Philosophy
An interesting piece of work, freely chosen, which has the virtue of inducing concentration rather than fatigue, adds to the child's energies and capacities, and leads him to self-mastery.
—Dr. Maria Montessori
Dr. Maria Montessori, founder and internationally acclaimed physician-educator, had the thought that the normal young child has more potential than educators realized. She opened the first Montessori Children's House in Rome in 1907. The major principles she developed are being proved 95 years later by current medical technology referred to as the "new brain" research, recognizing that:
- Rapid growth in learning develops during the crucial years of birth to six years old
- Children need rich sensorial experiences for concept formation
- Children delight in learning subjects previously considered BEYOND their reach
- Children benefit from being in a multi-age group
- Children are not "fixed" by heredity:
"The individual develops 50% of their intelligence from conception to age 4, from ages 4-8, they develop another 30% and from the ages of 8-17 the remaining 20%. About 17% of intellectual growth takes place between the ages of 4 and 6."
—Research by Benjamin Bloom