What is Montessori?

Maria Montessori     Montessori Method     Developmental Areas     Further Reading     Web Resources

Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori lived from 1870 to 1952, the first woman doctor of medicine in Italy. Her observations of the way children learn naturally by investigating their environment led her to develop a new system of education in which various aspects of development are stimulated by special pieces of equipment.

Giving up her medical practice to pursue educational reform, Montessori opened her first school in 1906 called the 'Casa dei Bambini' or 'The Children's House'. Her success in teaching children from deprived and neglected backgrounds there earned her international fame, and later in her life she travelled extensively giving lectures about her methods.

Montessori schools and colleges can be found today all around the world, embracing children of every age and background.

Montessori Method

The Montessori Method aims essentially to help children develop themselves by directing their natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge. We use unique equipment originally developed by Maria Montessori to let them explore colour, texture, shape, length, area, volume, letters, words and numbers. And of course we encourage more traditional expressive activities like painting, drawing and craftwork.

In the main, the children themselves choose what activities to do and when, so that during what Montessori calls their "sensitive periods" they will naturally maximise their learning. One of the key roles of the Montessori teacher is to ensure that children are helped through these particularly receptive times.

The Montessori method is not just to do with the physical equipment though. It encompasses everything from our tone of voice in the classroom, to how we interact with with the children, and giving them responsibility for getting out and putting away their work. Developing independence is a vital part of education and we go to great lengths to ensure that everything in the classroom is on a "child scale". Because of this, the children see the classroom as "their" space, not ours.

If this all sounds a bit nebulous, the results can best be appreciated by a personal visit to the classroom - seeing is believing! We also have some booklets describing the Montessori Method in more detail which you are welcome to take. (Sorry, we can't publish it here for copyright reasons!)

Developmental areas

The method focuses on five developmental areas:

Practical life skills which includes task organisation, personal care, care for the environment, grace, courtesy and physical movement.

Sensorial which covers ordering, classification and description of sensory impressions in relation to length, width, temperature, mass, colour, pitch, etc.

Mathematics makes use of manipulative materials to enable the child to internalise concepts of number, symbols, sequence, operations and memorisation of basic facts.

Language arts includes oral language development, written expression, reading, the study of grammar, creative dramatics, and children's literature.

Cultural activities expose the child to basics in geography, history and life sciences. Music, art and movement education are part of the integrated cultural curriculum.

Of course the children don't know any of this, they just enjoy the activities!

Further reading

There are many books available on Montessori Method, and many of Maria Montessori's own works are still available. Here's a short list of suggested titles for the curious. Clicking the links will take you to Amazon's UK store if you would like to buy them.

Web resources

www.montessori.org is the joint website of The Montessori Foundation and the International Montessori Committee. Their article Montessori 101 for Parents might be helpful. (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view or print this file unfortunately. If you don't have it you can download it for free.)