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Maplewood is located at: Last Updated: 09/10/2008 |
| The Montessori Method
At the turn of the century, Maria Montessori, Italy’s first female surgeon, began working to educate underprivileged children in Rome. A pioneer in education, Dr. Montessori began her work at a clinic where she observed “idiot children”. Her observations became the impetus for what we know today as Montessori Method. Dr. Montessori set out to establish a program for the children incorporating specially designed educational materials to meet what she identified as the needs of children. The University in Rome accepted Dr. Montessori’s plans and the program came to life. Much to the surprise of Dr. Montessori’s critics, at the end of the year the “idiot children” tested on par or above, “normal” school children. It was this finding that prompted Dr. Montessori’s interest to work with “normal” children. If these troubled children could score so well, why weren’t less troubled children developing more fully? Dr. Montessori opened the first Casa Dei Bambini in 1906. Here children who were not yet of school age and who couldn’t be left home alone, were left in the care of a “woman in charge”. The caregiver was trained in the Montessori Method and Dr. Montessori checked in as often as her schedule allowed. Soon news the of Casa Dei Bambini spread all over the world and people came from near and far to get a glimpse of Maria Montessori and her work. Dr. Montessori continued to observe children and to explore new teaching techniques. Over the years she refined the materials and methods to meet the educational needs of children at various stages of development. The Montessori Method adheres to the notions that children have: a need to do meaningful
and purposeful work Montessori believed that by providing an environment prepared to meet these needs during the early years, children are likely to more fully develop their academic, social, and spiritual selves. Maplewood Montessori School is dedicated to these principles of the Montessori Method. Montessori Education, What’s it all about? Dr. Maria Montessori believed that education is the work of each individual and that the truly educated continue learning long after the hours and years spent in the classroom. She believed that natural curiosity and a love for knowledge are a best student’s motivators; and that these must come from within. Dr. Montessori felt, therefore, that the goal of early childhood education should not be to fill the child with facts from a pre-selected course of studies, but rather to cultivate his/her own natural desire to learn and to encourage children to take responsibility and initiative in their educational experience. In the Montessori Classroom this objective is approached in two ways: first, by allowing each child to experience the excitement of learning by his/her own choice; and second, by helping to perfect all of his/her natural tools for learning. The Montessori materials have this dual long-range purpose in addition to their immediate purpose of giving specific information to the child. How Do Children Learn? The use of the materials is based on the young child’s unique aptitude for learning, which Dr. Montessori identified as the “absorbent mind”. In her writings, she frequently compared the young mind to a sponge. As the sponge absorbs liquid, so does the child absorb information from his/her environment. The process is particularly evident by the manner in which a two-year-old learns his/her native language. These skills are gained without formal instruction and without the conscious, tedious effort, which an adult must make to master a foreign tongue. Acquiring information in this way is a natural and delightful activity for the young child who employs all of his/her senses to investigate his/her interesting surroundings. Dr. Montessori reasoned that since the child retains this ability to learn by absorbing until almost seven years of age, a classroom where materials can be chosen, handled, and experimented with best suits his/her needs. Over sixty years of observation and teaching experience supported her theory that a young children learn to read, write, and calculate in much the same natural way that they learn to walk and talk. In a Montessori classroom, the materials become inviting to each child as his/her own period of interest and readiness emerges. Dr. Montessori emphasized the hand as the chief teacher of the child. In order to learn there must be concentration, and she determined the best way a child can concentrate is by fixing his/her attention on some task he/she is performing with his/her hands. The Montessori materials allow casual impressions to be reinforced as the child participates in concrete experiences using his/her hands in the learning process. How Important Are The Early Years? In The Absorbent Mind, Dr. Montessori wrote, “The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to age six. For that is the time when man’s intelligence itself, his greatest implement is being formed. But not only his intelligence; the full totality of his psychic powers...At no other age has the child greater need of an intelligent help, and any obstacle that impedes his creative work will lessen the chance he has of achieving perfection.” Recent psychological studies based on controlled research have confirmed these theories of Dr. Montessori. After analyzing thousands of such studies, Dr. Benjamin S. Bloom of the University of Chicago, wrote in Stability and Change in Human Characteristics, “From conception to age four the individual develops 50% of his mature intelligence; from ages four to eight he develops another 30%... This would suggest the very rapid growth of intelligence in the early years and the possible great influence of the early environment on this development.” What Are “Sensitive Periods”? Another observation of Dr. Montessori’s, that has been reinforced by modern research, is the importance of the sensitive periods for early learning. These are periods of intense fascination for learning a particular lesson or acquiring a skill. It is easier for the child to learn a particular skill during the corresponding sensitive period than at any other time in his/her life. The Montessori classroom takes advantage of this fact by allowing the child freedom to select individual activities, which correspond to the child’s own sensitive period. At What Age Is This Kind of School Appropriate? Although the entrance age varies, a child usually enters a Montessori classroom between the ages of two and a half and four, depending on when he/she can be happy and comfortable in a classroom setting. The child begins with the simplest exercises based on activities, which all children enjoy. The material he or she uses at three and four will help him/her to develop the concentration, coordination and work habits necessary for the more advanced exercises he/she will perform at five and six. The entire program of learning is purposefully structured. Therefore, optimum results cannot be expected either for a child who misses the early years of the cycle or for one who is withdrawn before he/she finishes the basics described here. Parents should understand that a Montessori school is neither a child-care service nor a play school that prepares a child for traditional kindergarten. Rather, it is a unique cycle of learning designed to take advantage of the child’s sensitive years between three and six, when he/she can absorb information from an enriched environment. A child who acquires the basic skills of reading and arithmetic in this natural way has the advantage of beginning education without drudgery, boredom, or discouragement. By pursuing his/her individual interests in a Montessori classroom, each child gains an early enthusiasm for learning, which is the key to becoming a truly educated person.Note |