There are many choices when it comes to children’s education. There are many factors to weigh, but we hope this article will help you make an informed decision if you are considering a Montessori school for your child. Montessori education has been successfully serving children and families around the world for over a century. The Montessori Method is consistently affirmed by current research in education and human development. As we move forward into a new future, we believe Montessori has what it takes to prepare children for life.

Montessori Meets Children Where They Are, Without Judgement

Conventional methods of education were originally developed to prepare large numbers of children to enter the workforce. Traditionally, differentiating instruction or catering to the needs of individual children is uncommon, and children are separated into special ed classes or groups based on their needs. That mindset in education has been changing in recent years, but many traditional schools are still in the beginning stages of personalizing education.

Montessori schools are designed to allow each child to move at their own pace. Learning is not linear, and children do not always learn specific skills according to an adult-prepared timeline, or in perfect harmony with their peers. In a Montessori school, students who need more support with certain skills get that support, and those who are ready to move ahead can find the challenges they crave. We do not teach a whole class of children the same skill at the same time, which may seem more efficient from the perspective of an adult tasked with teaching, but it is not necessarily what serves the children the best. No two people should be expected to grow at the same rate, and it is our job as educators to meet children where they are and to give them the support they need to get where they want to be.

Montessori Emphasizes More Than Just Academics

Lots of people use the phrase ‘teaching to the whole child’ but in Montessori schools we mean that on a very deep level. We do not teach just to convey academic information. In fact, academics share equal emphasis with our efforts to develop other aspects of the child, including emotional, social, sensorial, and practical life development. Arts and movement are integrated into everything our children do, rather than isolating these areas of study into a separate class. We intentionally teach children how to navigate and resolve conflict and how to adhere to grace and courtesy and social norms.

Our greatest task is, we believe, to give children a global view of the world. We want them to understand the interconnectedness of all things so that they may be fully integrated members of their greater community as they grow and mature.

Academics Are a Huge Strength

Montessori program academics are known for having some of the highest standards in early childhood education and beyond. It is common to see four-year-olds in our school reading, six-year-olds completing long division problems, and nine-year-olds classifying botanical specimens. Children complete tasks joyfully, in part because we present information in such a way that children discover information themselves rather than passively taking in facts given by an adult.

Another reason Montessori students seem to work at an advanced academic level is because of what we call sensitive periods. Through years of observation, Dr. Maria Montessori noticed that young children seemed primed and particularly interested and ready to develop certain skills during specific time periods. While there is variation between individual children, she noticed general patterns that informed the development of our curriculum.

An example of this is the study of geometry. Many of us were first exposed to geometry during our high school years, when it turns out that primary- and elementary-aged children are not only interested in geometry but have a great capacity to learn far more than we typically give them credit for. If your child attends a Children’s House Montessori program, you may hear your five-year-old talking about rectangular prisms, or your seven-year-old discussing the differences between isosceles, right, and scalene triangles.

Our Schools Cultivate Community

A Montessori school is more than just a school. First, we are there for our students, but we believe schools have the capacity to be so much more. We aim to make meaningful connections between everyone involved. Some of the ways we do this include:

●     Giving our Guides opportunities to connect with one another for development

●     Encouraging our Guides to form connections within the larger Montessori network

●     Providing parents and Guides ample time to discuss the child’s growth and needs

●     Creating opportunities for parents to form relationships with one another

●     Supporting families via parent education offerings

●     Gathering as a whole school periodically

●     Forming bonds between children at different age levels

●     Reaching out to make connections with the local community

●     Giving our educators and families a voice in school decision making

We also believe that it is our job to take the guesswork out of making these types of connections. We aim to build in structures that make it simple for everyone to find commonalities and open streams of communication seamlessly.

Montessori Aims to Lift Up Humanity

Dr. Montessori had a mission to improve the world through education. She believed that by giving children the honor and respect they deserved, the benefits would trickle through to families, the community, and society in general. She believed in equality of all people, and saw that education has the potential to be a great leveler.

Montessori schools aim for peace. This starts between individuals and teaching our youngest students how to be kind and gracious toward one another. A profound respect for the environment and other living beings is another important aspect of our work, as is a reverence for the wide diversity of cultures around the globe. Combined, these elements are meant to cultivate within the child a respect for themselves and others, as well as a desire to ensure connection and fairness for all.