The Experience Of A Montessori Classroom, The Discovery Of The Child

MONTESSORI’S research shows that children learn through movement and should have environments that are specifically tailored to meet their needs. Montessori schools provide a foundation for learning that is centred on care for the environment, care for the self as individual and

Southwest Montessori center is a new Montessori that recently started a year ago. There is a small student to teacher ratio. Although the school is small, it has some high expectations from their students. I was amazed at their first graders academics skills. I am grateful to have an opportunity to observe such intelligent students.

Through her observations, Montessori held that a child will pass through several ‘sensitive periods’ during the Absorbent Mind, where he/she has an intrinsic sensibility to acquiring particular skills beneficial to his/her development (Montessori, 2007a). He/she is drawn to particular activities that will match the particular sensitivity – such as a sensitivity to order or small objects for example. It is for these reasons that Montessori saw the need to develop an environment that would enable every possibility for the child to fulfill all of these needs and that failure to do so could result in physical, social and mental instability. “The more the young are placed in

In today’s society many people recognize that our current educational system is antiquated and heavily flawed. Many do not believe the education our children routinely receive adequately prepares them to be successful in their adult lives and because of this parents are very concerned. This dissatisfaction has led to the implementation of numerous alternatives to the traditional educational system to which we have become accustomed. Each of these alternatives has their own collection of philosophies and methodologies, proponents and opponents, advantages and disadvantages, but the common thread is that they each aim to provide our children with a better, more effective education suited for today’s world. Montessori education is one of these alternative learning options that been around for many years and has been steadily gaining popularity.

Students spend most of their time working on the floor where they have their own individual carpets. They put them down to outline their personal workspace. Instead of there being various toys and games spread through out the classroom, there are specific sensory materials and manipulatives that are self correcting and purposeful to student’s learning. On the walls students’ work fill spaces throughout the classroom, similar to the walls of a Head Start classroom. Montessori classrooms are made up of mixed grades and ages, something that is not typical of traditional classrooms.

The article Montessori Public School Pre-K Programs and the School Readiness of Low-Income Black and Latino Children Article Response by Arya Ansari and Adam Winsler is found in the Journal of the Educational Psychology. It is volume 106, fourth issue and on page 1066. The year published was 2014. The article discusses the Miami Montessori school readiness program. It also focuses on the effect of Montessori school on two ethnics group: Black and Latino. The article has compared Black and Latino students in Pre-K programs in Title 1 Montessori School versus Black and Latino students in Title 1 conventional school. They have used various groups of 6700 Black and 7045 Latino children from end of four years old to Pre-Kindergarten as samples.

Perhaps it was an unintentional cruelty on the part of my parents to enroll me first in the progressive Montessori school system that encouraged critical thinking and creativity, followed by an evening catholic school program that required unquestioning obedience to a monolithic religious dogma. When I began the sixth grade the window of an English professor and a family friend gave me access to his extensive library and personal text notes because of my growing interest in literature. In the first few months of my library visits, the Catholic program phoned my mother to discourage my further attendance in both the church and the educational program. I had begun incessantly probing my young Catechism instructor about the faith, and his unsatisfactory response had prompted my protests and refusal to participate in any religious ceremonies or sacraments. I had discovered both the Antichrist and Civil Disobedience during my forays into the library, and though I was unable to grasp the intricacies of these texts, the basic messages resonated with my experiences of perceived oppression and religious conditioning.

Maria Montessori founded an education system which is called Montessori and still bares her name, her system is based on belief in the child’s creative potential, (Douglas, n.d.). Her first Casa Dei Bambini (Children’s house), where Maria was using her approach of teaching was opened in 1907 in Rome. She was great educator who believed that children are learning through their personal experience at their right time and their own pace. (Ridgway, 2007). Children rather than learning largely from what the teachers and the textbooks say, learn from “doing”,(Douglas, n.d.). To provide for children an effective, independent learning process, and that they become a competent and confident learner, Teacher had to provide for children a healthy, clean, well-prepared and well organised environment in which children could develop. Maria Montessori came up with idea that if children have to work and play independently, they have to be comfortable and need appropriately sized tools and items that fit their small hands (Mooney, 2000). Montessori believed that children learn through sensory experiences. Teacher has a responsibility to provide wonderful sights, textures, sounds, and smells for children. Sensory

Inspired by the work of Itard and Seguin, two almost forgotten French doctors, Maria Montessori took the idea of scientific approach to develop her theories, principles and beliefs in early childhood education, which through observation and experimentation. All the learning activities and teaching materials are purposeful and aimed to stimulate senses, mind, and provide self-esteem and achievement.

In reality, the children move about the classroom independently, choosing the order of their learning activities. There may be 15 or more activities, or ?jobs? as they are called in some Montessori classrooms, occurring at the same time with small groups or individual work, yet the classroom remains quiet, yet busy and productive, sometimes with the soft hush of classical music playing in the background. Many Montessori school classrooms place a card around the child?s neck with the day?s objectives written in the form of a checklist for the students to monitor themselves. This checklist encourages the students to take responsibility for their own learning, as well as discourages prompt-dependence, since the student need not wait for instruction. Some of the activities in a Montessori classroom include reading, pre-reading using phonics, math, discovery science and writing. Children learn skills in a way that he or she is not aware that learning is taking place. For example, a child playing in the sand box with a small rake is not aware that he or she is learning fine motor skills and how to hold and control a pencil. Another observation in a Montessori classroom is that most classrooms tend to span three grade levels. This practice allows to children to become mentors to younger students. Also, the large gap in developmental levels allows children to ?learn at their own pace? (Keller, 2001), which is another important Montessori

In general, learning often relies on a learner's sight to look at pictures or a learner's hearing to listen to what the teacher is saying and repeating the coming information. Multisensory teaching isn't just limited to these two skills of reading and listening. Instead, it engages the learners with the material in more than one way. In almost every time of multi sensory teaching, all senses (taste, smell, touch, sight, hearing and movement) of the learner will be used. The multisensory method of teaching is effective for all students, though it was used

“We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher 's task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.”

Watching a small child discover how to operate his or her favorite plaything is awe inspiring. The look of wonder at the item as it's carefully chosen from amongst their belongings and studied ever so carefully for each and every nuance. How that little face lights up with each new discovery no matter how large or small. The sounds of delight an even dismay at an unwanted result are beautiful. Consider an educational system that would continue to utilize a child’s natural curiosity, unyielding ingenuity and thirst for knowledge. Montessori education creates that environment for children by allowing them the freedom to not only gain knowledge in a natural progression, but also provide a basis on which to continue to grow no matter where

The education system back in her era focused on teaching the children to memorise word to word from books and posters and Children sat in rows at desks at the classroom learning from a blackboard and slates. This method of education wasn’t stimulating and exciting for children. Nevertheless through her experience Montessori discovered children want to learn, and they will do it in their own time frame and they shouldn’t be forced.

How is the child’s exploration and orientation in his physical environment complimented by the Montessori materials and presentation?