The Montessori Method

Maria Montessori, the first female physician in Italy, opened her first school in Rome in 1906. Based on her observations of children, her model cultivates a child’s natural desire to learn and provides a safe and creative environment in which to develop self discipline and self-esteem.

Dr. Montessori developed what she calls the prepared environment, which possesses a definite order and disposes the child to develop at his or her own speed, according to his or her own capabilities, and in a noncompetitive atmosphere. The world of the child is full of sights and sounds, which at first appear chaotic. Gradually, the child creates order and gains mastery of self and environment.

The years between two and a half and seven are the years that a child most easily learns the rules of human behavior. Character is fundamentally formed by the time the child reaches seven years of age.

If the Montessori child is free to learn, it is because the child has acquired from experience with both physical and mental order the “inner discipline, which frees the child”. The child becomes aware, not only of his freedom, but also of the corresponding responsibility to self and to others. This is the core of Dr. Montessori’s philosophy.