"Education should no longer be mostly imparting of knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentialities." – Dr. Maria Montessori
The Montessori Method
The Montessori approach to education prepares and inspires your child to connect with the world as a respectful, self-assured, and responsible person. Dr. Maria Montessori created her educational approach over a hundred years ago through scientific observation of human development from birth to adulthood. This research led her to create a pedagogy that supports and celebrates children’s natural development, creating motivated, active, and independent learners. Building academic knowledge is a key aspect of Montessori, as is the ability to think creatively and understand the needs of others. When these fundamental skills are cultivated, children grow the capability to problem solve, persevere, and collaborate in any circumstance. Montessori supports and educates the whole child.
The Prepared Environment (Classroom)
Each Montessori classroom is a prepared environment where the physical surroundings, including the specifically designed Montessori educational materials, are constructed with the child and their development in mind.
Montessori students receive a balanced education that is hands-on, collaborative, and joyful. We have three levels at the Franciscan Montessori Earth School, each with their own specific prepared environment, addressing the developmental needs of children in these specific age groups:
Children’s House (ages 30 months to 6 years; PreK-K)
"These very children reveal to us the most vital need of their development, saying: 'Help me to do it alone!'" Dr. Maria Montessori
Elementary (Lower Elementary, ages 6 to 9 years, grades 1-3; Upper Elementary, ages 9 to 12 years, grades 4-6)
"An inner change has taken place, but nature is quite logical in arousing now in the child not only a hunger for knowledge and understanding, but a claim to mental independence, a desire to distinguish good from evil by his own powers, and to resent limitation by arbitrary authority. In the field of morality, the child now stands in need of his own inner light." Dr. Maria Montessori
Middle School (ages 12 to 14 years; grades 7-8)
“The chief symptom of adolescence is a state of expectation, a tendency towards creative work and a need for the strengthening of self-confidence." Dr. Maria Montessori
Characteristics of the Montessori prepared environment are:
- Calm, not chaos
- Cleanliness, not clutter
- Montessori learning materials designed to promote self-directed learning
- Independent students who work alone or in groups, are given freedom to physically move around, and are guided in social responsibility
- Mixed-age groups in each classroom where children are encouraged to support each other cultivating a flexible, non-competitive, peer-learning environment
The Montessori Guide (Teacher)
Montessori Guides (Teachers) inspire children to learn independently and to discover their own path, as they grow into capable individuals connected to themselves and others.
Montessori Guides:
- Understand child development and nurture the whole-child as they mature academically and spiritually
- Create a hands-on, self-paced, collaborative, and joyful classroom
- Believe in education that meets each individual child’s physical, emotional, social, and academic development
- Inspire children to enthusiastically follow their interests and passions while cultivating strong academic skills, leadership, self-discipline, responsibility, and independence
"The secret of good teaching is to regard the child’s intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination.” Dr. Maria Montessori
Additional Resources
