MISSION STATEMENT
"To help each child develop to his fullest potential by following each child through observation and helping him direct his own growth
spiritually, emotionally,
intellectually, and physically, by providing a prepared environment that is designed to meet
the child's needs."

THE MONTESSORI COMMITMENT

Little School

I always hope that when a child comes to us in the preschool, that he or she will at least stay through age 5. The curriculum is laid out to be completed by the child in a 3-year cycle.

There is much careful preparation by the teacher with the 3 and 4-year old child--so many jobs to be meticulously taught, so many skills to be
honed.

Then, when the child is 5 years of age--the PAY OFF comes! We see a truly independent child who knows how to work and who has the skills to do beautiful language and math work. We see a child who is happy to use her skills to help other, smaller children in the classroom. We see a truly "normalized" child who fully knows how to use the prepared environment of the Montessori classroom.

When a child is removed at this critical age to be put into a conventional kindergarten program, all the hard-earned skills and knowledge are, to a great extent, wasted. The child is usually bored, because he is reduced to counting and to trivial work, although he is actually ready to add and multiply into the thousands, to read phonetic booklets, and to add to his knowledge of geography and science.

Big School

I also always hope that when a child starts the program in the Big School, be he 5 or 6 years of age, that he will stay with us for the whole tour, through the third grade. Once again, there are so many skills to be learned in the first year or two that a tremendous payoff is anticipated at the final stage.

These are the skills we see in our third year students in the Big School:

The child has enough skills in reading, research work with encyclopedias, etc., to do independent projects.

He or she can research a country, make posters, write a paper, write letters to a friend describing this country, and give an oral report.

These children can read junior classics books and discuss them with interest and enthusiasm with a teacher.

Third-year students can completely break sentences down into their parts of speech. They can also determine the subject, predicate and adverbial phrases of a sentence.

Third-year students are able to speak before the class with confidence. They are happy to volunteer their own ideas in group discussions.

These students often write plays and direct them for their classmates. They are able to write creatively and to write articles for a class newspaper.

These students are able to read and comprehend maps and can measure distances and find latitudes, longitudes, and time zones on a globe.

Third year students have a knowledge of fractions, algebra, trigonometry and calculus. They also do a good job with conventional
math processes: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Third year students can do science research papers where they describe biomes and the animals and plants that live therein. They understand the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates and are very familiar with the characteristics of fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals.

Probably most importantly, these older students are good teachers, helping younger people patiently and confidently. They love to be asked to help a teacher or a toddler, in any capacity. They turn out to be good, helpful people!

One of my favorite traits of the older children is their ability to spontaneously form a work party or a "brain trust". When presented with a problem or a challenge, a number of students will go off together, discuss what needs to be done, divide up the responsibilities, and work together to solve their problem. Knowledge is thus multiplied by the number of students working together. This cooperative mode of working epitomizes for me the Montessori ideal at its best.

I always tell my Big Schoolers that Maria Montessori said that they have the most important job in the whole world--that of growing the best person they can possibly become. What they are doing today helps to determine the kind of man or woman they will someday be. They always seem impressed with this concept.