Montessori Philosophy
“Montessori is a philosophy of education based on independence and creativity. It is not my job to teach the child, but to establish an environment in which the child can teach himself”
-MSLT Founder, Jean Pilon
The Montessori philosophy was developed by Maria Montessori in the early 1900s as a child-centered approach to education. Montessori classrooms give children the ability to guide their learning through self-selected work and materials. The methodology allows children to tap into their innate abilities in reading, writing, science, math, and other subjects, giving way to sustained attention in their work and a genuine joy for learning.
Classrooms and materials are carefully designed to support the children’s discovery. Directresses are trained to guide and implement Montessori principles. Classrooms are multi-aged, allowing students to both learn from the older students and teach younger students. Students become deeply engaged in their daily tasks and are respectful of their peers and environments.
Education with a Purpose
The absorbent mind is the quality of a child’s mind in their early childhood stage and is central to Maria Montessori’s theories. Students absorb from their environment what is necessary for their development, and are ready for hands-on tasks with a purpose. Practical life activities in the classroom help your child find control in their environment and gain a sense of order. All knowledge comes through the senses and every child must touch, feel, see, hear, and taste to discover. All classroom materials are designed to help the child use these senses to learn.
As the children gain more and more confidence in their abilities and the classroom, they willingly begin to choose more advanced materials in social science/culture, math, science and language. A child will develop their own rhythm of educational exploration either working alone, watching others, or joining small group activities. Children are encouraged to solve their own problems as they find their unique place within the classroom. Through this process educational growth, respect and friendship are founded.
The Montessori Philosophy
The young child is eager to accomplish and do things for themselves. When in the prepared Montessori environment they will choose materials that naturally build foundations for the ever expanding wonder of the world around them, and critically establish a life long foundation of exploration, knowledge acquisition and intellectual and spiritual growth. The child’s needs are met by their own spontaneous choice of activities with the help of the lead Montessori trained guides. Thus providing a link between the child and the classroom environment.
Montessori materials contain “a control of error” which allows a child to detect mistakes while working and self correct. This “control of error” helps the child develop a sense of achievement and self-esteem throughout every day.
“Having the freedom to choose their own work and remain with any project for as long as it holds their interest gives good feelings of self worth and joy in learning.”
-Founder, Jean Pilon
Our Goal for Your Child
The Montessori School at Lone Tree is interested in total child growth. An independent child with a good self-image naturally seeks more stimulation academically as well as socially. Our goal is to observe and understand what level the child is on and help them gain this self motivation and security. Freedom for a child to expand their world at their own rate of growth creates an early love of learning, thereby building an invaluable foundation for later years.
The Montessori Education Philosophy as told by Maria Montessori
“To aid life, leaving it free, however, to unfold itself, that is the basic task of the educator.”
Ours was a house for children, rather than a real school. We had prepared a place for children, where a diffused culture could be assimilated, without any need for direct instruction… Yet these children learned to read and write before they were five, and no one had given them any lessons. At that time it seemed miraculous those children four and a half should be able to write, and that they should have learned without the feeling of having been taught.
We puzzled over it for a long time. Only after repeated experiments did we conclude with certainty that all children are endowed with this capacity to ‘absorb’ culture. If this is true- we then argued- if culture can be acquired without effort, let us provide the children with other elements of culture. And then we saw them ‘absorb’ far more than reading and writing: botany, zoology, mathematics, geography, and all with the same ease, spontaneously and without getting tired.
And so we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher’s task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.
– Dr. Maria Montessori
The Absorbent Mind