The Montessori way
ROSALIND NATHAN
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The Montessori methodology allows children to learn at their own rhythm and pace, according to their individual capabilities.
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Ever wondered about what a child who enters a full-fledged Montessori school at the age of two and a half years would be doing? You have to see it to believe it.
A Montessori school offers a highly successful learning concept that has been acclaimed the world over. Conventional educational system emphasises memory power alone. There is no guarantee that the learning that was supposed to have been acquired in a particular standard would be retained and used by the student in a higher level or later on in life. The Montessori method, however, focuses primarily on the development of intellectual capabilities in addition to memory power.
The environment
A Montessori school provides prepared environments for children at each successive developmental plane where children are free to respond to their natural tendency to work. The child's innate passion for learning is encouraged by giving opportunities to engage in spontaneous, purposeful activities with the guidance of a trained adult. Within a framework of order eliminating the bane of competition, the children progress at their own pace and rhythm, according to their individual capabilities. These environments allow them to take responsibility for their own education. A sophisticated balance between liberty and discipline is prevalent.
The apparatus
Maria Montessori's fame is largely due to the apparatus to which her name has been given and to the result it is supposed to produce while bringing out the hidden learning powers of the child. Younger children are intensely attracted to these material and use them spontaneously, independently, repeatedly and with deep concentration.
These expensive materials are precision made, beautiful and enticing. Since it is the student who chooses the apparatus that interests him or her, they allow the student to engage in self-directed, purposeful activity. The outstanding feature of these materials are that they have a built-in "control-of-error" by which the child is enabled to judge his/her performance objectively and independently and to truly learn from one's mistakes.
A Montessori school is equipped with more than 100 different types of Montessori Apparatus, classified into Sensorial Material, Language Material, Arithmetic Material and so on. Practical Life Exercises, through the use of Sensorial Material, instil care for themselves, for others and the environment. The activities include many of the tasks children see as part of daily life. They learn to work at a task from beginning to end, build cognitive efficacy and learn to order and classify impressions. They do this by touching, seeing, smelling, tasting, listening and exploring the physical properties of their environment through the mediation of these specially designed materials.
The role of a trained Montessori teacher is that of an observer whose ultimate goal is to intervene less and less as the child develops. The teacher creates an atmosphere of order and joy. Knowing how to observe constructively and when, and how much, to intervene is one of the most important talents that the Montessori teacher acquires during a rigorous course of learning.
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