In my eyes Maria Montessori is one of the most influentual educators there ever was. I chose to research her because in High school i participated in my schools Preschool Program which was montesori based. I really enjoyed working with her theories and found then to be really beneficial to the childrens learning. Maria sets her self apart from other educational theorists because she was the first to admit "I studied my children, and they taught me how to teach them."she was a firm believer that the environment in which children learn is extremely important. She had child sized chairs and tables made for her classroom and treated the children with respect which resulted in a peaceful classroom. In her days "children should be seen and not heard" was a very common belief but she broke that barrier. she focused her lessons on real life situations and things they need to know that adults do not usually take the time to teach them. she focused a lot on observation and how that was important for the child. letting them observe and mock their parents such as doing the dishes, mowing the lawn ect. is an important part of learning she treated the children as little adults and i think they felt important and this is why she had such success in educating the children. who wants to learn from someone who does not treat you with respect and in a sence as an equal. she once said "To deny them (the children) the right to learn because we, as adults think that they shouldn't is illogical and typical of the way schools have been run,". I think it was courageous of her to go against all educational theories that were out at the time. she thought yelling at a child and belittling a child was wrong. We would take every mistake a child made and turn it into a learning experience. In the classroom I worked in we would allow the children to pour their own water. of course we realized three and four year old's do not have great hand eye contact and most of it will end up spilled on the table or on the floor but it is important to get the child try. upon them spilling we would talk about why it spilled and how to clean it up together and teach them how not to spill their glasses. Using the Montessori theory is a lot of work but i think it is the best way to educate children. I definatly support montessori methods of teaching and think incorporating it into every classroom is important. it is important to give children the sense of independence and self accomplishment. i really like that she believes that you “Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.” – Maria Montessori " because many teachers rush to give children the answers when they need to take time and let the child explore their world and figure the answer out for themselves.
sources:
http://www.dailymontessori.com/montessori-theory/
http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/montessori.html
