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What Is Montessori All About?Top of Page
From the American Montessori Society, the core components of a Montessori education are:
- Trained Montessori teachers who observe and guide their students to developmentally appropriate lessons and materials, based on each child's unique abilities and interests.
- Multi-age classrooms that allow younger students to learn from older students, who, in turn, develop leadership skills, empathy, and deeper understanding of concepts.
- Use of Montessori Materials, which are beautiful, scientifically developed materials that invite children to learn. Each material teaches a single skill or concept and has built-in "control of error" to allow students to learn independently.
- Child-directed work. Montessori believed that children learn best when allowed to choose work of their own interest, leading to increased engagement, development of intrinsic motivation, and sustained attention.
- Uninterrupted work periods that allow children time to work at their own pace by choosing an activity of interest, working at it for as long as they are interested, then cleaning it up, replacing it, and choosing another activity.
The benefits of a Montessori education are numerous. Children work together as part of a community of learners, working cooperatively instead of competitively. Traits such as independence, concentration, and coordination are developed and fostered. Students are treated as unique individuals and can work at their own level, because each student has an individual work plan. Students who need more time to gain mastery can practice at their pace and students who are ahead have access to materials that will challenge them. As active participants in their education, students become independent, lifelong learners!
Nondiscriminatory Policy
It is the policy of Sherwood Montessori to prohibit unlawful discrimination based on race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, disability, ancestry, gender identity, religion, marital status, immigration status . Sherwood Montessori also prohibits unlawful discrimination based on the perception that anyone has any of those characteristics or is associated with a person who has or is perceived as having any of those characteristics. All such discrimination is unlawful.