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Montessori is a philosophy with the fundamental tenet that a child learns best within a social environment that supports each individual's unique development. Dr. Montessori's dynamic theories included such revolutionary premises as:

• Children are to be respected as different from adults and as individuals who are different from one another.
• Children create their sense of self through purposeful activity.
• The most important years for learning are from birth to age six.
• Children possess unusual sensitivity and mental powers for absorbing and learning from their environment, which includes people as well as materials.

There are four things that make Montessori Education unique. They are the whole child approach; the prepared environment; the materials used in the classroom; and the directresses (teachers) who direct the child’s learning.

With the whole child approach, the primary goal of a Montessori program is to help each child reach full potential in all areas of life. Activities promote the development of social skills, emotional growth, and physical coordination as well as cognitive preparation. This holistic curriculum allows the child to experience the joy of learning and the time to enjoy the process while ensuring the development of self-esteem and providing the experiences from which children create their knowledge.

In order for self-directed learning to take place, the entire learning environment – room, materials and social climate – must be supportive of the learner. The Directress (teacher) provides the necessary resources, including opportunities for children to function in a safe and positive climate. By gaining the trust of the students, the Directress can then introduce new tasks to the children and help them build overall self-confidence.

In preparing the materials to be used in the classroom, Dr. Montessori’s observations of the things children enjoy and go back to repeatedly led her to design a number of multi-sensory, sequential and self-correcting materials. Their objective of each of the materials is to facilitate the learning of skills and aid in the understanding of abstract ideas.

The educator in a Montessori classroom is referred to as a “directress” rather than a “teacher”. Dr. Montessori felt the educator’s most important duty was to direct the child to the activities or work that the individual child shows interest in and readiness for at the time. The directress functions as designer of the environment, resource person, role model, demonstrator, record-keeper and meticulous observer of each child’s behavior and growth.

The Benefits

Research has shown that the best predictor of future success is a sense of self-esteem. Montessori programs, based on self-directed, non-competitive activities, help children develop good self-images and the confidence to face challenges and change with optimism.

Montessori classrooms provide a prepared environment where children are free to respond to their natural tendency to work. Children have a natural desire to learn. Corresponding educational environments and appropriately trained teachers “prepare the environment” for the stages of learning. The child learns independently, using the parts of the environment. The learning environment nurtures individualization, freedom of choice, independence, coordination, concentration, social interactions, and competency in basic skills.

Children are proud of their projects and each step plays an important role in the total learning process. They learn to work in an orderly fashion and to be respectful of others.

Children who learn a skill have the opportunity to express it in their own way. If they are feeling particularly self-confident at that moment, they may choose to share their new skill by inviting a peer to look at their work or announcing it to the group at "circle time." If they are feeling more reserved at that moment, they can perfect a skill one-on-one with their directress, without any scrutiny from classmates.

Children who attend The Glen receive these special gifts:

• A healthy and respectful attitude toward learning
• A peaceful education
• A strong and positive sense of self-esteem
• Inner discipline, initiative, and persistence
• A love and appreciation of the earth and nature