Academics: The Montessori Method
Building self-motivation and self-confidence within children are key factors in allowing them to reach their learning potential. The Montessori method was designed to achieve these goals by incorporating specially integrating educational activities into a child’s daily school routine.
Our school, and other Montessori programs that stay true to core Montessori values provide an environment that promotes desirable behavioral attributes, such as having respect for others, being independent, and behaving in a responsible manner.
The Montessori method emphasizes a child’s interaction with his or her environment by utilizing all five of their senses. On a fundamental level, this method is meant to stimulate the child’s interest while fostering a heightened level of understanding of their studies at the same time. Children in Montessori classes learn at their own individual pace and are given the freedom to explore a seemingly infinite array of subject matter. At AMS, learning is an exciting process of discovery, which leads to improved concentration, motivation, self-discipline, and compassion for others.
Montessori classes form communities in which the older children are motivated to share their knowledge with their younger colleagues. Countless academic and private research studies have shown that when administered correctly, Montessori principles and philosophies are proven to yield superior results to that of traditional educational models. Montessori philosophies have also been extended into the commercial realms of business, politics, environmental conservation, and sciences.
Key Premise of the Montessori philosophy
The research and innovative programs developed by Maria Montessori are of value to anyone living and working with children. Many parents are using Dr. Montessori's discoveries to educate their children and help them develop the skills needed for living in today’s global environment.
The philosophy’s primary facets are
1. Children are to be respected as individuals and as such special attention is to be given to them depending on their individual needs and aspirations.
At AMS, our ideals revolve around a mutually exclusive community of children, all of whom strive for their personal best and are given every means of achieving their goals in the process.
2. The child possesses unusual sensitivity and mental powers for absorbing and learning from his or her environment that are unlike those of the adult, both in quality and capacity.
3. The most important years of growth are the first six years of life, when unconscious learning is gradually brought to the conscious level.
4. The child has a deep love and need for purposeful work. He works, however, not as an adult for profit and completion of a job, but for the sake of the activity itself. It is this activity that accomplishes for him his most important goal: the development of himself – his mental, physical, and psychological powers.
5. Children use an educational apparatus to develop and understand various concepts. The apparatus consists of various materials, tools and an environment that enhances learning and skills based on basic living, social and academic needs.
6. If the correct tools are provided to children, then they will have more interest in work that is challenging and which stimulates their growth.
7. There should be an understanding of the child as they are taught, despite the socio–economic environment from which they have originated.
The educational environment and philosophies that Montessori introduced to the classroom is one that continues to transform a child's development while enhancing overall learning. This has created a new platform for teachers and children to learn from, all of which are practiced as AMS.