Biography of Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori, the first female Italian medical doctor, became famous worldwide with her progressive education based on scientific research. By now, there are Montessori schools in almost every country in the world.
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Pedagogy kindergarten
KChildren aged 3- 6 years consciously choose activities that allow them to learn and practise abilities and skills that they see adults carry out in their environment. Children want to be independent. And they also long to make a valuable contribution to their community – we are driven by a need to be needed. The need to learn is innate in all children. It leads them to attentive observation, exact imitation and eventually to independent activity. An environment that meets this need is, according to Maria Montessori, the so-called “prepared environment”. The prepared environment functions on the principle “help me to do it by myself.”
Pedagogy elementary school
Children in Montessori classes are taught in a mixed age group not only in kindergarten, but also in elementary school. The children work at their own pace. At school, classes are divided into lower elementary (6- to 9-year-old children) and upper elementary (9- to 12-year-old children).
Pedagogic principles
Children grow up in a society and become part of it. Every developmental step that they take makes them more independent and, simultaneously, more a member of their culture and society.