“Let us leave the life free to develop within the limits of the good, and let us observe this inner life developing. This is the whole of our mission.” Maria Montessori, Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook

 

Montessori education embodies an important concept … freedom within limits.Those limits are the basic ground rules of the classroom. For example, children are free to move about the classroom and choose their activities as long as they’ve been shown a presentation of the work and they use the materials respectfully. Children are free to work together or individually, but they must be invited to work with another child and they must not interfere with another child’s work.

 

Children set their own developmental pace. The adults (i.e teachers) serve as a guide and facilitator within the prepared environment (i.e. classroom). Over a period of time, the children develop into a "normalized community," working with high concentration and few interruptions. Normalization is the process whereby a child moves from being undisciplined to self-disciplined, from disordered to ordered, from distracted to focused, through work in the environment. The process occurs though repeated work with materials that captivate the child's attention. For some children this inner change may take place quite suddenly, leading to deep concentration.

 

In the Montessori preschool, academic competency is a means to an end, and the manipulatives are viewed as "materials for development."

 

Five distinct areas constitute the “prepared environment” in a Montessori preschool classroom:

     1. Practical Life Exercises

     2. Sensorial Education

     3. Number Work / Mathematics

     4. Language Arts (English - main medium of instruction, Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin - fun learning)

     5. Cultural Studies (Geography, History, Zoology, Botany, Biology, Physical Science)

 

The school environment unifies the psychosocial, physical, and academic functioning of the child. Its important task is to provide students with an early and general foundation that includes a positive attitude toward school, inner security and a sense of order, pride in the physical environment, abiding curiosity, a habit of concentration, habits of initiative and persistence, the ability to make decisions, self-discipline, and a sense of responsibility to other members of the class, school, and community. This foundation will enable them to acquire more specialized knowledge and skills throughout their school career.