"I give thanks for your commitment to our children and your foresight in providing them with a means of discovering their full potential"
Parent in the Primary School
Parent in the Primary School
Where it all began
Dr Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was, in many ways, ahead of her time. Born in the town of Chiaravalle, in the province of Ancona, Italy, in 1870, she became the first female physician in Italy upon her graduation from medical school in 1896. Shortly afterwards, she was chosen to represent Italy at two different women's conferences, in Berlin in 1896 and in London in 1900.
In her medical practice, her clinical observations led her to analyse how learners learn, and she concluded that they build themselves from what they find in their environment. Shifting her focus from the body to the mind, she returned to the university in 1901, this time to study psychology and philosophy. However, in 1906 she gave up both her university chair and her medical practice to work with a group of sixty young learners of working parents in the San Lorenzo district of Rome. It was there that she founded the first Casa dei Bambini, or "Children's House." It has been over 100 years since this event.
What ultimately became the Montessori method of education developed there, based upon Montessori's scientific observations of these learners' almost effortless ability to absorb knowledge from their surroundings, as well as their tireless interest in manipulating materials.
In 1940, when India entered World War II, she and her son, Mario Montessori, were interned as enemy aliens, but she was still permitted to conduct training courses. Later, she founded the Montessori Centre in London (1947). She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times - in 1949, 1950, and 1951.
Dr Maria Montessori died in Noordwijk, Holland, in 1952, but her work lives on through the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), the organisation she founded in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1929 to carry on her work.
There are Montessori schools found in more than 52 countries on six continents around the globe, in both the private/independent school sector and public sector. Montessori schools are found in many public institutions in countries like the United States of America, Canada, the Netherlands, India, Australia, New Zealand, Austria and Ireland, where Montessori Education is used as a learning support curriculum for learners with special needs.
Dr Maria Montessori drew inspiration and knowledge from many well-known philosophers, researchers and educationalists including: Rousseau, Pestalozi, Jean Piaget, Froebel, Jean Itard, Edouard Seguin, Locke, Plato, Socrates and John Dewey, among others. Today's educationalists and philosophers often find their inspiration in the life and work of Dr Maria Montessori.
In her medical practice, her clinical observations led her to analyse how learners learn, and she concluded that they build themselves from what they find in their environment. Shifting her focus from the body to the mind, she returned to the university in 1901, this time to study psychology and philosophy. However, in 1906 she gave up both her university chair and her medical practice to work with a group of sixty young learners of working parents in the San Lorenzo district of Rome. It was there that she founded the first Casa dei Bambini, or "Children's House." It has been over 100 years since this event.
What ultimately became the Montessori method of education developed there, based upon Montessori's scientific observations of these learners' almost effortless ability to absorb knowledge from their surroundings, as well as their tireless interest in manipulating materials.
In 1940, when India entered World War II, she and her son, Mario Montessori, were interned as enemy aliens, but she was still permitted to conduct training courses. Later, she founded the Montessori Centre in London (1947). She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times - in 1949, 1950, and 1951.
Dr Maria Montessori died in Noordwijk, Holland, in 1952, but her work lives on through the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), the organisation she founded in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1929 to carry on her work.
There are Montessori schools found in more than 52 countries on six continents around the globe, in both the private/independent school sector and public sector. Montessori schools are found in many public institutions in countries like the United States of America, Canada, the Netherlands, India, Australia, New Zealand, Austria and Ireland, where Montessori Education is used as a learning support curriculum for learners with special needs.
Dr Maria Montessori drew inspiration and knowledge from many well-known philosophers, researchers and educationalists including: Rousseau, Pestalozi, Jean Piaget, Froebel, Jean Itard, Edouard Seguin, Locke, Plato, Socrates and John Dewey, among others. Today's educationalists and philosophers often find their inspiration in the life and work of Dr Maria Montessori.
The Montessori Philosophy of Education
The Montessori approach is a philosophy of education with the fundamental belief that a child learns best within a social environment that supports each individual’s unique development.
The basic idea of the Montessori philosophy of education is that every child carries within him/her the man/woman he/she will become. In order to develop his/her physical, intellectual and spiritual powers to the fullest, he/she must have freedom – a freedom to be achieve through order and self-discipline. The world of the child is full of sights and sounds, which, at first, appear chaotic. From the chaos the child must gradually create order, and learn to distinguish among the impressions that assail his senses, slowly but surely gaining mastery of himself and his environment.
Dr Maria Montessori developed what she called the “prepared environment” (the Montessori classroom) which already possesses a certain order and disposes the child to develop at his own speed, according to his own capacities, and in a non-competitive atmosphere in his first school years.
Dr Montessori recognised that the only valid impulse to learning is the self-motivation of the child. Children move themselves toward learning. The teacher prepares the environment, programs the activity, functions as the reference person and exemplar, offers the child stimulation; but it is the child who learns, who is motivated through the work itself to persist in his chosen tasks.
Montessori introduces children to the joy of learning at an early age and provides a framework in which intellectual and social disciplines go hand in hand.
The Montessori approach is a philosophy of education with the fundamental belief that a child learns best within a social environment that supports each individual’s unique development.
The basic idea of the Montessori philosophy of education is that every child carries within him/her the man/woman he/she will become. In order to develop his/her physical, intellectual and spiritual powers to the fullest, he/she must have freedom – a freedom to be achieve through order and self-discipline. The world of the child is full of sights and sounds, which, at first, appear chaotic. From the chaos the child must gradually create order, and learn to distinguish among the impressions that assail his senses, slowly but surely gaining mastery of himself and his environment.
Dr Maria Montessori developed what she called the “prepared environment” (the Montessori classroom) which already possesses a certain order and disposes the child to develop at his own speed, according to his own capacities, and in a non-competitive atmosphere in his first school years.
Dr Montessori recognised that the only valid impulse to learning is the self-motivation of the child. Children move themselves toward learning. The teacher prepares the environment, programs the activity, functions as the reference person and exemplar, offers the child stimulation; but it is the child who learns, who is motivated through the work itself to persist in his chosen tasks.
Montessori introduces children to the joy of learning at an early age and provides a framework in which intellectual and social disciplines go hand in hand.
Our Montessori Classroom
In a classroom atmosphere of independence within community and personal empowerment, the children never lose their sense of curiosity and innate ability to learn and discover. Confident in themselves, they open up to the world around them and find that mistakes are not something to be feared; instead, they represent endless opportunities to learn from experience.
Montessori classes are warm, relaxed, and incredibly safe and secure. These are communities in which children have learned how to live and work in partnership with their adult mentors. They are run to a very large degree by the children, with only that degree of adult guidance necessary to ensure order and safety. In such emotionally safe and secure settings, children can relax, be authentic individuals instead of trying to be ‘cool’, and allow their intelligence, curiosity, creativity, and imagination to blossom.
In a classroom atmosphere of independence within community and personal empowerment, the children never lose their sense of curiosity and innate ability to learn and discover. Confident in themselves, they open up to the world around them and find that mistakes are not something to be feared; instead, they represent endless opportunities to learn from experience.
Montessori classes are warm, relaxed, and incredibly safe and secure. These are communities in which children have learned how to live and work in partnership with their adult mentors. They are run to a very large degree by the children, with only that degree of adult guidance necessary to ensure order and safety. In such emotionally safe and secure settings, children can relax, be authentic individuals instead of trying to be ‘cool’, and allow their intelligence, curiosity, creativity, and imagination to blossom.