Capturing Ordinary Days:
The Role of the Adult

The art of engaging children is at the heart of the Montessori elementary classroom. Captivating interest is the key to motivating further exploration, practice, and mastery. The adult’s role is multifaceted.  Inspiring the children to connect to knowledge and skills, she fosters work in the classroom by presenting a wide range of stories and lessons. She is a beacon of calm in a swirl of activity and the deep bond between teacher and child, cultivated over the three-year relationship, is at the root. Adults are tasked with the responsibility of maintaining an enriched environment always prepared for the children’s work.

Shorts: The Role of the Adult 

1. Flowers  (3:13)
2. Fungus (6:02)

Delving Deeper Into Our Craft:
The Role of the Adult:

Every Adult in the Environment: A Unifying Approach to Safety
by Tim Duax, Ph.D.

Maria Montessori offered a clear path for adults to assist children in gaining freedom and discipline within the classroom and beyond. And today, Montessori training institutes continue to offer instructional methodology to impart in adults the “philosophy and praxis” necessary to carry on the Montessori mission.

During training adults are given opportunities for practice, follow a consistent approach, and have the motivation to achieve. These three concepts: practice, consistency, and motivation are known to be necessary for the brain to learn. In a similar manner, trained Montessori adults allow children an abundance of opportunity to practice, follow an elegantly consistent approach to instruction using Montessori materials, and support the basic principle of the child’s self-determination necessary to ignite the child’s motivation…  READ MORE

In Her Words

Excerpt from Psychogeometry, Chapter on “Introduction to the Elementary Period,”  p. 55 

In 2011, an English language translation of Psychogeometry, one of Dr. Montessori’s works originally published in 1934 in Spanish, was published by the Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company. Professor Benedetto Scoppola, with the assistance of Kay Baker, Ph.D. and AMI, used Dr. Montessori’s original Italian manuscript to produce this version.

Here are selected excerpts from her chapter on “Introduction to the Elementary Period” which offer an extraordinary insight, as the editors say, into “her deep understanding of the psychological workings of the child’s mind.”

“That which we are about to describe is not an elementary, systematic study of geometry. We only offer the means to prepare the mind for systematic study. These means (the advanced geometry material) could almost be described as a gymnasium for the mind, which is evidently able to discover relationships and therefore not just carry out research and make observations, but also make discoveries. The discovery of relationships is certainly most likely to arouse real interest. The theorem itself is not interesting to a child who hears it enunciated without understanding it and without being able to appreciate its aims, having to tire his mind by studying the solution he is given. However, discovering a relationship oneself, formulating a theorem and possessing the words to describe it correctly, is truly something able to fire the imagination. A single one of  these discoveries is sufficient to open up a brilliant, unexpected path to the mind. And so interest is aroused—and where there is interest, indefinite conquests are assured…”  READ MORE

Montessori Community Resources

The Montessori Community has come together to support greater access to Montessori Teacher Training and development of Teacher Trainers through the following Funds:  

‣ AMI Montessori Teacher Training (US)
‣ Black Montessori Education Fund
‣ Global support for Montessori
‣ MES Fund (link coming soon)
‣ MM75
‣ Silvana Montanaro Fund