The Montessori Mission
Every child carries an unseen person within, the person he will become. In order to develop the physical, intellectual and spiritual powers of this person to the fullest potential, he must have freedom -- freedom to exercise skills and talents through order and self-discipline in a prepared environment.
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The Montessori Philosophy
Cedar Valley Montessori School was founded on the principles of Dr. Maria Montessori, physician and educator. She advocated the theory that children develop according to natural law and that they have special periods of sensitivity to aid them in the development of life. She urged that these sensitive periods be utilized to their fullest by giving the children the opportunity to develop their capabilities within a prepared environment. She warned that no amount of good teaching would help the child if given at the wrong time. Every period of development prepares them for the next and if children are properly prepared in one period, they are more able to fully develop their capabilities in later periods.
Fundamental to all of Dr. Montessori's ideas is respect for the child and for his ability to learn. Given the opportunity and freedom to learn from his earliest years in the right kind of environment, the child will become an adult capable of creatively handling the challenges of the future. The habits and skills that a child develops in a Montessori classroom serve him for a lifetime in the pursuit of knowledge.
According to Dr. Montessori, from birth to about age three, a child's intelligence is being formed. To learn all he must in so short a time, the child must have a mind different from the adult mind. Since the child learns at first with comparative ease, mastering difficult subjects such as language, she concluded that he must have an absorbent and unconscious mind endowed with tremendous powers.
Dr. Montessori regarded the period from birth until age six as the most important part of a child's educational life, far more important than college, high school or elementary school. Yet, most children do not enter formal school until age five or six when the period of their unusual sensitivity to much learning has already disappeared.
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