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The basic tenet of the Montessori philosophy is that all children carry within them the adult they will become.  In order for children to develop their physical, intellectual, and spiritual powers to their fullest, they must have freedom, achieved through order and self-discipline.  A child's world is filled with a cacophony of sights and sounds, which at first appear chaotic.  From

Dr. Maria Montessori developed what she called the "prepared environment", which already possesses a certain order and disposes children to develop at an individual speed, according to their individual capacities, and in a non-competitive environment during the first school years.  "Never let a child risk failure, until there is a reasonable chance of success," said Dr. Montessori, understanding the necessity for the acquisition of a basic skill prior to its use in a competitive learning situation.  During the ages of three and six, a child most easily learns the ground rules for productive behavior. 

The child who has the benefit of a Montessori environment is freer at an earlier age to be devoted more exclusively to the development of intellectual faculties.  Children in a Montessori environment are taught through a method that might well be called "programmed learning."  The structure for this involves the use of many materials with which the child may work individually.  At every step of learning, the teaching material is designed to test understanding and to correct errors. 

Dr. Montessori recognized that the only valid impulse to learning is a child's self-motivation.  Children move themselves toward learning.  The teacher can prepare the environment, program the activities, function as the reference person, and offer the child stimulations, but it is the child who learns, and who is motivated by the work itself to persist in a chosen task.  If a Montessori child is free to learn, it is because that child acquires an "inner discipline" from exposure to both physical and mental order.  This is the core of the Montessori educational philosophy.  Patterns of concentration, thoroughness, and stick-to-itivness established in early childhood will produce a confident and competent learner in later years.  Schools exist to teach children how to observe, think and judge.  The Montessori method introduces children to the joy of learning at an early age, and provides a framework in which intellectual and social discipline go hand in hand.

- adapted from a statement prepared by the American Montessori Society

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