Published on May 24th, 2014 | by iDidGo Blog Team
What is Montessori?
Where to begin?
I usually begin to answer this question by saying ‘it is an alternative form of education.’ How I wish it
was not ‘alternative’ but simply just the norm.
Maria Montessori – an Italian scientist – began constructing her philosophy based on what she observed
within a group of less privileged children from San Lorenzo.
A little over a hundred years later, there is an ever growing Montessori community with legs in huge
amounts of countries around the world.
The philosophy has however become confusing, as there are many strains and versions. In its purest
form, it is education for peace, education for humanity, education as an aid to life, which boils down to
a few simple points:
• creating independence for the child
• giving the child ‘keys’ with which to explore the world around him
• helping to nurture the children’s self-respect, respect for the environment and respect for others.
HOW do you do that?!
With a classroom – or ‘environment’ – that is a mini representation of life. Everything is child sized and
enables the child to work through concepts created in the concrete (more on this in my next post!).
Groups of around 35 children with as few adults as possible (2 or 3) allow the children to function as
an interconnected mini society.
As adults, we are purely facilitators. We follow each individual child’s developmental needs. This
therefore means supporting and furthering their learning emotionally, physically and academically. We
look at education and children in a holistic manner. As we are role models ourselves, we need to take
away any preconceived ideas of what WE think the children should learn, then turning to the children
themselves and following their interests, using this important factor to bring on the concepts they
find challenging.
So how do the children turn out?
They become little people who can adapt to change and enjoy learning. They are happy and
care about others; on top of it, each child is confident, can make choices and then, self
evaluate. AND have strong morals.
And what part does this play in your drive?
One of the charities we are supporting is Corner of Hope: a Montessori community set up in
an IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp in Kenya. Here, not only are the
children offered schooling, the women are given training which they can then take back to
set up their own schools. Fingers crossed this pilot project will inspire and enable many
more people to go on and create similar models. I will develop on this in a future post!
If you didn’t know anything about Montessori maybe you now know a little more, or you at
least would like to find out more!
Website: www.lindikhaya.com
Twitter: @lindikhayafrica
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lindikhaya
Virgin Money Giving: uk.virginmoneygiving.com/lindikhaya
About the Author
iDidGo Blog Team DidGo is dedicated to providing travel content that is relevant to our community.
Related Posts
Why Trust in Tusk Trust →
Africa is rising, Emma’s Africa →
