At the core of the Montessori philosophy of education is the concept that within every child is the individual he or she will become. To develop physical, intellectual and spiritual powers to the fullest, the child must have freedom -- freedom to be achieved through order and self-discipline. The world of the child is full of sights and sounds which at first appear chaotic. From this chaos, the children must gradually create order and learn to distinguish among the impressions that assail their senses, slowly but surely gaining mastery of themselves and their environments.
Dr. Maria Montessori developed what she called the "prepared environment" which already possesses a certain order and disposes the children to develop at their own speed, according to their capabilities, and in a noncompetitive atmosphere in their first years of school. "Never let children risk failure until they have reasonable chance of success" said Dr. Montessori, understanding the necessity for the acquisition of a basic skill before its use in a competitive learning situation. The years between three and six are the years that a child most easily learns the ground rules of human behavior. These years can be constructively devoted to "civilizing" the children -- freeing them through the acquisition of good manners and habits to take their place in society.
The child who has had the benefit of a Montessori environment is freer at a later age to devote himself/herself more exclusively to the development of intellectual faculties. The method by which children are taught in Montessori school might well be called "programmed learning." The structure of Montessori learning involves the use of many materials with which the child my work individually. At every step of his/her learning, the teaching material is designed to test understanding and to correct errors.
Dr. Montessori recognized that the only valid impulse to learning is child's self-motivation. Children move themselves toward learning. The teacher prepares the environment, programs the activity, functions as the reference person and exemplar who offers the child stimulation, but it is the child who learns, who is motivated through the work itself (not solely by the teacher's personality) to persist in a chosen task. If the Montessori child is free to learn, it is because he/she has acquired from his/her exposure to both physical and mental order, an "inner discipline." This is the core of Dr. Montessori's educational philosophy. Social adjustment, a necessary condition of learning in a schoolroom, is not the purpose of education. Patterns of concentration, task completion, and the thoroughness established in early childhood, produce a competent learner in later years. Schools have existed historically to teach children to observe, to think, to judge. Montessori introduces children to the joy of learning at an early age and provides a framework in which intellectual and social discipline go hand-in-hand.
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