This system of education is both a philosophy of child growth and a rationale for guiding such growth. It is based on the child’s developmental needs, exposure to materials and experiences through which to develop intelligence as well as physical and psychological abilities. It is designed to take full advantage of capabilities. The child needs adults to expose him/her to the possibilities of his/her life but the child himself/herself must direct his/her response to those possibilities. Premises of Montessori education are:

• Children are to be respected as different from adults, and as individuals who differ from each other.
• The child possesses unusual sensitivity and mental powers for absorbing and learning from his/her environment that are unlike those of the adult both in quality and capacity.
• The most important years of growth are the first six years of life when unconscious learning is gradually brought to the conscious level.
• The child has a deep love and need for purposeful work. He/she works, however, not as an adult for profit and completion of a job, but for the sake of the activity itself. It is this activity which accomplishes for him/her his/her most important goal: the development of himself/herself—his/her mental, physical, and psychological power.

Montessori education is an education which differs from education as we know it. It is not an education which checks errors, but a positive and efficient education that takes into account the desire to learn, the will to learn and the pleasure that is connected with learning. It is an education based on scientific observation of the child and the discovered laws of both the mind and the body.

The Montessori Method is a philosophy of child growth and a rationale for guiding such growth. It is based on the child’s needs for freedom within limits and a carefully prepared environment. The environment is prepared so a child can develop through his exposure to the materials and experiences. It takes advantage of the self-motivation of the child and each child’s unique ability to develop his own capabilities.

In our classroom the child is free to move about, to talk to other children, to work with any equipment whose purpose he/she understands, or to ask the teacher to introduce new material to him. He is not free to disturb other children or to abuse the equipment or the environment in any way.

The teacher-child relationship can be compared to that of a piano teacher and her student. The teacher shows the child how to hold his body, instructs him on the notes, shows him finger exercises, etc., and then leaves him alone to practice. Only through practice can he become a pianist. So it is with our children. The teacher shows the child how to use the materials, guides and directs him, but leaves him alone to practice. The child’s accomplishments do not depend upon his teachers, but upon what he himself has done.

Our goals for our children are many. We encourage self-discipline, self-knowledge, and self-confidence. We want our children to become increasingly independent and coordinated. We are striving that they increase concentration skills; that they develop an enthusiasm for learning, and an organized approach to problem solving, as well as academic skills.