The Montessori Approach

The goal of Montessori education is to facilitate and grow children to become independent and responsible adults who share a love for learning.

The method was developed by Maria Montessori in 1907 and her findings are still relevant today. For early childhood, the focus is to prepare and cultivate your child's own natural desires to absorb new information and creating a lifelong love of learning. The natural development of your child is nurtured by following a personalised curriculum designed to meet his / her individual needs.

The Montessori Method explained in 5 minutes

If you are new to the Montessori Method, these two short videos do a great job of explaining the method and the impact it has on children. We recommend you watch both to see the long term impact of the Montessori education.

This video explains the principles behind the Montessori Method and provides insight into how Maria Montessori developed the method.

This video does a great job of comparing the differences between Montessori education and traditional education and the long term impact on children.

What makes the Montessori Method so special?

  1. Each child is has unique potential
    It is based on the idea that each child has unique potential and that the role of the educator is observe their needs and guide their development in based on ther individual interests and preferences. Instead of imposing knowledge of what is “right and wrong” in a top-down manner, the method encourages exploration, discovery and autonomous learning.

  2. Encouraging Independence & Responsibility
    The Montessori Method encourages independence and responsibility from an early age. Children learn to take care of themselves and the environment around them, developing practical and social skills that are fundamental for their lives. They get to choose their activities based on options presented to them which match their skill and development. They get to own their own learning.

  3. Cognitive, Physical & Emotional Development
    The Montessori Method is not only concerned with children’s cognitive and physical development, but also with their emotional development. Communication towards children is conducted in a respectful manner and emotional education is promoted from an early age. Educators help children identify and express their emotions in a healthy and constructive way.

The Montessori Method is based on providing children with a prepared environment where they can learn by themselves with very little guidance form the teachers.

Maria Montessori’s observations in 1907 are still relevant today. Here are some of her observations:

  1. Children learn better when they move engage all the senses
    Movement is essential for cognitive learning as well as social, physical and emotional development. All our rooms have plenty of space for children to move freely.

  2. Children choose practical purposeful activities
    Given free choice, children were more interested in practical activities than sweets, toys or other rewards. In our classrooms, children use real utensils, tools, brushes and brooms. They learn to care their environment as well as themselves.

  3. Choice builds confidence in children
    Children showed deep concentration and multiple repetition when they were able to freely choose their activities. Working independently, children became disciplined and self motivated learners.

  4. A teachers role is to prepare a learning environment
    Teachers are facilitators of young human beings who are free to move and act within the limits of a prepared environment

DR MARIA MONTESSORI
(1870 -1952)

Maria Montessori was an Italian physician, educator, and innovator, acclaimed for her educational method that builds on the way children learn naturally. She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize three times.

In 1907, she opened the first Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House) in Rome, the beginning of an educational revolution. Montessori education is based on the idea that each child is unique and should be treated as such.

Montessori believed that children are capable of learning on their own, as long as they are given the right environment and the necessary stimulation.

  • “In 1907, Maria accepted a challenge to open a full-day childcare center in San Lorenzo, a poor inner-city district of Rome. The students were under-served youngsters, ages 3 – 7, who were left to their own devices while their parents went out to work. This center, the first of its kind in the nation, and a high-quality learning environment, became the first Casa dei Bambini.

    The children were unruly at first, but soon showed great interest in working with puzzles, learning to prepare meals, and manipulating learning materials Maria had designed. She observed how the children absorbed knowledge from their surroundings, essentially teaching themselves.

    Using scientific observation and experience gained from her earlier work with young children, Maria designed learning materials and a classroom environment that fostered the children’s natural desire to learn and provided freedom for them to choose their own materials.

    To the surprise of many, the children in Maria’s programs thrived, exhibiting concentration, attention, and spontaneous self-discipline. The “Montessori Method” began to attract the attention of prominent educators, journalists, and public figures. By 1910, Montessori schools could be found throughout Western Europe and were being established around the world, including in the United States where the first Montessori school opened in Tarrytown, NY, in 1911.”

    Written by American Montessori Movement

  • “Maria Montessori was born on 31 August 1870 in the town of Chiaravalle, Italy. Her father, Alessandro, was an accountant in the civil service, and her mother, Renilde Stoppani, was well educated and had a passion for reading.

    The Montessori family moved to Rome in late 1874, and in 1876 the young Maria enrolled in the local state school on Via di San Nicolo da Tolentino. As her education progressed, she began to break through the barriers which constrained women’s careers. From 1886 to 1890 she continued her studies at the Regio Istituto Tecnico Leonardo da Vinci, which she entered with the intention of becoming an engineer. This was unusual at the time as most girls who pursued secondary education studied the classics rather than going to technical school.

    Upon her graduation, Montessori’s parents encouraged her to take up a career in teaching, one of the few occupations open to women at the time, but she was determined to enter medical school and become a doctor. Her father opposed this course—medical school was then an all-male preserve—and initially Maria was refused entry by the head of school. She was undeterred, apparently ending the unsuccessful interview with the professor by saying, “I know I shall become a doctor”.

    In 1890 Montessori enrolled at the University of Rome to study physics, mathematics and natural sciences, receiving her diploma two years later. This enabled her to enter the Faculty of Medicine, as one of the first women in Italy, and the first to study at the University of Rome. Montessori stood out not just because of her gender, but because she was actually intent on mastering the subject matter. She won a series of scholarships at medical school which, together with the money she earned through private tuition, enabled her to pay for most of her medical education.

    Her time at medical school was not easy. She faced prejudice from her male colleagues and had to work alone on dissections since these were not allowed to be done in mixed classes. But she was a dedicated student, and on 10 July 1896 became one of the first female doctors in Italy, and with this distinction also became known across the country.

    In September of the same year she was asked to represent Italy at the International Congress for Women in Berlin, and in her speech to the Congress she developed a thesis for social reform, arguing that women should be entitled to equal wages with men. A reporter covering the event asked her how her patients responded to a female doctor. She replied, “… they know intuitively when someone really cares about them.… It is only the upper classes that have a prejudice against women leading a useful existence.” [1]

    On her return to Rome, in November 1896, Montessori went to work as surgical assistant at Santo Spirito Hospital in Rome. Much of her work there was with the poor, and particularly with their children. As a doctor she was noted for the way in which she ‘tended’ her patients, making sure they were warm and properly fed as well as diagnosing and treating their illnesses. In 1897 she volunteered to join a research programme at the psychiatric clinic of the University of Rome, and it was here that she worked alongside Giuseppe Montesano, with whom a romance was to develop.

    As part of her work at the clinic she would visit Rome’s asylums for the children with mental disorders (as they were called in those days), seeking patients for treatment at the clinic. She relates how, on one such visit, the caretaker of a children’s asylum told her with disgust how the children grabbed crumbs off the floor after their meal. Montessori realised that in such a bare, unfurnished room the children were desperate for sensorial stimulation and activities for their hands, and that this deprivation was contributing to their condition.

    She began to read all she could on the subject of children with learning differences, and in particular she studied the groundbreaking work of two early 19th century Frenchmen, Jean-Marc Itard, who had made his name working with the ‘wild boy of Aveyron’, and Edouard Séguin, his student.

    In 1897 Montessori’s work with the asylum children began to receive more prominence. The 28-year-old Montessori was asked to address the National Medical Congress in Turin, where she advocated the controversial theory that the lack of adequate provision for children with mental and emotional disorders was a cause of their delinquency. Expanding on this, she addressed the National Pedagogical Congress the following year, presenting a vision of social progress and political economy rooted in educational measures. She asked for the foundation of medical-pedagogical institutes and a special training for teachers working with special needs children. This notion of social reform through education was an idea that was to develop and mature in Montessori’s thinking throughout her life.”

    Go to Montessori Association International to continue reading …

  • The Montessori Method has been around for a long time so there are many websites dedicated to the approach.

    Here are some research articles for those that like to dig deeper:

Inspiring videos to watch

There are hundreds of Montessori videos available on YouTube. We have selected a few of our favourites and and hope you enjoy them.

Zahra holds a BA in Psychology from Harvard and a Master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is also a Montessori teacher and this very popular TEDx talk (1M views!), she shares how to expand your baby’s potential with education.

This is a simple modern explanation of the Montessori Method. @DadVerb breaks the Method into 3 areas 1) Observation 2) Environment & Practical Life and 3) Freedom within Limits. It’s an informative video (sorry about the sponsored ad halfway).

In this 1 hour video, Jesse McCarthy shares his thoughts on the Montessori Method. More importantly, at 25:00 minutes in, he shares recent research showing “Montessori Education Erases Income Achievement Gap”.

Judi, a 40-year veteran in Montessori instruction, helps us explore the beauty that Maria Montessori brought to the world of education from the logic of a trained doctor and the heart of an attentive watcher.

Serene Jiratanan left her corporate career when her daughter was born and is now the founder and Principal of the Montessori Academy Bangkok International School. In this video she touches on connection between Montessori classrooms and "state of flow", a concept devised by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

With over 23M views, Sir Ken Robinson (British author, speaker and international advisor on education) shares his thoughts on education reform and talks about Montessori as the most suited alternative.

Although the production quality is a bit dated, this video is interesting because it shows some videos of children in Montessori classrooms and provides you with observations and insights from Montessori teachers perspective.

In this lovely video, Carolina Montessori (one of Maria Montessori’s Great Granddaughters’s) shares insight into her Great Grandmother’s journey, her values and passion for life. It’s a beautiful honouring of her legacy.