Montessori Education

Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in Italy and died in 1952. During her life she faced many challenges; from attending medical school where she struggled due to the fact she was female and had problems with the resentment of the male students within the medical course, and her father’s disapproval due to the fact he wanted her to become a teacher.  In 1896 she was the first woman in Italy to graduate from medical school where in her first job she visited asylums where her interest in young children developed. In 1907 she opened her first Children’s House, where she wanted to keep children off the streets while parents were working. By 1913, in America there were almost one hundred schools which were following the Montessori approach. 

Maria Montessori, 1870-1952

Isaacs (2010) describes the Montessori approach as having three main components, these being the child, the environment and the teacher. Within the Montessori settings, teachers are not called teachers; they are called directors/directresses as Montessori believed that the education is based upon observation of the child instead of teaching. The importance of this is hugely emphasised as the director will follow and guide a child to their learning.

Montessori believed that the equipment that children should play with should consist of being very hands on. As you can see from this picture, all the toys which are displayed consist of the use of fine and gross motor skills.

Feez S (2011) provides evidence which states that children who attend the Montessori setting love the independence, where they find themselves in ‘miniature worlds’ where the materials and furniture is of the same size scale as themselves. The setting has a balance of ages and gender which gives a family like feel towards each other, where older ones help younger ones on different activities. Within the setting there is a sense of freedom, children choose the activity they want to do, how long they want to spend on that activity and where they want to do it. Montessori believed that children need to take on responsibly; therefore children have to return materials to where they collected it from and help contribute to take care of the environment. 

This picture shows a Montessori setting, as you can see the furniture is child size, there are natural resources, i.e. the plants, all materials are put away tidy and there is plenty of light and space. 

The environment has plenty of space, both outdoors and indoors where children are emphasised to use all areas. Huge effort is made to ensure that the environment has plenty of light, kept clean and everything put back in place. Also the windows within the setting are made low enough so children are able to see what is going on outdoors where all the furniture is of the right size at at reach for the children to use. This enables the child to have plenty of freedom both inside and outside where they are able to go where they like.

This video sums up the whole Montessori education system but in a very interesting way. It brings the message across to individuals of what Maria Montessori believed and gives all the relevant facts that she proposed within her educational approach.

Today it is believed that there are over 31,000 schools proving education under the Montessori approach (Montessori School's Association, 2009)