By Morenike Ololade Taiwo
The Purpose of Montessori Education
Dr Maria Montessori believed that no human being is educated by another person. He must do it himself or it will never be done. A truly educated individual continues learning long after the hours and years he spends in the classroom because he is motivated from within by a natural curiosity and love for knowledge. Dr Montessori felt therefore that the goal of early childhood development (ECD) should not be to fill the child with facts from a pre-selected course of studies but rather to cultivate the child’s natural desire to learn. Therefore, the Montessori prepared environment starts with life orientation skills and activities.
How The Child Learn
The child retains the ability to learn by absorbing until he is around seven years old. Dr Montessori’s philosophy is that his experience could be enriched by a classroom where he could work with materials that will demonstrate basic educational information to him. Over one hundred and fifty years of research have proved the efficacy of her theory that a child can learn to write, read, and calculate in the same natural way that he learns to walk and talk.
In a Montessori classroom/environment, the material invites the child to learn at his own pace, periods of interests and readiness.
Dr Montessori always emphasized that “the hand is the chief teacher of the child”. To learn, there must be focused attention, concentration, and coordination. The best way to achieve these three aims of learning, is by performing some task with his hands. The adult habit of doodling is a remnant of this childhood practice.
The whole of the Montessori materials in the classroom allows the child to reinforce his casual impressions by inviting him to use his hands for learning.
Importance Of Early Childhood Years
The university years of learning is not the most important period of life. The most important period of life is the early childhood development years, the period from birth to the age of six. The first plane (years) of life. This is the time when the man’s intelligence itself, his greatest implement is being formed. Not only the man’s intelligence, but the full totality of his psychic being and powers. The child has no greater need of his intelligent help than that of his early childhood development period and any obstacle that impedes his creative work will lessen the chance he has of achieving perfection.
Dr Montessori believed that the environment would have maximum impact on a specific trait during that trait’s period of most rapid growth. For example, a starvation diet would not affect the height of an eighteen-year-old but could severely retard the growth of a one-year-old baby. Since eighty percent of his child’s mental development takes place before he is eight years old. The importance of favorable conditions during these early years of childhood development cannot be over emphasized.
Sensitive Periods of Learning
These are periods of intense fascination for learning a particular characteristic or skill. For example, going up and down steps, putting things in order, counting, writing, and reading. It is easier for a child to learn a particular skill during the corresponding sensitive period than at any other time in his life. The Montessori classroom takes advantage of this fact by allowing the child freedom to select individual activities which correspond to the child’s periods of interest.
Montessori Programs and Entry Age
The age of entrance into Montessori classroom varies with individual school programs. A child usually enters a Montessori classroom/environment between the ages of three to eighteen months, eighteen to thirty-six months and three to six years depending on when he can be happy and comfortable in a classroom situation. He will begin with simplest exercises based on activities which all children enjoy. The materials which the child uses at ages three and four will help him to develop concentration, coordination, attention and working habits necessary for the more advanced activities he will perform at ages five and six. The entire program of learning is purposefully structured. Therefore, optimum results cannot be expected either for a child who misses the early years of the cycle, or for one who is withdrawn before he finishes the basic years.
Parents should understand that a Montessori school is neither a baby-sitting service nor a play school that prepares a child for traditional kindergarten. Rather, it is a unique cycle of learning designed to take advantage of the child’s sensitive years of learning between three and six, when he can absorb information from an enriched environment.
A child who acquires the basic skills of writing/reading and arithmetic in this natural way has the advantage of beginning his education without drudgery, boredom, or discouragement.
When a child pursues his individual interests in a Montessori environment, he gains an early enthusiasm for learning, which is the key to his becoming a truly educated person.
There is also the six to twelve years as well as the immersion years of eighteen months to ten years of learning both in English and an alternate language fully immersed.
Infancy – 3-18 Months
Montessori’s Infant Program is uniquely designed to be homelike and nurturing, while also stimulating intellectual growth, confidence, and a desire to explore.
Toddler – 18 Months – 3 Years
Dr Montessori identified three essential traits about toddlers that would shape her educational curriculum for this age:
• A sensitivity to order
• A significantly increased capacity to absorb language
• An eagerness to become independent
Montessori’s toddler program is designed with these traits in mind. Our teachers introduce good habits, encourage the use of words to express needs, and warmly guide children to do things for themselves throughout the course of the day.
A Montessori toddler program, compared to traditional childcare, has many benefits. Here are just a few examples that parents often share:
• A positive, accelerated potty training experience. Children as young as 18 months are often ready to learn how to use the toilet, what we in Montessori call “toilet learning.” All children in toddler program learn to be diaper free.
• The ability to play independently and become increasingly self-sufficient. You will often hear your toddler say at home, “I can do it myself!”
• A dramatic surge in vocabulary. By being able to better express their needs, toddlers gain increased control of their emotions, leading to fewer tantrums and a more joyful relationship between parent and child.
Kindergarten – 3-6 Years
In 1907, Dr Maria Montessori opened her first preschool in a poverty-stricken community in Rome. She captured the world’s attention when her preschool students outperformed children from affluent neighborhoods in Italian school assessments. Dr Montessori’s results inspired educators across the globe to study her method, and soon Montessori preschools began opening all over the world. Today, Montessori classroom is proud to offer the one-of-a-kind, holistic, child-led approach to early childhood education that Dr Montessori pioneered over one hundred years ago.
Elementary 6-12 Years
The Great Lessons are a unique feature of Montessori education. These impressionistic lessons, told as stories at the beginning of each year, answer big questions such as, “How was the earth formed? Where did human beings come from? Who invented writing?” The stories provide a foundational framework of the world upon which students can build future knowledge. These lessons are designed to spark the child’s imagination, spurring them to ask their own big questions and to delve deeply into topics that capture their interest. If a student, after hearing about the properties of solids, liquids, and gasses in the First Great Lesson, becomes so excited about the topic that they want to research and perform relevant science experiments, the Montessori classroom gives them the space and support to do just that.
Immersion 18 Months – 10 Years
Some Montessori schools offer an optional immersion environment in toddler, primary, and elementary programs. So, children can begin in immersion at school as young as 18 months. In immersion programs, both teachers speak exclusively to the children in the alternate language – L2 (French, Spanish, Portuguese or Italian) except for their English reading and writing lessons – L1, which begin when a child is 5 years old. The instruction is strongly rooted in Montessori principles, so students learn organically, not didactically.
Developing fluency in written and spoken Language enables students to communicate with native Language speakers at home and abroad and opens the world of Hispanic culture, from literature to art to music. Bilingualism has demonstrated cognitive, academic, and personal benefits for young students, fostering strong thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills and heightened empathy. Bilingualism is also additive: the language skills learned support competency in English. In the Montessori bilingual environment, students develop intercultural skills and gain confidence in navigating the world and life.
- Taiwo is AMI 3-6 Primary Montessori/Early Childhood Development Educator
