As a parent, you want to be confident that your child is in the right school, learning through the right curriculum. The field of education can be dynamic, yet children have the same basic needs they’ve always had: to connect with others, have a strong sense of self, build confidence and self-reliance and become productive members of their community.
The framework to meet these goals has been in place in Montessori schools for more than a century and was built on a true understanding of what children need, says Ben Blair, Principal at Rogers Park Montessori School, a PreK-8 independent school on Chicago’s North Side. “Maria Montessori held a reverence for childhood, a foundational respect for children’s development, which was revolutionary in her time,” Blair says.
Maria Montessori’s philosophy embraces key principles about your child. Here, we share four things Montessori knows about your child, and how these foundations are reflected in the Montessori classroom.
1. Your child thrives in a multi-age educational environment
Maria Montessori recognized a child’s stages of development and believed that children learning together in multi-age classrooms is appropriate and important to their growth. “In this way, the 3-year-old can learn from the 5-year-old, and the 5-year-old can model behaviors that the younger child will eventually adopt,” explains Blair. “The multi-age classroom also allows flexibility for teachers to meet children where they are.”
At Rogers Park Montessori School, students above the age of 2 are intentionally grouped in classroom communities to benefit from “planes of development” that recognize the social development of young children and the collaboration skills they develop as they grow.
The outcome, says Blair, is well-rounded growth. “In multi-age groups, children build a broader understanding of humanity because they are not surrounded by kids their chronological age who therefore have a narrower breadth of development,” he says.
2. Your child can work for extended periods
In the Montessori community, children engage in uninterrupted work periods, with an ideal being three hours. “Even a 3-year-old can engage in work for a large chunk of time when allowed some independence,” Blair says, adding that children are not left to their own devices. Instead, the focus is on making choices to develop and create the cycle of work as they engage with the work. “We are purposeful about framing what children use in the classroom as materials, not toys, to be engaged with and then put away,” Blair explains.
“I’m always surprised, even at a young age, how quickly children can figure out the work cycle. Recently, I sat in our 2-year-old classroom and watched a student paint watercolors for five or 10 minutes. Then she put that away and walked to an area where she did flower arrangement work. Then she cleaned that up and moved on to something else,” Blair says. “That independent work cycle allows for a lot of opportunity to develop concentration and, as they grow, develop skills important to planning and prioritizing.”
Executive function is a popular buzzword in education today, and Maria Montessori would have framed this as “habits of mind” children learn in order to be successful, and it’s a teacher’s responsibility to support the child to develop these habits.
3. Your child has natural curiosity
Maria Montessori recognized that in the triangle made up of students, teachers and environment, each has equal weight. “Curiosity is so incredibly important and the role of the environment is to allow a child’s natural curiosity to find an outlet,” Blair says.
Children in the elementary classrooms at Rogers Park Montessori School embrace lessons that are grounded in fact, but big enough to experience in many ways. For instance, students learning about the Big Bang can satisfy individual curiosity by studying Saturn’s rings, or craters on the moon — or even modern space exploration. “All students can find a way to satisfy the expectations of the classroom by chasing their curiosity,” says Blair. “And the prepared environment has resources, whether they are text-based, manipulatives or other materials that lead them down the path to satisfy their curiosity.”
It’s a common misconception that children in the Montessori community learn without accountability, says Blair. “But students have to see it through, and it’s our responsibility to create opportunities for them to flex those muscles.”
4. Your child is capable and self-sufficient
From a young age, Montessori knows your child can build practical life skills and learn to pour water, tie shoe laces and button and zipper clothing. “Teachers have high expectations of children doing this for themselves,” Blair says.
Even the youngest children eat snacks or drink water using breakable plates and glasses. If a glass falls to the floor and breaks, there’s a natural consequence of taking the responsibility to clean it up. If a child forgets their gloves, they will need to keep their hands in their pockets during outdoor times. “We won’t allow them to get frostbite, but we know the next day they will remember their gloves,” Blair says.
“We can weave a thread through their curricular elements in the same vein,” he says. “When you give them the tools to do it themselves, children are empowered. Self-esteem, confidence, grit and perseverance come part and parcel with the ability to take care of oneself.”
Expertise brought to you by Rogers Park Montessori School. Learn more at rpmschool.org.
