Montessori: Preparing a Child for the Futur

eIntroduction
“...the caterpillar and the butterfly are two creatures very different to look at and in the way they behave, yet the beauty of the butterfly comes from its life in the larval form, and not through any efforts it may make to imitate another butterfly. We serve the future by protecting the present. The more fully the needs of one period are met, the greater will be the success of the next.” (Maria Montessori)
The Montessori environment may be looked at as a small society that is preparing the child for his future. Guiding him towards finding his role in the Universe; that he has a responsibility to nature; and to be respectful to everything in the Universe. To enable the directress to channel the children towards these goals she must “believe that the child before her will show his true nature when he finds a piece of work that attracts him.” This is a delicate process and requires many aspects to be considered before this can be achieved. Many, who have not familiar with the Montessori philosophy, have the impression that the ‘teacher’ does very little in the class, and the children are relatively unsupervised and ‘can do whatever they want.’ This misconception I have heard repeated by many, and I have tried on numerous occasions to inform those about the true Montessori philosophy and the significant function that the directress has in guiding the child towards discovering his true self. “The education of even a small child, therefore, does not aim at preparing him for school, but for life”. I will explore the importance of the environment, the role of the directress and the whole child.

Child

Directress Environment

The Prepared Environment
“There is nothing in the Montessori prepared environment that is there by chance.” (Maria Montessori) This is because everything in the learning environment has a purpose. All items are carefully

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