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Maria Montessori was born in Italy in 1870 and became the first woman in the country to earn her doctorate degree. After working with mentally-challenged children she developed a system of education based on scientific observation. She designed a system of materials that would challenge and honor their growing capabilities.

The Montessori Philosophy is based on the idea that every child has the innate urge to learn and grow, which is facilitated through his interaction with his environment. The Montessori materials found in the classroom are designed to be manipulated and experimented with, promoting independence, concentration and creativity.

The Montessori classroom is based on four major principles:

The Child
Montessori realized that children are all different, needing the greatest individual liberty to grow. Children are not pressured to follow the pace of the teachers or the other students. Instead, they work directly with the materials, competing only with themselves. Their success becomes its own reward.

The Prepared Environment
Montessori believed that the classroom environment should facilitate maximum exploration and independence by the child. In the peaceful and ordered classroom, children work on activities of their own choice at their own pace. This gives them a sense of freedom and self-discipline designed to meet their developmental needs.

The Directress
Montessori called the teacher in the classroom the "Directress" because she directs the child's activity in the environment. She is the vital link between the children and the environment, presenting the materials so that they may perform them with the greatest chance for success. The Directress is constantly aware of each child's goals and actively seeks ways for him to fulfill them.

The Materials
In the Montessori classroom colorful materials are attractively displayed on low shelves, inviting children to work with them. The materials are self-correcting, and the children can realize their error without assistance. The children are able to solve problems independently, which builds self-confidence and analytical thinking.

 
Facts About Montessori
Montessori is a system of education based on respect for each child’s individual pace and learning style.  Basic to all of Maria Montessori’s ideas is respect for the child as a person of dignity with a mind capable of absorbing and processing information from the environment.

Montessori environments are furnished with specifically designed learning materials and apparatus that promote active learning that brings out the child’s spontaneous curiosity, discoveries and explorations.

Montessori environments aid the mental, physical, and social-emotional development of the child by promoting independence, concentration, problem-solving abilities and competence in basic skills.

Montessori classrooms group children in multi-age clusters called “sensitive periods”, periods when the child shows unusual capabilities in acquiring particular skills.  A modern name for this phenomenon might be “formative periods”, a period in which the child is psychologically attuned to learn or acquire given ideas or skills more easily than at any other period.

Montessori originated in Rome, Italy in 1907 by Dr. Maria Montessori, the first woman in Italy to earn a medical degree.  Born in 1878, Dr. Montessori developed a psychologically rooted method of educating children for life.  She devoted her life to this work and was honored and respected throughout the world at the time of her death in 1952.

Montessori’s purpose is to help each child develop within himself/herself the foundations for a lifetime of creative learning: to develop the basic attitudes and skills essential for success in school and in life, a thirst for learning, habits of concentration, of initiative, of order, of persistence and above all clear perceptions, basic functional creativity, originality and self-confidence.