Montessori Monday

So I did want this blog to be not just about my doings in Hong Kong, but also to add some Montessori philosophy into it. I'm also hoping it will help me learn how to explain the Method in a concise way that people who know nothing about it can understand. So I'm going to try to every Monday have a post about a different Montessori material and how it plays an important part in the curriculum.

Maria Montessori with children

But since today is the first post let's do a quick overview of the Montessori curriculum. Maria Montessori began the first Montessori class in 1907 in the slums of Italy. The owners of a building for low income families initially hired her to keep the children who were not old enough for school occupied while their parents were at work so they did not damage the building. Dr. Montessori began this school with only a few materials originally designed for children with special needs, and some practical activities such as hand washing and sweeping. The children in this setting flourished and their behavior so impressed visitors that new schools following the same method were opened and the scenario repeated with children from different backgrounds. Over the years Maria Montessori developed materials for teaching reading, writing and math due to the prompting of parents. She found that not only could children do these higher level academics when given the right materials, but that they enjoyed mastering them as well. As the years progresses Dr. Montessori expanded her teachings to children of school age, and then for children from birth to three.

100 years later the Montessori method is still in use and succeeding with children around the globe. Some schools follow the philosophy as laid out while others have adopted new ideas as the years have progressed. The Association Montessori Internationale is the body which helps monitor schools for their adherence to the original Montessori method. Unfortunately the term 'Montessori' is in the public domain and many schools which claim to follow the philosophy do not. Today many research studies about child development are finding that the ideas developed by Dr. Montessori in the 1900's have a scientific base.

In the children's house, which covers children from 3 to 6 years of age, there are four main areas of the classroom: practical life, sensorial, language and math. Practical life encompasses those simple, everyday activities that we do to maintain and beautify our environment and selves. Activities like buttoning, dusting, caring for plants or preparing food may all be part of the practical life curriculum. The sensorial materials are specifically designed to isolate one quality of the world such as color, smell or weight, and give it a physical form. These materials are not designed to teach the children that objects have different properties (such as roughness or smoothness) but to help them classify and name these qualities. The area of language in Montessori covers both oral and written language (which is both writing and reading). Much of the language material is given after the child has had experience in practical life and sensorial as these activities indirectly prepare the child for writing and reading. The math materials are designed to give children physical objects that they can manipulate when working with numbers. Montessori found that even very young children could do arithmetic with numbers into the thousands if given the right material.

Beyond the materials the Montessori classroom emphasizes the building of community. Children are given a chance to practices the lessons of grace and courtesy, which include things such as blowing your nose, and greeting visitors. The children are encouraged to collaborate and help one another, a system that is greatly enhanced by the mix of ages in the classroom. The youngest students are shown the culture of the classroom by the older ones, and in turn help them practice leadership skills. Montessori focuses on the whole of the child's development, not simply the academic skills.