What is Montessori?
Montessori is an educational approach based on the observation that children have a natural drive to explore, handle, and learn from their environments. Trained teachers present lessons to children in mixed-age classrooms with carefully designed materials from a comprehensive curriculum. Children choose their work according to their own interests as they develop intellectual curiosity, understanding, knowledge, academic and social skills, independence, responsibility, and a sense of community.
Montessori education is the work of Dr. Maria Montessori, who opened the first 'Children's House' for children aged 2½ to 6 in 1906. Today, hundreds of thousands of children up to the age of 18 attend Montessori schools in thousands of classrooms around the world. Well known Montessori graduates include Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google, Katherine Graham, owner of the Washington Post, the chef Julia Child, and author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
