Category Archives: The Montessori Theory

If you’ve ever observed a Montessori classroom in action, particularly a group of three-to-six-year-old children, you may be struck by how very calm and organized the classroom is. The children work independently, with little conflict, and with great patience and respect for one another and the work they are doing. It’s all part of the […]

Montessori classrooms are known for their wide-open design, unique materials, glorious lighting, and sense of order. The construct is intentional. Baked into the Montessori Method of education is the idea of presenting children with a “prepared environment.” Each classroom is minutely designed for the age grouping to maximize safety and appeal as well as encourage […]

Dr. Montessori once said that a teacher’s greatest success is when “the children are now working as if I (the teacher) did not exist.” This may sound odd to those who were raised in classrooms with rows of seats, in schools whose methods focused on drills, tests, and unbending structure. But Dr. Montessori’s methods were […]

The Absorbent Mind is one of the fundamental discoveries that underlie the philosophy of a Montessori education. Dr. Marie Montessori recognized the concept during her extensive observation of active classrooms. During the first six years of life, infants and children have a tremendous, almost volcanic capacity to learn, a capacity that is never matched in […]

The brilliant Dr. Maria Montessori, founder of the Montessori Method, did not proscribe her psychological, developmental, or education studies to early childhood. She observed the growth of children from infancy all the way to adulthood. During these extensive, exhaustive studies, she delineated four periods or “planes” of human development. Understanding them can help educators to […]

Dr. Maria Montessori spent a lifetime observing children in the classroom, using empirical observation to develop a teaching method that takes advantage of a child’s innate human needs and tendencies. By working with, rather than against, a child’s inborn impulses, the Montessori Method encourages self-directed advancement in order to cultivate a joy of learning. So, […]