Montessori Method
About Dr. Maria Montessori
Born in Ancona, Italy in 1870, Maria Montessori was to become the first woman to graduate from the University of Rome Medical School. During her medical practice, she observed how children learnt new information and skills, she devised programs and resources to assist them with this endeavour.
Dr. Maria Montessori devoted her life to the field of education.
"The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. For that is the time when man's intelligence itself, his greatest implement is being formed."(Dr. Maria Montessori)
Montessori Method
The Montessori Method is characterized by emphasizing self-directed activity on the part of the children, and detailed observation on the part of the trained educator who is responsible for the program delivery. The Montessori Method stresses the importance of adapting the child’s learning environment to the developmental level, as well as the role of physical activity in the development of abstract concepts and practical skills. Reading is taught through a combination of phonics and whole language.
The Montessori Method sees children as they really are and creates environments which foster the fulfillment of their highest potential—emotional, physical, and intellectual—as members of a family, a community and citizens of the world. Dr. Montessori gave the world a scientific method, practical and tested, for bringing forth the very best in young human beings. She taught adults how to respect individual differences, and to emphasize social interaction and the education of the whole personality rather than the teaching of a specific body of knowledge.
A Montessori classroom is full of children pursuing their own individual interests, gaining an early enthusiasm for learning. The love of learning created is the key to becoming a truly educated person. The high level of academic achievement so common in Montessori schools is a natural outcome of experience in such a supportive environment. The Montessori Method of education is a model which serves the needs of children of all levels of mental and physical ability as they live and learn in a natural, mixed-age group which is very much like the society they will live in as adults
Montessori Philosophy
The difference of a Montessori classroom and traditional classroom| Montessori Environment | Traditional Classroom |
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