Montessori 101 - An Introduction

4 ©T o m o r r o w ’ s Child Magazine Montessori 101: Special Issue • www.montessori.org

©T o m o r r o w ’ s Child Magazine Montessori 101: Special Issue • www.montessori.org 5

It’s the beginning of a new school year for thou-sands of Montessori students around the world.For some, it will be their first experience in aMontessori classroom; for others, it will be a re-turn to the learning environment that they haveknown for years.

D r. Maria Montessori opened her first school,Casa dei Bambini, in Rome, Italy more than ac e n t u ry ago.

A fter one hundred years, the Montessori ap-proach has proven that it is still vibrant andadaptive to the challenges of the 21st century.

As parents and educators, who have spentyears around Montessori children, we knowt h a t Montessori works! Despite the proof ofmore than one hundred years of positive re-sults, questions remain:

What is Montessori?

How is it different than traditional education?

Will it work for my child?

Isn’t Montessori a very structured environ-m e n t ?

Do Montessori classrooms have stru c t u r e ?

N o rmalize my child?

Are we crazy to enroll our child in aMontessori school?

Is Montessori just for young children?

Can our child adjust to a traditional educa-tion after years in Montessori?

How can we find/create an elementary or sec-o n d a ry Montessori program for our children?

For more than forty years, I’ve tried to help par-ents sort all this out, so they could reassure them-selves that Montessori isn’t going to leave theirchildren academically handicapped and unableto make it in the ‘real’ world. It’s still not easy toput Montessori into context, when the rest of theworld seems so completely committed to a verydifferent approach to raising children. Montessori101 was written to help parents begin to discoverand reconfirm what Montessori children know— Montessori works!

— Tim Seldin, Pr e s i d e n tThe Montessori Fo u n d a t i o n

c o-author of The Montessori Wa y,The World in the Palm of Her Hand,

and Celebrations of Life; author of How toRaise an Amazing Child.

There are more than four thousand Montessori schools in the UnitedStates and Canada and thousands more around the world. Montessorischools are found throughout Western Europe, Central and SouthAmerica, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and much of Asia.

The movement is widespread in countries such as the Netherlands,the United Kingdom, Ireland, India, Sri Lanka, Korea, and Japan, and it isbeginning to expand into Eastern Europe, the republics of the formerSoviet Union, and China.

There is tremendous diversity within the community of Montessorischools. Despite the impression that all Montessori schools are the same,perhaps a franchise, no two Montessori schools are alike.

Across the United States and Canada, we can find Montessori schoolsin almost every community. They are found in church basements, con-verted barns, shopping centers, former public schools, and on expansivecampuses, with enrollments ofhundreds of children and theair of stature and stability.

We can find them in subur-ban and inner-city public-school systems. Montessorischools are often found incharming homes — the out-come of the individual visionof the owner/director. Manyare found in affluent commu-nities, but just as many servew o r k i n g - c l a s sn e i g h b o r h o o d sand the poor. Wecan findMontessori inHead Start pro-grams, child-carecenters in our in-ner cities, migrant-worker camps,and on NativeAmerican reserva-tions.

S o m eM o n t e s s o r ischools pridethemselves on re-maining faithful towhat they see asDr. MariaMontessori’s origi-nal vision, while others appreciate flexibility and pragmatic adaptation.Each school reflects its own unique blend of facilities, programs, personal-ity, and interpretation of Dr. Montessori’s vision.

Most Montessori schools begin with three-year-olds and extendthrough the elementary grades. Every year, more schools open middle-school and infant-toddler programs, and Montessori high schools are be-ginning to appear more frequently.

Montessori schools offer a wide range of programs. Many are focusedon meeting the needs of the working family. Others describe themselvesas college-preparatory programs. Public Montessori programs pride them-selves on serving all children, while many independent schools work hardto find the perfect match of student, school, and family values. TheMontessori Foundation and The International Montessori Council (IMC)celebrate the diversity to be found among Montessori schools. Just aseach child is unique, so are the schools.

TheManyFaces ofMontessoriin NorthAmerica

6 ©T o m o r r o w ’ s Child Magazine Montessori 101: Special Issue • www.montessori.org

Montessori schools are not completelydifferent from other schools. Over thelast century, Dr. Maria Montessori’sideas have had a profound and grow-ing influence on education aroundthe world. However, while individualelements of her program are findingtheir way into more classrooms everyyear, there is a cumulative impactthat we see when schools fully imple-ment the entire Montessori model,which creates something quite dis-t i n c t .

■ Montessori schools begin with a deeprespect for children as unique individu-als. They work from a deep concern fortheir social and emotional develop-m e n t .

■ Montessori schools are warm and sup-portive communities of students, teach-ers, and parents. Children don’t get lostin the crowd!

■ Montessori consciously teaches chil-dren to be kind and peaceful.

■ Montessori classrooms are bright andexciting environments for learning.

■ Montessori classes bring children to-gether in multi-age groups, rather thanclasses comprised of just one grade lev-el. Normally, they span three age levels.Children stay with their teachers forthree years. This allows teachers to de-velop close, long-term relationshipswith their pupils, allows them to knoweach child’s learning style very well, andencourages a strong sense of commu-nity among the children. Every year,more non-Montessori schools adoptthis effective strategy.

■ Montessori classrooms are not run bythe teachers alone. Students are taughtto manage their own community anddevelop leadership skills and indepen-d e n c e .

■ Montessori assumes that children areborn intelligent; they simply learn in dif-ferent ways and progress at their ownpace. The Montessori approach to educa-tion is consciously designed to recognizeand address different learning styles, help-ing students learn to study most effective-ly. Students progress as they master newskills, moving ahead as quickly as they areready.

■ Montessori students rarely rely on textsand workbooks. Why? Because many ofthe skills and concepts that children learnare abstract, and texts simply don’t bringthem to life. Also, in the case of reading,many reading series fail to collect first-rateand compelling stories and essays; in-stead, Montessori relies upon hands-onconcrete learning materials and the li-brary, where children are introduced tothe best in literature and reference mate-rials.

■ Learning is not focused on rote drill andmemorization. The goal is to develop stu-dents who really understand their school-w o r k .

■ Montessori students learn through hands-on experience, investigation, and re-search. They become actively engaged intheir studies, rather than passively waitingto be taught.

■ Montessori challenges and sets high ex-pectations for all students, not only thoseconsidered ‘gifted.’

■ Students develop self-discipline and an in-ternal sense of purpose and motivation.After graduation from Montessori, thesevalues serve them well in high school, col-lege, and in their lives as adults.

■ Montessori schools normally reflect ahighly diverse student body, and their cur-riculum promotes mutual respect and aglobal perspective.

■ Students develop a love for the naturalworld. Natural science and outdoor educa-tion is an important element of our chil-dren’s experience.

■ The Montessori curriculum is carefullystructured and integrated to demonstratethe connections among the different sub-ject areas. Every class teaches criticalthinking, composition, and research.History lessons link architecture, the arts,science, and technology.

■ Students learn to care about othersthrough community service.

■ Montessori teachers facilitatelearning, coach students along, and cometo know them as friends and mentors.

■ Students learn not to be afraid of makingmistakes; they come to see their mistakesas natural steps in the learning process.

■ Montessori students learn to collaborateand work together in learning and on ma-jor projects. They strive for their personalbest, rather than compete against one an-other for the highest grade in their class.

What MakesMontessori

Different?

“When the children had completed an absorbing bit of work, they appeared rested and

deeply pleased. It almost seemed as if a road hadopened up within their souls that led to all their latentpowers, revealing the better part of themselves. Theyexhibited a great affability to everyone, put themselves

out to help others and seemed full of good will.”

- Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori is as controversial

a figure in education today

as she was more than a century ago.

To aid life, leaving itfree, however, to unfoldi t s e l f, that is the basictask of the educator.

Ours was a house for children, ratherthan a real school. We had prepared aplace for children, where a diffused cul-ture could be assimilated, without anyneed for direct instru c t i o n . . . Yet thesechildren learned to read and write be-fore they were five, and no one had giv-en them any lessons. At that time, itseemed miraculous that children of fourand a half should be able to write andthat they should have learned withoutthe feeling of having been taught.

We puzzled over it for a long time. Onlya fter repeated experiments did we con-clude with certainty that all children areendowed with this capacity to ‘absorb’culture. If this be true – we then arg u e d– if culture can be acquired without ef-fort, let us provide the children withother elements of culture. And then wesaw them ‘absorb’ far more than read-ing and writing: botany, zoology, mathe-matics, geography, and all with the sameease, spontaneously and without gettingt i r e d .

And so we discovered that education isnot something which the teacher does,but that it is a natural process which de-velops spontaneously in the human be-ing. It is not acquired by listening towords, but in virtue of experiences inwhich the child acts on his environment.The teacher’s task is not to talk, but toprepare and arrange a series of motivesfor cultural activity in a special environ-ment made for the child.

My experiments, conducted in many dif-ferent countries, have now been goingon for forty years (Ed. note: now morethan one hundred years), and as thechildren grew up, parents kept askingme to extend my methods to the laterages. We then found that individual ac-tivity is the one factor that stimulatesand produces development, and thatthis is not more true for the little onesof preschool age than it is for the junior,middle, and upper-school children.”

— Dr. Maria MontessoriThe Absorbent Mind

“

aria Montessori is as controversial a figure ineducation today as she was a half century ago.Alternately heralded as the twentieth century’sleading advocate for early childhood educa-tion, or dismissed as outdated and irrelevant,her research and the studies that she inspired helped change the course of education.

Those who studied (her ideas and methods) and went on to make their own con-tributions include Anna Freud, Jean Piaget, Alfred Adler, and Erik Erikson. Many ele-ments of modern education have been adapted from Montessori’s theories. She iscredited with the development of the open classroom, individualized education, ma-nipulative learning materials, teaching toys, and programmed instruction. In the lastforty-five years, educators in Europe and North America have begun to recognize theconsistency between the Montessori approach with what we have learned from re-search into child development.

Maria Montessori was an individual ahead of her time. She was born in 1870, inAncona, Italy, to an educated but not affluent middle-class family. She grew up in acountry considered most conservative in its attitude toward women, yet, even againstthe considerable opposition of her father and teachers, Montessori pursued a scientif-ic education and was the first woman to become a physician in Italy.

As a practicing physician associated with the University of Rome, she was a scientist,not a teacher. It is ironic that she became famous for her contributions in a field thatshe had rejected as the traditional refuge for women, at a time when few professionswere open to them other than homemaking or the convent. The Montessori Methodevolved almost by accident, from a small experiment that Dr. Montessori carried outon the side. Her genius stems not from her teaching ability but from her recognitionof the importance of what she stumbled upon.

As a physician, Dr. Montessori specialized in pediatrics and psychiatry. She taught atthe medical school of the University of Rome, and, through its free clinics, she cameinto frequent contact with the children of the working class and poor. These experi-ences convinced her that intelligence is not rare and that most newborns come intothe world with human potential that will be barely revealed.

Her work reinforced her humanistic ideals, and she made time in her busy sched-ule to support various social-reform movements. Early in her career, she began to ac-cept speaking engagements throughout Europe on behalf of the women’s movement,peace efforts, and child labor-law reform. Montessori became well known and highly

EX C E R P T E D F R O M The Montessori WayB Y TI M SE L D I N & PA U L EP S T E I N, PH. D .

A V A I L A B L E A T W W W.M O N T E S S O R I.O R G


Montessori child carrying soup in classrom, c. 1912

©T o m o r r o w ’ s Child Magazine Montessori 101: Special Issue • www.montessori.org8

regarded throughout Europe, which un-doubtedly contributed to the publicitythat surrounded her schools.

In 1901, Montessori was appointedDirector of the new OrthophrenicSchool attached to the University ofRome, formerly used as the asylum forthe ‘deficient and insane’ children of thecity, most of whom were probably of di-minished mental capacity. She initiatedreform in a system that formerly hadserved merely to confine mentally hand-icapped youngsters in empty rooms.Recognizing her patients’ need for stim-ulation, purposeful activity, and self-esteem, Montessori insisted that thestaff speak to the inmates with the high-est respect. She set up a program toteach her young charges how to care forthemselves and their environment.

At the same time, she began a metic-ulous study of all research previouslydone on the education of the mentallyhandicapped. Her studies led Montes-sori to the work of two almost forgottenFrench physicians of the eighteenth andnineteenth centuries: Jean Itard andEdouard Seguin. Itard is most famousfor his work with the Wild Boy ofA v e y o n, a youth who had been foundwandering naked in the forest, havingspent ten years living alone. The boycould not speak and lacked almost all ofthe skills of everyday life. Here apparent-ly was a ‘natural man,’ a human beingwho had developed without the benefitof culture and socialization with his ownkind. Itard hoped from this study toshed some light on the age-old debateabout what proportion of human intelli-gence and personality is hereditary andwhat proportion stems from learned be-h a v i o r .

Itard’s experiment was a limited suc-cess, for he found the ‘wild boy’ unco-operative and unwilling or unable tolearn most things. This led Itard to pos-tulate the existence of developmentalperiods in normal human growth.During these ‘sensitive periods,’ a childmust experience stimulation or grow upforever lacking the adult skills and intel-lectual concepts that he missed at thestage when they can be readily learned!Although Itard’s efforts to teach the‘wild boy’ were barely successful, he fol-lowed a methodical approach in design-ing the process, arguing that all educa-tion would benefit from the use of care-ful observation and experimentation.This idea had tremendous appeal to thescientifically trained Montessori and lat-er became the cornerstone of herMethod. From Edouard Seguin,Montessori drew further confirmation ofItard’s work, along with a far more spe-cific and organized system for applying itto the everyday education of the handi-capped. Today, Seguin is recognized asthe father of our modern techniques ofspecial education.

From these two predecessors,Montessori developed the idea of a sci-entific approach to education, based onobservation and experimentation. Shebelongs to the ‘child study’ school ofthought, and she pursued her workwith the careful training and objectivityof the biologist studying the natural be-havior of an animal in the forest. Shestudied her mentally challenged young-sters, listening and carefully notingeverything that they did and said.Slowly, she began to get a sense of whothey really were and what methodsworked best. Her success was givenwidespread notice when, two years aftershe began, many of Montessori’s ‘defi-cient’ adolescents were able to pass thestandard sixth-grade tests of the Italianpublic schools. Acclaimed for this ‘mira-cle,’ Montessori responded by suggest-ing that her results proved only thatpublic schools should be able to get dra-matically better results with ‘normal’children.

Unfortunately, the Italian Ministry ofEducation did not welcome this idea,and she was denied access to school-aged children. Frustrated in her effortsto carry the experiment on with public-school students, in 1907, Montessorijumped at the chance to coordinate aday-care center for working-class chil-dren, who were too young to attendpublic school.

This first Casa dei Bambini, or Chil-dren’s House, was located in the worstslum district of Rome, and the condi-tions Montessori faced were appalling.Her first class consisted of sixty childrenfrom two through five years of age,taught by one untrained caregiver. Thechildren remained at the center fromdawn to dusk, while their parentsworked. They had to be fed two meals aday, bathed regularly, and given a pro-gram of medical care. The childrenthemselves were typical of extreme in-ner-city poverty conditions. They en-tered the Children’s House on the firstday crying and pushing, exhibiting gen-erally aggressive and impatient behavior.Montessori, not knowing whether herexperiment would work under suchconditions, began by teaching the olderchildren how to help with the everydaytasks that needed to be done. She alsointroduced the manipulative perceptualpuzzles that she had used with the men-tally challenged children.

The results surprised her, for unlikethe other children, who had to be prod-ded to use the materials, these littleones were drawn to the work she intro-duced. Children, who had wanderedaimlessly the week before, began to set-tle down to long periods of constructiveactivity. They were fascinated with thepuzzles and perceptual training devices.But, to Montessori’s amazement, theyoung children took the greatest delightin learning practical everyday livingskills, reinforcing their independence.

Each day, they begged her to showthem more, even applauding with de-light when Montessori taught them thecorrect use of a handkerchief. Soon theolder children were taking care of theschool, assisting their teacher with thepreparation and serving of meals andthe maintenance of a spotless environ-ment. Their behavior as a groupchanged dramatically, from streeturchins running wild to models of graceand courtesy. It was little wonder thatthe press found such a human-intereststory appealing and promptly broadcastit to the world.

Montessori education is sometimescriticized for being too structured andacademically demanding of young chil-dren. Montessori would have laughed atthis suggestion. She often said, “I stud-ied my children, and they taught mehow to teach them.” Montessori made apractice of paying close attention totheir spontaneous behavior, arguingthat only in this way could a teacherknow how to teach. Traditionally,

stantly experimented with the class.For example, Montessori tells of the

morning when the teacher arrived lateto find that the children had crawledthrough a window and gone right towork. At the beginning, the learning ma-terials, having cost so much to make,were locked away in a tall cabinet. Onlythe teacher had a key and would open itand hand the materials to the childrenupon request. In this instance, theteacher had neglected to lock the cabi-net the night before. Finding it open,the children had selected one materialapiece and were working quietly. AsMontessori arrived, the teacher wasscolding the children for taking themout without permission. She recognizedthat the children’s behavior showed thatthey were capable of selecting their ownwork and removed the cabinet and re-placed it with low, open shelves onwhich the activities were always availableto the children. Today, this may soundlike a minor change, but it contradictedall educational practice and theory ofthat period.

One discovery followed another, giv-ing Montessori an increasingly clearview of the inner mind of the child. Shefound that little children were capable oflong periods of quiet concentration,even though they rarely showed signs ofit in everyday settings. Although theywere often careless and sloppy, they re-sponded positively to an atmosphere ofcalm and order. Montessori noticed thatthe logical extension of the youngchild’s love for a consistent and often-re-peated routine is an environment inwhich everything has a place.

Her children took tremendous de-light in carefully carrying their work toand from the shelves, taking great painsnot to bump into anything or spill thesmallest piece. They walked carefullythrough the rooms, instead of runningwildly, as they did on the streets.Montessori discovered that the environ-ment itself was all important in obtain-

schools pay little attention to children asindividuals, other than to demand thatthey adapt to our standards.

Montessori argued that the educa-tor’s job is to serve the child, determin-ing what is needed to make the greatestprogress. To her, a child who fails inschool should not be blamed, any morethan a doctor should blame a patientwho does not get well fast enough. It isthe job of the physician to help us findthe way to cure ourselves and the edu-cator’s job to facilitate the naturalprocess of learning.

Montessori’s children exploded intoacademics. Too young to go to publicschool, they begged to be taught how toread and write. They learned to do soquickly and enthusiastically, using spe-cial manipulative materials Dr. Montes-sori designed for maximum appeal andeffectiveness. The children were fasci-nated by numbers. To meet this interest, the mathematically inclinedMontessori developed a series of con-crete mathematical learning materialsthat has never been surpassed. Soon,her four- and five-year-olds were per-forming four-digit addition and subtrac-tion operations and, in many cases, pushing on even further. Their interestsblossomed in other areas as well, com-pelling an overworked physician tospend night after night designing newmaterials to keep pace with the childrenin geometry, geography, history, andnatural science.

The final proof of the children’s inter-est came shortly after her first school be-came famous, when a group of well in-tentioned women gave them a mar-velous collection of lovely and expensivetoys. The new gifts held the children’sattention for a few days, but they soonreturned to the more interesting learn-ing materials. To Montessori’s surprise,children who had experienced both,preferred work over play most of thetime. If she were here today, Montessoriwould probably add:

Children read and do advanced mathemat-ics in Montessori schools not because wepush them, but because this is what they dowhen given the correct setting and opportu-nity. To deny them the right to learn becausewe, as adults, think that they shouldn’t is il-logical and typical of the way schools havebeen run before.

Montessori evolved her Methodthrough trial and error, making educat-ed guesses about the underlying mean-ing of the children’s actions. She wasquick to pick up on their cues and con-

ing the results that she had observed. Notwanting to use school desks, she had car-penters build child-sized tables andchairs. She was the first to do so, recog-nizing the frustration that a little child ex-periences in an adult-sized world.

Eventually she learned to design en-tire schools around the size of the chil-dren. She had miniature pitchers andbowls prepared and found knives that fita child’s tiny hand. The tables were light-weight, allowing two children to movethem alone. The children learned to con-trol their movements, disliking the waythe calm was disturbed when theyknocked into things. Montessori studiedthe traffic pattern of the rooms as well, ar-ranging the furnishings and the activityarea to minimize congestion and trip-ping. The children loved to sit on thefloor, so she bought little rugs to definetheir work areas, and the children quicklylearned to walk around them.

Through the years, Montessorischools carried this environmental engi-neering throughout the entire buildingand outside environment, designingchild-sized toilets and low sinks, windowslow to the ground, low shelves, andminiature hand and garden tools of allsorts. Some of these ideas were eventual-ly adapted by the larger educational com-munity, particularly at the nursery andkindergarten levels. Many of the puzzlesand educational devices now in use at thepreschool and elementary levels are di-rect copies of Montessori’s original ideas.However, there is far more of her workthat never entered the mainstream, andeducators, who are searching for new,more effective answers, are finding theaccumulated experience of theMontessori community to be of great in-terest.

Maria Montessori’s first Children’sHouse received overnight attention, andthousands of visitors came away amazedand enthusiastic. Worldwide interestsurged, as she duplicated her first schoolin other settings, with the same results.


A Montessori classroom in a Franciscan Convent c. 1912

1 0 ©T o m o r r o w ’ s Child Magazine Montessori 101: Special Issue • www.montessori.org

Montessori captured the interest and imag-ination of national leaders and scientists,mothers and teachers, labor leaders andfactory owners. As an internationally re-spected scientist, Montessori had a rarecredibility in a field, where many othershad promoted opinions, philosophies, andmodels that have not been readily duplicat-ed. The Montessori Method offered a sys-tematic approach that translated very wellto new settings. In the first thirty-five yearsof the twentieth century, the MontessoriMethod seemed to offer something foreveryone. Conservatives appreciated thecalm, responsible behavior of the little chil-dren, along with their love for work.Liberals applauded the freedom and spon-taneity. Many political leaders saw it as apractical way to reform the outmodedschool systems of Europe and NorthAmerica, as well as an approach that theyhoped would lead to a more productiveand law-abiding populace. Scientists of alldisciplines heralded its imperical founda-tion, along with the accelerated achieve-ment of the little children. Montessori rodea wave of enthusiastic support that shouldhave changed the face of education farmore dramatically than it has.

Montessori’s prime productive periodlasted from the opening of the firstChildren’s House in 1907 until the1930s.During this time, she continued her studyof children and developed a vastly expand-ed curriculum and methodology for the el-ementary level as well.

Montessori schools were set upthroughout Europe and North America,and Dr. Montessori gave up her medicalpractice to devote all of her energies to ad-vocating the rights and intellectual poten-tial of all children. During her lifetime, Dr.Montessori was acknowledged as one ofthe world’s leading educators. Modern ed-ucation moved beyond Montessori, adapt-ing only those elements of her work that fitinto existing theories and methods.Ironically, the Montessori approach cannotbe implemented as a series of piecemeal re-forms. It requires a complete restructuringof the school and the teacher’s role. Onlyrecently, as our understanding of child de-velopment has grown, have we rediscov-ered how clear and sensible was her in-sight.

Today, there is a growing consensusamong psychologists and developmentaleducators that many of her ideas weredecades ahead of their time. As the move-ment gains support and continues tospread into the American public school sec-tor, one can readily say that Montessori, be-gun more than one hundred years ago, is aremarkably modern approach.

Montessori philosophy is a school’sbiggest challenge. There are many fac-tors to consider when putting theoryinto practice, for example: the individ-ual children in the classroom, theirages and emotional well-being; parentsupport and understanding ofMontessori philosophy; and the train-ing and experience of teachers, assis-tants, and administrators. These areonly a few of the elements that createa Montessori school.

Because of this, Montessorischools come in all shapes and sizesincluding the small in-home class for afew children to schools with hun-dreds of students, from newbornsthrough high school.

While schools come in manyshapes and sizes, all successfulMontessori classrooms require threekey elements:

1. Well-trained adults;2. Specially prepared environ-

ments; and 3. Children’s free choice of activity

within a three-hour work cycle.

Finding the right school for yourfamily – whether it’s Montessori, pub-lic, parochial, alternative, traditional orhome school – requires a bit of inves-tigative work and an understanding ofthe needs and concerns you have foryour family. Being clear about whatMontessori education is and what it isnot can help you make an informeddecision.

1 1©T o m o r r o w ’ s Child Magazine Montessori 101: Special Issue • www.montessori.org

Each year, during the start of school, teachers andadministrators try to explain to new parents theessence of the term M o n t e s s o r i . In this article, we’lltry to explain what Montessori is and is not, dis-pelling, we hope, a few misperceptions aboutMontessori education in the process.

What Montessori I s

In its simplest form, Montessori is thephilosophy of child and human devel-opment as presented by Dr. MariaMontessori, an Italian physician wholived from 1870 to 1952.

In the early 1900s, Dr. Montessoribuilt her work with mentally challengedchildren on the research and studies ofJean Itard (1774-1838), best known forhis work with the “Wild Boy of Aveyron”and Edward Seguin (1821-1882), whoexpanded Itard’s work with deaf chil-dren. In 1907, Dr. Montessori began us-ing her teaching materials with normalchildren in a Rome tenement and dis-covered what she called “the Secret ofChildhood.”

The Secret? Children love to be in-volved in self-directed purposeful activi-ties. When given a prepared environ-ment of meaningful projects, along withthe time to do those tasks at his or herown pace, a child will choose to engagein activities that will create learning inpersonal and powerful ways.

Over the past one hundred yearsMontessori classrooms all over theworld have proven that, when correctlyimplemented, Dr. Montessori’s philoso-phy works for children of all socio-eco-nomic circumstances and all levels ofability. In a properly preparedMontessori classroom, research showsthat children learn faster and more easi-ly than in traditional schools.

However, the implementation of

What Montessori Is Not

In my twenty-five years in Montessorieducation – as a parent, school employ-ee, volunteer, trainee, teacher, schoolfounder, and school director – time aftertime, I’ve come to fresh and deeper un-derstandings of Montessori philosophyand the process of human developmentand education.

My first encounter with Montessoriwas less than positive. As a college stu-dent, I frequently visited my family aftermy four younger siblings’ school dayhad ended. Our family tradition was tohave a snack together after school.Friends and neighbors were always wel-c o m e d .

The neighbor girls, ages four, five andsix, frequently joined the group. Theywould barge into my parents’ home andhead straight for the refrigerator. Noknock on the door, no h e l l o. They in-haled huge amounts of food with nei-ther manners nor thanks. Their lack ofdecorum appalled me.

The neighbor girls’ grandmotherchatted with me about how wonderfulthe girls’ Montessori school was andhow much the girls learned there. I at-tributed the girls’ little savage conductto their Montessori school. If a schoolwould put up with that kind of behavior,I figured it couldn’t be any good.

A few years passed, and I had chil-dren of my own. Our friends and co-workers recommended the localMontessori school to my husband andme. Because of my experiences with theneighbor’s children, I responded nega-tively to my friends’ suggestions. I beganto notice, though, that our friends’ chil-dren were well mannered, articulate,and a joy to be around. Hum? So whatwas up with Montessori?

My mother helped clear up my mis-perceptions. The neighbor’s girls, eventhough they lived in an expensivehome, were suffering the effects of anewly divorced and stressed mother at-tending law school. The girls werestarved for food, attention, and adultguidance. Their behavior was a reflec-tion, not of their Montessori schooling,but of the turmoil in their home.

This experience showed me thatwhat we may think are the effects, nega-tive or positive, of a Montessori school,may be something quite different.

Let me use my twenty-five years ofMontessori experience to help dispel afew misconceptions about Montessorischools, some of which I’ve held myself.

❦ ❦ ❦

Montessori

Myths

byMaren Schmidt &

Dana Schmidt

❋

Montessori is for all children. SinceMontessori preschools begin workingwith three-year-olds in a prepared learn-ing environment, Montessori studentslearn to read, write, and understand theworld around them in ways that they caneasily express. To the casual observer,Montessori students may appear ad-vanced for their age, leading to the as-sumption that the schools cater to giftedchildren.

In reality, a Montessori school offerschildren of differing abilities ways to ex-press their unique personalities, throughactivities using hands-on materials, lan-guage, numbers, art, music, movementand more. Montessori schooling helpseach child develop individuality in a waythat accentuates his or her innate intelli-gence. Montessori schools can help makeall kids ‘gifted’ kids.

Myth #3

Montessori

is for

learning-

disabled

children.


Many Montessori schools in theUnited States are private schools,begun in the early to mid-1960s, atime when most public educationdidn’t offer kindergarten andonly 5 percent of children wentto preschool, compared with the67 percent reported in the 2000census. When many Montessorischools were established, privatepreschools might have been anoption only for those in urbanwell-to-do areas, thus giving the impression that only wealthy families could affordMontessori schools.The first schools that Montessori established were in the slumsof Rome, for children left at home while parents were out working, and certainlynot for rich kids.

Today, in the United States, there are over 300 public Montessori schools and100 charter schools that offer taxpayer-financed schooling, along with thousands ofprivate, not-for-profit Montessori programs that use charitable donations to offer

low-cost tuition. Montessori education,

through these low-cost op-tions, is available to familiesinterested in quality educa-tion. Many private, high-dol-lar schools offer scholarships,and some states offer child-care credits and assistance tolow-income families.

Myth #1

Montessori

is just for

rich kids.

❋

❋Myth #2

Montessori

is just for

gifted

kids.

When looking at a Montessori classroom you may see 25 or more children involved inindividual or small group activities. It is possible that each child will be doing some-thing different. At first glance, a classroom can look like a hive of bumblebees.

If you take the time to follow the activities of two children, over the course of athree-hour work period, you should observe a series of self-directed activities. Thechildren aren’t running wild. They are each involved in self-selected w o r k, designed tobuild concentration and support independent learning.

Choosing what you do is not the same as doing whatever you want. A well-knownanecdote, about Montessori students doing what they like, comes from E.M.Standing’s book, Maria Montessori – Her Life and Work:

“A rather captious and skeptical visitor to a Montessori class once buttonholed one of the children – alittle girl of seven – and asked: ‘Is it true that in this school you are allowed to do anything you like?’ ‘Idon’t know about that,’ replied the little maiden cautiously, ‘but I do know that we like what we do!’”

Like many preschools,some Montessori pro-grams may be sponsoredby a church or synagogue,but most Montessorischools are established as

independent entities. Conversely, a schoolmight be housed in a church building andnot have any religious affiliation. SinceMontessori refers to a philosophy, and notan organization, schools are free to haverelationships with other organizations, in-cluding churches.

Some of the first Montessori programswere sponsored by Catholic or other reli-gious organizations. Dr. Montessori wasCatholic and worked on developing reli-gious, educational, hands-on learning ex-periences for young children. TheMontessori movement, however, has noreligious affiliations.

Montessori schools all over the worldreflect the specific values and beliefs of thestaff members and families that form eachschool community. Around the world,there are Montessori schools that are partof Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and other re-ligious communities.


It is true that Dr. Montessori began herwork with children who were institutional-ized, due to physical or mental impair-ments. When using her methods and mate-rials with normal children, Montessori dis-covered that children learned more quicklyusing her teaching methods.

There are some Montessori schools andprograms that cater specifically to childrenwho have learning challenges. In manyMontessori schools, however, children withspecial needs are included, when those re-quirements can be met with existing schoolresources.

Myth #5

In Montessori

classrooms,

children run

around and do

whatever they

want.

❋

Myth #4

Montessori

is affiliat-

ed with

the

Catholic

Church.

❋

❋One definition of a clique is: an exclusive circleof people with a common purpose. ManyMontessori teachers could be accused of thisbecause of their intense desire to be of servicein the life of a child, coupled with the teacher’sknowledge of child development. And whilemany schools have tight-knit communities, theyare not exclusive. You should look for a schoolwhere you and your family feel welcomed.

For many years, Montessori training pro-grams were only available in a few larger cities.Becoming certified required prospective teach-ers to be determined and dedicated, as relocat-ing for a year of study was often required. NowMontessori teacher’s training is mainstream andmore accessible, with colleges and universitiesoffering graduate programs in Montessori edu-cation, in conjunction with Montessori training

Myth #6

Montessorians are

a selective clique.

Parents sometimes see the Montessoriconcept of work as play as overly struc-tured. The activities in the classroom arereferred to as w o r k, and the children aredirected to choose their work. However,the children’s work is very satisfying tothem, and they make no distinction be-tween work and play. Children almostalways find Montessori activities both interesting and fun.

Each Montessori classroom is linedwith low shelves filled with materials.The teacher, or guide, shows the chil-

dren how to use the materials by givingindividual lessons. The child is shown aspecific way to use the materials but isallowed to explore them by using themin a variety of ways, with the only limita-tions being that materials may not beabused or used to harm others.

For example, the Red Rods, whichare a set of ten painted wooden rods upto a meter long and about an inch thick,are designed to help the child learn toperceive length in ten centimeter incre-ments. The Red Rods aren’t to be used

❋

©T o m o r r o w ’ s Child Magazine Montessori 101: Special Issue • www.montessori.org1 4

Myth #7

Montessori classrooms are too structured.

as Jedi light sabers. Obviously, swordfights with the Red Rods are a dangerto other children, as well as damagingto the rods, which cost over $200.00 aset.

In cases where materials are beingabused or used in a way that may hurtothers, the child is stopped and gentlyand kindly redirected to other work.

Unfortunately, some parents seethis limitation on the use of the materi-al as ‘too structured,’ since it may notallow for fantasy play.

❋

The Montessori classroom is very struc-tured, but that structure is quite differ-ent from a traditional preschool.Montessori observed that children natu-rally tend to use self-selected, purpose-ful activities to develop themselves. TheMontessori classroom, with its preparedactivities and trained adults, is struc-tured to promote this natural process ofhuman development.

Students new to the Montessoriclassroom, who may or may not havebeen in a traditionally structured school,learn to select their own work and com-plete it with order, concentration, andattention to detail. Montessorians referto children, who work in this indepen-dent, self-disciplined way as ‘normal-ized,’ or using the natural and normaltendencies of human development.

Many traditional preschools work ona schedule where the entire classroomis involved in an activity for fifteen min-utes, then moves on to the next activity.This structure is based on the belief thatyoung children have a short attentionspan of less than twenty minutes per ac-t i v i t y .

Myth #8

A Montessori

classroom is too

unstructured

for my child.

centers. Loyola College inMaryland, New York University,and Xavier University are only afew of the many institutions ofhigher learning that includeMontessori teacher’s training.

Dr. Montessori’s books, fullof Italian scientific and psycho-logical terminology, translatedinto the British English of theearly 1990s, can be difficult forthe modern reader to follow.To parents the use ofMontessori-specific terms and

quotes may at times take on esoteric tones of an elusive inner circle. The enthusi-asm and dedication evident in the work of many Montessorians might be misinter-preted as excluding to uninitiated newcomers.

My experience with Montessori teachers and administrators has been that theyare eager to share their knowledge with others. Just ask.

©T o m o r r o w ’ s Child Magazine Montessori 101: Special Issue • www.montessori.org 1 5

Work consistsof whatever a

body is obliged to do.

Play consistsof whatever abody is n o t

obliged to do.

~ Mark Twain

In the Montessori classroom each child creates his orher own cycle of work based on individual interests. Thiscycle of self-directed activity lengthens the child’s attentionspan. The teacher, instead of directing a group of childrenin one activity, quietly moves from child to child, giving in-dividual lessons with materials. The teacher or assistantmay lead a few small-group activities, such as reading abook out loud, cooking, or gardening with two to six chil-dren.

The Montessori classroom is a vibrant and dynamiclearning environment, where structure is created by each

child selecting his or her activity, doing it, and returning theactivity to the shelf. After the successful completion of a task,there is a period of self-satisfaction and reflection, then thechild chooses the next activity.

Montessorians call this rhythm of activity a work cycle.Stephen Covey, in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,refers to the habit of a work cycle as creating an upward spiral of growth and change. Covey describes a spiralingprocess of learn – commit – do that empowers us to movetoward continuous improvement, both as children andadults.

Traditional Preschool Schedule

8:30 to 8:45 Morning circle and singing8:45 to 9:00 Work with Play Dough™9:00 to 9:15 Letter of the day work 9:15 to 9:30 Crayon work 9:30 to 9:45 S n a c k9:45 to 10:15 Outside time10:15 to 10:30 Story time 10:30 to 10:45 Work with puzzles 10:45 to 11:00 Practice counting to 20 11:00 to 11:15 Craft project: cut out a

paper flower11:15 to 11:30 Circle time to dismissal

The above schedule reflects structure created by and de-pendent upon the teacher.

Montessori Preschool Schedule

8 : 3 0 Arrive, hang up coat, and greet teacher8:35 to 9:00 Choose puzzle. Work and rework three

times. 9:00 to 9:15 Return puzzle to shelf. Choose sandpaper

n u m b e r s .9:15 to 10:00 Trace sandpaper numbers.10:00 to 10:15 Return numbers to shelf. Prepare

individual snack. Eat snack with friend. 10:15 to 10:30 Choose and work with scissor cutting

l e s s o n .10:30 to 11:15 Choose and work with knobbed cylinders. 11:15 to 11:30 Clean up time and group time with singing.

A typical morning might look something like this:

©T

❋

Montessorians refer to the child’s activi-ties in the classroom as w o r k . The chil-dren also refer to what they do in theclassroom as t h e i r work. When yourthree-year-old comes home from schooltalking about the work he did today, hecan sound way too serious for a kid youjust picked up at preschool.

What adults often forget is that chil-dren have a deep desire to contributemeaningfully, which we deny when we

Creativity means “to bring something into existence.” First we have an idea. Thenwe use our imagination, thoughts, and skills to bring these ideas into being. TheMontessori classroom nourishes the creative skills of writing, drawing, painting, using scissors, modeling clay, gluing, etc. to enable children to express theirthoughts and ideas in genuine and unique ways.

When I was in kindergarten, we were all given a coloring sheet of a caboose. I colored my caboose green. My teacher told me that cabooses were red. As I lookedaround, all the other children’s cabooses were red. My classmates laughed at mygreen caboose. I felt the tears in my chest.

Twenty-four years later, I saw another green caboose, attached to the end of aBurlington-Northern train. “Yes!” I wanted to shout back to my kindergarten class.“There a r e green cabooses.”

What does a green caboose have to do with creativity? I wasn’t trying to be creative with my green caboose. I was trying to express my-

self, because I had s e e n a green caboose. Montessori classrooms allow for safe self-expression through art, music, move-

ment, and manipulation of materials and can be one of the most creative and satisfy-ing environments for a child to learn to experiment and express his or her inner-self.

Myth #9

Montessori

schools don’t

allow for play.

❋Myth #10

Montessori

doesn’t

allow for

creativity.

regard everything they do as ‘just’ play.With our adult eyes, we can observe thechild’s ‘joyful work’ and expressions ofdeep satisfaction as the child experi-ences “work as play.”

Consider this. You start a new job.You arrive the first day, full of enthusi-asm, and ready to contribute to the suc-cess of your work group. You’re met atthe door by your new boss and told,“Go outside and play. We’ll let you knowwhen it’s time for lunch and time to goh o m e . ”

O u c h !But that’s exactly what we do to our

children when we dismiss their desiresto contribute to their own well-beingand to the common good of home orschool. Montessori schools create envi-ronments, where children enjoy work-ing on activities with grace and dignity.Montessori children often describe feel-ings of satisfaction and exhilarationupon completing tasks that we mighthave considered as only ‘play.’


❋

Most of us associate our career success withour colleges. Not too many people come outand say, “When I was three years old I wentto Hometown Montessori School, and thatmade all the difference.”

Here are a few well-known people whoremember their Montessori school connec-tions and consider their experiences there vital.

Julia Child, the cook and writer, whotaught Americans to love, prepare and pro-nounce French dishes, attended Montessorischool.

Peter Drucker, the business guru, whohas been said to be one of the most impor-tant thinkers of the 20th century, was aMontessori student.

Alice Waters, the chef of Chez Panissefame and creator of The Edible Schoolyardproject, was a Montessori teacher.

Anne Frank’s famous diary was a naturalextension of Anne’s Montessori elementaryschool experience.

Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller’s teacher,corresponded with Maria Montessori aboutteaching methods.

Larry Page and Sergei Brin, founders ofG o o g l e , Jeff Bezos founder of Amazon, andSteve Case of America Online all creditMontessori schooling to their creative suc-cess.

Montessori schools are focused on help-ing children become self-directed individu-als, who can, and do, make a difference intheir families, in their communities and intheir world – famous or not.

And that’s n o t a myth.

Maren Schmidt is an award-winning teacher andauthor. Over the past 25 years, Maren has been aMontessori parent, teacher, school founder and di-rector. She holds elementary teaching credentialsfrom the Association Montessori Internationale anda M.Ed. from Loyola College (MD). This article is ex-cerpted from an upcoming book for Montessoriparents she is currently co-authoring with herd a u g h t e r , Dana Schmidt, a Montessori studentfrom age one to fourteen. Dana is a graduate ofDartmouth College and resides in San Francisco.Read Maren’s weekly newspaper column atw w w . K i d s T a l k N e w s . c o m

Myth #11

Kids can’t be

kids at

Montessori.

Myth #12

If Montessori is

so great, why

aren’t former

students better

known?


❋

Somehow, our expectations as parents,having witnessed temper tantrums inrestaurants and stores, create a view ofchildren as naturally loud, prone to vio-lent behavior, disrespectful of others,clumsy, and worse.

In a well-run Montessori classroom,though, one might be prone to thinkthat kids aren’t being kids.

When you see twenty-five to thirtychildren acting purposefully, walking

calmly, talking in low voices to each oth-er, carrying glass objects, reading andworking with numbers in the thou-sands, you might think the only way thisbehavior can occur is by children beingregimented into it. I remember observ-ing Dana, then fifteen-months-old, mov-ing serenely around her infantMontessori classroom. She sure didn’tact that way at home.

As I observed Dana’s infant-toddlerclass in action, I saw the power of thischild-friendly environment. As the chil-dren moved from activity to activity, dayby day their skills and confidence grew.Lessons in grace and courtesy helpedthe children with social skills, as p l e a s e ,thank you, and would you please b e-came some of these toddlers’ firstwords.

When Dana was three, one of her fa-vorite activities was the green bean cut-ting lesson. After carefully washing herhands, she would take several greenbeans out of the refrigerator, washthem, cut them into bite-sized pieceswith a small knife, and arrange them ona child-sized tray. She carried the trayaround the classroom, asking her class-mates, “Would you like a green bean?”As they looked up from their work, theother children would reply, Yes, please,or No, thank you.

Dana, now in her mid-twenties, stillremembers that work with deep satis-faction. Children show us, when given aprepared environment, a knowledge-able adult, and a three-hour work cycle,the natural state of the child is to be ahappy, considerate, and contented per-son. A kid is most like a kid when he orshe is engaged in the work of the Mon-tessori classroom.

1 7


M o n t e s s o r iVo c a b u l a ryMade Clear

b yM a ren S. Schmidt &

Dana C. Schmidt

A d o l e s c e n c eA p p a r a t u sA u t o - E d u c a t i o nC a s aCasa Dei Bambini Children’s HouseCosmic Education

Didactic MaterialsD i r e c t r e s sElementary Community Elementary EnvironmentEnvironment E r d k i n d e rFour Planes of DevelopmentFreedom within Limits Freedom and Responsibility

Going Out Guide Guido Human Tendencies H o r m eI n f a n t / T o d d l e rInner TeacherLower Elementary

Mneme Montessori MaterialsN i d oN o r m a l i z a t i o nNormalizing Events

Parent Education Pedagogical Principles Practical Life Prepared EnvironmentPrimary Community Primary Environment Psychological Characteristics

Respect for the ChildResponsibility Self-Construction Sensitive periods Sensorial Materials S t r u c t u r e

Three-Hour Work CycleT o d d l e rUpper Elementary Whole ChildWork Cycle

very discipline has its specificjargon. Lawyers, doctors, carmechanics, computer techni-cians, nurses, gardeners, andgymnasts, each have vocabu-lary that is unique to theirarea of expertise.

So it is with Montessori ed-ucation. Here is a handy ref-erence for the language thatis used in Montessori writ-ings and discussions, which,we hope, will help you un-derstand what goes on inyour child’s Montessori class-r o o m .


A d o l e s c e n c e

Adolescence refers to the ages of twelve toeighteen years. There are two sub-stages of de-velopment during this period (ages twelve to fif-teen and fifteen to eighteen), with each sub-stage having different learning requirementsand environments, distinct from elementaryand each other.

A p p a r a t u s

The word a p p a r a t u s is used interchangeablywith the terms Montessori materials, or d i d a c-tic materials.

A u t o - E d u c a t i o n

Sorry, gentlemen, this has nothing to do withcars. The idea of auto-education is linked withthe concept of self-construction in Montessoriphilosophy, and some people view it as thesame idea. There is a nuance though that withauto-education a person consciously takes re-sponsibility for his or her learning. Self-con-struction has a connotation of activities, orwork, being unconsciously performed by chil-dren to build foundational skills before the ageof six years.

C a s a or Casa Dei Bambini

Casa Dei Bambini is n o t the name of a popularMexican Restaurant. C a s a, or h o u s e in Italian,refers to the environment for children agesthree to six years. Dr. Montessori referred to thefirst schools as Casa Dei Bambini, or Children’sHouses. Many schools use the term C a s a , o rChildren’s House, to refer to the classroom forchildren ages three to six years. Some schoolsmay also refer to this age group as thepreschool or primary group.

Children’s House

See above.

Cosmic Education

Dr. Montessori saw the use of the imaginationas the key to learning for children ages six totwelve . Montessori urged us to give the child a“vision of the universe,” because within thisview, there would be something that would fireeach individual child’s imagination, and, there-fore, set the child on a path of true learning. Aschildren pursue areas of interest, all subjects oflearning are touched upon, due to the intercon-nectedness of everything in the cosmos.

Dr. Montessori may have preferred to usethe term universal education, but that phrasewas already in use in the United States at thetime, relating to educator John Dewey’s idea offree public education for everyone.

Instead, the term cosmic education, orconnecting the child to the idea of the cosmos,was used. Back in the 1970s and 80s, the termseemed a bit ‘out there’ for mainstream use.Now there is more of a cultural awareness thateverything is, indeed, connected to everythingelse, and the term cosmic education seems tobetter communicate the idea of giving thechild a vision of the cosmos.

Didactic Materials

See Montessori Materials.

D i r e c t r e s s

See Montessori Teacher.

Elementary Community

The elementary community is comprised of allthe children, teachers, parents, and adults in aschool’s elementary classrooms or environ-ments. As community relationships are estab-lished, other people involved in strategic rela-tionships with the school, such as museum do-cents, librarians, storekeepers, and master gar-deners are considered part of the community.

Elementary Environment

The elementary environment is designed forchildren ages six to twelve years. There may bea lower elementary, made up of six- to nine-year-olds, and an upper elementary, com-prised of nine- to twelve-year-olds. Elementaryclassrooms for six- to twelve-year-olds are alsofound. The elementary environment includesan outdoor component but also expands toencompass the children going out to exploretheir local community’s museums, libraries,and other facilities outside the school campus.

E n v i r o n m e n t

The term e n v i r o n m e n t in Montessori terms isused to describe a prepared environment thatmeets the learning needs of the age group itserves.

You will hear the words e n v i r o n m e n t a n dc l a s s r o o m used interchangeably. A Montessoriclassroom, or environment, does not look any-thing like a traditional classroom, though. Aprimary environment for three- to six-years-olds is different than an elementary environ-ment, which differs from an adolescent envi-ronment.

E r d k i n d e r

Dr. Montessori envisioned an E r d k i n d e r(German for child of the earth) environmentfor the young adolescent, ages twelve to fifteenyears, to fulfill a developmental need to con-

nect and form a society of his or her timeand place. This vision of E r d k i n d e r e n c o m-passes the idea of a working farm and muchmore. For the past ten years, the farm-schoolconcept, or E r d k i n d e r, is being successfullyimplemented in the United States.

Four Planes of Development

Dr. Montessori saw human beings goingthrough four planes, or stages, of develop-ment, with each plane having unique charac-teristics and opportunities for learning.

First Plane: From birth to 6 years Second Plane: From 6 to 12 years Third Plane: From 12 to 18 years Fourth Plane: From 18 to 24 years

Freedom and Responsibility

The idea that freedom follows responsibilityis an important concept in Montessori phi-losophy. We give opportunities to “respondwith ability,” and corresponding freedomsare given. For example, if you remember tobring your coat, then you will be given thefreedom to go outside when it is cold. If youact responsibly in the elementary classroom,then you can be granted the freedom to gooutside of the classroom into the largercommunity. See going out.

Freedom within Limits

The concept of allowing freedom within lim-its is a crucial idea in Montessori philosophy.To the casual observer, or new teacher, free-dom may appear to allow a child to do any-thing he or she would like.

Freedom is limited by the level of abilityand responsibility a child has. We give thechild the freedom to move freely about theclassroom. This freedom may be taken away,if the child uses the freedom to go aroundhitting other children, disrupting other’swork, damaging materials, or otherwise notchoosing a purposeful activity that will leadto a normalizing event. The child is free toact within the limits of purposeful activity.

Going Out

The idea of going out is very different thanthe typical field trip that traditional elemen-tary students take. Students in a Montessorielementary classroom will go out in smallgroups of two to perhaps six students intothe community to gather information or ex-periences in areas of interest. For example,some schools are able to let students walk afew blocks to the city library. Other schoolsallow students to take public transportation

by remaining in the primary environment ofthe Casa.

M n e m e

Mneme was the Greek Muse for memory. Dr.Montessori used this psychological term toexpress the idea of memory being createdand retained in the child by sensorial experi-ences. The idea of neuro-muscular memoryfollows this concept.

Montessori Materials

Montessori materials were designed or incor-porated into the work with the children byDr. Montessori, her son Mario and originalMontessori adherents.

Dr. Montessori used materials made byItard and Seguin, notably the MoveableAlphabet and the Command Cards from Itardand the Teens Board and Tens Board fromSeguin. Other materials are designed to re-veal certain concepts to the child throughhands-on, uninterrupted exploration, after anintroductory lesson from the Montessoriteacher.

For example, the Pink Tower containsmultiple concepts, including height, volumeand sequence, squares of numbers and cubesof numbers, among other abstractions.

There are dozens of pieces of Montessori-designed materials that help the child in edu-cating the senses of hearing, seeing, smelling,touching, and tasting. Other Montessori ma-terials aid the child in acquiring skills in math,reading, writing, geography, social studies,science, music, and more.

Montessori Teacher

A Montessori teacher has Montessori trainingin the age level at which he or she is teach-ing. There is training for Assistants to Infancyfor working with children from birth to agethree; Primary training for working with chil-dren ages three to six; and Elementary train-ing for working with ages six to twelve.Adolescent training for working with twelve-to eighteen-year-olds is now being devel-oped. Most adolescent teachers have ele-mentary training, with additional adolescenttraining.

A Montessori teacher is trained to observechildren in a specific age group and introduce them to developmentally challeng-ing activities, based on those observations. AMontessori elementary teacher, for example,is trained to work with six- to twelve-year-oldsand may only have fundamental, versus spe-cific, knowledge of the work with theyounger and older children. Primary teach-ers, likewise, have general knowledge of thework of the elementary-aged child but may


to go to museums, or college campuses tovisit with experts in their field of study.Others have a system of parent volunteersthat drive and chaperone going-out stu-dents.

A going-out program is possible due tothe child developing freedom and responsi-bility over a period of many years. Studentsmust earn the right to go out.

Guide

See Montessori Teacher

G u i d o

See Montessori Teacher

H o r m e

N o t ham in a can. Dr. Montessori used thispsychological term from Sir Percy Nunn.Horme means life force. (From the Greek,h o r m e, meaning impetus or impulse.) If thelife force is allowed to develop smoothly,without obstacles impairing its force, nor-malization occurs. When the horme isblocked, we see deviations in the life force,and the process of normalization does notoccur. If the hormic force is strong and devi-ated, we may see a child with powerful emo-tional and physical outbursts. If the horme isweak in a child, we may observe boredom,laziness, and the need to be constantly en-tertained.

Human Tendencies

Dr. Montessori saw that there were certaincharacteristics that make us human.Depending on our individual natures, sensi-tive periods of learning, or different psycho-logical characteristics, the following activitiesdefine us as human:

A c t i v i t yB e c o m i n gB e l o n g i n gE x p l o r a t i o nO r i e n t a t i o nO r d e rC o m m u n i c a t i o nI m a g i n a t i o nE x a c t n e s sR e p e t i t i o nP e r f e c t i o n

Human beings need to be involved in mean-ingful activities. They need to feel a sense ofbecoming. Humans need to belong. Theyneed to explore the world around them andcreate an orientation for that exploration.People have a need to create order andmake sense out of the chaos around them.We need to communicate with others. We

use our imaginations. We work at exactness.We learn using repetition. We yearn for per-fection.

Montessori pedagogical principles useand are based on the knowledge of the hu-man tendencies.

I n f a n t / T o d d l e r

Infant/toddler refers to the age span frombirth to around age three. The infant/toddlercommunities are divided into two areas –the Nido, for ages two to fourteen monthsand the Young Children’s Communities forchildren ages fourteen to thirty-six months.

Not every Montessori school offers an in-fant/toddler program. Many infant/toddlerprograms are self-contained and feed intoschools that have students ages three to sixy e a r s .

Inner Teacher

The child’s self-construction is aided bywhat Montessorians call the inner teacher,or the child’s unconscious urge to connectto certain activities. The outward manifesta-tions of the child’s inner teacher are thechild’s interest and attention. We encourageinterest through the prepared environmentand an enlightened awareness of our role inthe work of the child.

For example, we observe a child’s inter-est in music by observing his or her choiceof playing the bells in the Montessori class-room. The child’s inner teacher is urging thechild to learn to play songs.

A trained Montessori teacher in a pre-pared environment helps guide the child toactivities, thus aiding the child’s self-con-s t r u c t i o n .

Lower Elementary

The elementary age group in many schoolsis divided into two classes: the lower andupper elementary. The lower elementary isfor those children who show psychologicalcharacteristics of being in the second of thefour planes of development.

Ages given for each plane of develop-ment are approximate and are used asguidelines to aid observation of the child’schoices for work, in order to know when thechild is ready to enter a new learning envi-ronment. Montessori teachers are trained tooffer key lessons to direct and encouragegrowth in the child’s observable areas of in-terest.

A child who is past his or her sixth birth-day may, or may not, exhibit the psychologi-cal characteristics of the child in the secondplane of development. Until these character-istics are observed, the child is best served


not be trained to observe and give lessons tothe elementary-aged child.

Many Montessorians prefer to use theterm g u i d e o r d i r e c t o r / d i r e c t r e s s instead of t e a c h e r to describe their work with thechild. Dr. Montessori used the term g u i d oin her writings. The Montessori teacher’s job is to help direct or guide the child topurposeful activity. The Montessori g u i d eis focused on directing the successful learn-ing and developmental progress of thechild, instead of being focused on teaching.This fundamental view of how to interactwith the child is one of the major principlesof Montessori philosophy. The adult’s job isto prepare an environment in order to guideand direct the child to purposeful activity.

When I first became a Montessori certi-fied teacher, I proudly introduced myself asa Montessori g u i d e at dinner parities, andpeople asked me to lead float trips down theBuffalo River. Even though the word g u i d ecommunicates more effectively to me aboutwhat role the adult plays in a Montessoriclassroom, I realize that most folks mightthink g u i d e means river rat.

The job of a Montessori guide is to helpchildren learn. As a college professor ofmine said, “I’m a Ph.D. in chemistry. My jobis to present information. Your job is tolearn it.” Unfortunately, I’ve seen too manyteachers over the years that see their job aspresenting information, with no concern if astudent actually learns that information. Theword g u i d e to me connotes that you arecommitted to helping someone reach a des-tination.

I would rather be g u i d e d than t a u g h t.With a guide, I’ll end up where I want to be.

Most Montessori schools use the wordt e a c h e r , in a desire to communicate effec-tively with parents, whose experience hasprimarily been with t e a c h e r s .

Montessori teachers are guides, and thatis very good for your child.

N i d o

Nido is n e s t in Italian, and the Nido is aMontessori environment designed for theinfant between the ages of two to fourteenmonths. When the child begins to walk, heor she enters a new environment of theYoung Children’s Community.

N o r m a l i z a t i o n

The natural, or normal state, for a humanbeing is characterized by four attributes:

1. A love of work or activity 2. Concentration on an activity 3. Self-discipline 4. Sociability or joyful work.

The understanding of normalization doesn’trequire a leap of faith; it occurs in those mo-ments when you feel most alive and morey o u than any other time. When we do whatwe love, and love doing it because we havethe skill and self-discipline to do the activitywell, those are the blissful moments of beinghuman. The activity we love might be any-thing – chopping wood, singing, dancing,writing, conversing with others, cooking.

In a Montessori school, we are trying tohelp the child attain a natural or normal de-velopmental process, which is referred to asn o r m a l i z a t i o n. This process of human de-velopment, or normalization, is evident inan observable cycle of activities, call normal-izing events.

Normalizing Events

In her book, The Secret of Childhood,Montessori told us of her discovery that intheir natural state, children love to work,which means to be involved in meaningfuland purposeful activity. When we are able togive the child (or an adult, if only our bossesunderstood!) a prepared environment anduninterrupted time to work, the child expe-riences a normalizing event.

Children love to be busy, so we preparetheir environment with activities that fostera love of work, concentration, self-discipline,and a sense of joyful accomplishment.

There are three steps to a normalizinge v e n t :

1. Choose an activity.2. Complete the activity and return the

materials to original order.3. Sense of satisfaction.

Normalizing activities in a prepared environ-ment, with an uninterrupted three-hourwork cycle, creates what Stephen Covey, in

his book, The 7 Habits of Highly EffectiveP e o p l e, calls a success cycle. To Montes-sorians, this process is normalization. W h e nwas your last normalizing event? How did itmake you feel?

Parent Education

Parent education in Montessori terms is a se-ries of ongoing lectures, discussions, anddemonstrations, designed for parents tohelp bridge the child’s world of school andhome. Montessorians want to work with thewhole child – body, heart, mind and spirit –and know that what happens at school af-fects home life, and what happens at homeaffects school life.

Parent education strives to create impor-tant home/school and parent/teacher rela-tionships in order to create an optimum en-vironment for the whole child.

Pedagogical Principles

Pedagogy refers to more than just teaching.Montessori pedagogical principles apply toteaching, as well as learning. Montessoriteachers teach in order to promote learning,to fire the child’s imagination and to feedthe child’s heart and spirit.

Each piece of material, with its corre-sponding lessons, has been developed to in-clude the following teaching and learningp r i n c i p l e s :

Use knowledge of human tendencies

Awareness of psychological characteristics

Prepared environment

Limitation of material

Teacher as link between child and the environment

Primary classes in a traditional settingmay refer to grades one to six, or gradesone to three, in many parts of the coun-try. Montessorians see the years fromthree to six being the time of a person’sgreatest learning and view this period asthe primary, or foundation, years ofschooling. To Montessorians, there isnothing ‘pre-school’ about this time ofchildren’s learning. It is the real thing.

Primary Environment

The primary environment is the preparedenvironment or classroom for childrenages three to six years. The environmentusually contains an outdoor componentas part of the classroom experience.

Psychological Characteristics

For the child from the age of six to twelveyears, we refer to the identifying featuresof that time as psychological characteris-tics. The child now prefers to do activitieswith friends, instead of working alone. Tolearn, the elementary-age child needs rep-etition of concepts through a variety ofwork. For the child in the second plane ofdevelopment, learning must use theimagination, involve a sense of humor, in-volve going outside of the familiar schooland home, use logic and reason, and ex-ercise the developing sense of right andwrong.

Montessori teachers look for thesepsychological characteristics in a six-year-old child to see if the child is ready tomove into an elementary environment.

Respect for the Child

Montessorians focus on the child’s needsand the child’s work of creating a uniqueperson. We recognize that the child has aformidable task. We work to be a help tothe life of the child, respecting both theperson that is not yet there and the one infront of us.

Responsibility

The concept of freedom and responsibili-ty is a key concept in working with chil-dren using Montessori’s philosophy.Freedom follows responsibility.

S e l f - C o n s t r u c t i o n

The Montessori idea is that the child con-structs the adult he or she will become bythe self-selected activities that the childengages in with concentration, self-disci-pline, and joyfulness.


the foundation for laterwork, with reading and mathmaterials for the four- andfive-year-old.

Prepared Environment

We live in a world of pre-pared environments. Stores,theatres, and restaurants areexamples of places that havebeen prepared to meet thespecific needs of the user.

A restaurant is preparedto serve our need for food,our need to socialize, etc.Wait staff, chefs, wine stew-ards, are ready to serve us.Tables and chairs are for ourcomfort and aesthetic ap-peal. Pictures, flowers,plants, and candles provided e c o r a t i o n .

A good restaurant antici-pates our needs. Wait staff of-fers us drinks and appetizersto get us comfortable. Menuselections are clearly given tous. The restaurant is de-signed to serve our diningneeds, be it fast food or afive-star experience.

The prepared environ-ments in a Montessori school

are created to meet the developmentalneeds of children, based on observable be-haviors, in many ways, like a restaurant isprepared to serve its customers.

There are four basic Montessori environ-m e n t s :

The infant/toddler environment frombirth to age three.

The primary environment for ages three to six years.

The elementary environment for agessix to twelve years.

The adolescent environments for agestwelve to fifteen and fifteen to eigh-teen years.

Each Montessori environment is preparedby Montessori-trained people who under-stand the developmental needs of that agegroup.

Primary Community

Children age three to six years and adults(including parents) in the primary environ-ment comprise the primary community. If aschool has multiple primary classrooms, theterm may refer to all the people involved inthat age group.

Freedom of choice and development of responsibility

Auto-education or self-construction

Whole to the parts; concrete to abstract

The working of the hand and the mind

Isolation of difficulty

Observation of the child at work

Repetition through variety

Indirect preparation

Techniques that lead to mental and physical independence.

Practical Life

The prepared environment of the primaryclassroom contains activities that help thechild learn dozens of practical self-care skills,such as hand washing, dusting, sweeping,clothes washing, and more. Children,around the age of three years, are extremelyinterested in these activities. Working withthe practical life exercises, children learn towork independently in the classroom anddevelop the concentration necessary to besuccessful with later work that is more acad-emic in nature. Practical life activities form

©T o m o r r o w ’ s Child Magazine Montessori 101: Special Issue • www.montessori.org

This concept of self-construction is per-haps more readily seen with a child’s learningto walk and talk. In normal circumstances, wedon’t have to teach a child how to walk ortalk. The child self-constructs as long as theenvironment is conducive to that building ofthe person. For example, if a child is confinedand not allowed movement, walking will notdevelop. If a child doesn’t hear spoken lan-guage, speech will not appear.

In a Montessori classroom, we strive tocreate a place where children have the free-dom to enhance their abilities through self-selected activities. It occurs in much the sameway that they learned to walk and talk but at adifferent level, involving reading and writing,mathematics, music, science, geography, andpractical living activities.

Sensitive Periods

Before the age of six, human beings are in aunique period of learning and development.At this time in our lives, certain information isabsorbed by our personalities without con-scious effort. Young children learn to walk,talk and do hundreds of things without for-mal instruction or being aware of learning.Montessori described these stages as s e n s i-tive periods of development, using a termfrom biologists.

Sensitive periods are characterized by thefollowing five observable behaviors.

Children seem to be drawn to certainwork and we see the following:

A well-defined activity with a begin-ning, middle, and end.

The activity is irresistible for the child,once he or she starts it.

The same activity is returned to againand again.

A passionate interest develops.

A restful and tranquil state comes atthe finish of the activity.

Once the sensitive period is over, childrenare not drawn to certain activities as before.Three-year olds love to wash their hands, be-cause they are in a sensitive period for thatactivity; whereas, ten-year-olds are not.

There are five sensitive periods of devel-opment from birth to age six: Language,Order, Refinement of the Senses, Move-ment. and Social Relations.

In the older child, these unique learningperiods are called psychological characteris-tics.

Sensorial Materials

Montessori sensorial materials are self-cor-recting, hands-on materials that aid your child

in his or her developing powers of vision,hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

The sensorial materials engage the handand the mind to create powerful learningexperiences for your child. These experi-ences become indirect preparation for lateracademic and artistic skills, and create‘touchstones’ in the mind for skills such asperfect pitch, color memory, figure memo-ry, and other nonverbal accomplishments.

Visual discrimination of length, width,height, and color are addressed through thework with the Pink Tower, Brown Stair, RedRods, Color Tablets, Cylinder Blocks andKnobless Cylinders.

The Geometric Cabinet, GeometricSolids, Constructive Triangles, Binomial andTrinomial Cubes help the child learn differ-ent shapes.

Touch is fine tuned with Rough andSmooth Boards, Fabric Boxes, Mystery Bag,Thermic Bottles, Thermic Tablets, BaricTablets, and Pressure Cylinders.

Hearing is refined in the work with theSound Cylinders and the Bell Material,along with teacher-initiated sound games.

Tasting activities and the smelling bottleshelp your child distinguish a variety of tastesand aromas.

Each material is designed to help yourchild’s mind focus on a quality, such as col-or, and distinguish objects by their attribut-es, which may include color, size, shape,weight, sound, smell, taste, temperature, orother qualities.

S t r u c t u r e

Some parents complain that Montessoriclassrooms are too structured. Others saythere is not enough structure.

Traditional preschools are structuredaround the group changing activities everyfifteen or twenty minutes. Snack and recessoccur at predictable times each day. Formany parents, children being told what todo and being constantly scheduled and en-tertained by teachers is construed as struc-ture. These parents, therefore, may see aMontessori classroom as not having enoughstructure.

The structure of a Montessori classroomis built on allowing the children free-choiceactivities in a prepared environment, withinan uninterrupted three-hour work cycle.Individual work is not interrupted by snacktime, song time, or circle time. The childcreates an inner structure by having ‘nor-malizing events’ based on personal inter-ests.

The child entering a Montessori class-room from a traditionally structured pre-school may feel anxious, if not told by theteacher what to do every fifteen minutes. It

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usually takes six to eight weeks for most chil-dren to begin to build the inner structurethat will give them confidence in theMontessori classroom. During this period,parents may, again, feel that a Montessoriclassroom is not structured enough.

Another parent of a newcomer maythink there is too much structure in theclassroom, when children are asked to usethe materials in specific ways. As long as thematerials are not being abused or used in adangerous manner, the children are free toexplore the materials after they have had anintroductory lesson.

To the parent of a child, who is accus-tomed to playing with everything at home,without having to consider the effects onother people and surroundings, theMontessori classroom may appear too struc-t u r e d .

An ‘invisible’ structure provided by theprocess of normalization allows your childto create an internal organization. This self-construction will aid the development ofself-discipline that will last a lifetime.

Three-Hour Work Cycle

When given a regular three-hour period,children (and adults) learn to tap into a suc-cess cycle. After accomplishing a series ofshort and familiar tasks in a 90-minute timeframe, a child will often choose a task that ischallenging and represents ‘true learning.’At this 90-minute mark, there is a period ofrestlessness that lasts about 10 minutes, un-til the choice for the challenging activity ismade. The new activity may last for sixty toninety minutes.

At the end of a work cycle, it is not un-usual to see a child in quiet satisfaction, smil-ing both outwardly and inwardly.

T o d d l e r

Toddler refers to the children who have be-gun to walk and are in the Young Children’sCommunities for children ages fourteen tothirty-six months.

Upper Elementary

The upper elementary is for children aboutages nine to twelve years of age. See e l e-mentary environment.

Whole Child

In the process of aiding development,Montessorians focus on the growth of thewhole child, not just academics. The para-dox of focusing on the development of thewhole child, through the process of normal-ization, is that academic interest and skills


bloom, as the child develops a habit ofl e a r n - c o m m i t - d o , or a success cycle.

As Montessorians and adults, our chal-lenge is to lead the whole person – body,mind, heart, and spirit. Our challenge isthat we must model the self-discipline, thevision, the passion and the conscience thatis at the heart of true learning and self-dis-covery for our children.

As Montessorians and adults, we walkwith our children on a path of trust, help-ing them to understand how to live theirlives, how to develop their talents, how toshare their love, and how to do what’sright. Corrections on our path shouldstrive to be of loving intention to serve theneeds of the whole child.

Work Cycle

The development of a work cycle is an im-portant component in the idea of normal-ization for the child. In our Montessorischools, every day we should try to protecta three-hour work period from interrup-tion.

A basic work cycle involves choosing anactivity, doing that activity, returning theactivity to order, and then experiencing asense of satisfaction. That defines one unitor cycle of work.

This sense of satisfaction, which maylast a few seconds to a few minutes, helpsmotivate the child (and adult) to choosethe next activity, thus creating another cy-cle of work.

As the child matures, his or her workcycle will grow until the child is able tomaintain a three-hour level of activity. Truelearning occurs during the last 90 minutesof the three-hour work cycle, when a child,after experiencing satisfaction with previ-ous work, will choose a new and challeng-ing activity to master.

This all begins with the child choosing,doing, returning to order, feeling satisfac-tion, then choosing again. Each activitycontributes to an upward spiral of success-ful learning within the child.

Five-year-olds in a Montessori class-room usually begin to establish a secondthree-hour work cycle in the afternoon.

S u m m a r y

We hope this vocabulary guide will helpyou feel comfortable with the Montessorilingo in your child’s school. Also, if there issome idea or concept you don’t under-stand, please contact your child’s teacheror school administrator. They are in a sen-sitive period for helping parents.

❦ ❦ ❦

by Tim Seldin, Pr e s i d e n t

The Montessori Fo u n d a t i o n&

Joyce St. Giermaine,E d i t o r

To m o rr o w’s Child

efore children enter a Montessoriclassroom on the first day of schooleach year, Montessori teachershave spent many hours preparingthe environment. Materials thatwere carefully stored in boxes dur-ing vacation time are brought outand unwrapped. Wooden shelvesthat were stacked in the far corn e rof the room to allow for a thoroughcleaning of the carpet are pulledinto position. Plants and classroompets that spent their vacation at thet e a c h e r’s home are brought infrom the car.

A similar scene is repeated inMontessori schools around the

Practical Life❋ Sensorial ❋Grace & Courtesy

Documents

Montessori 101 - An Introduction