Welcome to Montessori Education.
“Let us imagine ourselves among a race of giants who differ from us in proportion as we differ from the child and we ourselves are forced to use the giant’s furniture, dishes and possessions. If we want to sit down, we have to climb on to a chair with our hands and feet. If we want to move the chair, we have to climb down the same way and move this great weight. We want to wash our hands but the [sink] is like a big bath tub. … It takes two hands to use a hairbrush. Everything is so high that we cannot use anything (without asking for help), doors to open, hooks on which to hang our clothes and other things. We are unable to do things we need to do and we feel the humiliation resulting from our failure to act. We certainly would disdain these giant people and not wish to live with them, if we knew they had prepared nothing so we might act.”
background
A century ago, Maria Montessori introduced the world to a new type of classroom — the "prepared environment" — which did away with the traditional teacher-as-master model in exchange for a wholly new method that encourages each child to happily develop mastery over himself.
But what happens when a teacher or parent is no longer the "giant" ruler of the classroom or home, when children have the freedom (within limits) to direct their own development — won't they then just go wild?
No. In fact, in the right environment, the opposite occurs.
Montessori is not freedom in the sense that children are simply physically free to “run about and play.” As Maria Montessori once noted, “That is the kind of freedom we give to cats and lizards.”
As countless teachers and parents have experienced firsthand since Maria Montessori opened her original school in Italy years ago, children truly transform themselves in classrooms and homes where Montessori principles are put into practice. With caring and firm guidance, children develop into independent individuals who are competent in the world, confident in themselves, and capable of developing meaningful relationships with others. And this is not just talk or ‘hippie’ fantasy.
When observing in genuine, effective Montessori classrooms (not all “Montessori” schools are created equal), first-time visitors are regularly surprised to find how "well-behaved", "advanced", and "independent" the children are. It can seem impossible that children would actually choose to work with such focus — and without complaints, tantrums, talking back, etc. — so afterward parents want to know, “What’s the secret??”
“I was often asked, ‘But how do you make these tinies behave so well? How do you teach them such discipline?’ It was not I. It was the environment we had prepared so carefully and the freedom they found in it.”
Purpose
At Montessori Education, our goal is to help parents and teachers discover this unique environment of freedom within limits so they too can experience its incredible impact on their child, and on themselves. For as Maria Montessori once noted, "The child developing harmoniously and the adult improving himself at his side make a very exciting and attractive picture."
There's a lot to be gained through Montessori, for both child and adult. Reach out today to learn more.
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About Jesse McCarthy, Founder & Head Guide at Montessori Education
For 20 years, Jesse McCarthy has worked with thousands of children, parents, teachers and administrators — as a principal for infants to 8th graders, an executive with a nationwide group of private schools, an elementary & junior-high teacher, and a parent-and-teacher mentor.
Jesse received his B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and his Montessori teacher's diploma for ages 2.5 to 6+ from Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), the organization founded by Dr. Maria Montessori.
Jesse has spoken on early education and child development at schools around the globe, from Midwest America to the Middle East, as well as at popular organizations in and outside of the Montessori community: from AMI/USA to Twitter. Jesse now heads MontessoriEducation.com and hosts The Montessori Education Podcast.
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