Maria Montessori was a young woman in Italy at the beginning of last century who in essence took the world by storm. As Italy’s first woman doctor she did a project with mentally deficient children and found that with certain kinds of pedagogical materials they were able to make progress. Many of them even learned to read and write. The few materials she used at first were not of her design in the beginning but she began to develop materials herself as she saw how successful they were in their application. The next logical step was the realization that if deficient children could be helped so much by physical didactic materials, why not normal children?
At the heart of the Montessori Method is the idea that real learning is self directed. The best evidence for this is the way in which children everywhere learn language. Even the best language teacher is not capable of bringing anyone to such a complete and thorough command of basic language as every child achieves. Parents are certainly resources to their children but not really much beyond that. In the critical early years, the child’s mind is absorbent, prepared very particularly for language learning and in a different sense for every kind of learning.
If indeed this is the case, then the job of the educator is to provide the environment necessary for the child to go on this self directed journey. And this is what Montessori does. Maria Montessori developed an enormous range of sequentially organized materials starting from the most basic sensorial that provide first the very young child the means to distinguish textures and shapes and sizes. From there, the way is paved to learn reading and math, approaching the former from an awareness of individual letters and sounds and the latter with combinations of quantities and shapes, which the child learns to manipulate. Added to this is the whole area of practical life in which the very young child learns such things as how to button a shirt, set a table and put things away and how to live an orderly life.
The teacher, or “directress” as termed by Montessori, is a guide or coach in the journey but the pupil learns on his own or her own. He or she chooses which materials to work and within the confines sequential constraints and many times will work with one material over and over again until satisfied, and then goes on to another material.
In the process, even very young children normally become absorbed in the activity and concentrate serenely for long periods of time. The children physically manipulate the materials. They are acting directly in a coherent, observable world and learning concepts that are reflected directly in what they have in their hands.
The validity of the approach is not only demonstrated indirectly through the natural response of stimulation and directly through the obvious comprehension of the children. By third grade the overwhelming majority of Montessori pupils can read at a young age. Also in objective testing done in comparison with other methods, particularly traditional classroom methods, Montessori children almost without fail consistently score either at equal or higher levels in virtually every category.
Furthermore, socialization in the Montessori classroom intuitively is superior. A normal part of the program automatically is tutoring by older children and children also work together on projects, a regular part of Montessori life. These projects are conceived by the children and executed by them with guidance from their directress. The teacher not only helps them learn to discover and learn about things they choose that are really interesting to them but also helps them figure out how to go about learning these things. In many cases, such a project may even entail going out with two or three other students to interview a farmer, for example, to learn how he raises corn. Finally the child reports to the whole class on what he or she learned.
Through working with other students on self-conceived projects, through tutoring other pupils and being tutored, which is a formalized and important feature of the approach, children learn to communicate, how to work as part of a team, how to cooperate, and how to teach and how to receive teaching. These are all skills of high value in the adult world and this is natural preparation and builds personal confidence.