Dr. Maria Montessori’s method of education was designed to assist children in their development from birth to maturity. The Cobb School is proof of the viability of Dr. Montessori’s vision. The beautifully prepared environments are enriched with a broad array of Montessori materials and activities. The teachers recognize each child as a unique individual longing to develop. The Cobb School is a place where children explore, unfold, and blossom, where they are prepared and educated for life. Dr. Maria Montessori described her approach as an “Education for Peace.” The children are comprehensively prepared for global citizenship from the day they enter the Cobb School.
For the young child, under six years of age, learning is a process that involves all the senses, especially touch. Dr. Montessori created enticing materials for children to manipulate, and through their exploration, understand higher-level concepts, develop inner-discipline and foster their natural curiosities. She discovered that given the proper amount of guidance and freedom, children develop a positive sense of self and their community. The role of the teacher in this process, according to Dr. Montessori, is to act as a vital link between children and their surroundings.
At the elementary level (six to twelve years), the program and the classroom environments are specifically designed to meet the developmental needs of this age. Elementary aged children want to know the why and wherefore of everything. We meet this passionate curiosity by offering them a wide range of hands-on materials, books, and resources designed to support exploration and research in all curricular areas. Typically the students work collaboratively and love to engage in big projects. The curriculum is rich and includes, in addition to mathematics and languages, history, art, geography, music, and science. The subjects are presented in a manner stimulating to the developing reasoning intelligence and creative imagination characteristic of the mind of an elementary child.
Maria Montessori was the first woman to practice medicine in Italy. A scholar of biology, psychiatry, anthropology, and medicine, she graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Rome in 1896. As a physician, Dr. Montessori was in touch with young children and became profoundly interested in their development. Through careful and exhaustive scrutiny, she realized that children construct their own personalities as they interact with their environment. She also observed the manner in which they learned as they spontaneously chose and worked with the auto didactic materials she provided.
She studied children of all races and cultures in many countries around the world, soon seeing the universality of the laws of human development. She continued her observations throughout her life, widening and deepening her understanding until her death in 1952. Also a devoted humanitarian, she was three-times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy efforts toward a more peaceful humanity.
Maria Montessori was a scientist, and as a good scientist, she was earth-bound and highly spiritual in her pursuit of truth. Through her studies of educational methods, she declared two principles as the foundation of Montessori pedagogy: the universal characteristics of the human child, and the child as a unique, unrepeatable, respectable, and admirable individual to be unconditionally accepted as one of life’s most marvelous expressions.
The Montessori method has since spread to nearly every country throughout the world. The movement reached the United States in 1963. Although it initially spread slowly throughout the U.S., the number of Montessori schools has doubled over the past ten years. Currently, there are 1,377 accredited Montessori schools nationwide educating over 85,000 students annually. The Montessori approach has also been implemented as a magnet program in nearly 250 public schools to date.
– From the AMI/USA publication, Dr. Maria Montessori, Founder of the Montessori Movement.