Sunrise International Montessori Learning Center and Child Care

A fundamental premise within the Montessori philosophy of education is that all children carry within themselves the person they will become. In order to develop their physical, intellectual, and spiritual potential to the fullest, the child must have freedom: a freedom to be achieved through order and self-discipline.

Dr. Montessori developed what she called the prepared environment, which already possesses a certain order and allows children to learn at their own speed, according to their own capacities, and in a non-competitive atmosphere. Generally, between 16 months and 6 years are the ages in which children are able to absorb much of what they will need to successfully adapt to their world most easily. These years can be constructively devoted to socializing children, and freeing them through the acquisition of grace and courtesies and habits which can be applied to their immediate world.

Dr. Montessori recognized that the only valid impulse to learning is the self-motivation of the child. Children move themselves toward learning. The teacher (directress or guide) prepares her/himself and the environment, directs the activity (gives presentations), and offers the child stimulation. However it is the child who makes the ultimate decisions. The child is an active agent in his own learning, who is motivated through work itself to persist in a given task. If Montessori children are free to learn, it is because they have acquired an inner discipline from their exposure to both physical and mental order. This is the heart of the Montessori philosophy: patterns of concentration and thoroughness established in early childhood produce a confident, competent learner in later years. The Montessori Method teaches children to observe, think, and judge. Montessori introduces children to the joy of learning at an early age and provides a framework in which intellectual and social discipline go hand-in-hand.