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Montessori
Provides the Environment & Materials
The basic premise of the Montessori philosophy of education is that all
children carry within themselves the person they will become. The Montessori
classroom provides the environment and materials that the child needs for his
personal development, while allowing him the freedom to choose his activities
according to his own periods of interests and readiness in a non-competitive
environment.
The Goal of Early
Childhood Education
Dr. Montessori believed that every person must educate himself; that a
teacher is merely there to provide information and to guide a student through
the learning process. She felt, therefore, that the goal of early childhood
education should be to cultivate in the child curiosity, a love for knowledge
and a strong desire to learn.
The Montessori Approach
The Montessori classroom approaches this goal in two ways. First. By allowing
each child to experience the excitement of learning by his own choice and at
his own pace. Secondly, by helping him to perfect all of his natural tools
for learning so that his ability will be at a maximum in future learning
situations. The Montessori classroom fulfills both of these long range
purposes in addition to the immediate purpose of providing the child with
specific information (sounds, mathematics, etc).
Literally “absorbs” the
Information
The young child acquires information naturally by employing all of his senses
to explore his surroundings. He literally “absorbs” the information he
receives with no effort at all and retains this ability until he is almost 7
years old. Dr. Montessori reasoned that a child’s development could be enriched
by an environment where he could freely handle materials which would
demonstrate educational information to him. For more than 60 years Montessori
classrooms have demonstrated that a young child can learn to read, write and
calculate in the same natural way that he learns to walk and talk.
Explore and Learn
In order to learn there must be concentration. A child concentrates best by
fixing his attention on a specific, purposeful task he is performing with his
hands. All the equipment in the classroom entices the child to explore and
learn with the use of his hands.
A Unique Method of
Education
Montessori is a unique method of education designed to take advantage of the
child’s sensitive period for learning between the ages of 3-6 when he can
absorb information easily from an enriched environment. The habits and
skills, which the child develops here are good for a life time. They will
help him to work more efficiently, to observe more carefully and to
concentrate more effectively throughout his life.
Future Success and
Happiness
The intellectual progress is naturally accompanied by emotional and spiritual
growth. The child becomes aware of and learns to love and care for himself
and the people and things around him. He learns cooperation and gains inner
discipline and independence, which leads to a high sense of self-esteem. The
Montessori method offers individual attention to the whole development of the
child and the foundation on which the child can build his future success and
happiness.
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