I had the honor of being a part of an Indiana Montessori Teacher's Conference today. I participated in several sessions, and helped facilitate a couple.
I found myself in the middle of a great conversation that went along with a thread that is being woven on this blog.
Maria Montessori, the founder of the philosophy was a scientist. The philosophy is based on years of observation research. The data has already been gathered. It is continually gathered every time each one of us as Montessori teachers makes an observation and differentiates instruction. Montessori is not a fad, or a new way of trying to band aid a problem. It is a century old philosphy and methodology of education.
The genius of the Montessori Philosophy isn't the math and language standards that are measured on standardized testing. (Although we can show the students being successful by those standards.) The genius is the standards that students measure up to that are not measured by the department of education: Standards of humanity and development as people, as thinkers, as self motivated, creative, teamworkers, as caring peacemakers. While the department of education may not see these as important, leaders in many other fields do.
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