Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952) was the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Italy and she founded an educational philosophy that spread rapidly around the world.
She drew on her observational skills as a clinician working with children in the slums of Rome in the early 1900s to develop the fundamental principles of her approach to early education. She developed her theory of how children learn by observing the children themselves working with materials and interacting with each other.
Her theory has been acknowledged and substantiated by present day researchers and teachers and many aspects of her philosophy have been incorporated into the present curriculum.

She maintained that children are driven by individual internal needs that correspond to their own unique developmental stages and that they themselves are 'tiny teachers'.
To provide the means for this process she devised a 'Prepared Environment' offering materials and activities covering all the areas of development: intellectual, social, physical, emotional and spiritual.
The materials are beautifully crafted, enticing and presented within an orderly and structured framework. Within this environment the child is given free choice to interact with these materials and to do so freely and independently.
Each activity has a specific developmental purpose and provides opportunity for self-correction - so vital for self-esteem. 'Working it out for myself' builds and enhances self-confidence and leads the child to independence.

Visitors invariably comment on how quiet a Montessori setting is and are amazed to see the children purposely involved in their own activities, demonstrating high skills in concentration and self motivation.

“The Montessori classroom is a home away from home – a happy place full of friends where you can be yourself. It is a place full of interesting things to do but also a place where you can take time out and just be quiet if you want to. It is somewhere where you can grow up knowing that you belong and that you are special”.

In the Montessori environment the child is encouraged to explore and experiment and follow their own interests – the teacher ‘directs’ when necessary and helps each individual child build on their own knowledge and learning.
The Child is the teacher, the ‘Prepared Environment’ the means of learning and the ‘teacher’ the link between the two. Her role is to follow the child and as Maria Montessori said: “Whichever direction the child follows – Reach out and open the door.”
Research published September 2006 in the journal Science and reported in the national press concluded “Children who are allowed to learn at their own pace, develop better social and academic skills”.

Lindy Bawtree SRN, BA, Mont Dip