More Montessori

The basic idea in the Montessori philosophy of education is that all children carry unseen within themselves, the person they will become. In order to develop physical, intellectual and spiritual powers to the fullest, a child must have freedom - a freedom to be achieved through order and self-discipline. "The world of the child," says Montessori educators, "is full of sights and sounds which at first appear chaotic. From this chaos, the child must gradually create order, and learn to distinguish among the impressions that assail his/her senses, and slowly, but surely, gain mastery of him/herself and his/her environment."

Montessori, Maria (1870-1952), Italian educator and physician, best known for developing the Montessori method of teaching young children. She introduced the method in Rome in 1907, and it has since spread throughout the world. The Montessori method stresses the development of initiative and self-reliance by permitting children to do by themselves the things that interest them, within strictly disciplined limits.

Dr. Maria Montessori developed what she called the "prepared environment", which already possesses a certain order and disposes the child at his/her own speed, according to his/her own capacities and in a non-competitive atmosphere. "Never let a child risk failure, until he/she has a reasonable chance of success." This is what Dr. Montessori said understanding the necessity for the acquisition of a basic skill before its use in a competitive learning situation. The years between three and six are the years that a child most easily learns the rules of human behavior. These years can be constructively devoted to "civilizing" the child, freeing him/her through the acquisition of good manners and habits, to take his/her place in the culture.

The child who has had the benefit of a Montessori environment is freer at a later age to devote him/herself more exclusively to the development of his/her intellectual faculties. The method by which children are taught in the Montessori school might well be called "structured learning". Since the child has learned to work by him/herself, in the prepared environment, enjoying the presence of other children, but not working necessarily directly with them, the Montessori teacher is able to observe a child individually. The structure of Montessori learning involves the use of many materials with which the child may work individually. At every step of his/her learning, the teaching material is designed to test understanding and to correct errors.

Dr. Montessori has recognized that the only valid impulse to learning is the self-motivation of the child. Children move themselves toward learning. The teacher prepares the environment, directs the activity, functions as the authority, offers the child stimulations, but it is the child who learns, who is motivated through work itself (not solely by the teacher’s personality) to persist in a given task. If the Montessori child is free to learn, it is because he/she has acquired from exposure to both physical and mental order, an "inner discipline". This is the core of Dr. Montessori’s philosophy. Social adjustment, though it is a necessary condition for learning in a school room, is not the purpose of education. Patterns of concentration, stick-to-itiveness, and thoroughness, established in early childhood, produce a confident, competent learner in later years. Schools have existed historically to teach children to observe, to think, to judge. 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.

Montessori	Traditional
1. Active Individualized Learning through stimulating multi-sensory teaching materials.	1. Passive Class Learning through teacher-centered class lessons, paperwork.
2. Ungraded Class is a natural social environment that includes a wide range of ages and fosters self-motivation. Students enjoy working for their own sense of accomplishment.	2. Chronological Grouping necessitates external rewards, such as grades, competition and social conformity.
3. Freedom of Choice involves decision making. Students select work according to individual interest.	3. Class Curriculum demands that students cover the same work at the same time with no regard to individual interests.
4. Working at One's Own Pace enables students to work for long periods without interruption. Each individual works at his potential independent of the class.	4. Group Learning involves each academic subject being scheduled for a limited period. Each student is directly affected by the progress of the whole class.
5. Integral Education balances academic work with freedom of movement and harmony is created between physical, social and mental activities. There is interrelationship between subjects.	5. Fragmented Education provides academic subjects that are not interrelated. Periods of intense mental effort are alternated with periods of vigorous physical activity to release tension.
6. Independence is fostered by a classroom that is specifically designed to encourage this trait.	6. Dependence is promoted, since the activities are initiated by the teacher.
7. Self-Evaluation occurs as students learn to evaluate their work objectively through the use of self-correcting teaching materials and individual work with the teacher.	7. Class Comparison occurs as work is evaluated and graded by the teacher. Students evaluate themselves against the group as best and worst in the class.
8. Reality-Oriented Education maintains concrete, first-hand experience as the basis for abstraction.	8. Abstract Education has students learning through mechanical memorization.
9. Close Student-Teacher Interaction enables complete and precise evaluation of the student's progress, both academically and psychologically.	9. Class-Oriented Teaching prevents close interaction between individual students and teacher. Standardized tests` are necessary to determine the student's progress.

It has proved itself of universal application. Within a single generation it has been tried with complete success with children of almost every civilized nation. Climate, nationality, social rank, type of civilization make no difference to its successful application.

It has revealed the small child as a lover of work, intellectual work, spontaneously chosen and carried out with profound joy.

It is based on the child’s imperious need to learn by doing. At each stage in the child’s mental growth, corresponding occupations are provided by means of which he/she develops his/her faculties.

While it offers the child a maximum of spontaneity, it nevertheless enables him/her to reach the same, or an even higher level of scholastic attainment as under the old system.

Though it does away with the necessity of coercion by means of rewards and punishments, it achieves higher discipline than formerly seen with old methods. It is an active discipline which originates from within the child, not imposed from without.

It is based on a profound respect for the child’s personality and removes from him/her the preponderating influences of the adult, thus leaving him/her room to grow in biological independence. Hence, the child is allowed a large measure of liberty (not license) which forms the basis of real discipline.

It enables the teacher to deal with each child individually in each subject, and, therefore, guide him/her according to his/his individual requirements.

Each child works at his/her own pace; hence, the quick child is not held back by the slow. Nor is the latter, in trying to keep up with former, obliged to flounder along hopelessly out of his depth. Each stone in the mental edifice is "well and truly laid" before the next is added. It does away with negative pressure and its train of baneful results. More than this, at every turn it presents endless opportunities among the children for mutual help, which is joyfully given and gratefully received.

Since the child works from his own free choice, without coercion, he is freed from danger of overstrain, feelings of inferiority and other experiences, which are apt to be the unconscious cause of profound mental disturbances in later life.

Finally, the Montessori Method develops the whole personality of the child, not merely his intellectual faculties, but also his powers of deliberation, initiative and independent choice, with their emotional complements. By living as a free member of a real social community, the child is trained in those fundamental social qualities which form the basis of good citizenship.