where children areintroduced to the best in literature andreference materi als.

Learning is not focused on rote dri lland memorization. T he goal isto devel-op students who really understand theirsch o o lw o rk .

M ontessori students learn throughhands-on experience, i nvestigation, andresearch. T hey become actively engagedin thei r studies, rather than passivelywaiting to be spoon fed.

M ontessori challenges and sets highexpectations for all students, not only

those considered “gifted.”Students develop self-discipli ne andan internal sense of purpose and moti-vation. After graduation from M ontes-sori, these values serve them well inhigh school, college, and in their lives asad u lts .

M ontessori schools normally reflect ahighly diverse student body, and theircurriculum promotes mutual respectand a global perspective.

Students develop a love for the nat-ural world. Natural science and outdooreducation is an important element of

our children’s experience.The M ontessori curriculum is careful-

ly structured and integrated to demon-strate the connections among the differ-ent subject areas. Every classteaches

critical thinking, composition,and research. H istory lessonslink architecture, the arts, sci-ence, and technology.

Students learn to care aboutothers through community ser-vice .

M ontessori teachersfacilitatelearning, coach students along,

and come to know them asfriends and mentors.

Students learn not to beafraid of making mistakes; theycome to see them as naturalsteps in the learning process.

M ontessori students learn tocollaborate and work togetherin learning and on major pro-

jects. They strive for their per-sonal best, rather than competeagainst one another for thehighest grade in their class.



a small table. As he work s, he’s absorbedin the patterns that his brush andsponge make in the soap suds on thetable’s surface. Teddy returns everythingto i ts storage place. When he is finished,the table is more or less clean and dry. Afour year old washes a table for thesheer pleasure of the process; that itleads to a cleaner surface is incidental.What T eddy is learning above all else isan inner sense of order, a greater senseof independence, and a higher ability toconcentrate and follow a complex se-quence of steps.

Teddy moves freely around the class,selecting activities that capture his inter-est. In a very real sense, T eddy and hisclassmates are responsible for the careof this child-sized environment. Whenthey are hungry, they prepare their ownsnack and drink .

T hey go to the bathroom without as-sistance. When something spills, they

help each other carefully clean thingsup. We find children cutting raw fruitand vegetables, sweeping, dusting,washing windows. T hey set tables, tietheir own shoes, polish silver, and

steadi ly grow intheir self-confidenceand independence.Noticing that theplants needs water-ing, T eddy carries

the watering can from plant to plant,barely spilling a drop.

Now it’s 11:00, and one of his teach-ers, Ann, comes over and asks him howthe morning has been going. T hey en-gage in conversation about his latest en-thusiasms, which leads Ann to suggestanother reading lesson.

She and T eddy sit down at a smallrug with several wooden tablets onwhich the shapes of letters are traced insandpaper. Ann selects a card and slowlytraces out the letter d , carefully pro-nouncing the letter’s phonetic sound:duh, duh, duh . T eddy traces the letterwith his tiny hand and repeats thesound made by his teacher.

T eddy doesn’t know this as the letterd ; for the next year or so, he will onlycall it by its phonetic sound: d u h . Thisway, he never needs to learn the familiarprocess of converting from the lettername, d , to the sound it makes, d u h .

Continuing on with two or three addi-tional letters, Ann slowly helps T eddybuild up a collection of letters which heknows by their phoneti c sounds.

Ann leads Teddy through a three-step process. “ T eddy, this is d u h . Canyou say d u h? Terrific! Now, this isa bu h ( the letter b ) . T eddy, can you show methe d u h ? Can you give me the bu h? Fin e .O kay, what is this ( holding up one of the sandpaper letters just introduced)?”

T eddy responds, and the processcontin-ues for another few minutes. T he entirelesson i s fairly brief; perhaps 15 minutesor so. Before long, T eddy will begin toput sounds together to form simplethree-letter words.

Teddy’s day continues just li ke themorning began. H e eats his lunch withthe class at 11:45, after which he goesoutside with his friends to play in thesnow. After lunch, the Spanish teachercomes into the room and begins to workwith small groups of students. Eventually,she taps Teddy on the shoulder and askshim if he would lik e to join her for a les-son. He smiles, but graciously declines.He is too engaged in the proj ect that he’sch o se n .

I n the afternoon he does some moreart, listens to selections from a recordingof the Nu tcr a ck er ballet, work s on hisshape names with the geometry cabinet,and completes a puzzle map of the

United States.When the day is over, T eddy has prob-ably completed 20 to 30 different activi-ties, most representing curriculum con-tent qui te advanced for someone who, af-ter all, just turned four two months ago.But when his dad picks him up at 4:50,hisresponse to the usual question of “What did you do in school today” is nodifferent from many children, “O h, Idon’t know. I guess I did a lot of stuff!”

D r. Mar ia Mon t essor i:A Hist o r ical P e r s p e c t ive

“To aid l ife, leaving it free, however, to unfold itself, that is the basic task of the educator.

Ours was a house for children, rather than a real school. We had prepared a place for children, where a dif- fused culture could be assimilated, without any need for di rect instruction...Yet these children learned to read and write before they were five, and no one had given them any lessons. At that

time it seemed miraculous that children of four and a half should be able to wri te, and that they should have learned without the feeling of having been taught.

We puzzled over it for a long ti me. Only after repeated experiments did we conclude with certainty that all children are en- dowed with this capacity to ‘absorb’ culture. If this be true - we then argued - if culture can be acquired without effort, let us provide the children with other elements of culture. And then we saw them ‘absorb’ far more than reading and writing: botany,zoology, mathemati cs, geography, and all with the same ease,spontaneously and without getting tired.

And so we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It i s not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher’s task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cul- tural activity in a special environment made for the child.

My experiments, conducted in many different countri es,have now been going on for forty years (Ed. note: now morethan n inety years), and as the children grew up, parents kept asking me to extend my methods to the later ages. We then found that individual activity is the one factor that stimu- lates and produces development, and that this is not more true for the little ones of preschool age than i t is for the junior,middle, and upper school children.

— Dr. Maria Montessori The Absorbent Mind



schedule to support various social-re-form movements. Early in her career,she began to accept speaking engage-ments throughout Europe on behalf of the women’s movement, peace efforts,and child labor-law reform. M ontessoribecome well known and highly regard-ed throughout Europe, which undoubt-edly contributed to the publicity thatsurrounded her schools.

In 1901, M ontessori wasappointedDirector of the new O rthophrenicSchool attached to the University of Rome, formerly used as the asylum forthe “deficient and insane” children of the city, most of whom were probablyretarded or autistic. She initiated reformin a system that formerly had servedmerely to confine mentally handicappedyoungsters in empty rooms. Recogniz-ing her patients’ need for stimulation,purposeful activity, and self-esteem,M ontessori insisted that the staff speak

to the inmates with the highest respect.She set up a program to teach heryoung charges how to care for them-selves and their environment.

aria M ontessori is as contro-versial a figure in education to-day as she wasa half century

ago. Alternately heralded as the century’sleading advocate for early childhood edu-cation or dismissed as outdated and irrel-evant, her research and the studies thatshe inspired helped change the course of education.

T hose who studied under her andwent on to make their own contributionsto education and child psychology in-clude Anna Freud, Jean Piaget, AlfredAdler, and Erik Erikson. M any elements of modern education have been adaptedfrom M ontessori’s theories. She is credit-ed with the development of the openclassroom, individualized education, ma-nipulative learning materials, teachingtoys, and programmed instruction. In thelast 35 years, educators in Europe andNorth Ameri ca have begun to recognizethe consistency between the M ontessori

approach with what we have learnedfrom research into child development.M aria Montessori was an individual

ahead of her time. She was born in 1870in Ancona, I taly, to an educatedbut not affluent middle-classfamily. She grew up in a countryconsidered most conservative inits attitude toward women, yeteven against the considerableopposition of her father andteachers, M ontessori pursued ascientific education and was thefirst woman to become a physician in

I taly.As a practicing physician associated

with the University of Rome, she was ascienti st, not a teacher. I t is ironic that shebecame famous for her contributions in afield that she had rejected as the tradi-tional refuge for women at a time whenfew professions were open to them otherthan homemaking or the convent. T heM ontessori method evolved almost by ac-cident from a small experiment that Dr.M ontessori carried out on the side. H ergenius stems not from her teaching abili-ty, but from her recognition of the impor-

tance of what she stumbled upon.As a physician, D r. M ontessori special-

ized in pediatrics and psychiatry. Shetaught at the medical school of theUniversity of Rome, and through its freeclinics, she came into frequent contactwith the children of the working class andpoor. T hese experiences convinced herthat intelli gence is not rare and that mostnewborns come into the world with a hu-man potential that will be barely revealed.

H er work reinforced her humanisticideals, and she made time in her busy

At the same time, she began a metic-ulousstudy of all research previouslydone on the education of the mentallyhandicapped. Her studies led M ontes-sori to the work of two almost forgottenFrench physicians of the eighteenth andnineteenth centuries: Jean Itard andEdouard Seguin. I tard is most famousfor his work with the “Wild Boy of Aveyron,” a youth who had been foundwandering naked in the forest, havingspent ten years living alone. T he boycould not speak and lacked almost all of the skillsof everyday life. H ere apparent-

ly was a “natural man,” a human beingwho had developed without the benefitof culture and socialization with his ownkind. I tard hoped from this study toshed some light on the age-old debateabout what proportion of human intelli-gence and personality is hereditary andwhat proportion stems from learned be-h avio r .

I tard’s experiment was a limited suc-cess, for he found the “wild boy” unco-operative and unwilling or unable tolearn most things. T his led Itard to pos-

tulate the existence of developmental peri-ods in normal human growth. D uring these“sensitive periods,” a child must experiencestimulation or grow up forever lacking theadult ski lls and intellectual concepts that hemissed at the stage when they can be readi-ly learned! Although Itard’s efforts to teachthe “ wild boy” were barely successful, hefollowed a methodical approach in design-ing the process, arguing that all educationwould benefit from the use of careful ob-servation and experimentation. T his ideahad tremendous appeal to the scienti ficallytrained M ontessori and later became thecornerstone of her method. From EdouardSeguin, M ontessori drew further confirma-tion of I tard’s work, along with a far morespecific and organized system for applyingit to the everyday education of the handi-capped. Today Seguin is recognized as thefather of our modern techniques of specialeducation.

From these two predecessors, M ontes-

sori took the idea of a scienti fic approach toeducation, based on observation and ex-perimentation. She belongs to the “childstudy” school of thought, and she pursued

her work with the careful trainingand objectivity of the biologiststudying the natural behavior of an animal in the forest. She stud-ied her retarded youngsters, lis-tening and carefully noting every-thing that they did and said.Slowly she began to get a sense of who they really were and what

methods work ed best. H er success was giv-

en widespread notice when, two years aftershe began, many of M ontessori’s “defi -cient” adolescents were able to pass thestandard sixth grade tests of the Italian pub-lic schools. Acclaimed for this“miracle,”M ontessori responded by suggesting thather results proved only that publi c schoolsshould be able to get dramatically better re-sults with normal children.

Unfortunately, the I talian M inistry of Education did not welcome this idea, andshe was denied accessto school-aged chil-dren. Frustrated in her efforts to carry theexperiment on with public-school students,

in 1907 M ontessori jumped at the chanceto coordinate a day-care center for work -ing-classchildren who were too young toattend public school.

T hisfirst Casa dei Bambini or“Children’s House” was located in theworst slum district of Rome, and the condi-tions M ontessori faced were appalling. H erfi rst class consisted of fifty children fromtwo through five years of age, taught byone untrained caregiver.

The children remained at the centerfrom dawn to dusk while their parents

Mar ia Mon t essor i is ascon t r overs ia l a figur e in

educat ion t od ay as she wasa ha lf cent ur y ago.

M



’

.day, bathed regularly, and given a pro-gram of medical care. The children them-selves were typical of extreme inner-citypoverty conditions. They entered theChildren’s House on the first day cryingand pushing, exhibiting generally aggres-sive and impatient behavior. M ontessori ,not knowing whether her experimentwould work under such conditions, be-gan by teaching the older children how

to help with the everyday tasks that need-ed to be done. She also introduced themanipulative perceptual puzzles that shehad used with the retarded.

T he results surprised her, for unlikeher retarded children who had to beprodded to use the materials, these littleones were drawn to the work she intro-duced. Children who had wandered aim-lessly the week before began to settledown to long periods of constructive ac-tivity. T hey were fascinated with the puz-zles and perceptual training devices. But,to M ontessori’s amazement, the young

children took the greatest delight inlearning practical everyday living skills re-inforcing their i ndependence.

Each day they begged her to showthem more, even applauding with delightwhen M ontessori taught them the cor-rect use of a handk erchief. Soon the old-er children were taking care of theschool, assisting their teacher with thepreparation and serving of meals and themaintenance of a spotless environment.Their behavior as a group changed dra-matically, from street urchins runningwild to models of grace and courtesy. I twas little wonder that the pressfoundsuch a human interest story appealingand promptly broadcast it to the world.

M ontessori education i s sometimescriticized for being too structured andacademically demanding of young chil-dren. M ontessori would have laughed atthis suggestion. She often said, “I studiedmy children, and they taught me how toteach them.” M ontessori made a practiceof paying close attention to their sponta-neous behavior, arguing that only in thisway could a teacher k now how to teach.T raditionally, schools pay little attentionto children as individuals, other than todemand that they adapt to our standards.

M ontessori argued that the educator’s job isto serve the child; determiningwhat is needed to make the greatestprogress. T o her, a child who fails inschool should not be blamed, any morethan a doctor should blame a patientwho doesnot get well fast enough. It isthe job of the physician to help us findthe way to cure ourselves and the educa-tor’s job to facilitate the natural processof learning.

academics. ‘Too young to go to publicschool, they begged to be taught how toread and write. T hey learned to do soquickly and enthusiastically, using spe-cial manipulative materials M ontessoridesigned for maximum appeal and ef-fectiveness. T he children were fascinat-ed by numbers; to meet this interest,the mathematically inclined M ontessorideveloped a series of concrete math

learning materials that has never beensurpassed. Soon her four and five yearolds were performing four-digit additionand subtraction operations and in manycases pushing on even farther. Their in-terests blossomed in other areas as well,compelling an overworked physician tospend night after night designing newmaterials to keep pace with the childrenin geometry, geography, history, andnatural science.

The final proof of the children’s inter-est came shortly after her fi rst school be-came famous, when a group of well in-

tentioned women gave them a mar-velous collection of lovely and expensivetoys. T he new gifts held the children’sattention for a few days, but they soonreturned to the more interesting learn-ing materials. To M ontessori’s surprise,children who had experienced both,preferred work over play most of thetime. I f she were here today, M ontessoriwould probably add: C hildren read anddo advanced mathematics in M ontessorischoolsnot because we push them, butbecause this is what they do when giventhe correct setting and opportunity. T odeny them the right to learn becausewe, as adults, think that they shouldn’ t isillogical and typical of the way schoolshave been run before.

M ontessori evolved her methodthrough trial and error, making educat-ed guesses about the underlying mean-ing of the children’s actions. She wasquick to pick up on their cues, and con-stantly experi mented with the class.

For example, M ontessori tells of themorning when the teacher arrived lateto find that the children had crawledthrough a window and gone right towork. At the beginning, the learning ma-terials, having cost so much to make,were locked away in a tall cabinet. O nlythe teacher had a key and would open i tand hand the materials to the childrenupon request. I n this instance, theteacher had neglected to lock the cabi-net the night before. Finding it open,the children had selected one materialapiece and were working quietly. AsM ontessori arrived, the teacher wasscolding the children for taking themout wi thout permission. She recognized

they were capable of selecting their ownwork and removed the cabinet and re-placed it with low, open shelves on whichthe activities were always available to thechildren. Today thismay sound lik e a minorchange, but it contradicted all educationalpractice and theory of that period.

O ne discovery followed another, givingM ontessori an increasingly clear view of theinner mind of the child. She found that little

children were capable of long periods of quiet concentration, even though theyrarely showed signs of it in everyday set-tings. Although they were often carelessand sloppy, they respond positi vely to an at-mosphere of calm and order. M ontessorinoti ced that the logical extension of theyoung child’slove for a consistent and of-ten-repeated routi ne is an environment i nwhich everything has a place.

H er children took tremendous delight incarefully carrying their work to and fromthe shelves, taking great pains not to bumpinto anything or spill the smallest piece.

They walked carefully through the rooms,instead of running wildly as they did on thestreets. M ontessori discovered that the en-vironment itself was all important in obtain-ing the results that she had observed. Notwanting to use school desks, she had car-penters build chi ld-sized tables and chairs.She was the first to do so, recognizing thefrustration that a little child experiences inan adult-sized world.

Eventually she learned to design entireschools around the size of the children. Shehad miniature pitchers and bowls preparedand found k nives that fit a child’s tiny hand.T he tables were light-weight, allowing twochildren to move them alone. T he childrenlearned to control their movements, dislik -ing the way the calm was disturbed whenthey knocked into things. M ontessori stud-ied the traffic pattern of the rooms as well,arranging the furnishings and the activityarea to minim ize congestion and trippi ng.T he children loved to sit on the floor, soshe bought little rugs to define their workareas, and the chi ldren quickly learned towalk around them.

Through the years, M ontessori schoolscarried thisenvironmental engineeringthroughout the entire building and outsideenvironment, designing child-sized toi letsand low sinks, windows low to the ground,low shelves, and miniature hand and gar-den tools of all sorts. Some of these ideaswere eventually adapted by the larger edu-cational community, particularly at thenursery and kindergarten levels. M any of the puzzles and educational devices now inuse at the preschool and elementary levelsare direct copies of M ontessori’s originalideas. H owever, there is far more of herwork that never entered the mainstream,



12

,more effective answers are finding the ac-cumulated experience of the M ontessoricommuni ty to be of great interest.

M aria M ontessori’s first “C hildren’sHouse” received overnight attention, andthousands of visitors came away amazedand enthusiastic. Worldwide interestsurged as she dupli cated her first schoolin other settings with the same results.M ontessori captured the interest and

imagination of national leaders and scien-tists, mothers and teachers, labor leadersand factory owners. As an internationallyrespected scientist, M ontessori had a rarecredibility in a field where many othershad promoted opinions, phi losophies,and models that have not been readilyduplicated. T he M ontessori method of-fered a systematic approach that translat-ed very well to new setti ngs. I n the fi rst 35years of this century, the M ontessorimethod seemed to offer something foreveryone. Conservatives appreciated thecalm, responsible behavior of the li ttle

, .Liberals applauded the freedom andspontaneity. M any political leaders sawit as a practical way to reform the out-moded school systems of Europe andNorth America, as well as an approachthat they hoped would lead to a moreproductive and law-abiding populace.Scientists of all disciplines heralded i tsimperical foundation, along with the ac-celerated achievement of the li ttle chil-

dren. M ontessori rode a wave of enthu-siastic support that should havechanged the face of education far moredramatically than it has.

M ontessori’s prime productive peri-od lasted from the opening of the firstChildren’s H ouse in 1907 unti l the1930s.D uring this time, she continued herstudy of children, and developed a vastlyexpanded curriculum and methodologyfor the elementary level as well. M ontes-sori schools were set up throughoutEurope and North America, and Dr.M ontessori gave up her medical practice

the rights and intellectual potential of allchildren. D uring her lifetime, D r.M ontessori was acknowledged as one of the world’ s leading educators. Educationmoved beyond M aria M ontessori, adaptingonly those elements of her work that fitinto existing theories and methods.I ronically, the M ontessori approach cannotbe implemented as a series of pi ecemealreforms. It requires a complete restructur-

ing of the school and the teacher’s role.O nly recently, as our understanding of child development has grown, have we re-discovered how clear and sensible was herinsight. T oday there is a growing consen-sus among psychologists and develop-mental educators that many of her ideaswere decades ahead of their time. As themovement gains support and begins tospread into the American public schoolsector, one can readily say that M ontessori ,begun almost 100 yearsago, is a remark-ably modern approach.

n her research, D r. M ontessori noted specific characteris-tics associated with the child’s interests and abili ties at eachplane of development. She argued that a school carefully

designed to meet the needs and interests of the child willwork more effectively because it doesn’t fight human nature.M ontessori taught teachers how to “follow the child” throughcareful observation, allowing each student to reveal herstrengths and weaknesses, i nterests and anxi eties, and strate-gies that work best to facilitate the development of her human

potential.Thisfocuson the “whole child” led Dr. M ontessori to devel-

op a very different sort of school from the traditional adult-centered classroom. To emphasize thisdifference, she namedher first school the “Casa dei Bambini” or the “Children’sH ouse.”

There is something profound in her choice of words, forthe M ontessori classroom is not the domain of the adults, butrather it is a carefully prepared environment designed to facili-tate the development of the children’s independence andsense of personal empowerment. This is the children’scom-munity. T hey move freely within i t, selecting work that cap-tures their interest. Even very small chi ldren assist with thecare of the environment. When they are hungry, they prepare

their own snacks. T hey go to the bathroom without assistance.When something spills, they help each other carefully cleanup.

Four generations of parents have been amazed to see smallchildren in M ontessori classrooms cut raw frui ts and vegeta-bles, sweep and dust, carry pitchers of water and pour liquidswith barely a drop spilled. T he children normally go abouttheir work so calmly and purposely that i t is clear to even thecasual observer that they are the ‘m asters of the house.’

M ontessori’s first “C hildren’s H ouse,” opened in 1907, wasmade up of 60 inner-city children who largely came from dys-functional families. I n her book, The Montessori Method, D r.M ontessori describes the transformation that took place dur-

ing the first few months, as the children evolved into a “fami-ly.” They prepared and served the daily meals, washed thepots and dishes, helped the younger chi ldren bathe andchange their clothes, swept, cleaned, and work ed in the gar-den. These very young children developed a sense of maturi-ty and connectednessthat helped them realize a much high-er level of their potential as human beings.

While times have changed, the need to feel connected isstill as strong as ever. I n fact, for today’s children i t is proba-

bly even more important. M ontessori giveschildren the mes-sage that they belong — that their school is like a secondfamily. M any M ontessori students describe their experiencein words quite similar to these written by Frances M erenda, a1990 graduate of the Barrie School in Silver Spring, M aryland.

“I started in Montessori at age 2. I’m a product of the entire system. I did well in the lower grades and upper school. But sti ll,many people wondered if I had been prepared for college,whether I could “make it” in a “real school.” The skepticism of so many acquaintances was so disconcerting that I never bothered to step back and see what 15 years of trust, respect, teaching,and learning had done for me. When I went off to college at

Northwestern University, I left my support system and community behind and entered a world that was much colder and un- caring. At first, I deeply missed that sense of belonging. I didn’t realize that Barrie had not only given me a second family, but had also taught me how to bui ld new friendships, support systems, and communi ty wherever I go. Now, at Northwestern, I have used my years of experience in community building to cultivate secure relationships with people I have come to know.Barrie did more for me than just prepare me academically for college, i t prepared me for anything to which I chose to apply myself. I feel prepared for life and I wouldn’t want i t any other way.”



’

ontessori classrooms tend tofascinate children and theirparents. They are normally

bright, warm, and inviting, filled withplants, animals, art, music, and books.There are interest centers filled with in-triguing learning materials, mathemati-cal models, maps, charts, fossils, histori-cal artifacts, computers, scienti fic appa-ratus, perhaps a small natural-sciencemuseum, and animals that the childrenare raising.

M ontessori classrooms are common-ly referred to as a prepared environ-ment. This name reflects the care and at-tention that is given to creating a learn-ing environment that will reinforce thechildren’s independence and i ntellectu-al development.

You would not expect to find rows of desks in a M ontessori classroom. Theroom s are set up to facilitate student dis-cussion and stimulate collaborativelearning. O ne glance and it i sclear thatchildren feel comfortable and safe.

T he M ontessori classroom is orga-nized into several curriculum areas, usu-

ally including: language arts (reading, li t-erature, grammar, creative writing,spelling, and handwriti ng), mathematicsand geometry, everyday living skills, sen-

sory awareness exercises and puzzles,geography, hi story, science, art, music,and movement. M ost rooms will includea classroom library. Each area is madeup of one or more shelf units, cabinets,and display tables with a wide variety of materials on open display, ready for useas the children select them.

Students are typically found scatteredaround the classroom, working alone orwith one or two others. T hey tend to be-come so involved in their work that visi-

tors are immediately struck by thepeaceful atmosphere.

I t may take a moment to spot theteachers within the environment. T heywill normally be found working withone or two children at a time, advising,presenting a new lesson, or quietly ob-serving the class at work.

e r e p a r eE n vi r o n m e n t

M

typ icalMo n te sso riclassis

made up of 25 to35 children, moreor less evenly di-vided betweenboys and girls,covering a three-year age span.This practice hasbeen a hallmarkof the M ontessoriapproach for al-most 100 years.Classes are nor-mally taught by acertified Montes-

sori educator teaching with one or moreassistants or by two M ontessori teach-ers.

Classes tend to be stable communi-ties, with only the oldest third movingon to the next level each year. With two-thirds of the children returning each fall,M ontessori encourages a very differentlevel of relationship between children

and their peers, as well as between chil-dren and their teachers.

The levels usually found in aM ontessori school correspond to thedevelopm ental stages of childhood:Infant (birth through 18 months) ;Toddler ( 18 months to age 3) ; EarlyChildhood ( age 3 to 6) ; LowerElementary ( age 6 to 8) ; UpperElementary ( age 9 to 11) ; M iddle School( age 12 to 14); and Secondary ( age 15 to18) . At each level, the program and cur-riculum are logical and highly consistentextensions of what has come before.

M any pre-schools are proud of theirvery small group sizes, and parents oftenwonder why Montessori classes are somuch larger.

Schools that place children togetherinto small groups assume that theteacher is the source of instruction; avery limi ted resource even in a smallclass. These schools reason that as thenumber of children decreases, the timethat teachers have to spend with eachchi ld increases. I deally, we would have aone-on-one tutorial situation.

But the best ‘teacher’ of a three yearold i s often another child who is just alittle bit older and has mastered a skill.T his process is good for both the tutorand the younger child. In the M ontes-sori approach, the teacher is not the pri-mary focus.

M ontessori encourages children tolearn from each other. By havingenough children in each age group, allstudents will find others at, above, andbelow their present level of develop-ment. This also makes Montessorischoolseconomically more viable, al-lowing schools to attract teachers withfar greater traini ng and experience.

Some parents worry that by havingyounger children in the same class asolder ones, one age group or the otherwill be shortchanged. T hey fear that theyounger children will absorb the teach-ers’ time and attention, or that the im-portance of covering the k indergartencurriculum for the five year olds will pre-vent them from giving the three andfour year olds the emoti onal support



“ One of my most enduring memories of being a Montessori child is the sense of family I had with my classmates and teacher. Unlike traditional schools, where I would have moved into a new class with a new teacher every year, I had a wonderful continuity.When I moved up from the 3 to 6 class to elementary, I moved up with a group of students with whom I had been in class for three years already. We stayed together for the next six years. Today, nearly twenty years later, I can tell you where my classmates are and what they are doing. Better sti ll, my teacher, Mrs. Fleck and I are still very close. In fact, her grandson was in my very first class when I became a Montessori teacher!

When I left Montessori, I never found another experience like that in the private and public schools I attended. There, I felt that I was just a name on the roll rather than an

important i ndividual. In my Montessori class, we were each separate and special people, and together we made up a very special family. This is an experience that will remain with me always.”

— Dorothy Hamilton PorcherMontessori Child, Montessori Teache

ll children and most adultslearn best through direct expe-rience and the process of i n-

vestigation and discovery. M ost studentsdo not retain or truly grasp much of what they “learn” through memoriza-tion.

Asking a child to sit back and watch ateacher perform a process or experi-ment is like ask ing a one-year-old not toput everything into his mouth. Children

need to manipulate and explore every-thing that catches their interest. I t isironic that most schools still teach pri-marily through lecture, textbooks, andworkbooks, with students still spendingtheir days at a desk praying for the bellto ring.

D r. M ontessori recognized that con-crete learning apparatus makes learningmuch more rewarding. The M ontessorilearning materials are not themethod itself; they are simplytools that we use to stimulatethe child into logical thoughtand discovery. T he Montessorimaterials are provocative andsimple, each carefully designedto appeal to children at a givenlevel of development.

An important concept isthatfor each age level of theM ontessori curriculum there isan extensive collection of care-fully defined educational mate-rials that are the equivalent of the chaptersin a traditional

textbook. Each material isolates andteaches one concept or ski ll at a time. I ndeveloping the materials, D r.M ontessori carefully analyzed the skillsand concepts involved in each subjectand noted the sequence in which chil-dren most easily master them. She thenstudied how children seemed to be ableto most easily grasp abstract conceptsand designed each element to bring theabstract into a clear and concrete form.

and stimulation that they need. M y ex-perience has convinced me that bothconcerns are misguided and I can’timagine teaching in any other way.

There are several distinct advantagesto the M ontessori classroom model.

I n a well run and establishedM ontessori class chi ldren are typicallyfar more independent and self-disci-plined. O ne factor that makes this possi-ble i sthat each teacher’s class of stu-dents doesn’t leave at the end of theschool year.

Children normally enter at age threeand stay for a full three-year cycle, whenthey move on to the first year of theM ontessori 6-9 year-old class. Wi th two-thirds of the studentsreturning eachSeptember, the classroom culture is sur-prisingly stable.

Each child is a unique individual; notwo are the same. Even with the smallestteacher-pupi l ratios, each will have her

own interests, abilities, strengths andweaknesses. Each chi ld learns at herown pace and will be ready for any givenlesson in her own time, not on theteacher’s schedule of lessons.

Each child has her own learning style.M ontessori teacherstreat each child asan individual and customize lessons tofit her needs, personality, and interests.

Since M ontessori allows children toprogress through the curriculum at theirown pace, there is no academic reasonto group children according to onegrade level.

In a mixed-class, children can alwaysfind peers who are working at their cur-rent level. Work ing in one class for twoor three years allows students to devel-op a strong sense of communi ty withtheir classmates and teachers. T he agerange also allows the especially giftedchild the stimulation of intellectualpeers, without requiring that she skip agrade and feel emotionally out of place.

T o accommodate the needs of indi-vidual learners, M ontessori classroomshave to include curriculum to cover theenti re span of interests and abilities upthrough the oldest and most accelerat-ed students in the class. This creates ahighly enriched learning environment.

I n multi -level classrooms, younger

children are constantly stimulated bythe interesting work in which the olderones are engaged.

At the same time, in multi-level class-rooms, older students serve astutorsand role models for the younger ones,which helps them in their own mastery( we learn things best of all when weteach them to someone else) and leavesthem beaming with pride.



The materials are displayed on low,open shelves that are easily accessible toeven the youngest children. They arearranged to provide maximum eye ap-peal without clutter. Each has a specificplace on the shelves, arranged from theupper left-hand corner in sequence tothe lower right, following their se-quence in the curriculum. T he materialsare arranged in sequence from the mostsim ple to the most complex and fromthe most concrete to those that aremost abstract. Because of the order withwhich they are arranged in the environ-ment, children can find precisely whatthey need whenever they wish.

Each of the M ontessori materials isdesigned to allow children to work inde-pendently with only the lightest level of introduction and ongoing support fromthe teachers. T his is made possible by a The

M o n t e s s o r iCur r i cu lum

ontessori offers a rigorousand innovative academicprogram. T he curriculum

is organized into a spiral of integrat-ed studies, rather than a traditi onalmodel in which the curriculum iscompartmentalized into separatesubjects, with given topics consid-ered only once at a specific grade lev-el. I n the early years, lessons are in-troduced simply and concretely and

are reintroduced several times oversucceeding yearsat increasing de-grees of abstraction and complexity.

T he course of study uses an inte-grated thematic approach that tiesthe separate disciplines of the cur-riculum together into studies of thephysical universe, the world of na-ture, and the human experience.

Li terature, the arts, history, socialissues, political science, economics,science and the study of technologyall complement one another. T his in-tegrated approach is one of M ontessori ’s great strengths.

As an example, when studentsstudy ancient Greece, they also studyG reek mythology, read stories andnovels set in the Grecian world, cre-ate authentic costumes, build mod-elsof G reek buildings, and exploreG recian art. T hey study the climate,ecosystems, flora, fauna, and naturalresources of the world of the ancientG reeks. And they prepare plays, cele-brate festivals, and restage their ownversion of historical events.

built-in design element, the “Control of Error,” which allows students to deter-mi ne for themselves if they have doneeach exercise correctly.

The materials can be used repeatedlyat different developmental levels. Eachmaterial has multiple levels of challenge.Lessons are brief introductions, afterwhich the children repeat the exerciseover many days, weeks or months unti lthey attain mastery. I nterest leads themto explore variations and extensions in-herent within the design of the materialsat many levels over the years.

For example, the T rinomial Cube,which presents a complex and challeng-ing three-dimensional puzzle to thefive year old, is used to introduce theelementary child to the algebraic con-cept of the exponential powers of poly-n o m ials.

M

n M ontessori , the school day is notdivided into fixed time periods foreach subject. T eachers call stu-

dents together as they are ready, forlessons individually or in small groups.

A typical day’s work i s divided into“fundamentals” that have been assignedby the faculty and self-initiated proj ectsand research selected by the student.Students work to complete their assign-ments at their own pace — typicallywith care and enthusiasm. Teachersclosely monitor their students’ progress,keeping the level of challenge high.Teacher feedback to students and par-

ents helps students learn how to pacethemselvesand take a great deal of per-sonal responsibi lity for their studies,both of which are essential for later suc-cessin college and in life.

We encourage students to work to-gether collaboratively, and many assign-ments can only be accompli shedthrough teamwork.

Students constantly share thei r inter-ests and discoveries with each other.T he youngest experience the daily stim-ulation of their older friends and are nat-urally spurred on to be able to “do whatthe big kids can do.”



Literature

Dance

PracticalLife SkillsHistory

Art

Technology

Science

Economics

Drama

Math

Geography Foreign

Languages MusicGeometry

The Integrated Montessori Curriculum

Language Arts



Ho w CanM o n t e s s o r i

Te a ch e r sMeet t h e

Need s o fSo Man y

D i ffe r e n tCh i l d r e n ?

ontessori teachers do morethan present curriculum.The secret of any great

teacher is helpi ng learners get to thepoint that their minds and hearts areopen and they are ready to learn, wherethe motivation is not focused on gettinggood grades but, instead, involves a ba-sic love of learning. As parents knowtheir own children’s learning styles andtemperaments, teachers, too, developthi s sense of each child’s uni queness bydeveloping a relationship over a periodof years with the child and her parents.

D r. M ontessori believed that teachersshould focus on the child as a person,not on the daily lesson plan. M ontessorinurtures and inspires the human poten-tial, leading children to ask questions,think for themselves, explore, investi-gate, and discover. O ur ultimate objec-tive is to help them to learn how to learnindependently, retaining the curiosity,creativity, and intelligence with whichthey were born. M ontessori teachersdon’ t simply present lessons; they are fa-cili tators, mentors, coaches, and guides.

Traditional teachers tell us that they“teach students the basic facts and skillsthat they will need to succeed in theworld.” Studies show that in many class-rooms, as much as 40 percent of the daymay be spent on discipline and class-room management. M ontessori educa-tors play a very di fferent role.

Wanting to underscore the very dif-ferent role played by adults in herschools, Dr. M ontessori used the ti tle“directress” instead of “teacher.” I nI talian, the word implies the role of thecoordinator or administrator of an officeor factory. Today, many M ontessorischoolsprefer to call their teachers“guides.”

Whatever they’re called, M ontessoriteachers are rarely the center of atten-tion, for thi s is not their class; i t is the“Children’s House.”

Normally M ontessori teachers willnot spend much time working with thewhole class at once. Their primary roleis to prepare and maintain the physical,intellectual, and social/emotional envi-ronment within which the children willwork. Certainly, a key aspect of this isthe selection of intriguing and develop-mentally appropriate opportunities forlearning to meet the needs and interestsof each child in the class.

Mont essori GuidesHave Five Basic Goa ls:

to awaken the child’s spirit andim agin at io n ;

to encourage his normal desire forindependence and high sense of se lf-e ste e m ;

to help him develop the k indness,courtesy, and self-discipline that willallow him to become a full memberof society;

to help children learn how to ob-serve, question, and explore ideasin d e p e n d e n tly;

and, having created a spirit of joyfullearning, to help the child to masterthe skillsand knowledge of theirso c ie ty.

M ontessori guides rarely present a les-son to more than a handful of childrenat one time, and they limit lessons tobrief, efficient presentations. T he goal isto give the children just enough to cap-

M

ture their attention and spark their inter-est, intriguing them so that they willcome back on their own to work withthe materials.

M ontessori guides closely monitortheir students’ progress, keeping thelevel of challenge high. Because theynormally work with each child for twoor three years, guides get to know thei rstudents’ strengths and weaknesses, i n-terests, and anxieties extremely well.M ontessori guides often use the chil-dren’s intereststo enri ch the curriculumand provide alternate avenues for ac-complishment and success.

Mont essori TeachesChi ld ren t o Th ink andDiscover for Them selves

M ontessori schools are designed to helpchildren discover and develop their tal-ents and possibili ties.

While learning the right answers mayget a child through school, learning howto become a lifelong, independentlearner will take her anywhere! M ontes-sori teaches children to think, not sim-ply to memorize, feed back, and forget.

Rather than present students withthe right answers, M ontessori educatorstend to ask the right questions and chal-lenge them to discover the answers forthemselves. O lder students are encour-aged to do their own research, analyzewhat they have found, and come totheir own conclusions.

Respect an d Indep endence:The Founda t ion o f th eMont essor i App roach

M ontessori doesnot believe that intelli-gence is fixed at birth, nor i s the humanpotential anywhere near as limited, as itsometimes seems in traditional educa-tion. The validity of these beliefs hasbeen confirmed by the research of Piaget, G ardner, Coleman, and manyothers.

We know that each child i sa full and

complete individual in her own right.Even when she is very small, she de-serves to be treated with the full and sin-cere respect that we would extend toher parents. Respect breeds respect andcreatesan atmosphere within whichlearning is tremendously facilitated.

Success in school is directly tied tothe degree to which children believethat they are capable and independenthuman beings. I f they knew the words,even very young children would ask:Help me lear n to do it for myself!



’

By allowing children to develop ameaningful degree of independenceand self-discipline, M ontessori sets apattern for a lifetime of good workhabi ts and a sense of responsibili ty.Students are taught to take pride indoing things well.

Fr eedom o f Movem entand Independ en t lyCho sen Wor k

Children touch and manipulate every-thing in their environment. I n a veryreal sense, the adult mind is handmade, because it is through theirmovement, exploration, and manipu-lation that children build up a store-house of impressions about the physi-cal world. Children learn by doing,and this requires movement andspontaneous investigation.

M ontessori children are free to

move about, working alone or withothers at will. They may select any ac-tivity and work with it as long as theywish, so long asthey do not disturbanyone, damage anything, and put itback where it belongs when they arefinished.

M any exercises, especially at theearly childhood level, are designed todraw their attention to the sensoryproperties of objects within the envi-ronment: size, shape, color, texture,weight, smell, sound, etc. G raduallychildren learn to pay attention, seeing

more clearly small details in the thingsaround them. T hey begin to observeand appreciate their environment,which is a key in helping them di scov-er how to learn.

Freedom is a second critical issueas children begin their journey of dis-covery. O ur goal is less to teach themfacts and concepts, but rather to helpthem fall in love with the process of focusing thei r complete attention onsomething and solving its riddle withenthusiasm.

Work that has been assigned by

adultsrarely leads to such enthusiasmand interest as does work that chil-dren freely choose for themselves.The M ontessori classroom i s a learn-ing laboratory in which children are al-lowed to explore, discover, and selecttheir own work.

Children become comfortable andconfident in their abili ty to master theenvironment, ask questions, puzzleout the answer, and learn withoutneeding to be spoon fed by an adult.

What i s the most important thing that chi ldren get fr om Montessori ?

he M ontessori approach is often described as an “education forlife.” When we try to define what children take away from theiryearsin M ontessori, we need to expand our vision to include more

than just the basic academic skills.Normally, Americans think of a school as a place where one generation

passes down basic skills and culture to the next. From this perspective, aschool only exists to cover a curriculum, not to develop character and self-esteem.

But in all too many traditi onal and highly competitive schools, studentsmemorize facts and conceptswith little understanding, only to quickly for-get them when exams are over. Studies show that many bright studentsare passive learners. T hey coast through school, earning high grades, butrarely pushing themselves to read material that hasn’t been assigned, askprobing questions, challenge their teacher’s cherished opinions, or thinkfor themselves. T hey typically want teachers to hand them the “right an-swer.”

The problem isn’t with today’s children, but with today’s schools.

Children are as gifted, curious, and creative as they ever were, whenthey’re working on something that captures their interest and which theyhave voluntarily chosen to explore.

M ontessori schools work to develop culturally literate children and nur-ture their fragile sparksof curiosity, creativity, and intelligence. T hey havea very different set of prioritiesfrom traditi onal schools, and a very low re-gard for mindlessmemori zation and superficial learning.

M ontessori students may not memorize as many facts, but they do tendto become self-confident, i ndependent thinkers who learn because theyare interested in the world and enthusiastic about life, not simply to get agood grade.

M ontessori believed that there was more to li fe than simply the pursuitof wealth and power. To her, finding one’s place in the world, work that ismeaningful and fulfilling, and developing the inner peace and depth of soul that allows us to love are the most important goals in li fe.

H elen Keller, inspired by M ontessori, wrote:

“I believe that every child has hidden away somewhere in his being noble capacities which may be quickened and developed if we go about i t in the right way, but we shall never properly develop the higher nature of our li ttle ones while we conti nue to fill their minds with the so-called basics. Mathematics will never make them loving, nor wi ll accurate knowledge of the size and shape of the world help them to appreciate its beauties.Let us lead them dur ing the first years to find their greatest pleasure in nature. Let them run in the fields, learn about animals, and observe real things. Children will educate themselves under the right conditions. They require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction.”

M ontessori schools give children the sense of belonging to a family andhelp them learn how to live with other human beings.

To reduce these principles to the most simplistic form, Dr. M ontessoriproposed that we could make peace by healing the wounds of the humanheart and by producing a child who is independent, at peace with herself,and secure. D r. M ontessori envisioned her movement as essentially lead-ing to a reconstruction of society.

M ontessori schools are different, but i t i sn’t just because of the materi-als that are used in the classrooms. Look beyond the pink towers and gold-en beads, and you’ll di scover that the classroom is a place where childrenreally want to be — because it feels a lot like home.

T



19 ’

ormalization is a term that caus-es a great deal of confusion andsome concern among many

new M ontessori parents. Normalizationis a terrible choice of words. I t suggeststhat we are going to help children whoare not normal to become “normal.”This is not what Dr. M ontessori meant.

Normalization is M ontessori’s name forthe process that takes place in M ontes-sori classrooms around the world,through which young children learn tofocus their intelligence, concentratetheir energies for long periods, and taketremendous satisfaction from theirw o rk .

O ne mother put it this way: “ M y child just does not act the same now that he’sbeen in M ontessori a while. H e usuallyruns from one thing to another. I nM ontessori, he looks interested, some-times puzzled, and often completely ab-

sorbed. I think of normalization as akind of satisfaction that he seems to takefrom what he callshard work.”

I n his book, Mar ia Montessor i : H er Life an d Wor k , E.M . Standing describedthe following characteristics of normal-ization i n the child between the age of three and six:

A love of orderA love of workProfound spontaneousco n ce n trat io n

What Ou tcom esCan We Loo k fo r

If We Give Ou rChild a Mon tessori

E d u ca t i o n ?

here are eight primary aspects towhat we normally look for in chil-dren who have grown up with a

M ontessori education:

Academic Preparation: M ontessori pre-paresstudents both for higher educationand for life. O n an academic level, M ontes-sori helps students attain skills that allowthem to become independently function-ing adults and li fe-long learners.

Intrinsic Motivation: I nnate desire drivesM ontessori children to engage in activitiesfor enjoyment and satisfaction.

Internalized Ground Rules and theAbility to Work with External Authority:M ontessori students are normally comfort-able with ground rules that set the bound-aries for their interactions within theschool community. Because these groundrules become internalized, M ontessori stu-dents normally learn to behave appropri-ately whether or not teachers are present.

Social Responsibility : M ontessori chil-dren tend to be quite sensitive to therights and needs of others. They tend to

make a positive contribution to theirco m m u n ity.

Au ton o m y: M ontessori students tend tobecome self-directed, composed andmorally independent.

Confidence and Competence:M ontessori students tend to become con-fident, competent, self-reflective, and,thereby, successful. T hey are generally notafraid of failure and learn from mistakes.

Creativity and Originality of Thought:

M ontessori students normally becomeconfident in expressing their own ideasand creativity. T hey recognize the value of their own work, respect the creativeprocessof others and are willing to sharetheir ideas regardlessof the risk of rejec-tion. M ontessori students tend to takegreat satisfaction in self-expression.

Spiritual Awareness: M ontessori studentsare often exceptionally compassionate,empathetic, and sensitive to the naturalworld and the human condition.

T

Attachment to realityLove of silence and ofworking aloneSublimation of the possessivein stin ctO b e d ie n ceIndependence and initiativeSpontaneous self-disciplineJo yT he power to act from realchoice and not just from idlecu rio sity

K ay Futrell in her classic little book ,The Norm ali zed Child , describes D r.M ontessori ’s amazement when the 60frightened and i ll-disciplined inner-citychildren of her first Children’s Housebegan to respond to the new environ-m e n t.

“What followed seemed incredible even to Dr.Montessori, for the deprived children blos-

somed under this freedom, and the possibility of doing work suited to their needs. They revealed to her not only their enormous capacity for intellectual accomplishment, but a strange character of sweetness and serenity.They displayed a truly uncorrupted spirit,scorning rewards and punishment, and finding their joy in the prodigious work which involved them. They came from these labors refreshed, as from a creative experience, and as they worked, they grew in inner discipline and peace.

The sight of these children who displayed the truly “normal” characteristi cs of childhood,was the force which motivated Montessorifor the remainder of her life. This secret of childhood she pursued with all the vitality of the genius who found her ‘raison d’Ítre,’and from her ti reless observations and efforts,evolved her perception of the child’s psychic personality.

As she traveled from country to country, lec- turing, training teachers, helping to establish school after school, this same phenomenon was observed wherever conditi ons promoting its growth were perfectly realized.

This normalized child i s the image which Montessori teachers keep uppermost in their minds. This is what we are striving for, what we hope to achieve. However, this child will only appear only if we conscientiously prepare ourselves and our classrooms and if we can build on the proper preparation in the child’s home.”

Normalization i s another word forwhat we call Mon tessor i’s Joyfu l Scho la r s.



n a word, yes! Here’s why.M ontessori helps children masterthe intellectual skills and knowl-

edge that are basic to our culture and

technology. As M ontessori studentsmaster one level of academic skills theyare able to apply themselves to i ncreas-ingly challenging work across the acade-mic disciplines. T hey tend to be reflec-tive scholars. T hey write, speak, andthink clearly and thoughtfully. Theyhave learned how to learn by doing realthingsin the real world — experientiallearning. T hey have learned how to inte-grate new concepts, analyze data, andthink critically. C hildren who grow up inM ontessori schools tend to be culturallyliterate, well educated, and highly suc-

cessful in university and later life.

M ontessori develops intrinsic motiva-tion: the innate desire that drives stu-dents to engage in an activity for enjoy-ment and satisfaction.

M ontessori cultivates creativity andoriginality: M ontessori studentsare nor-mally exceptionally creative in theirthink ing and confident in self-expres-sion. They recognize the value of theirown ideas, respect the creative processof others, and are willi ng to explore

ideas together in search of truth or newso lu tio n s.

M ontessori students tend to be extra-ordinarily self-confident and competent.They perceive themselves as successfulpeople but are not afraid of making andlearning from their m istakes.

M ontessori students do not seethemselvesas “children,” but as youngmembers of the world. They tend tolook up to teachers and other adults asmentors, friends, and guides, ratherthan as unwelcome taskmasters whoplace limits on their freedom.

Children who grow up in M ontessorirarely feel the need to rebel and act out.Although even M ontessori children willexplore the limi ts and test their parents’resolve, they basically follow an innercreed of self-respect.

They accept limi ts and tend to followcommon sense. M oreover, they have atendency to reach out consciously totheir friends and the larger community,

ontessori chi ldren by the end of age five are normally curious self-confi -dent learners who look forward to going to school. They are normallyengaged, and enthusiastic.

What teacher wouldn’t give her left arm for a room filled with children lik ethat?Well, truthfully over the years we’ve found some who consider these chil-dren “disruptive.”

D isruptive?A polite, i ndependent M ontessori child, disruptive?Well, first off,

let’s remember that M ontessori children are real human beings, and not all chil-dren who attend M ontessori fit the idealized description. H owever, enough dothat the generalization isoften fairly accurate.

M ontessori children, by age six, have spent three or four years in a schoolwhere they were treated with honesty and respect. While there were clear expec-tations and ground rules, within that framework their opinions and questionswere taken quite seriously. Unfortunately, there are still some teachers andschoolswhere children who ask questions are seen as challenging authori ty. Youcan imagine an independent M ontessori child asking his new teacher, “But whydo I have to ask each time I need to use the bathroom?” or “Why do I have tostop my work right now?”

We also have to remember that children are different. O ne child may be verysensitive or have somewhat special needs that might not be met well in ateacher-centered traditional classroom . O ther children can go anywhere. In gen-eral, there is nothing inherent in M ontessori that causes children to have a hardtime if they are transferred to traditi onal schools. Some will be bored. O thersmay not understand why everyone in the class has to do the same thing at thesame time. But most figure the new setting out fairly quickly, make new friends,and succeed within the definition of successunderstood in their new schools.

Naturally, there are trade-offs. T he curriculum in M ontessori schools is oftenmuch more enriched and accelerated than many found in other nursery and ele-mentary schools in the United States. T he values and attitudes of the childrenand teachers may also be quite different. Learning will often be focused more onadult assigned tasks done more by rote than with enthusiasm and understand-ing.

There is an old saying that if something is working, don’t try to fix it. Thisleads many families to continue their children in M ontessori at least through thesixth grade. As more M ontessori high schools are opened in the U nited States, itis likely that this trend will continue.

But other families, for fi nancial or other reasons, don’t plan to have their chil-dren continue in M ontessori . They often ask if there is any particular age level atwhich M ontessori children tend to find the transiti on particularly difficult?T hereis no absolute answer, because of individual differences in children and the nextschools that are available to them. But in general, we strongly recommend thatparents plan to k eep their children in M ontessori at least through the end of kindergarten. Every year, in the winter i ssue of Tomorr ow’s Chil d ,we prepare anarticle that considers the reasonsbehind thi s in greater detail.

Ideally, families should consider a commi tment through at least elementaryschool, although, I can make a strong case that it is during the difficult middle-school years that children most need what M ontessori has to offer.

Will My Child

Be Able to

Adjust to

Tr a d itiona l

School after

Monte s s o ri?

Does Mon t essor iPr epar e Ch i ldr en for

t h e Real Wo r l d ?

I



’

seeking waysto help others and makea positive contribution to the world.

M ontessori children are not easilyinfluenced by their peer group to doanything stupid. Like all of us, childrenwho grow up in M ontessori schoolswant to have friends and are affected bytheir i nterests and attitudes. O n theother hand, in additi on to havinggrown up in a culture that consistentlyteaches and follows universal values of kindness, honor, and respect,M ontessori children tend to thi nk forthemselves.

M ontessori students are often spiri-tually alive, exceptionally compassion-ate, empathetic, and sensitive to thenatural world and the human condi-t io n .

M ontessori children tend to be ter-rific kids. T hey have all the values andattitudes that pay off in college and thereal world. They aren’t afraid of hardwork. T hey are eager to learn, think,and explore new ideas. T hey enjoy peo-ple and know how to develop strongfriendships. They generally follow therules and act responsibly. T hey livefrom a basic sense of self-respect andrarely get themselves into self-destruc-tive situations. They tend to be self-dis-ciplined and fairly well organized. T heytend to meet deadlines, come to classprepared, and actually enjoy their class-es. They are the average college profes-sor’s dream come true!

I n the world after college, they tendto become lifelong learners, creativeand energetic employees, and quite of-ten entrepreneurs. M ontessori stu-dents tend to grow up to be people of great character; someone you can trustand on whom you can depend. T heyhave warmth, humanity, and compas-sion. T heir li ves tend to reflect both joyand dignity. T his is the sort of men andwomen we hope our children will growup to be.

Isn’t Montessori elitist?

M ontessori is an educational philosophy and approach that can be found inall sorts of settings, from the most humble to large, well equipped campus-es. I n general, M ontessori schools consciously stri ve to create and maintaina diverse student body, welcoming families of every ethnic background andreligion, and using scholarships and financial aid to keep their school acces-sible to deserving families. M ontessori is also found in the public sector asmagnet public-school programs, Headstart centers, and as charter schools.

Fr equ ent ly Asked Qu estion s

Is Montessori opposed to competition?

No. D r. M ontessori simply observed that competiti on is an ineffective toolto motivate children to learn and work hard in school.

Traditionally schools challenge students to compete with each other forgrades, class rank ings, and special awards. For example, tests are graded ona curve developed from the performance of the students in that class.Students are constantly measured against their classmates, rather than con-sidered for their individual progress.

I n M ontessori schools, studentslearn to collaborate with each otherrather than mindlessly compete. Students discover their own innate abili -ties and develop a strong sense of independence, self-confidence, and self-discipline. I n an atmosphere in which children learn at their own pace andcompete only against themselves, they learn not to be afraid of making mis-takes. T hey quickly find that few things in life come easily, and they can tryagain without fear of embarrassment.

D r. M ontessori argued that for an education to profoundly touch achi ld’s heart and mi nd, he must be learning because he is curious and in-

terested, not simply to earn the hi ghest grade in the class.M ontessori chi ldren compete with each other every day, both in class

and on the playground. D r. M ontessori, herself an extraordinary studentand a very high achiever, was never opposed to competiti on on principle.H er objection was to using competiti on to create an artificial motivation toget students to achieve.

M ontessori schools allow competi tion to evolve naturally among chil-dren, without adult interference unless the children begin to show poorsportsmanship. The key is the child’s voluntary decision to compete, ratherthan having it imposed on him by the school.

Is it true that Montessori children

never play?All children play. T hey explore new things playfully. They watch somethingof interest with a fresh, open mind. They enjoy the company of treasuredadults and other children. T hey make up stories. T hey dream. T hey imag-ine. This impression stems from parents who don’t k now what to make of the incredible concentration, order, and self-discipline that we commonlysee among M ontessori children. M ontessori students also tend to take thethings they do i n school seriously. It i s common for them to respond that“this is my work.” when adults ask what they are playing with. T hey workhard and expect their parents to treat them and their work with respect.But it is joyful, playful, and anything but drudgery.



M o r eFr e q u e n t l yAs k e dQuest ions

You will not normally find playkitchens, dress-up corners and dolls ina M ontessori class for children underage six, because chi ldren are using realtools and doing real things, instead of pretending. H owever, fantasy and cre-ativity are important aspects of aM ontessori child’s experience.

M ontessori classrooms incorporateart, music, dance, and creative dramathroughout the curriculum.Imagination playsa central role as chil-dren explore how the natural worldworks, visualize other cultures and an-cient civilizations, and search for cre-ative solutions to real life problems.

I n M ontessori schools, the arts arenormally integrated into the rest of thecurriculum. They are modes of ex-ploring and expanding lessons thathave been introduced in science, his-tory, geography, language arts, andm ath e m atics.

Art and music history and apprecia-tion are woven throughout the historyand geography curricula. T raditionalfolk arts are used to extend the cur-riculum as well. Students participate insinging, dance, and creative move-ment with teachers and music special-ists. Students’ dramatic productionsmake other times and cultures comealive .

While M ontessori students are allowedconsiderable latitude to pursue topicsthat interest them, this freedom is notabsolute. Wi thin every society there arecultural norms; expectations for what astudent should know and be able to do

by a certain age. Experienced M ontes-sori teachers are conscious of thesestandards and provi de as much struc-ture and support as is necessary to en-sure that students live up to them. I f forsome reason, it appears that a child sim-ply needs time and support until he orshe is developmentally ready to catchup, M ontessori teachers provide it non-

ju d gm e n tally.

M any parents have heard that Montes-sori schools do not believe in home-work , grades, and tests. T his is really amisunderstanding of M ontessori’s in-sigh ts.

Hom ework

M ost M ontessori schools do not assignhomework at all below the elementarylevel. When it is assigned to older chil-dren it rarely involves page after page of busywork, but meaningful, interesting

assignments that expand on the topicsthat the children are pursuing in class.M any assignments invite parents andchildren to work together.

H omework should never become abattleground between adult and child.O ne of our goals as parents and teach-ers should be to help the children learnhow to get organized, budget time, andfollow through until the work is com-pleted. I deally, home challenges willgive parents and children a pleasant op-portunity to work together on projectsthat give both parent and child a sense

of accomplishment. T hey are intendedto enrich and extend the curriculum.

H omework doesn’t need to be bor-ing! M ontessori challenges children tothink, explore, and pursue tangible pro-

jects that give them a sense of satisfac-tion. Homework i s intended to affordstudents the opportunity to practice andreinforce skills introduced in the class-room.

M oreover, there is a certain degree of self-discipline that can be developedwithin the growing child through the

process of completing assignmentsi n-d e p e n d e n tly.

M any elementary M ontessori classessend home packets of “At HomeChallenges” for each age group in theclass. T he children have an entire weekto complete them. When the week isover, teachers will normally sit downwith the children to review whatworked, what they enjoyed, and whatthey found difficult or unappealing.

D epending on the child’s level, as-signments normally involve some read-ing, research, writi ng, and somethingtangible to accomplish. T hey may be or-ganized into three groups: 1) Things tobe experienced, such as reading a book,visiting the museum, or going to see aplay; 2) Things to learn, stated in termsof ski lls and knowledge, such as “See if you can learn how to solve these prob-lems well enough that you can teach theskill to a younger student; and 3) Things

to be submitted, such as a play, essay,story, experiment, or model.When possible, teachers will normal-

ly build in opportunitiesfor children tochoose among several alternative assign-ments. Sometimes teacherswill prepareindividually negotiated weekly assign-ments with each student.

T ests

M ontessori children usually don’t thinkof our assessment techniques as tests somuch as challenges. Early childhood

M ontessori teachersobserve their chil-dren at work or ask them to teach a les-son to another child to confirm theirknowledge and skill. M ost elementaryM ontessori teachers will give their stu-dents informal, individual oral exams orhave the children demonstrate whatthey have learned by either teaching alesson to another child or by giving aformal presentation. The children alsotake and prepare their own written teststo administer to their friends. Studentsare normally work ing toward mastery,rather than being graded using a stan-

dard letter grade scheme.

Standardized Tests

Very few M ontessori schools test chil-dren under the first or second grades;however, most regularly give elementarystudents quizzes on the concepts andskills that they have been studying.M any schools ask their older students totake annual standardized tests.

While M ontessori students tend toscore very well, M ontessori educators



’

frequently argue that standardized test-ing is inaccurate, mi sleading, and stress-ful for children. T he ultimate problemwith standardized tests in our country isthat they have often been mi sused, mis-understood, and misinterpreted in oth-er schools. T ests can be fai rly usefulwhen seen as a simple feedback loop,giving both parents and school a generalsense of how students are progressing.

Although standardized testsmay notoffer a terribly accurate measure of achild’sbasic skillsand knowledge, in ourculture, test-taking skills are just anotherpractical life lesson that children need tomaster.

Reporting Student Progress

Because M ontessori believes in individu-ally paced academic progress, and en-courages children to explore their inter-ests rather than simply complete work

assigned by their teachers, we don’t as-sign grades or rank students within eachclass according to their achievement.

At the elementary level, students willoften prepare a monthly self-evaluationof the previous month’s school work.When completed, they will meet withthe teachers, who will review it and addtheir comments and observations.

In many M ontessori schools, childrencompile a collection of their work that ispulled together in a portfolio of theyear’s work .

M ost schools schedule family confer-

ences two or three times a year to re-view their children’s portfolios and self-evaluations and go through the teach-ers’ assessment of their children’sp ro gre ss.

T ypically once or twice a yearM ontessori teacherswill prepare a writ-ten narrative evaluation of the student’swork, social development, and masteryof fundamental skills.

Every child has areas of special gifts, aunique learning style, and some areasthat can be considered challenges. Eachchild i s unique. M ontessori is designedto allow for differences. It allows stu-dents to learn at their own pace, and isquite flexible in adapting for differentlearning styles. In many cases, childrenwith mild physical handicaps or learningdisabilities may do very well in aM ontessori classroom setting. O n theother hand, some children do muchbetter in smaller, more structured class-

rooms. Each sit-uation has tobe carefullyevaluated indi-vidually to en-sure that theprogram cansu cce ssfu llymeet a givenchild’sneedsand learningstyle .

Mo stM ontessori ed-ucators would agree that M ontessori is agood fit for most children but may not

be the right match for their parents.Everything depends on what yourfamily believes to be true about yourchildren and important in their educa-tion.

D o you believe that children shouldbe treated with dignity and respect andbe encouraged to be independent, self-confident, and self-disciplined?

D o you believe that the best way todiscipline is by being consistent, model-ing the correct behavior, and by con-sciously teaching children how to dothingscorrectly?

Do you believe that educationshould be enchanting, intriguing, anddelightful, rather than traditi onally struc-tured and highly competitive?

I f so, M ontessori may be right foryo u .

The answer is both yes and no. M ontes-sori schools are often successful withchildren who would challenge any

school, including the highly distractibleand impulsive ones of whom parentstypically have the most concern. T hereason why should be obvious;M ontessori is designed to be flexible,adapting the program to meet theneeds of each given child. I t also allowschildren to move about, socialize inde-pendently ( rather than work as part of agroup) , and progress at their own pace.

Thisdoesn’t mean though that everyclass and every M ontessori teacher canmeet the needs of every child. This is es-

pecially true i f a child i s violent, destruc-tive, or excessively disturbing of the

peace and order of the classroom. Eachdecision has to be made on a case bycase basis.

M any people assume that “M ontessori”schools are essentially alike. I n reality,M ontessori schools can differ dramati -cally, in size, facilities, programs, andemotional climate. T hey share a com-mon phi losophy and basic approach,but there may be tremendous variation

among schools that use the nameMon tessor i . There are more than 4,000M ontessori schools in North America,but every one is unique. Even within thesame school, each class may look andfeel quite different from the others, re-flecting the interests and personaliti es of the teachers; however, certain charac-teri stics will be found in all classes thatare honestly following the M ontessoriapproach.

D r. M ontessori was a brilliant studentof child development, and the approachthat has evolved out of her research has

stood the test for more than 90 years inM ontessori schools around the world.The M ontessori approach has threegreat qualities: the model is replicable, itcan be adapted successfully into all sortsof new situations, and it is sustainable( M ontessori programs don’t tend to self-destruct after a few years, as do manyother educational reforms.) H owever,the only pure M ontessori educator wasDr. M aria M ontessori herself. The rest of us interpret and filter her ideas throughour personalities and experience.



lthough most M ontessori schoolstry to remain faithful to their un-derstanding of D r. M ontessori’s

insights and research, they have all, tosome degree, been influenced by theevolution of our culture and technology.

Perhaps the more relevant questionin selecting a Montessori school is toconsider how well i t matches your senseof what you want for your child. N o oneeducational approach can be right forevery learner. The wisest goal i s to seekout the best fit, not only between thestudent and the school, but also be-tween the parents’ values and goals fortheir child’seducation and what a givenschool can realistically deliver. I believethat findi ng the right school for momand dad is as important as finding theright school for the child.

In the end, the selection of aM ontessori school comesdown to amatter of personal style and preference.

I f you visit a school and find yourself inharmony with its ambiance and practice,it will represent at least one example of what you define to be a good school.

In determining which school is best,we all have to trust our eyes, ears, andgut instincts. Nothing beats personal ob-servation. The school that one parentraves about, may be completely wrongfor another’s child. Conversely, anotherparent may have decided that“M ontessori doesn’t work,” while itclearly is work ing very well for your fami-ly. Rely on your own experience, not

hearsay from other parents.

How can I know if I’ve found a“real” Montessori school?

Characteristics of anAuthentic Montessori School

D r. Nancy M cCormick R ambush,founder of the American M ontessoriSociety and co-founder of theM ontessori Foundation, identified thefollowing characteristics of an “authen-

tic” M ontessori school:*

* The following ideasare excerpted fromThe Authenti c Ameri can Mon tessor i School: A Guid e to the Self-Stu dy, Eval ua ti on, a nd Accr editati on of Amer ican Schools Comm i tted to Montessor i Educati on , by D r.Nancy M cCormick Rambush and D r. JohnStoops, published in1992 by the Commissionon Elementary Schools of the M iddle StatesAssociation of Collegesand Schools and theAmerican Montessori Society.

The Montessori Learning Environ-ment (A Child-Centered Environ-ment): The focus of activity in theM ontessori setting is on children’s learn-ing, not on teachers’ teaching. G enerallystudent will work individually or insmall, self-selected groups. There will bevery few whole-group lessons.

A Responsive, Prepared Environment:The environment should be designed tomeet the needs, interests, abilities, anddevelopment of the children in theclass. T he teachers should design andadapt the environment with this com-munity of children in mind, rapidlymodifying the selection of educationalmaterials available, the physical layout,and the tone of the class to fit the everchanging needs of the children.

A Focus on Individual Progress andDevelo p m en t: Within a M ontessori pro-gram, children progress at the ownpace, moving on to the next step in eacharea of learning as they are ready. Whilethe child lives within a larger communityof children, each student is viewed as auniverse of one.

Montessori Learning Activities/Hands-On Learning: I n M ontessori, studentsrarely learn from texts or work books. I nall cases, direct, personal, hands-on con-tact with either real things under studyor with concrete modelsthat bring ab-

stract concepts to life allow children tolearn with much deeper understanding.

Spontaneous Activity: I t isnatural forchildren to wiggle, touch things, and ex-plore the world around them. Any trueM ontessori environment encourageschildren to move about freely, withinreasonable limi ts of appropriate behav-ior. M uch of the time they select workthat captures their interest and atten-tion, although teachers also strive todraw their attention and capture theirinterest in new challenges and areas of inquiry. And even within this atmos-phere of spontaneousactivity, studentsdo eventually have to master the basicskills of their culture, even i f they wouldprefer to avoid them.

Active Learning: In M ontessori class-rooms, children not only select theirown work m ost of the time, but also

continue to work with tasks, returningto continue their work over many weeksor months, until fi nally the work i s “soeasy for them” that they can teach it toyounger children. T his is one of manyways that M ontessori educators use toconfirm that students have reachedmastery of each skill.

Self-Directed Activity: O ne of M ontessori ’s key concepts is the ideathat children are driven by their desireto become independent and competentbeingsin the world, to learn new things,

and master new skills. For this reason,outside rewards to create external moti-vation are both unnecessary and poten-tially can lead to passive adults who aredependent on others for everythingfrom their self-image to permission tofollow their dreams. I n the process of mak ing independent choices and ex-ploring concepts largely on their own,M ontessori children construct their ownsense of individual identity and right andw ro n g.

Freedom within Limits: Mo n te sso ri

children enjoy considerable freedom of movement and choice; however, theirfreedom always exists within carefullydefined limits on the range of their be-havior. T hey are free to do anything ap-propri ate to the ground rules of thecommuni ty, but they are redirectedpromptly and firmly if they cross overthe line.

Intrinsic Motivation to Learn: InM ontessori programs, children do notwork for grades or external rewards, nor



do they simply complete assignmentsgiven them by their teachers. Childrenlearn because they are interested i nthingsand because all children share adesire to become competent and inde-pendent human beings.

Montessori’s Communities of Learners(Mixed-Age Groups): M ontessori class-rooms gather together children of two,three, or more age levels into a familygroup. Children remain together for sev-eral years, with only the oldest studentsmoving on to the next class at years end.

A Family Setting: M ontessori class-rooms are communities of children andadults. As children grow older and morecapable, they assume a great role inhelping to care for the environment andmeeting the needs of younger childrenin the class. T he focus is less on theteachers and more on the entire com-

munity of children and adults, much likeone finds in a real family.

Cooperation and Collaboration,Rather than Competition: Mo n te sso richildren are encouraged to treat one an-other with kindness and respect. Insultsand shunning behavior tends to bemuch more rare. Instead we normallyfind children who have a great fondnessfor one another and who a free from theone-up-manship and needless interper-sonal competiti on for attention andprestige. Because children learn at their

own pace, and teachers refrain fromcomparing students against oneanother.

To Awaken and Nurture the HumanSpirit (The Child as a Spiritual Being):M ontessori saw children as far morethan simply scholars. In her view, eachchild is a full and complete human be-ing, the mother or father of the adultman or woman she will become. Evenwhen very young, the child shares withthe rest of humanity hopes, dreams,fears, emotions, and longing.

From her perspective, this goes beyondmental health to the very core of one’sinner spiritual life. M ontessori con-sciously designs social communi ties andeducational experiences that cultivatethe child’s sense of independence, self-respect, love of peace, passion for self-chosen work done well, and ability to re-spect and celebrate the individual spiritwithin people of all ages and the valueof all life.

Universal Values: M ontessori deliber-ately teaches children not only appropri -ate patterns of poli te behavior, but seeksto instill basic universal values within thecore of the chi ld’s personality. T hese val-ues include self-respect, acceptance of the uniqueness and dignity of each per-son we meet, k indness, peacefulness,compassion, empathy, honor, individualresponsibility, and courage to speakfrom our hearts.

Global Understanding: All M ontessorischoolsare, to a large degree, interna-tional schools. T hey not only tend to at-tract a diverse student body represent-ing many ethnic backgrounds, religions,and international backgrounds, but theyactively celebrate their diversity. T hecurriculum is international in its heritageand focus, and consciously seeks to pro-mote a global perspective.

Service to Others: M ontessori’s spiritualperspective leads M ontessori schools toconsciously organize programs of com-munity service ranging from daily contri-butions to others within the class orschool setting, to community outreachprogramsthat allow children and adultsto mak e a difference in the lives of oth-ers. T he fundamental idea is one of ste ward sh ip .

The Montessori Teacher

Au thoritative: The teacher is firm at the

edges and empathetic at the center, thekind of adult who responds empatheti-cally to children’ s feelings, whi le settingclear and consistent limi ts.

Observer: The M ontessori teacher is atrained observer of children’s learningand behavior. These careful observa-tions are recorded and used to inferwhere each student i s, i n terms of hi s orher development, and leads the teacherto k now when to intervene in the child’slearning with a new lesson, a fresh chal-lenge, or a reinforcement of basic

ground rules.

An Educational Resource: Mo n te sso riteachers facilitate the learning processby serving as a resource to whom thechildren can turn as they pull togetherinformation, impressions, and experi-e n ce s.

Role Model: Like all great teachers, theM ontessori educator deliberately mod-els the behaviors and atti tudes that sheis work ing to instill in her students.

Because of M ontessori’s emphasis oncharacter development, the M ontessoriteacher normally is exceptionally calm,kind, warm, and polite to each child.

What M ontessori Teachers Do

Respectfully Engage the Learner: Th eM ontessori teacher recognizes that herrole is not so much to teach as to in-spire, mentor, and facili tate the learningprocess. The real work of learning be-longs to the individual child. Because of this, the M ontessori educator remainsconsciousof her role in helping eachchild to fulfill his potential as a humanbeing and of creating an environmentfor learning within which children willfeel safe, cherished, and empowered.

Facilitate the “Match” between theLearner and Knowledge: Mo n te sso riteachers are trained to identi fy the best

response to the changing interests andneeds of each child as a unique individ-ual. Because they truly accept that chil-dren learn in many different ways and attheir own pace, M ontessori educatorsunderstand that they must “follow thechild,” adjusting their strategies andtimetable to fit the development of eachof their pupils.

Environmental Engineer: Mo n te sso riteachers organize appropriate social set-tings and academic programs for chil-dren at their own level of development.

They do this to a large degree throughthe design of the classroom, selectionand organization of learning activities,and structure of the day.

Accred itatio n

O ften one sign of a school’s commi t-ment to professional excellence is itsmembership in one of the professionalM ontessori societi es, such as theAssociation M ontessori Internationale( AM I) , the American M ontessori Society( AM S), or the newly organized

I nternational M ontessori Council ( IM C) .

T hese organizations also offer schoolsthe opportuni ty to become accredited.There are several dozen other smallerorganizations as well. Further, it is im-portant to remember that many excel-lent M ontessori schools choose not toaffiliate with any national organization.They are independent.



Becom ing a Mon t essor i Te a ch e r

adaptation. Courses accredited by AM Ifollow a much more standardized cur-riculum and normally require manymore hoursof classroom lecture andlesstim e spent in student teaching.Each model hasits loyal advocates, andselection of one over the other is a mat-ter of personality and preference.

Teacher training is typically offered atthe infant-toddler ( birth to age 2) , earlychildhood ( ages 3-6) , lower elementary( ages 6-9), upper elementary ( ages 9-12), and secondary levels ( ages 12-15and ages 15-18) .

Several organizations offer corre-spondence courses, which allow stu-dents to complete a portion of theirstudies on an independent basis. Somestates or i ndividual schools may not ac-cept these credentials. I f you are consid-ering a correspondence course, it i s al-ways a good idea to check with severalschools at which you would li ke to teachto determine if your training will meettheir standards.

Salaries for M ontessori teachers in in-dependent schools are generally accept-able but normally below those offeredby local public schools. T eachers gener-ally report that lower salaries and bene-fits are more than offset by greater jobsatisfaction and freedom from the pa-perwork and bureaucracy found inmany public-school systems. Salaries areoften calculated on a scale based on de-grees, experience, and duties.M ontessori teachersare generally inshort supply, and in many situations cer-tified teachers will find several schoolscompeting for their services.

For more information about M ontessoriteacher training programs, the followingorganizations may be able to help youfind a program that meetsyour needs:

Association MontessoriInternationale/USA (AMI/USA)410 Alexander St.Rochester, NY 14607Phone: 716-461-5920Fax: 716-461-0075

The American Montessori Society(AMS)281 Park Avenue So.New York, NY 10010Phone: 212 358 1250

ontessori parents often makethe best M ontessori teachers.M ontessori is not simply a

method of teaching children to read; itis a philosophy of li fe. O ften the very fac-tors that drew enthusiastic parents to aM ontessori school in the fi rst place offerthe possibility of a professional life be-yond their roles as parents.

Every year thousands of M ontessoriparents approach their children’sschool, or are themselves approached,about the possibi lity of taking Montes-sori teacher training. A substantial num-ber of M ontessori teachers and admini s-trators began as M ontessori parents.

M ontessori teacher training is avail-able from several dozen centers and in-stitutes acrossAmerica and Canada. Forthe internationally minded, courses areavailable in many other countries asw e ll.

Courses usually involve a year of study. I n the US, many courses are orga-nized into summer institutes, which caninvolve up to ten weeks of full-timestudy, followed by a supervised year-long practicum/student teaching experi -ence. Som e courses run during theschool year. M ost courses require a col-lege degree; although, students whohave yet to complete their undergradu-ate diploma may be able to take theM ontessori teacher-training course andreceive a certificate of completion whenthey have earned their college degree.

Tuition can range from $4,000 to$10,000, dependi ng on the course.There are dozens of di fferent M ontes-sori societies and centers offering train-ing. The quality can vary from mediocreto superb. O ne basic consideration i sthe credibi lity of the diploma receivedupon completion. Two of the largestand uni versally recognized M ontessori

societies that certify M ontessori teachersare The American M ontessori Society( AM S) and the Association M ontessoriI nternationale ( AM I) . You should beaware that some M ontessori schools willrequire teachers to hold one or theother of these two credentials.

Courses accredited by the AM S areoften organized along the lines of a oneor two summer-long institute, followedby a year of supervi sed student teaching.AM S programs follow a course of studywhich allowsconsiderable flexibility and

International MontessoriSociety (IMS)912 Thayer Avenue # 207Silver Spring, M D 20910301-589-1127

Montessori CentreInternationale (MCI)[ formerly St. N icholas M ontessori andLondon M ontessori Centres]18 Balderton StreetLondon, WlY UT G , UKPhone: 171-493-0165Fax: 171-629-7808

Montessori AccreditationCouncil for Teacher Education(MAC T E)*D r. G retchen Warner, Exec. D irectorUniv. of Wisconsin-ParksideBox 2000Kenosha, WI 53141-2000Tel: Toll-free: 1-888-446-2283 Local:414-595-3335 Fax 404-595-3332Email: warner@ uwp.edu

Montessori Instituteof America (MIA)PO Box 18659Spok ane, WA 992828-8659888-564-9556

Montessori EducationalPrograms International(MEPI)5901 NW Waukomis D riveKansas City, M O 64515816-741-6940

Montessori WorldEducational Institute(MWEI)3025 M onterey Rd.Atascedero, CA 93422805-466-2872

National Center forMontessori Education(NCME)3941 Covered BridgeRoswell, GA 30082Phone/Fax: 770-437-80055

* M ACTE is an umbrella organizationthat accredi ted M ontessori teacher edu-cation programs.

M

montessori 101 nonprintable(2)

Documents