For several days now I have been reading Maria Montessori, Her Life and Work by
E.M. Standing. Montessori, as seen in the picture above in her older years still working with children, remains a legend in my way of thinking. This great woman, doctor, educator and humanitarian, literally started a quiet but spontaneous revolution in education. I am also convinced, as I work to chronicle the many stories of our students as I tell The Learning Center story, that now is the time to pull her works off the self and delve deep into what she made known as the "spontaneous urge to learn". She evolved in the early 1900s a "new method that revolutionized teaching concepts, freed the child from the rigid disciplines of formal education, and brought to the classroom a sense of joy and self-achievement."
Many of the student stories I share through my blog have their genesis in the preschool Montessori years. Some of these students stayed with us for a full Learning Center experience. Some moved on. I find time and time again that the Montessori early education experience remains permanently imprinted in the later years of learning, even into life itself as an active member in a Community of Learners.
As a growing population of educators, parents and greater community members recognize that now is the time to Right the Future FOR Education, I encourage all to believe that a "sense of joy and self-achievement" can be nurtured and grown from the earliest years up through high school, even into an adult Community of Learners. Imagine the impact of students encouraged in educational environments where learning is spontaneous.
The Learning Center story reflects a strong Montessori influence. Our quest to Right the Future NOW FOR Education begs that we revisit often the quiet revolution of educational thought that emerged from Maria Montessori (1870-1952), who "more than any other person" in the 20th century, "realized that the life of the child demanded an eduction that was ordered, creative, and distinctly personal."
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