Have you always wanted to be a teacher? Do you enjoy helping children succeed? Would you find it difficult to work in a traditional public school setting because of the rigid time constraints set aside for each individual subject? You really owe it to yourself to investigate the Montessori Philosophy of Education.
The Montessori Philosophy is quite different than most any other educational philosophy you may have experienced.
Even the classroom environment is different in Montessori education.
For instance, the Montessori classroom environment is designed for individual achievement.
Peace, grace and interaction with the student's younger and older classmates is encouraged.
Montessori students are free to choose the work that interests them and work with those learning materials for as long as they remain engaged and interested.
Montessori students are also free to invite their classmates to join them in work if they wish Most traditional school environments are restricted by a group mentality where most all the students are the same age and where everyone works on the same thing, the same way, for the same duration of time.
And where working together is often not allowed.
The learning materials in a Montessori classroom are different too.
They are specifically designed for intellectual achievement and physical development.
In the Early Childhood Montessori classroom for example, the learning materials are designed to help the students achieve independence by developing their gross motor skills.
Children learn to scoop and to pour, to lift and to carry items across the room, to clean up after themselves and to put things back in their place when they are finished working with them.
In traditional school activities, most of the learning materials are flat and two dimensional.
Children are not allowed to move about the room.
In traditional education, the children look up at chalk boards and down at paper handouts.
They rarely engage their learning materials by hand.
They handle things like workbooks, crayons, markers and pencils before they have developed the motor skills to be successful with these items.
It is no wonder that many traditional students feel frustrated, bored and disinterested in school.
Montessori students, on the other hand, are eager and excited to spend time in their classrooms.
They know that their classroom is full of challenging learning materials that they can master and be successful with.
Even Montessori teachers are quite different than traditional teachers.
A Montessori teacher works very hard to teach their students independence and self-reliance.
Then, after establishing the ground-rules of the Montessori learning environment -the teacher becomes a passive observer -watching and taking note of the children's physical and intellectual development.
The Montessori teacher only steps in when a child is unable to resolve a particular problem or is unsure where to focus their attention and learning efforts.
Montessori teachers believe that all children are naturally inquisitive and eager to learn.
Young children want to learn how to draw, to write, to make letters and sound out words.
Young children want to learn how to speak and communicate their thoughts, their feelings and emotions.
They want to learn how to put on their coat and tie their shoes.
All children yearn to learn and to do things for themselves.
In a traditional classroom, children often feel that they are behind; that other children are 'smarter' than they are or know more than they do.
That's just sad.