El Montessori method comes from Dr. María Montessori, and is both a teaching method and an educational philosophy. María Montessori based her ideas on respect for that niños and in his impressive capacity to learn, from his experiences with children at social risk (with mental disorders and with special needs).
This method is perfectly explained in his book published in 1912 But in this article we will give you some basic notions of what it is, to whom it is aimed and what role the teacher and parents have in the teaching and growth of the child.
In the mouth of María Montessori
Next, we put a brief fragment extracted from the book that we mentioned in the previous paragraph, in which María Montessori talks about the figure of children as such:
«The child, with his enormous physical and intellectual potential, is a miracle in front of us. This fact must be transmitted to all parents, educators and people interested in children, because education from the beginning of life could truly change the present and future of society. We have to be clear, of course, that the development of human potential is not determined by us. We can only serve the development of the child, since this is carried out in a space in which there are laws that govern the functioning of each human being and each development has to be in harmony with everyone around us and with the entire universe.
What does this method consist of?
Mainly, the basic purpose of this method is unlocking the potential of each child for self-development in a structured environment. For this, the teacher or father / mother will make a clinical observation of the minor at all times, providing them with the tools for their own development at all times. In this way, the school would not only be a place where knowledge is transmitted, but it would only be a place where the intelligence and psychic part of the child will develop through free work (of the minor himself) with specialized teaching material.
For María Montessori, each child had to carry a unique self-learning and at no time would she have to keep pace with other children in the class. Following this pattern, the following learning groups would be formed (very different as you will see from the usual educational methodology today):
- Group: From 0 to 3 years old.
- Group: From 4 to 6 years old.
- Group: From 7 to 9 years old.
- Group: From 10 to 12 years old.
- Group: From 13 to 15 years old.
- Group: From 16 to 18 years old.
- Group: From 19 to 21 years old.
In the following video of approximately 3 minutes, the biography of María Montessori and her methodology are explained: