WHY MONTESSORI: The Education behind Larry Page, Beyonce, & Jeff Bezos

Imagine spending your most formative years learning to live and work successfully in a community by means of a time-tested, research-supported, and globally practiced educational method, which has produced some of the 20^th century’s most visionary creators and leaders across fields.  In your learning community, there are people of different ages, varied experience levels, and diverse personalities.  People use their words to express themselves; sometimes they have to wait for what they want; and everyone takes care of shared resources.  People practice managing available time, following interests, and deeply concentrating.  Does this sound like your adult workplace, or what you wish your workplace could be?  This is what children experience every day in Montessori communities for children ages three to six years old.  What better preparation could there be for curious, engaged, and well-adjusted adult life?

Leadership, Empathy: In the first year in a Montessori community, children experience being youngest: least oriented and skilled.  Since they stay in the same community for three or four years, they go on to experience being in the middle: both student and teacher to their peers.  And in the final year, they are oldest: the leaders and role models who are depended on for countless community needs.  Final year children, who would be in kindergarten in the public system, exude confidence and security that come from mastery of an environment and deep familiarity with adults and peers with whom they have lived and worked for three or four years.  They are also uniquely equipped to show empathy to the youngest children, whose position they remember so well.

Humility, Responsibility: In Montessori environments, children develop a healthy understanding of their strengths and use them to serve others, and a realistic understanding of their weaknesses and learn to persevere and problem-solve to strengthen them.  In Montessori communities, there is always someone who knows more and always someone who knows less.  There is always someone who needs help and always someone who can offer help.  There is always someone whose personality meshes easily with yours and always someone with whom you need to mitigate conflict. 

Resilience, Courtesy: Adults facilitate conflict mediation in Montessori communities, so children learn to express their perspectives.  Adults also lead playful group role plays to practice words and actions for gracious and graceful community living.  For example, children might practice the language for navigating a narrow space: “excuse me.”  Or they might role play how to introduce two people, how to decline an invitation, or how to let someone know that the bathroom is occupied.  Children enjoy acting!  And the adults leading the community know that children are interested in positive social behavior and capable of as much civility as they are supported to achieve. 

Community Needs: Montessori environments have only one of each material, so children must wait their turn.  In doing so, children learn that their wants and needs don’t supersede the wants and needs of others.  Since there’s only one of everything, children also have to take care of the materials.  They clean and tidy them when finished and put them back where they belong.  This practice instills a sense of responsibility for shared resources.  Additionally, since there’s one of each material and children of many ages, everyone is doing something different at a variety of levels, so the environment buzzes with enticing and unique activity to observe and absorb.  

Scientific, Research-Supported:  The research-supported Montessori materials and method were developed through experiment and observation over decades with groups of children worldwide.  The materials concretely manifest abstract concepts, making them accessible to children under six years old.  Montessori teachers, called guides, aim to present these materials to children at their most sensitive periods for specific concepts and skills.  Through manipulation of the materials, children absorb the materialized abstractions and enter periods of extended concentration.  Such concentration has powerful effects on personality integration and the general well-being of children. 

Highly-Trained Adults, Respect for Children: Exemplified by young children's effortless mastery of new languages, children six and under absorb the world around them.  They absorb language, movement, volume, energy, and tone.  Ingrained habits, subtle biases, and unwatched words are all passed to children as part of the cultural heritage of a family or community, in addition to the choicest sentiments and most nostalgic traditions.  In Montessori environments, adults have received specialized training on human development and the nature of children.  Around children, they consider their movements, words, and energy like a science and an art form, and their practice requires preparation and mindfulness.  Montessori environments and the adults who guide them demonstrate a deep understanding and respect for children and help lead children towards optimal development. 

What kind of world does your three to six-year-old absorb?  What kinds of lessons and experiences are becoming instilled, and what kinds of role models guide her development?  Montessori communities help children develop pro-social behaviors through community living, using research-supported materials, and under the guidance of highly trained adults.  What greater gift can we give our children and our future world?  Who will the leaders of tomorrow grow up to be?