Montessori Borealis

Philosophy

Montessori education is an internationally recognized approach to learning, developed by Italy’s first female-trained physician Maria Montessori in 1907. With her training in scientific observation, Dr. Montessori worked with and observed children to develop a curriculum that engaged children by responding to their specific sensitivities and needs while also presenting them opportunities to acquire and refine important life and academic skills. A century later, there are over 8,000 Montessori schools worldwide that serve and educate children from the age of 15 months to the end of high school.

Dr. Montessori observed that children showed sensitivity for different interests during different stages in life. She saw that the preschool child searched for a sense of physical order and understanding in their environment. She noted that they wanted to practice and refine activities they saw others and adults perform. So she prepared, experimented with and refined a classroom design that included work that interested the child.

Teachers that were trained to observe and guide the child so that the child could learn at their own pace while still developing with their peers, and a structure to daily activities that encouraged children to develop deep concentration and take responsibility for their own learning. The end result is that children, who have experienced daily life in a Montessori classroom, share a deeply supported desire to discover, appreciate themselves, others, their environment and above all enjoy being lifelong, self-confident, adaptable learners. The Montessori child has a broad outlook that includes their immediate surroundings as well as interest in a global community.

The Montessori approach to education assumes a child learns best and with the most joy by physically and mentally experiencing a lesson. It is this experience that internalizes a lesson in life or school. The Montessori prepared environment is therefore made up of different physical objects called materials that call out to the child, with the support of their teachers, to be used, experienced and worked with. The material is a way for the child to actively and independently engage in a concept, skill or attitude in the world.

Moreover, once the material has been presented to the child by a teacher, they are free to initiate and practice this work independently so the child is able to take true ownership of their own learning. The teacher then steps back and observes the child teach themselves through consciously and unconsciously absorbing the concept or skill that the material promotes. Once the child has satisfied that understanding they are then free to move on to another activity or material, or where they may return to the same material time and time again until they reach the desired level of internal understanding that their mind and body require. This experiential learning helps the child to create a sense of order and understanding of their surroundings. There are five primary areas of work presented in the classroom. The first is practical life exercises such as pouring liquids or performing house cleaning tasks that they see adults perform daily. These tasks serve the child by helping them apply themselves independently to real life activities to develop a sense of personal accomplishment and develop motor skills. The second is work with materials that call for the use of the five senses to sort and organize different physical objects into an order, such as objects that are different sizes, shapes, make different sounds or can be organized according to smell or taste. Third are the math and language materials which help the young child learn basic concepts or skills needed to understand the world of numbers or words, so that they can use these systems to communicate and work with basic concepts and ideas in these disciplines. The fifth discipline is cultural studies and these are activities that look at such subjects as geography, music, art, and history. An accumulation of experiences in all these subject areas will lead to a physical and then an abstract understanding and appreciation for the world and the child’s own developing role in it.

Montessori is a child centered learning environment that responds to the needs for the child to work at their own pace. This respect for the child’s own pace takes the form of 3 hour uninterrupted work periods in the school day which give the child a chance to find their own rhythm of learning in the work day. As well the mixed age preschool classroom provides the flexible longer outlook in time for children to develop their comfort level, learning patterns and confidence in a special environment gradually over a three-year period. In short the Montessori classroom is designed for the child to reach their own natural true potential in a timeframe that is suited to them.