Maria Montessori

About Montessori:

Montessori takes its name from its founder, Maria Montessori, a remarkable Italian woman born in 1870.

Maria Montessori was the first woman to graduate as a Doctor of Medicine in Italy and went on to spend her life working with children and developing the teaching methods and learning environments now used as a foundation for Montessori schools.

She believed that children have an innate love of learning, which can be fostered in a caring and enriched environment.

The Montessori method stresses development of self-reliance and initiative by allowing children to do by themselves the things that interest them, but within disciplined limits.

You can find out more about Montessori from the official website:  www.montessori.asn.au

“The child is not taught but learns to learn”

Dr Montessori also believed that no human being is educated by another person. They must do it for themselves or it will never be done. A truly educated individual continues learning long after the hours and years they spend in the classroom because a natural curiosity and love for knowledge motivates them from within.

She felt, therefore, that the goal of early childhood education should not be to fill the children with facts from a pre-selected course of studies, but rather to cultivate the child’s own natural desire to learn.