The Australian Montessori Society (inc)

Montessori Centennial

This year we celebrate a century of Montessori education.

Montessori education is unique.

"Our aim is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him, to his inmost core."—Maria Montessori

Education and development takes place in a "prepared environment" where the classroom materials and tone of the environment is supportive of each learner. Classrooms are based on Montessori beliefs of respect for others and the environment. In multi-aged classes, learning takes place naturally with more experienced peers sharing what they learn with others.

The autodidactic materials Dr. Montessori developed along with the presence of facilitating teachers enable a child to be successful and enjoy the process of self-directed learning. This ensures self-esteem and provide experiences where the child can create his own knowledge.

One hundred years ago, Maria Montessori, a young Italian physician, responded to a call for assistance. In the poor Roman district of San Lorenzo, she established something revolutionary for young children. Called the Casa dei Bambini, this first Children’s House not only fulfilled all of its goals, but also served as the birthplace of a worldwide movement–Montessori education. The children who were running through construction zones in the San Lorenzo slums of Rome created problems for workers. Then the builders heard some woman doctor was recruiting students for a new school and begged her to enrol the troublemakers in the Casa dei Bambini. Maria Montessori agreed. Her Children's House offered a few dozen young students freedom. They could sort blocks, measure with beads, play with wooden letters or explore another project of their choice. They roamed through classrooms rather than building sites. The results of this experiment launched in January 1907 captivated the education world, inspiring a movement over the next century that has helped define child-centred education. Today at least 8,000 Montessori schools are spread along the globe. "One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child," Montessori said. She also declared: "The greatest sign of success for a teacher . . . is to be able to say: 'The children are now working as if I did not exist.' " Currently it is difficult to meet the demand from the expanding number of Montessori schools and care centres. Some schools and/or care centres with the Montessori name don't have many, or any, Montessori-trained teachers. Anyone can open a school and call it a Montessori school as it is a public domain name and has no trademark on the name – it is a real problem. In her 2005 book "Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius," University of Virginia psychologist Angeline Stoll Lillard described how Montessori viewed the learning-disabled. Such children were often locked up in bare rooms, Lillard wrote, their food thrown at them. Montessori saw "their grasping at crumbs of food on the floor as starvation not for food, but for stimulation," she wrote. Montessori developed a system of learning for all students, with disabilities and otherwise, in large open classrooms with low shelves, with tables of different sizes that fit one to four children and with chairs sized for children of different ages. Montessori classes often group children in three levels: ages 3 to 6, 6 to 9, and 9 to 12. The older students help the younger. Various educational materials, mostly made of wood, are set out in a typical classroom. Children choose what they want to do. The key to the method, she said, "is the individualized attention that we give to each child. We look for the children's brilliance. Each child's brilliance is different." The psychologist Lillard was at first sceptical of Montessori's ideas when she started her research 20 years ago. But she found that a strong body of evidence in developmental psychology supports Montessori's major conclusions -- among them, that there is a close relationship between movement and cognition, that the best learning is active and that order is beneficial for children. Montessori's only major idea unsupported by evidence was her view that pretend play was a waste of time, Lillard wrote. Above all, Montessori was practical. She looked for what worked rather than what fit a theory. "If schooling were evidence-based," Lillard wrote, "I think all schools would look a lot more like Montessori schools."