What is Montessori?
Montessori education is an educational approach developed by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori. Montessori began to develop her philosophy and methods in 1897, attending courses in pedagogy at the University of Rome and reading the educational theory. In 1907, she opened her first classroom, the Casa dei Bambini, or Children’s House, in a tenement building in Rome. From the beginning, Montessori based her work on her observations of children and experimentation with the environment, materials, and lessons available to them. She frequently referred to her work as "scientific pedagogy". Montessori education spread to the United States in 1911 and became widely known in education and popular publications (see an Introduction to Montessori Education). .
In a typical Montessori classroom, the teacher or guide blends in with the children. The children independently choose their own activities, which are designed to teach daily living skills, from cooking to carpentry, sensorial activity, numeration and arithmetic, as well as writing skills and reading. The guide gives individual or group presentations of the material to those who need them. As the children reach elementary age, there more group presentations and subjects like history, geography, and the sciences, subjects already introduced in the preschool years, are now pursued in more depth (see Montessori Education for the Early Childhood Years). Maria Montessori was the first female to graduate from the University of Rome Medical School and was a progressive, inspiring educator who was devoted to initiating growth and change. According to Dr. Maria Montessori, "A child's work is to create the person she/he will become." Children accomplish the task of self-construction through purposeful movement, exploration, and discovery of their environment - both the things and people within it. Children are given the freedom to develop physically, intellectually and spriritually. A montessori classroom provides this freedom within the linits of an environment which develop a sense of order and self discipline. Dr. Maria Montessori considered her method to be a help to the life of the child more than a system of education or cognitive development (see Dr. Maria Montessori Life). When she first studied young children, Montessori observed that they went through sensitive periods during which they showed special aptitude for certain kinds of developmental activity. These periods are especially pronounced in the development of movement, order, language, music, fascination with small objects, and bonding or attachment.
Sensorial and motor development are the child’s means of exploration in the early years. Here Montessori advocated giving the child room to explore (see the Advantages of Montessori Education). She believed that a child’s independence would grow from choosing his activities wisely and with the help of an adult guide. Furthermore, cooperation with others and responsibility for group tasks is emphasized, as it instills important values that are derived from working with others.
Children become self-regulated through concentration on stimulating self-chosen tasks that they can pursue individually or in groups. Montessori called this process “normalization” (see Montessori Foundation Information) . This progression is encouraged through a variety of activities, including focused movement exercises, such as balanced walking on line on the floor, and concentration exercises, such as the “silence game,” in which children are invited to be still and to focus mentally on a sound (for example, soft music) or on an object in the classroom environment.
Montessori saw universal, innate characteristics in human psychology. These are Self-preservation, orientation to the environment, order, exploration, communication, work, also described as "purposeful activity", manipulation of the environment, exactness, repetition, abstraction, self-perfection, and the "mathematical mind" .
In the Montessori approach, these human tendencies are seen as driving behavior in every stage of development, and education should respond to and facilitate their expression. The Montessori approach encourages self-discipline, self-knowledge, independence, academic skills, problem solving ability, and an enthusiasm for learning. Dr. Montessori demonstrated that the essence of education is not what the teacher gives, but rather is a natural process, spontaneously carried out by the children exercising a disciplined will and following their own inner guide, that innate tendency to grow toward a unique and mature excellence. When you walk into a Montessori classroom for the first time, you notice that the desks face toward the center of the classroom, toward a central activity area, and toward other students, rather than toward the teacher’s desk (see Montessori classroom vs. Traditional Classroom) . This difference between traditional and Montessori educational methods is significant and symbolic. It says that the student rather than the teacher is the focus of activity in a Montessori classroom. At Little Blossom Montessori School the student is the focus of and catalyst for all activity. The ultimate goal is to foster a lifetime love of learning in all students.
This is how couple of famous people describe about their montessori experience they got in life helped them, (see what Google Founders Talk about their Montessori Education), (see what Google's Sergey Brin talks about his Montessori Education), (see what Dr. Steve Hughes talks about the future of Montessori Education).
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