The Montessori Method

MRE teaches children the joy of learning and provides a framework in which intellectual and social discipline go hand-in-hand. 

The basic premise of Montessori philosophy, adopted by The Montessori Renaissance Experience Community School, is that every child carries within the unseen adult he or she will become. Children must have freedom to achieve, through order and self-discipline, in order to develop their fullest physical, intellectual and spiritual powers.  From their perspective the world is full of chaotic sights and sounds. From this chaos children must gradually create order, learn to make distinctions, and gain mastery of themselves and their environment. 

The curriculum and teaching methods used in our school are based upon what Dr. Maria Montessori (the author of Montessori philosophy and education) called the "prepared environment."  Such an environment already possesses a certain order in which the child can develop at an individual speed, according to individual capacities,  in a noncompetitive atmosphere during the first years of school.  Dr. Montessor understood the necessity for acquiring a basic skill before using it in a competitive situation.  She said, "Never let a child risk failure, until there is a reasonable chance of success."

Children who have the benefit of a Motessori environment are freer, at a later age, to be devoted more exclusively to the development of their intellectual faculties.  The structure of Montessori learning involves the use of many materials with which the child may work individually.  At every step of learning, the teaching material is designed to test understanding and to correct errors.

Dr. Montessori recognized that the only valid impulse to learning is the self-motivation of the child.  Children move themselves toward learning.  The teacher:  1) prepares the enviroment, 2) programs the activity, 3) functions as the reference person and exemplar, and 4) offers the child stimulation.  But it is the child who learns and is motivated through the work itself (not solely by the teacher's personality) to persist in a chosen task.  If the Montessori child is free to learn it is because that child acquires, from exposure to both physical and mental order, an "inner discipline."  Patterns of concentration, stick-to-itiveness, and thoroughness established in early childhood, produce a confident and competent learner in later years.  This is the core of Dr. Montessori's educational philosophy. 

-Adapted from a statement prepared by the American Montessori Society.

Many books are available on the subject of Montessori philosophy.  The following books are suggested reading by our school:

By Dr. Maria Montessori:

The Absorbent Mind The Discovery of the Child  The Secret of Childhood Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook From Childhood to Adolescence

By Other Authors:

Kahn, David - A Parent's Guide to Montessori:  Elementary; A Parent's Guide to Montessori: Preschool Lillard, Paula Polk - Montessori:  A Modern Approach Mallory, Terry - Montessori and Youth Child--A Primer for Parents