Description
The work of many researchers has established the critical importance of the first six years of life for the child's physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development. Research indicates that half (50%) of a person's intellectual capability is achieved by age four. The preschool age child can learn more easily and efficiently than at any later period of life. The kind of self-image, positive or negative, which a child acquires before six sets his personality pattern which can be changed later only with great difficulty.
Recognition of the importance of the child's first 6 years of life has stirred a search for educational methods and materials that would be more appropriate for preschoolers. Many parents are discovering that a Montessori school experience provides such opportunities for their child. Montessori schools are preparing competent, self-confident learners respectful of themselves and others. Such children are capable of making the most of whatever learning environment they are later exposed to. Such children may represent our greatest hope for the future.
Although Montessori is not a panacea for the problems of today's society, it does enable a child to develop to the fullest extent possible his potential for creativity, initiative, independence, inner discipline, and self-confidence. This is vital to survival in today's world because it represents an entirely different response to life in opposition to the traditional method of handling the students answers, and of reliance on rote-learning of information which in fifty years or less becomes obsolete.
The materials used at Tomorrow's Promise Montessori School are designed to help the children:
-develop fine sensory-motor coordination
-discover the fun achieving and "doing it myself"
-develop habits of initiative, persistence, and sense of order
-sharpen the ability to perceive, observe, and judge more accurately
-experience happiness in learning and fostering creativity
-develop self-confidence and skill in independent learning
-acquire habits of concentration and a positive self-image
-develop an abiding curiosity to learn and sensitivity to others
-develop the foundations for success in reading, writing and arithmetic
A child in Tomorrow's Promise Montessori program will learn to:
-work and play well with others
-work and play well by himself
-share experiences, ideas, materials, and games
-expand his ability to concentrate
-follow directions
-develop better listening habits
-note differences in colors, numbers, shapes, sounds, and pictures
-appreciate books and other materials
-become aware of the world around him
-sing songs and express himself through creative play
-develop good personal hygiene
-develop better physical coordination
-acquire a sense of order
A Montessori education can clearly be considered a successful alternative to traditional schools because (1) It provides an entirely different response to learning, preserving the innate intellectual curiosity with which children begin life. (2) It helps the child fall in love with learning at an age when learning is easiest. (3) Children make the most of their time. (4) Children take an active role in their learning. (5) The child is not "held" back, but is appropriately challenged.
Liberty and Freedom can only occur when rules are obeyed. Tomorrow's Promise ground rules are:
1. Any child is free to work with any material displayed as long as he uses it respectfully. He may not harm the material, himself, or others. He may not use it in a way that disturbs the activities of others.
2. A child may work on either a rug or table. Children do not work at the display shelves.
3. The child restores the environment during and after an exercise.
4. The children are taught to respect another child's work. They may not touch another child's work unless the child gives him permission to work with him/her.
5. Children are not coerced into joining a group activity. However, a child is not allowed to interfere or disrupt an activity in which he has chosen not to participate.
6. A child is not forced to share with another child an exercise which he has chosen to work with by himself. (Outside and in the before/after school room children are encouraged to share and take turns.)
7. A child is free to "do nothing" if he desires, as long as he does not disturb the activities of others. He may be learning by observing others working, or he may be thinking, or simply relaxing.
The ultimate goal is the development of inner discipline which can only come through liberty. In the past, good behavior in the classroom has been made synonymous with the immobility of the child. So, when parents see children moving about the room they sometimes assume the children are undisciplined. However, the child learns by having the space and the freedom to move. Montessori devised wise, harmless, and beneficial actions for the child so that his activity is directed toward a definite goal.
