Montessori Philosophy

The Benefits of a Montessori Education:

  • Instruction from the whole to part so students have context for information
  • Learn by doing with a child’s own hands
  • Engaged learning that is meaningful
  • Self-correcting materials grow with the child’s innate curiosity
  • Work is tailored to individual learning style and ability
  • Teaches life skills that are necessary for jobs that we can’t even imagine
  • Opportunities to do original research and present that research to peers and adults

Dr. Maria Montessori was the first woman to earn her medical degree in Italy. She quickly became involved in education, developing the Montessori Method as an approach based in child developmental and science. Dr. Montessori opened the first school employing this methodology in 1907. She believed that education is a preparation for life, not just a search for intellectual skills.

To prepare a child for life, the Montessori educator begins by believing in the personal promise of each child. In order to develop his potential, the student must have meaningful activities to pursue and be involved in a community of respect for himself and others. In this way, the teacher individualizes each student’s education to meet his specific needs. While being challenged academically, the child has choices in the order in which he completes some tasks, leading to self-reliance and self-motivation. In a Montessori classroom, children learn by doing.

That’s why at Montessori School of Evergreen, you can visit a Primary classroom and see children—as young as three years old—manipulating the world around them in their own unique ways and at their own pace. You can watch a child building words with the moveable alphabet, building a concrete representation of the trinominial theorem, painting a map of Africa, and mastering addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with manipulatives.

One of the most important outcomes in a Montessori Education is teaching the student how to learn. Maria Montessori believed that the motivation for learning must come from within the child and when it does, a lifelong learner is born.

When we see Lower Elementary students engaged in their teacher’s masterful story about the history of math or a 1st year student researching, writing, and presenting his first Artist Report, we can see the strengths of a Montessori education in action.

Since we know that human beings are born with the desire to know, the urge to explore, and the need to master their environment, we carefully prepare the Montessori classroom to train the senses, to stimulate curiosity, and to satisfy the child’s need-to-know.

That’s why in an Upper Elementary classroom, you will see students debating great literature in their study of Ancient Cultures, dissecting a starfish as they investigate the study of biology, and learning about the structure of an atom using a three-dimensional model made of marbles.

When you educate your child at Montessori School of Evergreen, you are immersing your child in an environment that is specifically designed to meet your child’s needs and foster confidence and competence. The outcomes of a Montessori education are simple: A confident, independent child who has developed self-discipline, self-knowledge, and enthusiasm for learning. They graduate with an organized approach to problem solving, and the academic skills needed to move to and excel at the next level of learning. These goals can best be achieved over several years in a Montessori program.

This is evident in our Middle School Program where you see students practicing for a mock trial, working at a local business during their internship cycle, and debating nuclear energy in their global issues class.

So what can you expect from a Montessori education at Montessori School of Evergreen?

Students at all levels gain from their education at Montessori School of Evergreen a love of learning and positive attitude toward school and work, strong academic and life skills, self-confidence, independence, creativity, self-discipline, respect for themselves, others and the environment, and the ability to work together, cooperate, and share a community spirit.

From an early age, caring for others is emphasized and children at the school take part in activities to help their local and global communities through service and fundraising projects.

That’s why you’ll see our students regularly engaged in service learning both in their own backyards and a world away. Our students are involved in service learning from the beginning; even preschool students raise money for charities through their annual Bike-a-Thon and Hop-a-Thon events. We continue our commitment to making the world a better place through the Middle School where students give of their time working as teachers’ assistants in a Headstart Program for children of migrant workers.

We believe that when you give your child a Montessori education, you inspire him to love learning for a lifetime and realize his promise.