THE MONTESSORI METHOD

Montessori Method of Education

Shining Star and Magical Star Montessori-Preschools in Anaheim, CA specialize in Montessori method of education. The Montessori method of education and material was developed by Dr. Maria Montessori. Our center strives to offer quality education to kids at an early age. Our teachers are experienced and provide an environment that enables children to grow.

Dr. Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952)

Dr. Montessori was the first woman in Italy to qualify as a physician. She developed an interest in the needs of those said to be 'uneducable,' and developed a teaching program that enabled them to read and write. She sought to teach skills not by having children repeatedly try it, but by developing exercises that prepare them. These exercises would then be repeated: Looking becomes reading; touching becomes writing. The success of her method then caused her to ask questions of 'normal' education.

The Method

The Montessori method places an emphasis on self-determination and self-realization. This entailed developing a concern for others and discipline and to do this children engaged in the exercise of daily living. These and other exercises were to function like a ladder allowing the child to pick up the challenge and to judge their progress.

The essential thing is for the task to arouse such an interest that it engages the child's whole personality' (Dr. Maria Montessori - The Absorbent Mind: 206).

The program focuses on 'child centered learning,' not teacher centered learning. The teacher was the 'keeper' of the environment. While children got on with their activities the task was to observe and to intervene from the periphery. The focus on self-realization through independent activity, the concern with attitude, and the focus on the educator as the keeper of the environment (and making use of their scientific powers of observation and reflection) - all have some echo in the work of informal educators.