History of Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori was the founder of Montessori school. Maria emphasized on the absorbent mind where the young children’s instinct to touch any material they could get their hands on and soak up any stimulation in their environment. She emphasized on six principles, which are independence, observation, following the child, correcting the child, prepared environment and absorbent mind.

            Montessori education believes that a child doing things independently will help the child learn things faster and this helps increase the self-belief and confidence of the child, self-confidence and esteem that they may carry on throughout their life. Maria Montessori has learned about children and developed her theories on child development through observations. She observed without preconceived ideas that helped her develop materials that the children needed and were interested in.

            Besides that, following the child is also another way to understand more on children. The aim of the children who persevere in their work with an object is certainly not to “learn”; they are drawn to it by the needs of their inner life, which must be recognized and developed by its means.” From observing the actions from the child, we could follow what they want most and give opportunities to them and most importantly is to give the child the freedom to choose.

            As most of the people in the world, children make mistakes too. Instead, calmly recognize the mistake “oh you’ve spilled the water… why don’t we get a cloth and wipe it up.” Correcting children may result in them being scared to attempt anything in fear of making another mistake and it gives a bad flashback for the child in the future.

            A prepared environment is a very important part of Montessori. The rooms should be child sized with activities set up for success and allow freedom of movement and choice. The prepared environment must be ready and nicely prepared for the children so it invites them to work.

Throughout the Montessori education, Montessori observed how children are learning languages without anyone teaching them. This sparked her idea for the “absorbent mind”. Children under the age of three, do not need to have lessons in order to learn, they simply absorb everything in the environment by experiencing it, being part of it. The language of the adult speaks is the one that the child picks up the fastest. Thus, it is very important to use what sort of language in front of the child.

To learn more, visit

Montessori, D. (2015). Retrieved 11 23, 2015, from

http://www.dailymontessori.com/montessori-theory/