Montessori education is driven by an ambitious aim: To aid the child’s development into a
complete adult human being, comfortable with himself, with his society and with humanity as a
whole. Whereas the traditional approach to education, which prevails today, remains focused
on the transmission of prescribed blocks of knowledge, the Montessori approach is focused
on giving support to the natural d
evelopment of the human being. This in done with the
understanding that the fully developed human being is then better disposed to learning the
things that he needs to become an integrated and contributing member of society. The
substance of the human being - the development of character and integration of the whole
personality, are traditionally approached as values that must be instilled into the child. The
result is children who are bored or stressed and a society with increasing levels of mental
illness. Today, as it was a century ago, education is rightly seen as a means to tackle poverty,
inequality, anti-social behaviour and other ills of society. From before birth it is the child that
guides its own development. The fundamental problem with traditional education is the lack of
faith in the child to continue to guide his own development - and to guide the educators in
supporting this task.
