**Montessori Education** Dr. Maria Montessori developed her educational method at the turn of the 20th century. The educational philosophy explains the nature and the needs of the child. The detailed and sequential curriculum supports the needs of the child.
**The Absorbent Mind** Montessori's careful observation reveals the fundamental nature of the young child. As a medical doctor, Maria Montes
sori observed children from a scientific perspective. She observed that the child explores the world through his/her senses and absorbs information embedded in the environment effortlessly. Montessori called the child's effortless absorption of information from the environment the absorbent mind.
**Sensitive Periods** Montessori noted the young child's predilection for movement, order, and language. In order to understand his sensory experience, the young child explores, moves, and manipulates the environment. Montessori further observed that, between birth and six years, the child attempts to order, both physically and mentally, the experiences he absorbs from the environment. At this age the linguistic process of naming is a natural tool for the child to further understand the environment. During this fertile developmental period, the child uses movement, order, and language to understand his environment. Montessori called this time of particular sensitivity to movement, order, and language "sensitive periods."
**Prepared Environment** Montessori constructed her curriculum in response to the interest of the child. The classroom design supports both the absorbent mind of the child and the sensitive periods of the young child. Montessori referred to the specifically designed classroom as the "prepared environment." The underlying objectives of the curriculum utilize the prepared environment in order to meet the needs of the young child for movement, order, and language.
**Montessori Curriculum** The Montessori curriculum consists of practical life, sensorial, mathematics, and language arts. The materials in each of these curriculum areas reinforce the underlying objectives of concentration, order, coordination, and independence. Both the curriculum and the objectives guide the child towards knowledge of self and of the world. Through the understanding of how to resolve the often-competing needs of both self/other and self/world, the child sustains equilibrium and peace. The classroom environment provides the structure for resolving the needs of the self and others in the form of ground rules.
**Ground Rules** Everyone who enters the Montessori classroom adheres to the ground rules. These procedures include the use of a low (inside) speaking voice, walking, selecting a material and taking the material to a table or a rug, using the material with care and respect, returning the material to its original position on the shelf, pushing in one's chair, and asking permission to share another child's activity. No living thing is threatened with hurt or harm. These reasonable ground rules lay the foundation for the young child to balance the needs of self and the needs of others.
