MONTESSORI:     LEARNING HOW TO LEARN

The central idea of a Montessori education is learning how to learn. It is both a philosophy of child growth and a rationale for guiding such growth and is based on the following premises about children:

• All human beings, especially children love to learn.
• Children are to be respected as different from adults and from each other.
• During the pre-school years, children have the greatest capacity to unconsciously absorb information from their environment.
• Children pass through sensitive periods when they are particularly receptive to learning certain things.
• They have the capacity to direct their own learning.
• Children have an innate sense of order.
• Children learn best by doing.
• They learn through their senses, and by working with concrete materials before they understand abstraction.
• Children need and love purposeful work. They work for the sake of activity, not for completion of a job.

Dr. Maria Montessori believed that a child learns best through self-motivation. An Italian physician and educator, she developed the Montessori philosophy and method of education in the early 1900's. She developed the theory that within each child there are "sensitive periods" when the child is most receptive to certain kinds of learning experiences. The Montessori method recognizes each child's natural curiosity and desire to learn. "The prepared environment" she designed is an ordered arrangement of learning materials in a non-competitive atmosphere where each child develops at his own rate. Use of the special materials and individualized instruction accommodates various rates and styles of learning. Maria Montessori also felt that the most important period for learning is the time from birth to age six, for this is when the greatest percentage of his intelligence is being formed. During this period the child literally absorbs information from his environment.