About Montessori
Understanding Montessori
One hundred years ago, Dr Maria Montessori, an inspirational educator, developed a unique method of education, based on research into childhood learning.
The Montessori approach fosters children’s love of learning and encourages independence by providing an environment (see prepared environment below) of activities and materials which children use at their own pace. This builds self-confidence, inner discipline, a sense of self-worth and instils positive social behaviour. The approach forms the basis for lifelong learning.
In today’s world it is more important than ever that children become motivated individuals able to develop to their full potential. Montessori takes into account the whole child and his place in the community, hence its relevance for today and the future.
Montessori education is growing steadily in Australia. There are currently around 210 schools and centres nationwide. Montessori Indigenous learning programmes are also emerging, and Indigenous communities appreciate the fact that their own culture is respected within Montessori classrooms.
Maria Montessori, physician, anthropologist and pedagogue, studied children of all ethnic, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds for over fifty years. Her intense scientific observation of the human being from birth to maturity allowed her to distil a body of philosophical, psychological and pedagogical principles. These, together with a vast range of auto-didactic materials, came to be known as Montessori Education.
The Montessori approach offers a broad vision of education as an “aid to life”. It is designed to help children grow from childhood to maturity. It succeeds because it draws its principles from the natural development of the child. Its flexibility provides a matrix within which each individual child’s inner directives freely guide the child toward wholesome growth.
Montessori classrooms provide a prepared environment where children are free to respond to their natural tendency to work. The children’s innate passion for learning is encouraged by giving them opportunities to engage in spontaneous, purposeful activities with the guidance of a trained adult. Through their work, the children develop concentration and joyful self-discipline. Within a framework of order, the children progress at their own pace and rhythm, according to their individual capabilities.
The Prepared Environment
“The first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as it is possible, to render the growing child independent of the adult” Maria Montessori
Walk into a Montessori classroom, anywhere in the world, and you will see happy and busy children working purposefully as great care has been taken to create a learning environment that will reinforce the child’s independence and natural urge toward self-development. This is achieved in three ways:
- Beauty
- Order and
- Accessibility
The Montessori materials are beautifully handcrafted and are displayed on low open shelves. Each piece of material has a specific purpose and is presented to the children in a manner that will enable them to direct their own learning.
“Our care of the child should be governed not by the desire to ‘make them learn things’ but by the endeavour always to keep burning within them the light which is called intelligence”