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The Many Faces of Montessori in North America

here are perhaps 4,000 Montessori schools in theUnited States and Canada and thousands morearound the world. Montessori schools are found

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

The movement is widespread in countries such as theNetherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland, India, Sri Lanka,Korea, and Japan, and it is beginning to mushroom inEastern Europe, the republics of the former Soviet Union,and China.

There is tremendous diversity within the community ofMontessori schools. Despite the impression that allMontessori schools are the same, perhaps a franchise likeMcDonald’s, no two Montessori schools are the same.

Across the United States and Canada, we can findMontessori schools in almost every community. They arefound in church basements, converted barns, shopping cen-ters, former public schools, and on expansive campuseswith enrollments of hundreds of children and the air ofstature and stability.

We can find them in suburban and inner city public-school systems. Montessori schools are often found incharming homes — the outcome of the individual vision ofthe owner/director. Many are found in affluent communi-ties, but just as many serve working-class neighborhoodsand the poor. We can find Montessori in Head Start pro-grams, child-care centers in our inner cities, migrant work-ers’ camps, and on Indian reservations.

Some Montessori schools pride themselves on remainingfaithful to what they see as Dr. Maria Montessori’s original vi-sion, while others appreciate flexibility and pragmatic adap-tation. Each school reflects its own unique blend of facilities,programs, personality, and interpretation of Dr. Montes-sori’s vision.

Photos in this article were taken at Montessori School of Anderson inAnderson, SC

very year thousands of young children begin their education in Montessori schools around the world. Their parents ask, “Just what is this

thing called Montessori?” Their questions are wellfounded, because Montessori schools are normally verydifferent from the schools most of us attended whenwe were young.

Those of us who have spent years aroundMontessori children know that Montessori works!Parents new to Montessori have to sort through a hostof conflicting impressions. When friends ask them totell them about their children’s new Montessori school,most parents honestly don’t know where to begin.

“It all looked so nice when we visited the school last spring. But to tellthe truth, most of what the school told us about how Montessori workssailed right past us! After all, it really is a bit much to take in all atonce, all this talk about the planes of development, sensitive periods,and prepared environments. And just what is it that we’re supposed tocall Samantha’s teachers? Are they ‘directresses,’ ‘mentors,’ ‘facilitators,’or are they ‘guides’? Gosh, I wonder if they ever just teach?”

It all seems so terribly complicated, especially whenpeople seem to have such different impressions ofMontessori. Some rave about it, while others think thatyou must be crazy to put your child in a Montessorischool. Some people are firmly convinced thatMontessori is too rigid and that it robs children of theircreativity; others object that it is completely unstruc-tured and without any academic standards.

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

For more than thirty years, I’ve tried to help parentssort all this out so they could reassure themselves thatMontessori isn’t going to leave their children academi-cally handicapped and unable to make it in the realworld. It’s still not easy to put Montessori into contextwhen the rest of the world seems so completely com-mitted to a very different approach to raising children.

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

— Tim Seldin, PresidentThe Montessori Foundation

Montessori 101:Some Basic

Information that EveryMontessori Pa r e n t

Should Know

by Tim Seldin, PresidentThe Montessori Fo u n d a t i o n

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Most Montessori schools begin withthree year olds and extend through theelementary grades. Every year moreschools open middle-school programsat one end; infant-toddler programs atthe other.

Montessori schools offer a widerange of programs. Many are focused onmeeting the needs of the working fami-ly. Others describe themselves as col-lege-preparatory programs. PublicMontessori 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 InternationalMontessori Council celebrate the diver-sity to be found among Montessorischools. Just as each child is unique, soare the schools that we create uniquecommunities of parents and teachers.

What makes Montessori schools different?

Montessori schools are not completelydifferent from other schools. Over thelast century, Dr. Maria Montessori’sideas have had a profound and growinginfluence on education around theworld. However, 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 entireMontessori model which creates some-thing quite distinct.

Here are a few key points to consideras you look at Montessori schools morec l o s e l y :

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

Montessori schools are warm andsupportive communities of students,teachers, and parents. Children don’tget lost in the crowd!

Montessori consciously teaches chil-dren to be kind and peaceful.

Montessori classrooms are bright andexciting environments for learning.

Montessori classes bring children to-gether in multi-age groups, rather thanclasses comprised of just one grade lev-el. Normally they span three age levels.Children stay with their teachers forthree years. This allows teachers to de-velop close and long-term relationshipswith their pupils, allows them to knoweach 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.

Montessori classrooms are not run bythe teachers alone. Students are taughtto manage their own community anddevelop uncanny leadership skills andi n d e p e n d e n c e .

Montessori assumes that children areborn intelligent, they simply learn in dif-ferent ways and progress at their ownpace. The Montessori approach to edu-cation is consciously designed to recog-nize and address different learningstyles, helping students learn to studymost effectively. Students progress asthey master new skills, moving ahead asquickly as they are ready.

Montessori students rarely rely ontexts and workbooks. Why? Becausemany of the skills 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, Montessori reliesupon hands-on concrete learning mate-rials and the library where children areintroduced to the best in literature andreference materials.

Learning is not focused on rote drilland memorization. The goal is to devel-op students who really understand theirs c h o o l w o r k .

Montessori students learn throughhands-on experience, investigation, andresearch. They become actively engagedin their studies, rather than passivelywaiting to be spoon fed.

Montessori challenges and sets highexpectations for all students, not onlythose considered “gifted.”

Students develop self-discipline andan internal sense of purpose and moti-vation. After graduation from Montes-sori, these values serve them well inhigh school, college, and in their lives asa d u l t s .

Montessori 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 ofour children’s experience.

The Montessori curriculum is careful-ly structured and integrated to demon-strate the connections among the differ-ent subject areas. Every class teaches

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

Students learn to care aboutothers through community ser-v i c e .

Montessori teachers facilitatelearning, 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.

Montessori 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.

t’s dark at 7:05 on this mid-winter’s morning when JeanneSaunders pulls up to the drop-off circle at the Montessorischool that her three children have attended since each

was two years old. Jeanne has made this trip so often over the years that the

school feels like her second home. She works downtown andtypically can’t leave work until after five. Her husband teachesin the local public schools and gets off much earlier. He’llpick the children up from the after-school program by 4:30,but if he’s late, he knows that they will be fine until he arrives.The school prides itself on being family-friendly, and workingfamilies appreciate its extended day and summer camp.

Teddy, Josh, and Jennifer definitely think of the school astheir second family. Jennifer is one of those children who, af-ter ten years in Montessori, speaks about her school with af-fection and conviction. Visitors often find her coming upwithout a moment’s hesitation to greet them and offer a cupof coffee or campus tour. When people ask her if she likes itin Montessori, she will smile and say, “Sure, how could any-one not love it here. Your teachers are your best friends, thework is really interesting, and the other kids are like mybrothers and sisters. It’s a family. You feel really close toe v e r y o n e . ”

Jennifer walks Teddy, age four, and Josh, who’s seven, upto morning supervision. After dropping them off, she walksdown the hill to the Upper School where she is a seventhgrader. She joins two of her friends in the commons, sits, andtalks quietly, waiting for her first class to start.

Teddy’s morning supervision is in his normal classroom.After hanging up his coat, he walks over to Judy, the staffmember in charge of his room until school officially begins at8:30. He asks if there is anything ready to eat. Judy suggeststhat he help himself. He scoops out a bowl of cereal from asmall bin and adds milk. He takes his morning snack over toa table and eats. Children and their parents drift into theroom every so often, and gradually the number of children inthe early morning program grows to about 15.

After eating his breakfast, Teddy meanders over to theeasel and begins to paint with Teresa, a little girl just three,who has only joined the class over the last few weeks. Theypaint quietly, talking back and forth about nothing in particu-lar. Eventually, Teddy tires of painting and cleans up. He istempted for a moment just to walk away and leave the easel

messy, but he carefully cleans up and puts his materialsaway as he has learned from more than two years inM o n t e s s o r i .

At 8:30, his two teachers arrive, along with several morechildren. Others follow over the next few minutes until all30 students and two teachers quietly move about the room.

Montessori children work with hands-on learning materi-als that make abstract concepts clear and concrete. They al-low young students to develop a clear inner image of con-cepts in mathematics, such as how big is a thousand, whatwe mean when we refer to the ‘hundreds’ column, andwhat is taking place when we divide one number by anoth-er. This approach makes sense to children.

Through this foundation of concrete experiential learn-ing, operations in mathematics, such as addition, becomeclear and concrete, allowing the child to internalize a clearpicture of how the process works.

Teddy and another child have begun to work together toconstruct and solve a mathematical problem. Using sets ofnumber cards, each decides how many units, tens, hun-dreds, and thousands will be in his addend. The cards show-ing the units 1 to 9 are printed in green; the cards showingthe numbers from 10 to 90 are printed in blue; the hun-dreds from 100 to 900 are printed with red ink; and thecards showing the numbers 1000 to 9000 are printed ingreen again, because they represent units of thousands.

As Teddy and his friend construct their numbers, theydecide how many units they want, find the card showingthat quantity, and place it at the upper right-hand corner oftheir work space. Next they go to the bank, a central collec-tion of golden bead material, and gather the number of unitbeads that corresponds with the number card selected. Thisprocess is repeated with the tens, hundreds, and thousands.

The two addends are combined in the process we call ad-dition. Beginning with the units, the children count thecombined quantities to determine the result of adding thetwo together. If the result is nine or less, they simply find thelarge number card that represents the answer. If the addi-tion has resulted in a quantity of ten beads or more, the chil-dren stop at the count of ten and carry these unit beads tothe bank to exchange them for a ten bar: ten units equalsone unit of ten. This process is repeated with the tens, hun-dreds, and thousands.

Its about 10 o’clock now, and Teddy is a bit hungry. Hewanders over to the snack table and prepares himself sever-al pieces of celery stuffed with peanut butter. He pours him-self a cup of apple juice, using a little pitcher that is just rightfor his small hands. When he is finished, Teddy wipes hisp l a c e m a t .

Clearing up his snack has put Teddy in the mood to real-ly clean something, and he selects table washing. He gathersthe bucket, little pitcher, sponge, scrub brush, towel, andsoap needed and proceeds slowly and methodically to scrub

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a small table. As he works, he’s absorbedin the patterns that his brush andsponge make in the soap suds on thetable’s surface. Teddy returns everythingto its 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 Teddy 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, Teddy and hisclassmates are responsible for the careof this child-sized environment. Whenthey are hungry, they prepare their ownsnack and drink.

They go to the bathroom without as-sistance. When something spills, theyhelp each other carefully clean thingsup. We find children cutting raw fruitand vegetables, sweeping, dusting,washing windows. They set tables, tietheir own shoes, polish silver, and

steadily grow intheir self-confidenceand independence.Noticing that theplants needs water-ing, Teddy 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. They en-gage in conversation about his latest en-thusiasms, which leads Ann to suggestanother reading lesson.

She and Teddy 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. Teddy traces the letterwith his tiny hand and repeats thesound made by his teacher.

Teddy 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 Teddybuild up a collection of letters which heknows by their phonetic sounds.

Ann leads Teddy through a three-step process. “Teddy, this is d u h . C a nyou say d u h ? Terrific! Now, this is a b u h(the letter b). Teddy, can you show methe d u h ? Can you give me the b u h ? F i n e .Okay, what is this (holding up one ofthe sandpaper letters just introduced)?”

Teddy responds, and the process contin-ues for another few minutes. The entirelesson is fairly brief; perhaps 15 minutesor so. Before long, Teddy will begin toput sounds together to form simplethree-letter words.

Teddy’s day continues just like themorning began. He 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 like to join her for a les-son. He smiles, but graciously declines.He is too engaged in the project that he’sc h o s e n .

In the afternoon he does some moreart, listens to selections from a recordingof the N u t c r a c k e r ballet, works on hisshape names with the geometry cabinet,and completes a puzzle map of theUnited States.

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

D r. Maria Montessori: A Historical Pe r s p e c t i v e

“To aid life, leaving it free, however, to unfoldi t s e l f, that is the basic task of the educator.

Ours was a house for children, rather than areal school. We had prepared a place for children, where a dif-fused culture could be assimilated, without any need for directi n s t r u c t i o n . . . Yet these children learned to read and write beforethey were five, and no one had given them any lessons. At thattime it seemed miraculous that children of four and a halfshould be able to write, and that they should have learned with-out the feeling of having been taught.

We puzzled over it for a long time. Only after repeated experi-ments did we conclude with certainty that all children are en-dowed with this capacity to ‘absorb’ culture. If this be true - wethen argued - if culture can be acquired without effort, let usprovide the children with other elements of culture. And then wesaw them ‘absorb’ far more than reading and writing: botany,z o o l o g y, mathematics, geography, and all with the same ease,spontaneously and without getting tired.

And so we discovered that education is not something whichthe teacher does, but that it is a natural process which devel-ops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired bylistening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which thechild acts on his environment. The teacher’s task is not totalk, 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 countries,have now been going on for forty years (Ed. note: now morethan ninety years), and as the children grew up, parents keptasking me to extend my methods to the later ages. We thenfound that individual activity is the one factor that stimu-lates and produces development, and that this is not moretrue for the little ones of preschool age than it is for the junior,middle, and upper school children.

— Dr. Maria MontessoriThe 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 ofthe women’s movement, peace efforts,and child labor-law reform. Montessoribecome well known and highly regard-ed throughout Europe, which undoubt-edly contributed to the publicity thatsurrounded her schools.

In 1901, Montessori was appointedDirector of the new OrthophrenicSchool attached to the University ofRome, formerly used as the asylum forthe “deficient and insane” children ofthe 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,Montessori insisted that the staff speakto the inmates with the highest respect.She set up a program to teach heryoung charges how to care for them-selves and their environment.

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aria Montessori is as contro-versial a figure in education to-day as she was a 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 ofeducation.

Those 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. Many elements ofmodern education have been adaptedfrom Montessori’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 America have begun to recognizethe consistency between the Montessoriapproach with what we have learnedfrom research into child development.

Maria Montessori was an individualahead of her time. She was born in 1870in Ancona, Italy, 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, Montessori pursued ascientific education and was thefirst woman to become a physician inItaly.

As a practicing physician associatedwith the University of Rome, she was ascientist, not a teacher. It 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. TheMontessori method evolved almost by ac-cident from a small experiment that Dr.Montessori carried out on the side. Hergenius stems not from her teaching abili-ty, but from her recognition of the impor-tance of what she stumbled upon.

As a physician, Dr. Montessori 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. These experiences convinced herthat intelligence is not rare and that mostnewborns come into the world with a hu-man potential that will be barely revealed.

Her work reinforced her humanisticideals, and she made time in her busy

At the same time, she began a metic-ulous study of all research previouslydone on the education of the mentallyhandicapped. Her studies led Montes-sori to the work of two almost forgottenFrench physicians of the eighteenth andnineteenth centuries: Jean Itard andEdouard Seguin. Itard is most famousfor his work with the “Wild Boy ofAveyron,” a youth who had been foundwandering naked in the forest, havingspent ten years living alone. The boycould not speak and lacked almost all ofthe skills of everyday life. Here apparent-ly was a “natural man,” a human beingwho had developed without the benefitof culture and socialization with his ownkind. Itard 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 a v i o r .

Itard’s experiment was a limited suc-cess, for he found the “wild boy” unco-operative and unwilling or unable tolearn most things. This led Itard to pos-

tulate the existence of developmental peri-ods in normal human growth. During these“sensitive periods,” a child must experiencestimulation or grow up forever lacking theadult skills 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. This ideahad tremendous appeal to the scientificallytrained Montessori and later became thecornerstone of her method. From EdouardSeguin, Montessori drew further confirma-tion of Itard’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, Montes-sori took the idea of a scientific 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 ofan 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 ofwho they really were and what

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

Unfortunately, the Italian Ministry ofEducation did not welcome this idea, andshe was denied access to school-aged chil-dren. Frustrated in her efforts to carry theexperiment on with public-school students,in 1907 Montessori jumped at the chanceto coordinate a day-care center for work-ing-class children who were too young toattend public school.

This first Casa dei Bambini or“Children’s House” was located in theworst slum district of Rome, and the condi-tions Montessori faced were appalling. Herfirst 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

Maria Montessori is as controversial a figure in

education today as she was a half century ago.

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worked. They had to be fed two meals aday, 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. Montessori,not knowing whether her experimentwould work under such conditions, be-gan by teaching the older children howto help with the everyday tasks that need-ed to be done. She also introduced themanipulative perceptual puzzles that shehad used with the retarded.

The 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. They were fascinated with the puz-zles and perceptual training devices. But,to Montessori’s amazement, the youngchildren took the greatest delight inlearning practical everyday living skills re-inforcing their independence.

Each day they begged her to showthem more, even applauding with delightwhen Montessori taught them the cor-rect use of a handkerchief. 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. Itwas little wonder that the press foundsuch a human interest story appealingand promptly broadcast it to the world.

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

Montessori argued that the educator’sjob is to serve the child; determiningwhat is needed to make the greatestprogress. To her, a child who fails inschool should not be blamed, any morethan a doctor should blame a patientwho does not 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.

Montessori’s children exploded intoacademics. ‘Too young to go to publicschool, they begged to be taught how toread and write. They learned to do soquickly and enthusiastically, using spe-cial manipulative materials Montessoridesigned for maximum appeal and ef-fectiveness. The children were fascinat-ed by numbers; to meet this interest,the mathematically inclined Montessorideveloped a series of concrete mathlearning 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 first school be-came famous, when a group of well in-tentioned women gave them a mar-velous collection of lovely and expensivetoys. The new gifts held the children’sattention for a few days, but they soonreturned to the more interesting learn-ing materials. To Montessori’s surprise,children who had experienced both,preferred work over play most of thetime. If she were here today, Montessoriwould probably add: Children read anddo advanced mathematics in Montessorischools not because we push them, butbecause this is what they do when giventhe correct setting and opportunity. Todeny them the right to learn becausewe, as adults, think that they shouldn’t isillogical and typical of the way schoolshave been run before.

Montessori 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 experimented with the class.

For example, Montessori 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. Onlythe teacher had a key and would open itand hand the materials to the childrenupon request. In 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. AsMontessori arrived, the teacher wasscolding the children for taking themout without permission. She recognized

that the children’s behavior showed thatthey 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 this may sound like a minorchange, but it contradicted all educationalpractice and theory of that period.

One discovery followed another, givingMontessori an increasingly clear view of theinner mind of the child. She found that littlechildren were capable of long periods ofquiet concentration, even though theyrarely showed signs of it in everyday set-tings. Although they were often carelessand sloppy, they respond positively to an at-mosphere of calm and order. Montessorinoticed that the logical extension of theyoung child’s love for a consistent and of-ten-repeated routine is an environment inwhich everything has a place.

Her 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. Montessori 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 child-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 knives that fit a child’s tiny hand.The tables were light-weight, allowing twochildren to move them alone. The childrenlearned to control their movements, dislik-ing the way the calm was disturbed whenthey knocked into things. Montessori stud-ied the traffic pattern of the rooms as well,arranging the furnishings and the activityarea to minimize congestion and tripping.The children loved to sit on the floor, soshe bought little rugs to define their workareas, and the children quickly learned towalk around them.

Through the years, Montessori schoolscarried this environmental engineeringthroughout the entire building and outsideenvironment, designing child-sized toiletsand 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. Many ofthe puzzles and educational devices now inuse at the preschool and elementary levelsare direct copies of Montessori’s originalideas. However, there is far more of herwork that never entered the mainstream,

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and educators who are searching for new,more effective answers are finding the ac-cumulated experience of the Montessoricommunity to be of great interest.

Maria Montessori’s first “Children’sHouse” received overnight attention, andthousands of visitors came away amazedand enthusiastic. Worldwide interestsurged as she duplicated her first schoolin other settings with the same results.Montessori captured the interest andimagination of national leaders and scien-tists, mothers and teachers, labor leadersand factory owners. As an internationallyrespected scientist, Montessori had a rarecredibility in a field where many othershad promoted opinions, philosophies,and models that have not been readilyduplicated. The Montessori method of-fered a systematic approach that translat-ed very well to new settings. In the first 35years of this century, the Montessorimethod seemed to offer something foreveryone. Conservatives appreciated thecalm, responsible behavior of the little

children, along with their love for work.Liberals applauded the freedom andspontaneity. Many 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 itsimperical foundation, along with the ac-celerated achievement of the little chil-dren. Montessori rode a wave of enthu-siastic support that should havechanged the face of education far moredramatically than it has.

Montessori’s prime productive peri-od lasted from the opening of the firstChildren’s House in 1907 until the1930s.During this time, she continued herstudy of children, and developed a vastlyexpanded curriculum and methodologyfor the elementary level as well. Montes-sori schools were set up throughoutEurope and North America, and Dr.Montessori gave up her medical practice

to devote all of her energies to advocatingthe rights and intellectual potential of allchildren. During her lifetime, Dr.Montessori was acknowledged as one ofthe world’s leading educators. Educationmoved beyond Maria Montessori, adaptingonly those elements of her work that fitinto existing theories and methods.Ironically, the Montessori approach cannotbe implemented as a series of piecemealreforms. It requires a complete restructur-ing of the school and the teacher’s role.Only recently, as our understanding ofchild development has grown, have we re-discovered how clear and sensible was herinsight. Today 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 Montessori,begun almost 100 years ago, is a remark-ably modern approach.

n her research, Dr. Montessori noted specific characteris-tics associated with the child’s interests and abilities 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.Montessori taught teachers how to “follow the child” throughcareful observation, allowing each student to reveal herstrengths and weaknesses, interests and anxieties, and strate-gies that work best to facilitate the development of her humanpotential.

This focus on the “whole child” led Dr. Montessori to devel-op a very different sort of school from the traditional adult-centered classroom. To emphasize this difference, she namedher first school the “Casa dei Bambini” or the “Children’sHouse.”

There is something profound in her choice of words, forthe Montessori 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’s com-munity. They move freely within it, selecting work that cap-tures their interest. Even very small children assist with thecare of the environment. When they are hungry, they preparetheir own snacks. They 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 Montessori classrooms cut raw fruits and vegeta-bles, sweep and dust, carry pitchers of water and pour liquidswith barely a drop spilled. The children normally go abouttheir work so calmly and purposely that it is clear to even thecasual observer that they are the ‘masters of the house.’

Montessori’s first “Children’s House,” opened in 1907, wasmade up of 60 inner-city children who largely came from dys-functional families. In her book, The Montessori Method, D r .Montessori 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 children bathe andchange their clothes, swept, cleaned, and worked in the gar-den. These very young children developed a sense of maturi-ty and connectedness that 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. In fact, for today’s children it is proba-bly even more important. Montessori gives children the mes-sage that they belong — that their school is like a secondfamily. Many Montessori students describe their experiencein words quite similar to these written by Frances Merenda, a1990 graduate of the Barrie School in Silver Spring, Maryland.

“I started in Montessori at age 2. I’m a product of the entire sys-tem. I did well in the lower grades and upper school. But still,many people wondered if I had been prepared for college,whether I could “make it” in a “real school.” The skepticism of somany acquaintances was so disconcerting that I never botheredto step back and see what 15 years of trust, respect, teaching,and learning had done for me. When I went off to college atNorthwestern University, I left my support system and commu-nity behind and entered a world that was much colder and un-caring. At first, I deeply missed that sense of belonging. I didn’trealize that Barrie had not only given me a second family, buthad also taught me how to build new friendships, support sys-tems, and community wherever I go. Now, at Northwestern, Ihave used my years of experience in community building tocultivate secure relationships with people I have come to know.Barrie did more for me than just prepare me academically forcollege, it prepared me for anything to which I chose to applym y s e l f. I feel prepared for life and I wouldn’t want it any otherw a y.”

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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, scientific appa-ratus, perhaps a small natural-sciencemuseum, and animals that the childrenare raising.

Montessori 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 intellectu-al development.

You would not expect to find rows ofdesks in a Montessori classroom. Therooms are set up to facilitate student dis-cussion and stimulate collaborativelearning. One glance and it is clear thatchildren feel comfortable and safe.

The Montessori classroom is orga-nized into several curriculum areas, usu-

ally including: language arts (reading, lit-erature, grammar, creative writing,spelling, and handwriting), mathematicsand geometry, everyday living skills, sen-sory awareness exercises and puzzles,geography, history, science, art, music,and movement. Most rooms will includea classroom library. Each area is madeup of one or more shelf units, cabinets,and display tables with a wide variety ofmaterials on open display, ready for useas the children select them.

Students are typically found scatteredaround the classroom, working alone orwith one or two others. They tend to be-come so involved in their work that visi-tors are immediately struck by thepeaceful atmosphere.

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

The Pr e p a r e dE n v i r o n m e n t

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t y p i c a lM o n t e s s o r iclass is

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 Montessoriapproach for al-most 100 years.Classes are nor-mally taught by acertified Montes-

sori educator teaching with one or moreassistants or by two Montessori 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,Montessori 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 aMontessori school correspond to thedevelopmental 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); Middle 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.

Many 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 limited resource even in a smallclass. These schools reason that as thenumber of children decreases, the timethat teachers have to spend with eachchild increases. Ideally, we would have aone-on-one tutorial situation.

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

Montessori 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 Montessorischools economically more viable, al-lowing schools to attract teachers withfar greater training and experience.

Some parents worry that by havingyounger children in the same class asolder ones, one age group or the otherwill be shortchanged. They fear that theyounger children will absorb the teach-ers’ time and attention, or that the im-portance of covering the kindergartencurriculum for the five year olds will pre-vent them from giving the three andfour year olds the emotional support

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“One of my most enduring memories of be-ing a Montessori child is the sense of family Ihad with my classmates and teacher. Unliketraditional schools, where I would havemoved into a new class with a new teacherevery year, I had a wonderful continuity.When I moved up from the 3 to 6 class to ele-mentary, I moved up with a group of stu-dents with whom I had been in class forthree years already. We stayed together forthe next six years. Today, nearly twentyyears later, I can tell you where my class-mates are and what they are doing. Betterstill, my teacher, Mrs. Fleck and I are stillvery close. In fact, her grandson was in myvery first class when I became a Montessoriteacher!

When I left Montessori, I never found anoth-er experience like that in the private andpublic schools I attended. There, I felt that Iwas just a name on the roll rather than animportant individual. In my Montessoriclass, we were each separate and specialpeople, and together we made up a very spe-cial family. This is an experience that willremain with me always.”

— Dorothy Hamilton PorcherMontessori Child, Montessori Teacher

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

vestigation and discovery. Most studentsdo not retain or truly grasp much ofwhat they “learn” through memoriza-tion.

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

need to manipulate and explore every-thing that catches their interest. It 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.

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

An important concept is thatfor each age level of theMontessori curriculum there isan extensive collection of care-fully defined educational mate-rials that are the equivalent ofthe chapters in a traditional

textbook. Each material isolates andteaches one concept or skill at a time. Indeveloping the materials, Dr.Montessori 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. My ex-perience has convinced me that bothconcerns are misguided and I can’timagine teaching in any other way.

There are several distinct advantagesto the Montessori classroom model.

In a well run and establishedMontessori class children are typicallyfar more independent and self-disci-plined. One factor that makes this possi-ble is that 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 theMontessori 6-9 year-old class. With two-thirds of the students returning eachSeptember, the classroom culture is sur-prisingly stable.

Each child is a unique individual; notwo are the same. Even with the smallestteacher-pupil ratios, each will have herown interests, abilities, strengths andweaknesses. Each child 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.Montessori teachers treat each child asan individual and customize lessons tofit her needs, personality, and interests.

Since Montessori 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. Working in one class for twoor three years allows students to devel-op a strong sense of community withtheir classmates and teachers. The agerange also allows the especially giftedchild the stimulation of intellectualpeers, without requiring that she skip agrade and feel emotionally out of place.

To accommodate the needs of indi-vidual learners, Montessori classroomshave to include curriculum to cover theentire span of interests and abilities upthrough the oldest and most accelerat-ed students in the class. This creates ahighly enriched learning environment.

In multi-level classrooms, youngerchildren are constantly stimulated bythe interesting work in which the olderones are engaged.

At the same time, in multi-level class-rooms, older students serve as tutorsand 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.

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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. The materialsare arranged in sequence from the mostsimple 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 Montessori materials isdesigned to allow children to work inde-pendently with only the lightest level ofintroduction and ongoing support fromthe teachers. This is made possible by a The

M o n t e s s o r iCurriculum

ontessori offers a rigorousand innovative academicprogram. The curriculum

is organized into a spiral of integrat-ed studies, rather than a traditionalmodel in which the curriculum iscompartmentalized into separatesubjects, with given topics consid-ered only once at a specific grade lev-el. In the early years, lessons are in-troduced simply and concretely andare reintroduced several times oversucceeding years at increasing de-grees of abstraction and complexity.

The 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.

Literature, the arts, history, socialissues, political science, economics,science and the study of technologyall complement one another. This in-tegrated approach is one ofMontessori’s great strengths.

As an example, when studentsstudy ancient Greece, they also studyGreek mythology, read stories andnovels set in the Grecian world, cre-ate authentic costumes, build mod-els of Greek buildings, and exploreGrecian art. They study the climate,ecosystems, flora, fauna, and naturalresources of the world of the ancientGreeks. And they prepare plays, cele-brate festivals, and restage their ownversion of historical events.

built-in design element, the “Control ofError,” which allows students to deter-mine 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 untilthey attain mastery. Interest leads themto explore variations and extensions in-herent within the design of the materialsat many levels over the years.

For example, the Trinomial Cube,which presents a complex and challeng-ing three-dimensional puzzle to the five year old, is used to introduce the elementary child to the algebraic con-cept of the exponential powers of poly-n o m i a l s .

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n Montessori, the school day is notdivided into fixed time periods foreach subject. Teachers call stu-

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

A typical day’s work is divided into“fundamentals” that have been assignedby the faculty and self-initiated projectsand 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 pacethemselves and take a great deal of per-sonal responsibility for their studies,both of which are essential for later suc-cess in college and in life.

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

Students constantly share their inter-ests and discoveries with each other.The 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

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How CanM o n t e s s o r i

Te a c h e r sMeet theNeeds of So Many

D i f f e r e n tC h i l d r e n ?

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

teacher is helping 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, developthis sense of each child’s uniqueness bydeveloping a relationship over a periodof years with the child and her parents.

Dr. Montessori believed that teachersshould focus on the child as a person,not on the daily lesson plan. Montessorinurtures and inspires the human poten-tial, leading children to ask questions,think for themselves, explore, investi-gate, and discover. Our ultimate objec-tive is to help them to learn how to learnindependently, retaining the curiosity,creativity, and intelligence with whichthey were born. Montessori teachersdon’t simply present lessons; they are fa-cilitators, 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. Montessori educa-tors play a very different role.

Wanting to underscore the very dif-ferent role played by adults in herschools, Dr. Montessori used the title“directress” instead of “teacher.” InItalian, the word implies the role of thecoordinator or administrator of an officeor factory. Today, many Montessorischools prefer to call their teachers“guides.”

Whatever they’re called, Montessoriteachers are rarely the center of atten-tion, for this is not their class; it is the“Children’s House.”

Normally Montessori 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.

Montessori Guides Have Five Basic Goals:

■ to awaken the child’s spirit andi m a g i n a t i o n ;

■ to encourage his normal desire forindependence and high sense ofs e l f - e s t e e m ;

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

■ to help children learn how to ob-serve, question, and explore ideasi n d e p e n d e n t l y ;

■ and, having created a spirit of joyfullearning, to help the child to masterthe skills and knowledge of their s o c i e t y .

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

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

Montessori guides closely monitortheir students’ progress, keeping thelevel of challenge high. Because theynormally work with each child for twoor three years, guides get to know theirstudents’ strengths and weaknesses, in-terests, and anxieties extremely well.Montessori guides often use the chil-dren’s interests to enrich the curriculumand provide alternate avenues for ac-complishment and success.

Montessori Teaches Children to Think and Discover for Themselves

Montessori schools are designed to helpchildren discover and develop their tal-ents and possibilities.

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

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

Respect and Independence: The Foundation of theMontessori Approach

Montessori does not believe that intelli-gence is fixed at birth, nor is the humanpotential anywhere near as limited, as itsometimes seems in traditional educa-tion. The validity of these beliefs hasbeen confirmed by the research ofPiaget, Gardner, Coleman, and manyothers.

We know that each child is a full andcomplete 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 andcreates an atmosphere within whichlearning is tremendously facilitated.

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

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By allowing children to develop ameaningful degree of independenceand self-discipline, Montessori sets apattern for a lifetime of good workhabits and a sense of responsibility.Students are taught to take pride indoing things well.

Freedom of Movement and Independently Chosen Work

Children touch and manipulate every-thing in their environment. In 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.

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

Many 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. Graduallychildren learn to pay attention, seeingmore clearly small details in the thingsaround them. They begin to observeand appreciate their environment,which is a key in helping them discov-er how to learn.

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

Work that has been assigned byadults rarely leads to such enthusiasmand interest as does work that chil-dren freely choose for themselves.The Montessori classroom is a learn-ing laboratory in which children are al-lowed to explore, discover, and selecttheir own work.

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

What is the most important thing thatchildren get from Montessori?

he Montessori approach is often described as an “education forlife.” When we try to define what children take away from theiryears in Montessori, 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 traditional and highly competitive schools, studentsmemorize facts and concepts with little understanding, only to quickly for-get them when exams are over. Studies show that many bright studentsare passive learners. They 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. They 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.

Montessori schools work to develop culturally literate children and nur-ture their fragile sparks of curiosity, creativity, and intelligence. They havea very different set of priorities from traditional schools, and a very low re-gard for mindless memorization and superficial learning.

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

Montessori believed that there was more to life 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 ofsoul that allows us to love are the most important goals in life.

Helen Keller, inspired by Montessori, wrote:

“I believe that every child has hidden away somewhere in his being noble capacitieswhich may be quickened and developed if we go about it in the right way, but we shallnever properly develop the higher nature of our little ones while we continue to fill theirminds with the so-called basics. Mathematics will never make them loving, nor will ac-curate knowledge of the size and shape of the world help them to appreciate its beauties.Let us lead them during the first years to find their greatest pleasure in nature. Let themrun in the fields, learn about animals, and observe real things. Children will educatethemselves under the right conditions. They require guidance and sympathy far morethan instruction.”

Montessori 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. Montessoriproposed 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. Dr. Montessori envisioned her movement as essentially lead-ing to a reconstruction of society.

Montessori schools are different, but it isn’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 discover that the classroom is a place where childrenreally want to be — because it feels a lot like home.

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

new Montessori parents. Normalizationis a terrible choice of words. It suggeststhat we are going to help children whoare not normal to become “normal.”This is not what Dr. Montessori meant.Normalization is Montessori’s name forthe process that takes place in Montes-sori classrooms around the world,through which young children learn tofocus their intelligence, concentratetheir energies for long periods, and taketremendous satisfaction from theirw o r k .

One mother put it this way: “My childjust does not act the same now that he’sbeen in Montessori a while. He usuallyruns from one thing to another. InMontessori, 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 calls hard work.”

In his book, Maria Montessori: HerLife and Work, E.M. Standing describedthe following characteristics of normal-ization in the child between the age ofthree and six:

▲ A love of order▲ A love of work▲ Profound spontaneous

c o n c e n t r a t i o n

What Outcomes Can We Look for If We Give Our

Child a MontessoriE d u c a t i o n ?

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

Montessori education:

Academic Preparation: Montessori pre-pares students both for higher educationand for life. On an academic level, Montes-sori helps students attain skills that allowthem to become independently function-ing adults and life-long learners.

Intrinsic Motivation: Innate desire drivesMontessori children to engage in activitiesfor enjoyment and satisfaction.

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

Social Responsibility: Montessori chil-dren tend to be quite sensitive to therights and needs of others. They tend tomake a positive contribution to their c o m m u n i t y .

A u t o n o m y : Montessori students tend tobecome self-directed, composed andmorally independent.

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

Creativity and Originality of Thought:Montessori students normally becomeconfident in expressing their own ideasand creativity. They recognize the value oftheir own work, respect the creativeprocess of others and are willing to sharetheir ideas regardless of the risk of rejec-tion. Montessori students tend to takegreat satisfaction in self-expression.

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

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▲ Attachment to reality▲ Love of silence and of

working alone▲ Sublimation of the possessive

i n s t i n c t▲ O b e d i e n c e▲ Independence and initiative▲ Spontaneous self-discipline▲ J o y▲ The power to act from real

choice and not just from idlec u r i o s i t y

Kay Futrell in her classic little book,The Normalized Child, describes Dr.Montessori’s amazement when the 60frightened and ill-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 possibilityof doing work suited to their needs. They re-vealed to her not only their enormous capaci-ty for intellectual accomplishment, but astrange character of sweetness and serenity.They displayed a truly uncorrupted spirit,scorning rewards and punishment, andfinding their joy in the prodigious work whichinvolved them. They came from these laborsrefreshed, as from a creative experience, andas they worked, they grew in inner disciplineand peace.

The sight of these children who displayed thetruly “normal” characteristics of childhood,was the force which motivated Montessori for the remainder of her life. This secret ofchildhood she pursued with all the vitality ofthe genius who found her ‘raison d’Ítre,’andfrom her tireless observations and efforts,evolved her perception of the child’s psychicp e r s o n a l i t y .

As she traveled from country to country, lec-turing, training teachers, helping to establishschool after school, this same phenomenonwas observed wherever conditions promotingits growth were perfectly realized.

This normalized child is the image whichMontessori teachers keep uppermost in theirminds. This is what we are striving for, whatwe hope to achieve. However, this child willonly appear only if we conscientiously pre-pare ourselves and our classrooms and if wecan build on the proper preparation in thechild’s home.”

Normalization is another word forwhat we call Montessori’s JoyfulS c h o l a r s .

n a word, y e s ! Here’s why.Montessori helps children masterthe intellectual skills and knowl-

edge that are basic to our culture andtechnology. As Montessori studentsmaster one level of academic skills theyare able to apply themselves to increas-ingly challenging work across the acade-mic disciplines. They tend to be reflec-tive scholars. They write, speak, andthink clearly and thoughtfully. Theyhave learned how to learn by doing realthings in the real world — experientiallearning. They have learned how to inte-grate new concepts, analyze data, andthink critically. Children who grow up inMontessori schools tend to be culturallyliterate, well educated, and highly suc-cessful in university and later life.

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

Montessori cultivates creativity andoriginality: Montessori students are nor-mally exceptionally creative in theirthinking and confident in self-expres-sion. They recognize the value of theirown ideas, respect the creative processof others, and are willing to exploreideas together in search of truth or news o l u t i o n s .

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

Montessori students do not seethemselves as “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 Montessorirarely feel the need to rebel and act out.Although even Montessori children willexplore the limits and test their parents’resolve, they basically follow an innercreed of self-respect.

They accept limits and tend to followcommon sense. Moreover, they have atendency to reach out consciously totheir friends and the larger community,

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ontessori children 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 likethat? Well, truthfully over the years we’ve found some who consider these chil-dren “disruptive.”

Disruptive? A polite, independent Montessori child, disruptive? Well, first off,let’s remember that Montessori children are real human beings, and not all chil-dren who attend Montessori fit the idealized description. However, enough dothat the generalization is often fairly accurate.

Montessori 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 andschools where children who ask questions are seen as challenging authority. Youcan imagine an independent Montessori 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. One child may be verysensitive or have somewhat special needs that might not be met well in ateacher-centered traditional classroom. Other children can go anywhere. In gen-eral, there is nothing inherent in Montessori that causes children to have a hardtime if they are transferred to traditional schools. Some will be bored. Othersmay 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 success understood in their new schools.

Naturally, there are trade-offs. The curriculum in Montessori schools is oftenmuch more enriched and accelerated than many found in other nursery and ele-mentary schools in the United States. The 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 Montessori at least through thesixth grade. As more Montessori high schools are opened in the United States, itis likely that this trend will continue.

But other families, for financial or other reasons, don’t plan to have their chil-dren continue in Montessori. They often ask if there is any particular age level atwhich Montessori children tend to find the transition particularly difficult? Thereis 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 keep their children in Montessori at least through the end ofkindergarten. Every year, in the winter issue of Tomorrow’s Child,we prepare anarticle that considers the reasons behind this in greater detail.

Ideally, families should consider a commitment 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 Montessori has to offer.

Will My Child

Be Able to

Adjust to

Tr a d i t i o n a l

School after

M o n t e s s o r i ?

Does MontessoriPrepare Children for

the Real Wo r l d ?

I

2 1©T o m o r r o w ’ s Child Magazine Back to School 2000

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

Montessori children are not easilyinfluenced by their peer group to doanything stupid. Like all of us, childrenwho grow up in Montessori schoolswant to have friends and are affected bytheir interests and attitudes. On theother hand, in addition to havinggrown up in a culture that consistentlyteaches and follows universal values ofkindness, honor, and respect,Montessori children tend to think forthemselves.

Montessori students are often spiri-tually alive, exceptionally compassion-ate, empathetic, and sensitive to thenatural world and the human condi-t i o n .

Montessori children tend to be ter-rific kids. They have all the values andattitudes that pay off in college and thereal world. They aren’t afraid of hardwork. They are eager to learn, think,and explore new ideas. They enjoy peo-ple and know how to develop strongfriendships. They generally follow therules and act responsibly. They 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. Theytend to meet deadlines, come to classprepared, and actually enjoy their class-es. They are the average college profes-sor’s dream come true!

In the world after college, they tendto become lifelong learners, creativeand energetic employees, and quite of-ten entrepreneurs. Montessori stu-dents tend to grow up to be people ofgreat character; someone you can trustand on whom you can depend. Theyhave warmth, humanity, and compas-sion. Their lives tend to reflect both joyand dignity. This is the sort of men andwomen we hope our children will growup to be.

Isn’t Montessori elitist?

Montessori is an educational philosophy and approach that can be found inall sorts of settings, from the most humble to large, well equipped campus-es. In general, Montessori schools consciously strive 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. Montessori is also found in the public sector asmagnet public-school programs, Headstart centers, and as charter schools.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Montessori opposed to competition?

No. Dr. Montessori simply observed that competition is an ineffective toolto motivate children to learn and work hard in school.

Traditionally schools challenge students to compete with each other forgrades, class rankings, 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.

In Montessori schools, students learn 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. In an atmosphere in which children learn at their own pace andcompete only against themselves, they learn not to be afraid of making mis-takes. They quickly find that few things in life come easily, and they can tryagain without fear of embarrassment.

Dr. Montessori argued that for an education to profoundly touch achild’s heart and mind, he must be learning because he is curious and in-terested, not simply to earn the highest grade in the class.

Montessori children compete with each other every day, both in classand on the playground. Dr. Montessori, herself an extraordinary studentand a very high achiever, was never opposed to competition on principle.Her objection was to using competition to create an artificial motivation toget students to achieve.

Montessori schools allow competition 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. They explore new things playfully. They watch somethingof interest with a fresh, open mind. They enjoy the company of treasuredadults and other children. They make up stories. They dream. They imag-ine. This impression stems from parents who don’t know what to make ofthe incredible concentration, order, and self-discipline that we commonlysee among Montessori children. Montessori students also tend to take thethings they do in school seriously. It is common for them to respond that“this is my work.” when adults ask what they are playing with. They workhard and expect their parents to treat them and their work with respect.But it is joyful, playful, and anything but drudgery.

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M o r eFr e q u e n t l yA s ke dQuestions

You will not normally find playkitchens, dress-up corners and dolls ina Montessori class for children underage six, because children are using realtools and doing real things, instead ofpretending. However, fantasy and cre-ativity are important aspects of aMontessori child’s experience.

Montessori classrooms incorporateart, music, dance, and creative dramathroughout the curriculum.Imagination plays a 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.

In Montessori 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 a t h e m a t i c s .

Art and music history and apprecia-tion are woven throughout the historyand geography curricula. Traditionalfolk 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 comea l i v e .

While Montessori students are allowedconsiderable latitude to pursue topicsthat interest them, this freedom is notabsolute. Within every society there arecultural norms; expectations for what astudent should know and be able to doby a certain age. Experienced Montes-sori teachers are conscious of thesestandards and provide as much struc-ture and support as is necessary to en-sure that students live up to them. If forsome reason, it appears that a child sim-ply needs time and support until he orshe is developmentally ready to catchup, Montessori teachers provide it non-j u d g m e n t a l l y .

Many parents have heard that Montes-sori schools do not believe in home-work, grades, and tests. This is really amisunderstanding of Montessori’s in-s i g h t s .

H o m e w o r k

Most Montessori schools do not assignhomework at all below the elementarylevel. When it is assigned to older chil-dren it rarely involves page after page ofbusywork, but meaningful, interestingassignments that expand on the topicsthat the children are pursuing in class.Many assignments invite parents andchildren to work together.

Homework should never become abattleground between adult and child.One 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. Ideally, home challenges willgive parents and children a pleasant op-portunity to work together on projectsthat give both parent and child a senseof accomplishment. They are intendedto enrich and extend the curriculum.

Homework doesn’t need to be bor-ing! Montessori challenges children tothink, explore, and pursue tangible pro-jects that give them a sense of satisfac-tion. Homework is intended to affordstudents the opportunity to practice andreinforce skills introduced in the class-room.

Moreover, there is a certain degree ofself-discipline that can be developedwithin the growing child through the

process of completing assignments in-d e p e n d e n t l y .

Many elementary Montessori classessend home packets of “At HomeChallenges” for each age group in theclass. The 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.

Depending on the child’s level, as-signments normally involve some read-ing, research, writing, and somethingtangible to accomplish. They 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 skills and knowledge, such as “See ifyou can learn how to solve these prob-lems well enough that you can teach theskill to a younger student; and 3) Thingsto be submitted, such as a play, essay,story, experiment, or model.

When possible, teachers will normal-ly build in opportunities for children tochoose among several alternative assign-ments. Sometimes teachers will prepareindividually negotiated weekly assign-ments with each student.

T e s t s

Montessori children usually don’t thinkof our assessment techniques as tests somuch as challenges. Early childhoodMontessori teachers observe their chil-dren at work or ask them to teach a les-son to another child to confirm theirknowledge and skill. Most elementaryMontessori 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 working toward mastery,rather than being graded using a stan-dard letter grade scheme.

Standardized Tests

Very few Montessori 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.Many schools ask their older students totake annual standardized tests.

While Montessori students tend toscore very well, Montessori educators

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

Although standardized tests may notoffer a terribly accurate measure of achild’s basic skills and knowledge, in ourculture, test-taking skills are just anotherpractical life lesson that children need tomaster.

Reporting Student Progress

Because Montessori believes in individu-ally paced academic progress, and en-courages children to explore their inter-ests rather than simply complete workassigned 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 Montessori schools, childrencompile a collection of their work that ispulled together in a portfolio of theyear’s work.

Most 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 r o g r e s s .

Typically once or twice a yearMontessori teachers will 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 is unique. Montessori 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 aMontessori classroom setting. On 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 cans u c c e s s f u l l ymeet a givenchild’s needsand learnings t y l e .

M o s tMontessori ed-ucators would agree that Montessori is agood fit for most children but may notbe the right match for their parents.

Everything depends on what yourfamily believes to be true about yourchildren and important in their educa-tion.

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

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

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

If so, Montessori may be right fory o u .

The answer is both yes and no. Montes-sori schools are often successful withchildren who would challenge anyschool, including the highly distractibleand impulsive ones of whom parentstypically have the most concern. Thereason why should be obvious;Montessori is designed to be flexible,adapting the program to meet theneeds of each given child. It also allowschildren to move about, socialize inde-pendently (rather than work as part of agroup), and progress at their own pace.

This doesn’t mean though that everyclass and every Montessori teacher canmeet the needs of every child. This is es-

pecially true if a child is violent, destruc-tive, or excessively disturbing of thepeace and order of the classroom. Eachdecision has to be made on a case bycase basis.

Many people assume that “Montessori”schools are essentially alike. In reality,Montessori schools can differ dramati-cally, in size, facilities, programs, andemotional climate. They share a com-mon philosophy and basic approach,but there may be tremendous variationamong schools that use the nameM o n t e s s o r i. There are more than 4,000Montessori 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 personalities ofthe teachers; however, certain charac-teristics will be found in all classes thatare honestly following the Montessoriapproach.

Dr. Montessori was a brilliant studentof child development, and the approachthat has evolved out of her research hasstood the test for more than 90 years inMontessori schools around the world.The Montessori approach has threegreat qualities: the model is replicable, itcan be adapted successfully into all sortsof new situations, and it is sustainable(Montessori programs don’t tend to self-destruct after a few years, as do manyother educational reforms.) However,the only pure Montessori educator wasDr. Maria Montessori herself. The rest ofus interpret and filter her ideas throughour personalities and experience.

lthough most Montessori schoolstry to remain faithful to their un-derstanding of Dr. Montessori’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 it matches your senseof what you want for your child. No oneeducational approach can be right forevery learner. The wisest goal is to seekout the best fit, not only between thestudent and the school, but also be-tween the parents’ values and goals fortheir child’s education and what a givenschool can realistically deliver. I believethat finding the right school for momand dad is as important as finding theright school for the child.

In the end, the selection of aMontessori school comes down to amatter of personal style and preference.If you visit a school and find yourself inharmony with its ambiance and practice,it will represent at least one example ofwhat 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“Montessori doesn’t work,” while itclearly is working very well for your fami-ly. Rely on your own experience, nothearsay from other parents.

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

Characteristics of an Authentic Montessori School

Dr. Nancy McCormick Rambush,founder of the American MontessoriSociety and co-founder of theMontessori Foundation, identified thefollowing characteristics of an “authen-tic” Montessori school:*

* The following ideas are excerpted fromThe Authentic American Montessori School:A Guide to the Self-Study, Evaluation, andAccreditation of American SchoolsCommitted to Montessori Education, by Dr.Nancy McCormick Rambush and Dr. JohnStoops, published in1992 by the Commissionon Elementary Schools of the Middle StatesAssociation of Colleges and Schools and theAmerican Montessori Society.

The Montessori Learning Environ-ment (A Child-Centered Environ-ment): The focus of activity in theMontessori setting is on children’s learn-ing, not on teachers’ teaching. Generallystudent 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. The 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 andD e v e l o p m e n t : Within a Montessori 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: In Montessori, studentsrarely learn from texts or workbooks. Inall cases, direct, personal, hands-on con-tact with either real things under studyor with concrete models that bring ab-

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

Spontaneous Activity: It is natural forchildren to wiggle, touch things, and ex-plore the world around them. Any trueMontessori environment encourageschildren to move about freely, withinreasonable limits of appropriate behav-ior. Much 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 ofinquiry. And even within this atmos-phere of spontaneous activity, studentsdo eventually have to master the basicskills of their culture, even if they wouldprefer to avoid them.

Active Learning: In Montessori class-rooms, children not only select theirown work most of the time, but alsocontinue to work with tasks, returningto continue their work over many weeksor months, until finally the work is “soeasy for them” that they can teach it toyounger children. This is one of manyways that Montessori educators use toconfirm that students have reachedmastery of each skill.

Self-Directed Activity: One ofMontessori’s key concepts is the ideathat children are driven by their desireto become independent and competentbeings in 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. In the process ofmaking independent choices and ex-ploring concepts largely on their own,Montessori children construct their ownsense of individual identity and right andw r o n g .

Freedom within Limits: M o n t e s s o r ichildren enjoy considerable freedom ofmovement and choice; however, theirfreedom always exists within carefullydefined limits on the range of their be-havior. They are free to do anything ap-propriate to the ground rules of thecommunity, but they are redirectedpromptly and firmly if they cross overthe line.

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

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

Montessori’s Communities of Learners(Mixed-Age Groups): Montessori 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: Montessori 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. The 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: M o n t e s s o r ichildren 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 competition for attention andprestige. Because children learn at theirown pace, and teachers refrain fromcomparing students against one another.

To Awaken and Nurture the HumanSpirit (The Child as a Spiritual Being):Montessori 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. Montessori con-sciously designs social communities 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: Montessori deliber-ately teaches children not only appropri-ate patterns of polite behavior, but seeksto instill basic universal values within thecore of the child’s personality. These val-ues include self-respect, acceptance ofthe uniqueness and dignity of each per-son we meet, kindness, peacefulness,compassion, empathy, honor, individualresponsibility, and courage to speakfrom our hearts.

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

Service to Others: Montessori’s spiritualperspective leads Montessori schools toconsciously organize programs of com-munity service ranging from daily contri-butions to others within the class orschool setting, to community outreachprograms that allow children and adultsto make a difference in the lives of oth-ers. The fundamental idea is one ofs t e w a r d s h i p .

The Montessori Teacher

A u t h o r i t a t i v e : The teacher is firm at theedges and empathetic at the center, thekind of adult who responds empatheti-cally to children’s feelings, while settingclear and consistent limits.

O b s e r v e r : The Montessori teacher is atrained observer of children’s learningand behavior. These careful observa-tions are recorded and used to inferwhere each student is, in terms of his orher development, and leads the teacherto know when to intervene in the child’slearning with a new lesson, a fresh chal-lenge, or a reinforcement of basicground rules.

An Educational Resource: M o n t e s s o r iteachers facilitate the learning processby serving as a resource to whom thechildren can turn as they pull togetherinformation, impressions, and experi-e n c e s .

Role Model: Like all great teachers, theMontessori educator deliberately mod-els the behaviors and attitudes that sheis working to instill in her students.

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

What Montessori Teachers Do

Respectfully Engage the Learner: T h eMontessori teacher recognizes that herrole is not so much to teach as to in-spire, mentor, and facilitate the learningprocess. The real work of learning be-longs to the individual child. Because ofthis, the Montessori educator remainsconscious of 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: M o n t e s s o r iteachers are trained to identify the bestresponse 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, Montessori educatorsunderstand that they must “follow thechild,” adjusting their strategies andtimetable to fit the development of eachof their pupils.

Environmental Engineer: M o n t e s s o r iteachers 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.

A c c r e d i t a t i o n

Often one sign of a school’s commit-ment to professional excellence is itsmembership in one of the professionalMontessori societies, such as theAssociation Montessori Internationale(AMI), the American Montessori Society(AMS), or the newly organizedInternational Montessori Council (IMC).

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

Becoming a Montessori Te a c h e r

adaptation. Courses accredited by AMIfollow a much more standardized cur-riculum and normally require manymore hours of classroom lecture andless time spent in student teaching.Each model has its 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 individual schools may not ac-cept these credentials. If you are consid-ering a correspondence course, it is al-ways a good idea to check with severalschools at which you would like to teachto determine if your training will meettheir standards.

Salaries for Montessori teachers in in-dependent schools are generally accept-able but normally below those offeredby local public schools. Teachers 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.Montessori teachers are generally inshort supply, and in many situations cer-tified teachers will find several schoolscompeting for their services.

For more information about Montessoriteacher training programs, the followingorganizations may be able to help youfind a program that meets your needs:

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

The American Montessori Society( A M S )281 Park Avenue So.New York, NY 10010Phone: 212-358-1250Fax: 212-358-1256

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

method of teaching children to read; itis a philosophy of life. Often the very fac-tors that drew enthusiastic parents to aMontessori school in the first place offerthe possibility of a professional life be-yond their roles as parents.

Every year thousands of Montessoriparents approach their children’sschool, or are themselves approached,about the possibility of taking Montes-sori teacher training. A substantial num-ber of Montessori teachers and adminis-trators began as Montessori parents.

Montessori teacher training is avail-able from several dozen centers and in-stitutes across America and Canada. Forthe internationally minded, courses areavailable in many other countries asw e l l .

Courses usually involve a year ofstudy. In 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. Some courses run during theschool year. Most courses require a col-lege degree; although, students whohave yet to complete their undergradu-ate diploma may be able to take theMontessori teacher-training course andreceive a certificate of completion whenthey have earned their college degree.

Tuition can range from $4,000 to$10,000, depending on the course.There are dozens of different Montes-sori societies and centers offering train-ing. The quality can vary from mediocreto superb. One basic consideration isthe credibility of the diploma receivedupon completion. Two of the largestand universally recognized Montessorisocieties that certify Montessori teachersare The American Montessori Society(AMS) and the Association MontessoriInternationale (AMI). You should beaware that some Montessori schools willrequire teachers to hold one or the other of these two credentials.

Courses accredited by the AMS areoften organized along the lines of a oneor two summer-long institute, followedby a year of supervised student teaching.AMS programs follow a course of studywhich allows considerable flexibility and

International Montessori Society (IMS)912 Thayer Avenue #207Silver Spring, MD 209103 0 1 - 5 8 9 - 1 1 2 7

Montessori Centre Internationale (MCI)[formerly St. Nicholas Montessori andLondon Montessori Centres]18 Balderton StreetLondon, WlY UTG, UKPhone: 171-493-0165Fax: 171-629-7808

Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education( M A C T E ) *Dr. Gretchen Warner, Exec. DirectorUniv. 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 Institute of America (MIA)PO Box 18659 Spokane, WA 992828-86598 8 8 - 5 6 4 - 9 5 5 6

Montessori Educational Programs International ( M E P I )5901 NW Waukomis DriveKansas City, MO 645158 1 6 - 7 4 1 - 6 9 4 0

Montessori World Educational Institute ( M W E I )3025 Monterey Rd.Atascedero, CA 934228 0 5 - 4 6 6 - 2 8 7 2

National Center for Montessori Education ( N C M E )3941 Covered BridgeRoswell, GA 30082Phone/Fax: 770-437-80055

* MACTE is an umbrella organizationthat accredited Montessori teacher edu-cation programs.

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