The Montessori approach offers a unique and extensive vision of education.
The approach is based on the understanding that learning should not be merely memorization of information transmitted from a pre-selected course of studies, but rather it should be focused on cultivated the child's own natural desire to learn and think as an individual.
It is a fact that a truly educated individual continues learning long after the time spent in a classroom. This occurs because the child possess within a natural curiosity and love for knowledge.
The children who attend an AMI Montessori School are capable of true concentration, they achieve a real understanding of their work, their intellectual progress is accompanied by successful emotional growth, and as a result they become harmonious in movement, independent in work and helpful with one another.
Maria Montessori, born in 1870, was the first woman in Italy to receive a medical degree. She work in the fields of psychiatry, education and anthropology.
Dr. Montessori believed that each child is born with a unique potential to be revealed, rather than as a "blank slate" waiting to be written upon.
Dr. Maria Montessori's main contributions to the work of those of us raising and educating children are in these areas:
Association Montessori Internationale was established in 1929 by Dr. Maria Montessori to maintain, propagate and further her ideas and principles for the full development of the human being.
AMI, with headquarters in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and the USA (New York) is the oldest recognized authority on Montessori education worldwide.
The Montessori approach to education continues to be respected and practiced internationally.
Sensitive periods occur during the formative years, from birth to six years of age. During the precious time, children absorb information as they are exposed to it. An example is the sensitive period for language acquisition, which is present at birth and continues through the age of six. After six, language acquisition gradually disappears. If you and your two year old child went to a foreign country, your child would soon speak the new language. You, being long past your sensitive period, would struggle for many years and probably never achieve the exact accent.
Montessori observed many sensitive periods in young children for order, language, learning manners and refinement of the senses.
Recent media coverage by Time Magazine and Newsweek Magazine support Montessori's theory of 100 years ago. Montessori classes are especially attractive to children because they are designed to cater to their Sensitive Periods.
The Four Planes of Development:
