Maria Montessori

The Montessori Philosophy

Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was truly a radical in terms of her philosophy regarding children and the fact that she was putting it forward at a time when children were most often thought of as extensions of their parent, their parents' beliefs and culture, and a creature to be shaped in ways that would create an "appropriate" and "successful" adult based on those beliefs. The collective consciousness regarding childrearing was that it was important to replicate and propagate one's own beliefs which would essentially assure that their values would continue into the future. The fact that Montessori insisted that a child "is not an inert being" initiated a remarkable shift in thinking. As more people found value in her philosophy and began to apply it in education and childhood development, it became clear that there was a great deal of merit in applying this changed way of thinking.

Modern Montessori Methods

Montessori was a young Italian physician (the first woman to become a doctor in Italy) who developed her educational theories when she served as a "director of a school for retarded children in 1900" (Cavendish 64). Shute adds that Montessori's observation of the "deficient and insane" children at the school demonstrated to her that they "were starved not for food but for stimulation" (70). She began practicing her techniques with those students, then: "some of her idiots began passing the same exams as non-retarded children, she started to question the effectiveness of the conventional methods of teaching normal children" (Cavendish 64). In fact, Shute also notes that: "After working with Montessori for two years, some of the "deficient" children were able to read, write and pass standard public-school tests" (70). Cavendish explains that the "Montessori" system that evolved from her efforts was: "based on the principle of children learning for themselves, with the teacher in the background" (64). The teacher serves as a catalyst, guide and encourager, but it is the child that is learning and who is actually choosing and demonstrating how he or she learns best.

Montessori believed that the processes of molding a child into the adult he or she will become needed to based on the individual child and not on certain standards that had been developed to conform with a bureaucratic institution or the need to indoctrinate students (i.e. religion-based schools). "She maintained each child must be free to pursue what interests him most at his own pace but in a specially prepared environment" (Shute 70). Such an opportunity and the appropriate setting is what allows that child to develop naturally and to explore his or her greatest talents to become the "man of the future." Shute points out that "the educational vision of Montessori is currently thriving as never before" (70). Researchers, educators, child development specialists, and parents have all come to understand that: "... the preschool years are a time of critical brain development and that parents should be partners in their children's education" (Shute 70).

The principles of Montessori education and methodology is that there is a natural progression of development in the individual child. Shute quotes Paul Epstein, head of the Chiaravalle Montessori School in Evanston, Illinois, as saying: "... the materials have become the method. But you can do Montessori with a bucket of sticks and stones or any set of objects if you know the principles of learning" (70). Shute goes on to explain that the middle school students at Chiaravalle Montessori School are also able to benefit from Montessori principles. "Last year, they ran the school's snack bar, a hands-on task designed to help them with skills they will need as adults: common sense and time management" (Shute 70).

Natural Development

The president of The Montessori Foundation, Tim Seldin, outlines the principles upon which all Montessori educational methods are based. At the Foundation's website, he lists more than thirty fundamental principles related to "Basic Learning Theory" but each of them relates back to the first three in the list:

"1. Whenever real learning has taken place, there will be a distinct and observable change in the learner's behavior.

2. Learning is an active process. Children