Maria Montessori was an Italian doctor born in 1870 who leaned her career towards education. He developed an encouraging and stimulating program in which children could learn the skills they needed to eventually become responsible, independent, productive, and care for their community and environment.
What is the Montessori method?
The Montessori method is a scientific method developed by Maria Montessori that is characterized by providing a prepared environment.
The environment is organized ,attractive, simple, real, where each element has a reason for being in that exact place.
The prepared environment offers the child opportunities to engage in interesting activities, freely chosen, where long periods of concentration are achieved.
Freedom develops within clear limits, and this allows children to live in harmony and to respect and look after their community and their planet.
Children work with specific materials that were scientifically designed, which provide them the keys to explore our world and develop basic cognitive abilities.
The adult is an observer and a guide: The adult helps and stimulates the child and this allows children to act and think by themselves.
This helps them to develop confidence and inner discipline.
What is the goal of the Montessori method?
The objective of the method is to enhance the child’s physical, intellectual and emotional development through the combination of certain factors such as: the prepared environment, the role of the adult and the child’s wisdom.
The child learns by himself according to a natural process, as long as he is in a conducive environment and accompanied by an educator who encourages, respects and adapts to him.
Why do we Montessori at home?
The idea of considering the child as an “absorbing mind” and not just as a small human body that eats, cries and defecates is what I believe could save the next generations and lead them to a better understanding of the world, and thus be able to contribute to a better place in which its inhabitants are more aware and contribute to world peace and caring for the environment.
The Montessori method is not only applied from the use of furniture or materials but it is a choice of a lifestyle.
The philosophy of the method starts from how we choose to communicate with children, what we choose to expose them to, and how aware we are that children learn from everything around them.
Taking this into account and adapting the spaces at home to transform them into prepared environments, we can take advantage of the time that children spend at home to empower and accompany them at each stage of their development.
Education going through a crisis. All over the world, we lament the mismatch between the products of the system and the needs of society.
The will of parents, the experience of teachers, the interest of politics, and the work of researchers, nothing seems to work.
What if the question was simply poorly posed?
It is no longer about filling an empty head but about helping children develop and empower their talents, adapt to a changing world, and fulfill themselves in a positive relationship with others.