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 integrated educational activities into a child’s daily school routine.
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, and our school stays true to core Montessori values, providing an environment that promotes desirable behavioral attributes, such as:
- Having compassion and respect for others
- Independence
- Responsibility
- Improved concentration, motivation, and self-discipline
- Self-confidence
- Foster self-discovery and reasoning
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.
Key Premise Of The Montessori Philosophy
1. There should be an understanding of the child as they are taught, despite the socio-economic environment from which they have originated.
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. 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. Children are to be respected as individuals with special attention to be given to them depending on their individual needs and aspirations.
Dr. Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952) developed a philosophy of education, which enabled children to develop and learn naturally, through spontaneous and self-directed activities. She recognized that during the first six years of life, children experience a series of sensitive periods.
At Aurora Montessori, we take advantage of these sensitive periods by helping the children develop the five senses and assisting them in perfecting these natural learning tools. To do this fully, new students must start school before the age of 4, preferably by 3 years of age.
3. The most important years of growth are the first six years of life, when unconscious learning is gradually brought to the conscious level.
According to Maria Montessori, a six-year-old child has moved from the stage of the absorbent mind to the second plane of development. This stage is characterized by:
- The need for increasing independence
- The development of the concepts of justice and morality
- The need to establish and define a social identity
- The use of the imagination as a tool for understanding the universe, humanity and the history of both
4. 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.
Maria Montessori developed a program to ensure that children could see and understand how interconnected and interdependent all living things are. Human beings are hardwired to learn by doing and the curriculum Maria Montessori designed was a model for an interconnected and integrated curriculum:
- The mind thinks with ideas and connections, not just with information and facts.
- Educating children is to teach young minds how to deal with ideas and how to adapt them to new ones.
- The skill of the teacher is to ask the right questions so that the student is able to investigate, experiment and find their own answers to make the connections.
5. 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.
Montessori created a Cosmic Curriculum through which a child develops an understanding and appreciation of everything that has occurred in order for the world to exist in its present state.
6. 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
The educational environment and philosophies that Montessori introduced to the classroom are ones that continue to transform a child’s development while enhancing overall learning, all of which are practiced as AMS.
7. If the correct tools are provided to children, then they will have more interest in work that is challenging and which stimulates their growth.
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.
