The Montessori Academy parents and professional staff members work together to promote the welfare, happiness, growth, and intellectual development of our children. Our programs are designed to help them:

• appreciate themselves and the world around them;
• develop effective learning skills and healthy social attitudes;
• understand important facts and principles in basic fields of human knowledge;
• enjoy warm enriching relationships with teachers and fellow students in a stimulating and productive classroom environment, and thus
• acquire not only an excellent educational background, but also increased self-esteem, respect for the rights of others and a lifelong love of learning.

Most experts today agree that the greatest opportunity to influence mental growth and development occurs during the first six years of life. Positive attitudes and sound learning patterns can be established when young minds are bursting with curiosity, eager for knowledge and open to change. Preschool programs are truly cost-effective; relatively small investments of time and resources yield lifetime educational benefits.

Conventional education relies heavily upon external motivation. Students are expected to learn specific subjects according to fixed, uniform schedules. Group instruction often requires that childhood enthusiasm be suppressed to preserve teaching plans and to maintain classroom order.

Montessori education emphasizes internal (self) motivation. The classroom is a precisely prepared environment for individual instruction and self-paced learning. Well-tested teaching techniques and materials are designed to maximize children's time in the classroom. Teachers show students how to create order and discover principles by means of carefully demonstrated lessons that can then be practiced at will.

Credentialed Montessori teachers encourage effort and monitor progress, but do not pressure their students to perform according to any preset standards or schedules. Introduction of new lessons is tailored to the individual needs and interests of each child. Discipline is mainly self-discipline. Within constructive limits, a student can work on his or her lessons at whatever pace and in whatever order he or she chooses. Independence, initiative, responsibility for making choices, and persistence in seeing tasks through to completion are qualities fostered by this approach.

The Montessori method of education has been successful for students with diverse abilities and age ranges. The Montessori method emphasizes respect for each child as a unique individual. Teachers (and parents) are viewed as guardians and protectors of the child's right to develop his or her potential in a nurturing physical and social environment. It is not surprising that Dr. Montessori was a champion of children's rights and child-welfare legislation.

In Dr. Montessori's view, children are even more important as a resource for the renewal and improvement of human civilization. She questioned the value of social reforms in adult society which did not encompass reforms in child development and education. Adults are the products of the upbringing and schooling, which she judged to be woefully neglected and inadequate. The Montessori method was thus intended not only as a pioneering effort to improve early education, but also as a crusade for general social progress.

Although our understanding of innate developmental programs in children is still very primitive, Dr. Montessori's observations did lead her to the following conclusions:

1. Children learn best by doing rather than just by watching and listening. Moreover, they enjoy repetition. Montessori exercises require physical activity and involve practicing skills.
2. Interaction with one's environment requires accurate observation and controlled responses. Montessori exercises are designed to sharpen sense perception and to refine muscular control.
3. For children, the world at large is bewildering - full of complex processes and chaotic events. Montessori schools attempt to create a simple, ordered environment in which children can focus on just a few concepts and/or operations at a time. Classroom materials are designed to eliminate distractions by emphasizing only one facet or aspect of reality. For example, to learn about "length" students are given sets of wooden rods of uniform width and color that differ only in length. Lessons are designed to build upon themselves from simple to complex, from concrete to abstract.
4. To master more difficult exercises later on, children must first learn disciplined patterns of activity. Therefore, Montessori lessons, although simple, are highly structured and precise. Each lesson consists of a series of operations that must be done in a specific sequence. (Movements are always from left to right and top to bottom, thus preparing pupils for reading, writing, and arithmetic.)
5. To exercise freedom, children must have opportunities to choose. Montessori students are given lessons involving several different sets of materials, all of which are within reach. Pupils are then left to decide how to allocate their time among the various exercises.
6. Independence is also facilitated by error control. Montessori exercises are designed to be self-correcting. When children can easily remedy their own mistakes, the emotional frustration in learning and the need for adult intrusion into the learning processes are minimized.
7. To develop persistence in students, each Montessori exercise must be carried out to completion before another is begun. The final step in each lesson is always to return classroom materials to their proper locations.
8. Children have a passion for learning, but their interests and abilities change as they mature. Dr. Montessori was able to map different "sensitive periods" in the mental development of children, during which they seem especially attracted and receptive to various subjects and skills - e.g., verbal language (ages 1½ - 3 years), writing (3½ - 4½ years) and reading (4½ - 5½ years).
9. Sensitive periods vary from one child to another and are not easily influenced by external stimuli. Attempts to accelerate learning timetables by means of rewards, punishments, or artificial exaggeration of competitive peer pressures are ineffective and may be counterproductive. Montessori schools emphasize individual, self-paced learning in a cooperative environment. Children of different ages are mixed together so that older students serve as role models or even directly assist younger pupils.
10. Montessori teachers must be sensitive to the changing needs of their students, must understand the purposes of various Montessori exercises and must then match the two appropriately. Teachers not only prepare the classroom environment and demonstrate exercises to their students; they also track each pupil's progress individually and time the introduction of new lessons accordingly.

Dr. Montessori also believed that a child's spirit should be nurtured. At TMA, we define spirituality as an increasing awareness of the awe and wonder of the world that inspires a respect for and a desire to live in harmony with nature, animals and other human beings. The spirituality of each child is nurtured through addressing individual needs, celebrating cultural differences and modeling and teaching problem-solving skills. Opportunities are provided for quiet time as well as cooperative activities. Children's independence is promoted, allowing them to be responsible and accountable for their choices. Community is fostered through children working together, helping each other and sharing responsibility for the care of their environment and all that it contains.