MARIA MONTESSORI

and her approach to Education...

Dr. Maria Montessori is a pioneering Italian doctor who dedicated her entire career developing a HIGHLY INTEGRATED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM, internationally known as the Montessori Approach, which aims to develop the child's whole personality through motor, sensory and intellectual activities. She  advocated the theories that children as young as 2 ½ years old possess an ABSORBENT MIND and once their SENSITIVE PERIODS for learning are developed, they have the ability to store knowledge indefinitely that will help them later in life.

She developed a wide range of scientific apparata designed to meet every aspect of the child's active need to discover and learn.    

THE PURPOSE OF MONTESSORI EDUCATION

Dr. Maria Montessori believed that no human being is educated by another person. He must do it or it will never be done. A truly educated individual continues learning long after the hours and years he spends in the classroom because he is motivated from within by a natural curiosity and love for knowledge. Dr. Montessori felt, therefore that the goal of early childhood education should not be to fill the child with facts from a pre-selected course of studies, but rather to cultivate his own natural desire to learn.

In the Montessori classroom this objective is approached in two ways: first, by allowing each child to experience the excitement of learning by his own choice rather than being forced; and second by helping him to perfect all his maximum in future learning situations. The Montessori materials have their dual long - range purpose in addition to their immediate purpose of giving specific information to the child.